Advise for travelling across Oz

Stuart Buxton · Member

Advise for travelling across Oz

Spydermann · Senior Member

Met heaps of Germans and Dutch touring around in quality campervans. Lot of backpackers hire Wicked Campers - Popular amongst Poms and Scandanavians.

WobblyNut · Senior Member

I would think no later than September . As you only have 2 seasons in th nth - Wet & Dry.

All the main hwys are all weather roads but , where you are considering Can BE & Is

pretty Isolated & you can get a lot of local flooding , which may mean , no visiting

some off road or out of the way spots . If I were you , why not considering >

Perth > Carnarvon > Port Headland > Broome > Katherine > Darwin >Three Ways > Mt isa

Cloncurry > Normanton > Cairns > Townsville > Rockhampton > Emerald > Barcaldine > Winton > Mt Isa

Three Ways > Alice Springs > Uluru/Ayres Rock > Port Augusta > Perth.

I find I prefer going Humpty Doo entrance to Kakadu Nat Park , hence going to Darwin , you Will have about

4/5 days of going over ground you have travelled eg Three Ways to Pine Creek & Three Ways to Cloncurry.

I have suggested going sth from Cairns , 1 so you can see more of th reef & there are more things to do going

from Rocky back to MT Isa & 2 you are not going back over covered ground .

I have Not put Adelaide , but you can do that if you have time up your sleeve , it is a bit over 3hrs sth from Pt Augusta.

Some others can add to this & some may add to timings & other do's & don'ts.

Brits campers & motorhomes seem to be a choice , with Maui & others.

Welcome to Aussie Stuart

TheHeaths · Veteran Member

Stuart,

Jack has given you a wide area of travel that will show you a great deal of Australia.

Unfortunately, it also requires you to drive in excess of 12000 kilometres, or over 2000 per week.

We can give you an idea of where to go and what to see, but as you have already been here previously, you would be aware of the distances involved. It may help if you were to work out what you want to see, and then ask for specific information in regards to the areas you are interested in.

Before doing that, decide how far you want to drive, how long you want to spend at the major sites you want to see, and then what that means as far as the distance you need to drive, and the route you need to take. Once you have done that, you will be able to get better information regarding campsites, attractions and facilities on route.

Jaahn · Guru

Stuart Buxton wrote:
Hi
My wife and I intend flying from UK to Perth and spending 6 weeks travelling across WA, NT and QLD via Cairns. Any help with hiring (camper van), routes, best time to travel, camping grounds etc etc would be greatly appreciated.
Frequent visitors to Oz but not tried this type of adventure before.
Cheers Stuart

Hi Stuart, biggrin

Having just returned from a 6000km trip in 4 weeks I feel qualified to comment here.

Have you considered how many Kms you intend to travel in the 6 weeks you have. Then divide this into an average daily drive and at say 90- 100kms/hr calculate the hours per day driving cry

I found it was too much driving and not enough relaxing. Perhaps everyone is different, but some people take 6 months to do a trip like that. I will next time too !! wink

Jaahn

03_Troopy · Guru

I totally agree, too many K's for too short a time. As Jaahn, we have arrived back home from our yearly trip up the centre This trip we did 7500Km in 28days, with a week in Alice Springs in that. Way too much driving and not enough relaxing. Previous trip was worse, we did 8500Km in about the same time, I was knackered by the time we got back home.

WobblyNut · Senior Member

Agreed on several ideas . Stuart did not indicate specialised spots .

What I did was indicate on a "broad' spectrum & there was room to "pick up time"

or "stop & stay a while". Plus I would consider Driving from Perth across to Cairns ,

doing the reef to th south driving back to Cairns . Flying to Alice/Uluru . Flying to Perth

Big heaps of time to do West , NT & Nth Qld .

Bit like I did in th States last year . a week in Denver , flew to Seattle . Picked up a rental.

Drove down n/west coast into California , across to Sacramento , Mt Shasta for 4 days then

back to Seattle for a week . Yep , one way rental was just far too dear so we flew & had extra time

down the Oregon coast.

Stuart Buxton · Member

Thanks to all of you for taking the time and trouble to respond. I have certainly taken on board the options suggested and the distances do appear a little daunting. We may extend our trip or choose a slightly different route (as suggested by Jack "WobblyNut") Quick additional question - Is late or mid- March a good time to start a journey like this?

Cloak · Guru

Don't go through Wolf Creek though...

Stuart Buxton · Member

Saw the film, Cloak!

Casualkev · Senior Member

Stuart,

Anywhere above Broome through to Cairns can still be wet that time of year as well as quite humid with max. high & lows of 25 c to 35 c. And if your wanting to travel even a short distance on unsealed roads to see attractions they may not have been graded that early after the wet, some are not graded until May. You will want to go visit Litchfield NP, Kakadu NP, the Mary River (more crocs then you can poke a stick at, purchace a cheap rod and catch a barra at the barrage) in the Territory. Check out www.bom.gov.au to look up past months weather observations to get an idea of the best months to travel. Cheers and enjoy!

Stuart Buxton · Member

Thanks Kev. Very flexible on the time of year. I am aware that the weather in Oz can be somewhat "challenging".

Jaahn · Guru

Hi Stuart,

My advice would be to do more flying and less driving. Perhaps pick the three general areas you would like to see most and then hire a camper at each and fly the big Ks between. Not sure how the cost stacks up but possibly cheaper even. Certainly easier. The distances are greater "on the road" than they are on a bit of paper. AND the driving is not exciting after the first hour.

Note Aussie weather is not as predictable as some places. We were up in the FNQ area Cairns etc where it should have been dry and warm. However it was wet and windy and cool. In fact we changed out plans to come down the coast to come down inland because of the weather. The weather is actually currently somewhat different this year Australia wide.

Jaahn

-- Edited by Jaahn on Sunday 26th of July 2015 09:36:51 AM

Woody n Sue · Guru

Geee troupe your admitting to being a slow learner here maybe next time hey

lol

03_Troopy · Guru

Woody n Sue wrote:
Geee troupe your admitting to being a slow learner here maybe next time hey
lol

No, just that with the wife still working we are limited in the amount of time we have to do the trip. We go to Alice specifically for the Finke Desert Race, which we organise around making it the first part of the trip. After that the rest of the time is ours to wander our way back home. The previous trip we made a slight detour to visit the wife's sister in Townsville on our way back to Newcastle. Won't be doing the race next year, as the young blokes are taking a break from it. So we'll spend the month away somewhere, not quite as far away.

Stuart Buxton · Member

Jack

With reference to your earlier helpful contribution, I have now had more time to properly reflect on what would be more manageable tour. My original plan was too adventurous to be undertaken in a six week timescale, so I beginning to look at Perth to the Bungle Bungle Nat Park and probably even as far as Wyndham.

Any tips would again be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards

Stuart

Stuart Buxton · Member

Ian

The original plan was in hindsight a little too ambitious, so I am thinking of scaling it back to just cover Perth to The Northern end of WA.

Any further advise etc always welcome.

Kind regards

Stuart

Stuart Buxton · Member

Jaahn

You are dead right with your observation. Consequently I am scaling it back to just covering WA from Perth to the Northern end and back. Any advice etc. always welcome.

Kind regards

Stuart

Felicia · Guru

Stuart,

Personal opinion only. Traveled from NSW to WA last May, took 6 weeks, including crossing the Nullabor, so say about just over 4 weeks in WA. Did the round trip from Kalgoolie across to Bunbury, with some detours to Wave Rock, then Albany all the way across the ocean road back to Norseman. There is a lot to see. To really enjoy it we should have spent more time. Didn't go to Perth or Mandurah as we had been there lots of times before. There's a lot to see between Perth and Bunbury. We are thinking about going back again next March to head north, know there is things to see but a long way between each town, a bit like travelling the Nullabor. This time we are looking at 8 weeks at least.

Lynda

the rocket · Guru

Hello, Just come. Stay on here. Meet lots of new friends from here on your travels. makes holidays fantastic meeting up with people. keep in touch. cheers. rocket n strop

Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.