You have to synchronise constant flying with constant working and staying sharp.

The Prime Minister and Opposition Leader are entitled to a large RAAF VIP jet each for their use in the campaign, to go wherever they want it to go.

Canberra-Sydney, Brisbane-Launceston, Perth-Hobart, Adelaide-Darwin, wherever they want.

If travelling media can get a seat on the plane it used to cost their media outlet a first-class airfare, plus 10 per cent.

In normal times, when the PM goes overseas the same expensive costs would apply.

The leader of the National Party, in this case the Deputy PM, can qualify for a smaller RAAF jet, but only when one is available.

In the July, 1987 federal election campaign, I got to follow the National Party leader Ian Sinclair on what is affectionately known as the Wombat Trail.

So, I prepared to become familiar with outback NSW and maybe Queensland at times.

Wrong.

Canberra-Sydney, Sydney-Tamworth, Tamworth-Bathurst, Bathurst-Armidale, Armidale-Brisbane, Brisbane-Melbourne, Melbourne-Adelaide, Adelaide-Perth, Perth-Melbourne, Melbourne-Sydney, Sydney-Orange, Orange-Darwin.

For the first few days I couldn't score a seat on Sinclair's small RAAF plane, so, I had catch up on commercial aircraft as best I could, while trying to make press conferences and file stories. It was horrendous.

After a couple of days Sinclair took pity on me and agreed to delay press conferences or media events until I could catch up. This worked maybe once or twice.

For mainstream media events the news story was straight forward, but as Sinclair made local announcements relevant to where he was campaigning our workload multiplied.

You were filing stories from an airport phone box or a shopping mall, and trying to work a primitive portable computer, called an NEC, which included an electronic coupler for the landline phone handle.

No mobile phones then, just lots of 20 cent pieces to make a trunk call.

I was supposed to be filing for the old Melbourne Sun, Western Australian, Adelaide Advertiser, Courier Mail and Hobart Mercury, until I discovered my stories were only going to Melbourne. More hijinks.

At Bathurst it was a fairly hectic schedule and I got my stories off, but later that night in Armidale, Sinclair appeared to blame Prime Minister Bob Hawke indirectly for the brutal gang rape and murder of Sydney nurse Anita Cobby.

All hell broke loose.

The next day he doubled down and likened the PM's policies to US cult leader and murderer Charles Manson.

Every newspaper in the country wanted this story. Manic attempts to keep pace with the travelling entourage took a back seat.

Sinclair said it was hard to get airplay over the PM and Opposition Leader, so he was being creative.

Hawke was palpable.

I finally got on Sinclair's plane and fondly remember frantically typing up a story on a fold-out table on the aircraft, when suddenly the portable computer bounced on the table. We had just landed, without seat belts.

In the 1987 campaign, Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen had set his sights on Canberra and becoming PM.

The campaign had forced the break-up of the Federal Coalition.

Joh's Queensland Nationals hated Sinclair and were refusing to let him attend the campaign launch.

Later that night, at a remote town in NSW called Inverell the media pack went to a Chinese restaurant and after dinner strolled back to our hotel about 11.30pm.

On the way we came across Sinclair in a public phone box trying to negotiate his way into the Queensland campaign launch due the next day.

At around 7am we were roused up by his staff and told Brisbane was a goer.

He got to attend the campaign, but Joh and his Qld Nationals boycotted the event.

After the Perth event we had to fly to Sydney for the Coalition campaign launch, which meant I had to catch the infamous Perth-Melbourne-Sydney "Red Eye" flight which leaves Perth close to midnight, and then do a day's work when I got there.

I got about three hours sleep on the flight.

Towards the end of my long stint of exhilarating pandemonium the office asked if I wanted to go a few more days, but I gracefully declined.

When I got back to Canberra my partner said I resembled an old man.I slept soundly for 24 hours.

Journos who have flown with the PM on overseas trips say it's a nightmare of lengthy travel, fatigue, time zones and logistics associated with filing from places like Moscow or New York.

It sounds fabulous, but I salute any scribe or photographer who has scored one of these trips.

It's an awesome experience, and a brutal lesson in meticulous time-management, as long as you put your healthy lifestyle and social life on hold indefinitely.