Why do I bother to drive such long distances? There is the easier option of flying from place to place. It might be cheaper to fly than drive the long distances.
I was pondering on this question that people have posed to me whenever I tell them of my road trip. My usual answer is, “For the adventure.”
I decided to change my route for my road trip. The original plan was to drive along the coast of Western Australia. But I found out that Western Australia is HUGE!! It would take me twice the distance to cover Western Australia than covering the rest of Australia (excluding Tasmania.).
That’s when I thought, “Why do I really want to just drive and drive and drive?” I don’t really stop along the way for sight seeing. For the adventure? Yes, but what’s the adventure actually?
Then I came to the realization that this driving of mine is similar to trekking in the mountains for days. For treks, you basically just walk and walk and walk. Most of the time during the trek, you are looking around your feet to see where is safe footing. A wrong step could be very disastrous. Then you stop and look around and wow, enjoy the scenery. That’s what I do for my drives. Maybe doing more on my drives than a trek.
While driving, I am able to enjoy the beauty of scenery, lack of scenery or monotony of scenery. Whatever the views around, I enjoy being in presence of it. I enjoy the small adventures along the way, and there would always be some side adventures. Earlier on my road trip, I saw 2 emus, but was not able to take photo of the emus. On the last day of driving on 21st Dec, I was able to attempt to take a photo of emus along the route. At the last emu seen along the way, I was able to capture a decent photo of the emu. With that photo, I was quite happy and laughing by myself. This is one of the last side adventures of this road trip. Find your own side adventures. You just have to look for it.
Similar to every trek, I like to have a destination for the drive, a goal, maybe even a challenge for each day. The last 3 days of my road trip was quite a challenge. At Nitmuluk National Park, I decided that I would drive back to Canberra, which is about 3700km away. The plan was to drive about 900-1000km each day, and take about 3.5days to reach back Canberra. I was on the road 12hours and 14 hours on the first 2 days, driving about 1000km and 1100km respectively. On the night of the 2nd night of driving, I was unable to sleep well. Then on the spur of the moment, at 2am(QLD time) I decided to start driving and complete the remaining 1600km. Ended the drive at about 11pm (ACT time), it was a long 20hours but I was never really sleepy nor bored during the whole drive. I was still very mentally active after the drive.
Drive along to a destination. You still have to reach the destination sooner or later. Drive, enjoy the scenery around and find your adventures.That’s why I drive. That’s the adventure.
This is the best photo of that last emu that I saw. The emu is walking to the left in the centre of the photo. 
Will travel 