Lap of Oz - Timings and must do's

I cant help much as we headed from Tassie to Perth to the daughters uni grad and figured we would continue the big lap on the way home, 5 years later we sort of got the biggest bits of wa sorted out but want to go back.
For my money, I would drive straight to the cape (couple or 3 days) and then start the trip, spending a big bit of time to cross the top to broome, bit less time going down the west right down to Albany. Now you are about a week from home, so depending on time left check out the most important bits on the home leg
with the thought that all this is a bonus.
cheers
blaze

As others have said, I would do less, but spend longer at each place.

Unless you like driving for driving’s sake, I agree with others; put you and your car on the train from Perth to Adelaide. Sure, there are one or two things to see, but they are 15 hours apart.

Drive from Adelaide to Melbourne though , around the coast. The VHC is not to be missed, but you are in the Hunter, so you can easily do it another time, it’s only a day’s drive from you. Better to spend more time in WA, as it’s much further away and thus harder to return.

I envy you. Enjoy.

I dont agree with train to Adelaide...

From Perth, you have the goldfields pipeline running up to Kal... Along that run there are some good sights not far off the highway...

Wave Rock is a trip to take, its at a place called Hyden... Worth it...

Merriden has some history and just north of there is Nungarrin, Army museum and some WW2 history, plus the unlicensed Irish pub, nice spot to visit for a good meal...

Southern Cross, Bullfinch to the north and then the stops and side tracks between there and Coolgardie...

Kal has some nice things to see and if you dont stop there and look around you've never between through the gold fields...

Heading across to the border, the old telegraph station is just before the SA border, but on the way there are plenty of things to see, some of the old water tanks from the old dirt run, some of the old highway is still accessible and it is country thats different...

Then beyond WA is the lookout over looking the Sthn Ocean, then Nullabor RH and the paddock between the coast and the RH... Yalata, Penong and the coastal access roads...

Never believe someone that tells you its boring, they probably like playing computer games or something like that...

I have never found a spot in Australia thats boring or uninteresting except that concrete shack in Canberra, I think the smell put me off, worse than stock yards that have been full of bulls...

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Originally Posted by Wraithe

I dont agree with train to Adelaide...

From Perth, you have the goldfields pipeline running up to Kal... Along that run there are some good sights not far off the highway...

Wave Rock is a trip to take, its at a place called Hyden... Worth it...

Merriden has some history and just north of there is Nungarrin, Army museum and some WW2 history, plus the unlicensed Irish pub, nice spot to visit for a good meal...

Southern Cross, Bullfinch to the north and then the stops and side tracks between there and Coolgardie...

Kal has some nice things to see and if you dont stop there and look around you've never between through the gold fields...

Heading across to the border, the old telegraph station is just before the SA border, but on the way there are plenty of things to see, some of the old water tanks from the old dirt run, some of the old highway is still accessible and it is country thats different...

Then beyond WA is the lookout over looking the Sthn Ocean, then Nullabor RH and the paddock between the coast and the RH... Yalata, Penong and the coastal access roads...

Never believe someone that tells you its boring, they probably like playing computer games or something like that...

I have never found a spot in Australia thats boring or uninteresting except that concrete shack in Canberra, I think the smell put me off, worse than stock yards that have been full of bulls...

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C'mon, Wraithe. Like I said, there are things to see, but once you get past Norseman they get to be few and far between. I would drive the Nullabor again, no question, but I'll be damned if I will do it with two teenagers ever, ever again. It is one hell of a long way with nothing to see but roadkill, and it is certainly not a drive I would do at night unless I was in something like you have in your avatar pic. The bloke is on a short leash, time wise. Sitting back on the Indian Pacific for a couple of days would be a very nice R&R period for the kids.

Still, I did see the biggest spiders I think I have ever seen at that telegraph station.

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Originally Posted by johntins

C'mon, Wraithe. Like I said, there are things to see, but once you get past Norseman they get to be few and far between. I would drive the Nullabor again, no question, but I'll be damned if I will do it with two teenagers ever, ever again. It is one hell of a long way with nothing to see but roadkill, and it is certainly not a drive I would do at night unless I was in something like you have in your avatar pic. The bloke is on a short leash, time wise. Sitting back on the Indian Pacific for a couple of days would be a very nice R&R period for the kids.

Still, I did see the biggest spiders I think I have ever seen at that telegraph station.

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Are you ok John, I was expecting something about game machines or the like...

Like anywhere really, if you have seen it then a lot are happy, but to bypass first go, well thats like truck driving, follow a little white line from A to B then back again, eventually get sick of the view and dont wish to return...

Sadly the place that had the biggest bugs is no longer there... Barradale road house... I have seen a tourist pull up at the bowsers(about midnight), male opens tank to fill, female gets out, asks if he would like a drink, takes two steps and screams so loud they heard her in Darwin... The ground was crawling with spiders, centerpeades at least 6 inches long etc etc, every bug imaginable... Well boyfriend or what, jumped on car, girl screaming still and frozen stiff, bugs crawling up legs... And what comes to the rescue, Trucky with thongs and shorts on and towel across shoulders... He just walked over, picked her up and carried her inside... she left the roadhouse dining room about 8 hrs later when no bugs around... Boyfriend sat on car until someone drove it away from buolding and then he stayed in it til sun up...
Damn that place was funny at night...you never daudled or something may crawl up your leg...

I can remember pulling up at Barradale for the night and drinking cold beer from the pub watching the Movie on the small drive in like screen at the back of the roadhouse/boozer, I can't recall any spiders or centipedes giving me grief.
Barradale used to be the end of the bitumen and the start of the gravel from there to Broome, The next stop used to be at the pub at Sandfire roadhouse halfway to Broome [thumbsupbig]

If you try to do a full lap of the continent in three months, or to get the long stretch over with, of course all you'll be doing is driving past everything, thinking there's nothing to see but roadkill. A road trip isn't about the road. Or what you can see from the road. It's about engaging 4WD at every opportunity and getting off the road. Then walking. Then camping in a place for a while. Only then do we even begin to see.

You could spend 3 months just on the side tracks off the nullabour. It's a magnificent, beguiling stretch of country. It's quiet. The desert breeze and the stands of low gums. A vast meandering sense of space. It's dramatic and calm. Expansive and intimate. Sitting beside my Landy off a sandy track, in the shade,on a small rise...listening...to nothing. Watching. Bliss. Sit still a while and a whole world within a world becomes apparent. It's difficult to describe. There's nowhere like it.

I stand to be corrected here, but the last time I freighting the car to Darwin it had to be EMPTY OF ALL BELONGINGS. Apparently this is because the risk of theft from vehicles is very high as cars are left unlocked whilst being transported.
This killed the idea for me simply because without packing the car, how was I to get all my gear there?

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Originally Posted by wardy1

I stand to be corrected here, but the last time I freighting the car to Darwin it had to be EMPTY OF ALL BELONGINGS. Apparently this is because the risk of theft from vehicles is very high as cars are left unlocked whilst being transported.
This killed the idea for me simply because without packing the car, how was I to get all my gear there?

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This probably still holds true....though it will be moot as I costed up moving the family and truck via rail and it is way past what we want to pay. I would easily rack up an 8k plus bill. They only way we could look at it was to ship the truck via rail and fly us between stations...still a lot of mucking around, cost and incidental travel/time to make that happen. I enjoy driving and the family is already conditioned to a day or 2 in the car....it won't be the first or last time we do a few long hauls.

As someone mentioned previously it may be a bit of a military operation doing the lap in 3 months, which is fine by me, I'm ex-military! We will have to do few long haul transport stages, with set timings, to get to where we need to be to enjoy the parts we think are worth it the relatively short precious time we have. There is no way to see it all in 3 months, but we can see some bits that are hard to get to and are not likely to get another to visit for a decade or so.

I've convoyed through the interior a few times and spent a bunch of time doodling through the desert, it's nice....but we will be sticking to the coast for the most part whenever we slow down too smell the roses.

Next task is to re-visit that map and add in all the detail and good ideas that have been supplied for the areas we will holiday in. Not so much a lap...as an extended driving holiday on the WA coast!

Cheers,

Jason