Australian Traveller

Thrill seeking

81 CELEBRATE OUR OFF-ROAD OBSESSION

A fully equipped 4WD is like a sturdy ship able to cover every stretch of this wide, brown land of ours. And the off-roading capital of Australia, if not the entire world, is Alice Springs. It’s a national love affair celebrated every year at the Tatts Finke Desert Race, from 7 to 10 June. Over 600 competitors in everything from dune buggies, rally cars, 4WDs and dirt bikes head out from Alice Springs, taking two days to blast through 460 kilometres of red desert to the Finke River (thought to be the oldest in the world), in the Indigenous community Aputula. If you’re not taking part, you can camp along the route; there’s something uniquely Australian about seeing Mad Max made real as hundreds of marauding vehicles kick up dust.

82 ARNHEM LAND ADVENTURE

Examples of what is thought to be the country’s finest

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