Australia is on the bus map

A BUS service has been launched linking Britain with Australia. A one-way ticket for the 12-week trip - which will visit 20 countries including Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia - costs £3,750.

The journey is said to be 50 times more environmentally friendly than a Boeing 747 flight from London to Sydney. There is one flight from East Timor to Darwin in the Northern Territory, but the entrepreneur Mark Creasey, 37, is looking for a ship to ferry the bus across.