A cramp in my right right index finger

necessitated a switch from raising one finger to two, sometimes even three off the steering wheel. It was like clicking a computer mouse all day.

This is the Stuart Highway slicing through the red heart or Oz, 2,834 km from the last fish and chips of Post Augusta on the south coast of Australia to steamy Darwin on the Timor Sea in the north. On 'The Track' as it's known, you are either going north 'up the hill' or south 'down the hill'. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of dirt roads lead off The Track east and west, 200 km to a cattle station here, 500 km to a mine there or simply 1000 km to nowhere enroute to somewhere else.

There are a few rules on this highway. Carry enough water for two or three days, if you break down stay with your car, give way to the 'Kings of the Road,' the massive, wobbling three or four trailer, 54-metre long, 150-tonne Roadtrains, don't drive after 4:30-5 pm unless you have a bush bumper, comprehensive insurance and a hankering for roo steaks and above all other rules, bar none, you absolutely must give the Outback finger-lift-off-the-steering-wheel wave to every single oncoming vehicle.

That's 2,834 km worth. But to not do it wouldn't be very 'stralian would it?