Travelling with two other families, our trip to Central Australia was planned to take us across NSW into South Australia, then north to Coober Pedy and out to the painted desert before heading across to Uluru. From there we would visit Mt Dare, then across the Simpson to Birdsville via the Rig Road, then back to Sydney via Cameron Corner and Broken Hill.

The first 2,000km across the Hay plains to the Barossa then up the Stuart Highway to Coober Pedy, was on asphalt. We then headed North on the dirt to Arckaringa Station and the Painted Desert for a few days. It's an area we had planned to visit previously, and it's well worth the detour if you're travelling on the Stuart Highway.

Our next stop was a quick overnight stay at Kulgera, before heading out to Uluru for several nights, staying at Yulara. We then headed to Kings Canyon and then Palm Valley for a couple of nights each, travelling on the Mareenie Loop Road, which wasn't in particularly good condition. Access to Palm Valley requires a proper 4WD, making it less popular than Uluru and Kings Canyon, which makes it a more peaceful destination.

From Palm Valley, we went on to Alice Springs. We'd planned on three nights at Alice, but extended our stay for a couple more nights so one of our group could get some repairs done, taking the opportunity to explore the sights around town on several day trips.

From Alice, we headed down the Old Ghan Road then out to Chamber's Pillar. The Ghan road was in terrible condition thanks to the heavy traffic from the Finke Desert Race a few weeks earlier, which made for slow progress. The side road to Chamber's wasn't much better, with some corrugations that you can see in the video. It was my third visit to the Pillar, and we timed it well with moonrise co-inciding with sunset for some great shots.

We planned to go from Chambers straight through to Mt Dare, but lost a day due to the slow drive, and spent the night at Lambert's Gravitational Centre instead, going on to Mt Dare the next day. As we were now running a few days late and with rain and poor track conditions reported on the Eastern end of the Rig Road and up to Birdsville, we decided to skip the planned Simpson crossing this time around. Instead, we took a day trip down to Dalhousie Springs and out into the Simpson before heading home on the Oodnadatta and Strzelecki tracks to Cameron Corner, then via Broken Hill.

In total, we covered 8,500km over five weeks, travelling on a mix of highways, dirt roads and tracks. We generally cruised at 90-100km/h on the tar and 70-80km/h on reasonable dirt. Speeds were substantially slower on the road to Palm Valley and also the Old Ghan Road between Alice and Finke.

Fuel consumption

Overall fuel consumption for the Central Australian trip was slightly higher than we had expected, averaging 16.3L/100km. Head and tail winds greatly influenced the result, for example driving in to Uluru with a headwind, we were using around 18L/100km, but on the same road back out with a tailwind, consumption dropped to just 13L/100km.

The best result of the trip was travelling home at 100km/h from Broken Hill (with our lowest weight and a tailwind), recording 12L/100km.

The worst result was travelling down the Old Ghan Road (with high weights over rough sandy roads), recording about 25L/100km.

Getting the most from your fuel dollar on a trip

Some travellers say they don't care about how much they spend on fuel. I do. Every dollar wasted on fuel is a dollar you can't spend on something more useful, like more accessories or an activity along the way. There are two factors related to fuel costs: Consumption and Price.

Consumption: There are a few ways to minimise consumption. Driving more slowly reduces consumption, but it can also be painful! We typically drive at 90-95km/h when towing, which uses about 20% less fuel than sitting on 110. The 200's standard gearbox programming doesn't help, and you will probably have to drive in S5 to get the best results, or S4 in hilly terrain or headwinds. This will allow the torque converter to lock. Of course, fitting a torque converter lockup kit will allow the TC to remain locked in 5th, reducing consumption by 10-30%. Cost aside, with fuel being a finite resource it makes sense to minimise how much of it you consume.

Price: Although diesel prices tend to vary less than petrol or LPG, it does get more expensive the further you travel from major cities, and there are often much cheaper places to buy even in country locations. For example, we found one major supplier in the Coober Pedy industrial area was 10c/litre cheaper than the stations out on the highway. I strongly recommend getting the Petrol Spy app (for Apple iOS and Android), which shows fuel prices all over Australia, and allows you to update current prices for other users. The app allows forward planning for your trip and could easily save you hundreds of dollars. Installing a long range tank also allows you to buy fuel at cheaper locations and avoid the expensive ones.

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