The Land Rover was unpacked in Sydney on 22 September under the close scrutiny of Customs and the Quarantine officials. One chap looks for gold or drugs and the other for any speck of dirt or a creepy crawly that might have hitched a ride from South Africa. As the car had been steam cleaned and fumigated inside and out a few times before it was packed in its metal crate, both officials were disappointed. And so we were on our way.

Lest any of you think that I spent one second learning how to surf on Bondi beach or listening to an opera in THE Opera House, look at the this photo of me under the Land Rover. That is what I was doing - getting it all ready for the long trek north!

Australians seem to have a split personality - friendly, open, funny on the one hand but put them behind the wheel and they become more aggressive than a Paris taxi driver with a bad hangover! This can be quite challenging in Sydney traffic jams where each and everyone seems to be insulted by someone within a 50 meter radius. You never know which horn is blaring or fist shaking for whom.

On the open road the humongous trucks (like one of our 18-wheelers barreling down narrow two-lane roads) love to crowd cars off the road, literally. Probably helps to keep all concerned awake because it is one long road between Sydney and Cairns, all 2888 km (1800 miles) of it. And I thought that South African roads were endless - well, they make them here too!

We managed to make Cairns in 3 days of hard driving. CDs and the odd kangaroo hopping across the road kept us entertained. Eucalyptus forests gave way to open plains and sugar cane fields north of Brisbane and finally patches of rain forest that tumble down gentles slopes all the way the beach north of Cairns. It is steamy tropical here and rainy. The Great Barrier Reef beckons offshore but we have to put that off until we return to Cairns in late October. Our sights are set due north.

In Cairns I've met biologists who have been giving us endless tips and GPS locations to see special places and creatures on Cape York - the very northeastern tip of Australia and our next destination. We have to hurry because the rainy season will soon flood all the creeks we have to wade though to get to The Tip. We fitted a snorkel (yes! cars have them too) to be able to wade deeper but even then no deeper than 2 1/2 feet at most. That's floorboard level but not above the windows!

No one has explained to me how you can wade ahead of the vehicle to make sure there are no hidden holes or soft spots and NOT get eaten by the huge estuarine crocodiles that lurk here. 16-footers that make our largest alligators look puny are an every day occurrence in the coastal creeks we will have to cross.

Jeff Miller, the crocodile expert I interviewed, just said "Those big ones can be cheeky devils, watch out!" Thanks Jeff - any offers to wade ahead of the Land Rover?