Leaving early may with 23 foot van towed by 2011 Pajero 4wd . "Wife and dog on board."  Have 4 months to do the return trip. Want to cover the entire west coast and dont have a preference as to whether we go south to north or vice versa.

We can either go up to Katherine then turn left and go down the west coast right to the bottom then come home to Melbourne along the Nullabor . Or else we can go west from Melb. over to WA and do the trip in the opposite direction of above.

What are the pros and cons of travelling one way compared to the other.

Whats the general consensus as to which direction to take the trip.  ( wind strengths seems to be a very important consideration )

Any tips for along the way , good stops for the night ( free camps or van parks )

What are the sights " not to miss" on the trip.

Please discuss............. 

Personally I would stay in Melbourne and go see every Collingwood game this year.........sure to be some real highlights there....

But otherwise if you must travel go up through Katherine across to Lake Argyle .... Minmum three days there
Do a few days in Kununurra and Wyndham leave van there do a night camping at home valley go back and then go down to bungle bungle......leave van at roadside park go in and camp a couple of nights.....then Derby leave van a couple of days and go camping out at manning gorge.......

Skip Broome ....nothing there worth seeing.....if yo can get your van into 80 mile beach its worth a few days chilling and fishing.

Then go down to Karijini.....spend a least 5 days there

Monkey Mia is next have a few days and watch the dolphins several times......worth every minute

Cervantes and the pinnacles are worth a good look.

Go around to south of perth and get close to Fremantle......its worth a few days .......

South west of Perth is mostly wineries but Dunsborough, canal rocks, Denmark and Albany all have a few highlights

Across to Esperance and the coastline is great with some awesome beaches to wake up next to

Up to Kalgoorlie for a couple of days tour the town and minesites.

Out across the nullabor if yo have time look into Flinders Ranges then your on your way home

Enjoy....... I am jealous.....and keep us all updated with your adventures.

Hello Robnmaz

I did talk to many seasoned travellers in WA before I left the state. The consensus was that it really makes no difference, which way you travel as the wind direction is known to change.
In recent years I have been over the Nullabor each way, and also over the top, each way. I never encountered a wind which was pushing me backwards, I just take it as natures way of slowing me down, to see the sights

The Camp 8 book, and/or WikiCamps downloaded onto the laptop, shows where all the camps are.

You ask, what are the sights not to miss? We are all different and therefore my sights not to miss, may not be interesting to yourself.

One sight to see, which come to mind is
Pretty Pool at Port Hedland WA, where you can see the tide filling the rock pools.

A few days overnight site I always stay at when I am passing, is Cliff Head North WA, which is on the Indian Ocean Drive, about 6 kilometres south of the Brand Highway junction. There you can smell real seaweed, and if you are lucky, see real Dolphins in the wild. But there is nothing else there except a drop toilet, and rubbish skip bin

I normally go into the tourist information centres, if I have never previously been in that area.

Hope this information helps, and I am sure that many others will come forward with tips

Our last trip up North was in 2006 - we fully intend to do something this year. We did the trip clockwise. I didn't plan it that way - we had committments in Brisbane and we just meandered North and West from there. As I said, we didn't plan it that way, but we only had headwinds on two days for the entire trip. We had a lot of zero winds. We intended to go down the SouthWest corner of WA, but the weather was diabolical. We sat in Geraldton for a couple of weeks stalling for time and eventually said that we simply had to get going, so off we went. The trip across the Nullarbor was horrendous. Strong tailwinds - blowing from about 45 Deg off centre. Every time we entered and emerged from a cutting or a grove of trees, the van would be pushed hard either onto the wrong side of the road or into the gravel on the side of the road. Two days we travelled and on the third day I heard on the radio that the winds on the previous day averaged 85 km/h, gusting to 130. Fuel consumption was phenomenal.

As to things to see, the list is endless. If I was leaving Port Augusta, I would go to Woomera and stay the night there. Interesting space museum. When we were last there, we ate dinner in the local hotel/mess. Cheap and good food. Not sure if it is still going like that. Coober Pedy - you could spend a few days there. Take a guided tour including an underground mine. The breakaways are worth a trip out to see. Naturally, Ayres Rock (Uluru) and the Olgas (Kata Juta) are a must, as is Kings Canyon. Curtin Springs was a cheap place to stay. The only problem was the locals and their drinking habits, but we were not threatened by them, only kept awake all night by the constant babble and arguing. If you are able, do the walk around the top rim of Kings Canyon. If not, at least do the walk up to the end of the bottom fo the canyon. Do it Clockwise - you get the steep climb over and done with and then it is relatively easy from there on. Take plenty of water with you. The you are in to Alice Springs. A week here is easy to fill. East and West MacDonnell Ranges both have lots of places to see. Arltunga is worth the trip out to see. The sheer isolation of the place and the hardships the men endured out there have to be seen to be appreciated. The lust for gold was certainly strong in those days. Palm Valley is out from Hermansberg. Really incredible place. Similarly, Chambers Pillar - out past Maryvale is worth a day trip and preferably an overnight.

Further North, there are too many places for me to remember. Daly Waters was worth the slight detour. Great night's entertainment there at the pub. Mataranka is refreshing. Just think that the river is only a few metres away in the bush, and it is full of crocs, yet I haven't heard of anyone being annoyed by them so it cannot be too bad. Tennant Creek has an interesting mine tour just East from the town. That gives some idea of the gold fever the old men must have had. Katherine is good - the gorge tours are a must but don't walk around town after dark. The local leaders have cleaned the place up quite a lot, but I still wouldn't expose myself to danger needlessly.

Timber Creek is a possible stopover for the night. You can do a crocodile tour from here. Good meals in the pub when we were there. The locals get banned from the pub if they act up and they tended to accost you asking for you to get some grog for them as you go in or out of the pub. Not nice.

Kunnanurra is worth a week or so. Lots to see around there. We went out to Wyndham for the day trip, amongst other trips. Ord dam and the agricultural developments there are worth inspecting. We did a bus tour of El Questro from Kunnanurra, including Emma Gorge. Expensive, but worth  doing once.

We stopped at Turkey Creek and went out to the Bungle Bungles. That was really good, although the road into the place was rather rough. Probably no better these days. No caravans allowed there. Halls Creek is a possible stopover. You could go out to Wolf Creek Crater (a long way for the day trip). We went stright through to Derby.

The Horizontal Falls is on our bucket list to do. However, we will have to time our arrival for some reasonable tide differences. From Derby, we headed to Broome. Getting  accommodation in Broome can be really hard. We left Derby about 6:00 am and at about 10:00 am we pulled into the first van park we found in Broome and asked for a site. We were offered the choice of two. If we were much later there would have been none at that park. Probably none anyway. I understand that there is an overflow at the showgrounds, but my wife is a bit fussy about showers etc, so we were better off at the van park. Broome is very popular during the grey nomad season.

From Broome, we did a day trip to Cape Leveque and One Arm Point. Awesome place. The road can be a bit rough, but driven sensibly is no problem to a modern 4WD or even a 2WD. There are lots of things to see in and around Broome. We spent a week there and then went to Tom Price. We spent a week there, looking at gorges in Karajini National Park. Really good. Then we headed out to the coast at Exmouth. Then down to Coral Bay, where we looked at wildflowers for about a week in Kalbarri National Park. From there, it was a few hours to Carnarvon (a few days more waiting for weather to improve further South) and then Geraldton (another week there until we gave up and headed East anyway). The rest is a blur - we just endured the wind until we got to Port Augusta, when it all calmed down again. Lots of things to see enroute - you will need all of 4 months to do just that.

If I was to do the lap again the 2 definates on the list would be Horizontal Falls and Monkey Mia.

Horizontal falls we flew to out of Derby, purely by chance. Later found out it was a lot cheaper than if we had left it until we got to Broome. 

Broome and Darwin, been there ticked of the list, no desire to return. But if it's a first time trip should go to see for oneself.

Enjoy and have a safe trip.

Rob, be aware that WA is not Victoria. WA is vastly bigger. You will not see half of it in 4 months if you want to experience the state.

I would suggest a rethink on your priorities and target specific areas as mentioned above. Come back some time later and see some more.

The Phantom

Moonraker wrote:

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I think that going in May for 4 months to see the whole West Coast you need the get to the South West asap. Winter months are cold and should be wet hopefully from about Geraldton getting colder as you go south. So I would head to the South West first then drive north up the coast or up the Gt Northern Hwy to Karijini. Once you get past Geraldton or Cue the weather should start to get better.
June to August should be the best weather for the northwest, a lot of Perth grey nomads will be keeping warm up there including us.
Thats in a "normal year". Note the wheatbelt have had the best starting rains in years over Easter.

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 ditto

Thanks for the advice Bushpie. I could stay home and see the pies beaten each week but I guess I will just listen to it on the chrystal set

Thanks Tony E

RobnMaz wrote:

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Thanks for the advice Bushpie. I could stay home and see the pies beaten each week but I guess I will just listen to it on the chrystal set

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 Lol staying home could be far less draining the trying to sift through all the must see and do that we have given you to ponder.

And even some differing opinions...... You will have a great time which ever way you go and see some amazing places so enjoy.......

half the fun is planning..... One point banjo raised ........book your caravan park in Lake Argyle ( if you choose to stay there) (highly recommended for 3 days), Kununurra and Broome everywhere else you snould be fine ......book em now coz they would be close to bursting at the seams come end of April........

yeah I know its tough .......but it also gives you a starting point.