Thread: 2017 Desert Trip

Originally Posted by Ferret

What time early June? Defence will be closing the Amber Zone Centre Line Corridor 11/06/17 - 14/07/17 so travel along the entire AB highway will not be possible after 11 June.

The group will be coming across the Anne Beadell before then. They were intending to start the trip from Alice Springs on the 5th and do the anti-clockwise circuit, but have had to reverse it and start from Coober Pedy due to the range closure.
C

Great trip But I think you are pushing it a bit. Only 6 days for Pipalyatjara to Newman is a concern, 9 days is more realistic. The Heather Hwy where it turns north is not much more than walking pace. There are sections of this route where the gap in the mulga is 1.5m and the D4 is 2m wide. In 2014 when we travelled from Giles to Newman there where sections when we had to cut our way through. The worst was 1km in 1 hour. Its a great trip but trying to keep to the time table becomes stressful and takes away from the enjoyment.

Ivan

We are off around start of July, still trying to get all the ducks aligned.
Getting everyone's leave arranged etc is a challenge.
Thanks for comments, it's helps to hear from people with previous experience in region.

I'm another one who plans to be travelling through the Centre this year. We plan to head from tom price to wiluna and across to alice, then up the tanami to halls creek and back home. All within 2 weeks during the school holidays. I would love more time but that's all we have unfortantly. My sister in law is coming along, they've got a bit more distance to cover as they are coming from gove and meeting us in newman

Originally Posted by cjc_td5

... but have had to reverse it

Yeah, same here - we have had to reverse the direction of travel to avoid the closure.

There are a couple of places they could make up time if necessary. I think Newman to Telfer is only one day if you need to speed up and probably no need to stop at William Creek. We have done Coober Pedy to just south of Birdsville via Maree in a day, although it was pretty dark when we camped. We had to speed up to miss the 100mm of rain that hit Central Australia in May last year and ended up just getting to the bitumen near Windorah as it started to really rain.

We were one day ahead of the rain from Warburton to Windorah so we had to pass straight through Ulara and camp on the road to get to Coober Pedy in time and then had a quick play on Big Red with drops of rain just starting to fall and headed towards Windorah to get on the bitumen as quickly as possible.

The strange thing was that there were lots of people heading for Birdsville as we fled, even one convoy of two D4's towing Kimberley Karavans. Goodness knows how long they were stuck there after over 100mm of rain that night in the entire area from Warburton to Windorah.

We did a similar high speed trip in the D4 a couple of years ago. 3 weeks from Perth to Cape York via GCR and Uluru, Plenty Highway and one of the development roads past the Lava Tubes and then 1 week to return to Perth via the bitumen and the Kimberley, with 1000km days the norm for that last week. The D4 is brilliant for these types of distances and I would rather get out there when I can than wait until I am dead for time to see everything in one go. I've seen more of Australia since I bought my D4 in 2013 than I have in my entire life, mostly in 2 to 4 week trips when I have leave.

I think our most rushed trip was Perth to Brisbane in 4.5 days then 10 days to get back to Perth via Birdsville, Coober Pedy, Uluru and the GCR with a Kimberley Karavan that we had purchased in Caboolture. My son took his D1 TDI300 as well and we all loved it, despite being limited to 100kph on the bitumen for the D1 to keep up and when we were towing with the trailer.

I reckon the best thing is to get out there when you can and don't worry if you don't see everything because it is easy to go again soon and see some different stuff. That is what we have been doing since 2013.

Having driven that return leg a few years ago, can I suggest that you try Alice Springs to Woomera (or even Coober Pedy) in one day. Then make the 2nd day to Port Augusta (or a bit further). I drove Alice to Woomera in a day - and it was a long one. That was with tent/stuff on roof racks - if you're towing you might be a bit slower.

FWIW, the longest day I have driven was 1200km... but that was an early start and late finish!
Cheers,
Rob

Our trip this year is definitely going to be a bit more leisurely than Rhino's:-)

June 24 - take a week to get to Broome. Rent nice house for 4 nights at Cable Beach.

July 5 to 14 - spend at Pender Bay and Middle Lagoon, fishing and generally goofing off, with camper trailer.

July 16 - two weeks exploring the GRR, Mitchell Falls etc in convoy with BobD & family.

August 1 to approx August 13 - Darwin, Litchfield NP, down through Alice and Uluru, then home via the GCR.

I get tired just reading Rhino's itinerary -: