Drive Time

Mention the word drive to most Australians, and they’ll probably think of Sydney’s rush-hour gridlock. But until recent times, the word also referred to the transport of vast herds of cattle along the outback’s traditional stock routes. In an attempt to recapture some of the adventure of a drover’s life (a drover is the Australian answer to a cowboy), the Great Australian Outback Cattle Drive offers visitors a chance to ride those same desert trails, accompanying herds up to 500 strong.

Drives are organized every two years, taking different routes each time. The next herding adventure is planned between May 5 and June 10, 2007, along the 400-mile Oodnadatta Track. Participants will ride across the seemingly endless plains of the South Australian Desert and skirt the vast expanse of Lake Eyre’s salt flats. Although cattle are transported in trucks these days, and make it to market in a matter of hours, doing it the old way takes up to six weeks. But relax: only your guides — drawn from the ranks of Australia’s last generation of drovers — will do the full stint. City slickers join for a piffling five days at a time, and the conditions are hardly onerous. Tents are carpeted, there’s a portable bar and library, meals include hot buffet breakfasts and gourmet dinners, and bathrooms and flushing toilets are housed in two trucks following the herd. Crocodile Dundee types might not approve — but who’s telling? For more information, visit cattledrive.com.au.