Im travelling for the 4th time to Australia next year with two friends, we did a lot of road trips but never to the desert. We want to go to the center of Australia and we are wondering which route would be best. We will have 6 weeks for our roadtrip (from middle of february till the end of april), so quite some time, and we are ready to drive quite a bit. The idea would be to start from Melbourne or Sydney and do kind of a loop back to one of these cities.
Can anybody advice me about with roads are nice and accessible? Some options that I thought of would be: from Sydney up to Longreach, then though Boulia to Alice Springs, then down to Adelaide ( and then Melbourne)Or would it be better to go direct towards the desert, from Sydney direction Dubbo (A32) then B83 to Boulia then to Alice Springs and back down to Adelaide on the 87. How is the road 12 between Alice Springs and Boulia?
Or is it nice to go even higher to Warumungu?
If you have any advice about which route to take that would be great! (I guess some are closed or unaccessible)
Thank you very much!
Welcome to the forum.
What type of vehicle will you have? Some of the roads you are contemplating are going to traverse some of the hottest and driest places in the world in February-March.
With six weeks I Would just stay on the bitumen:
Melbourne > Port Augusta > Ayres Rock | Kings Canyon > Alice Springs > Mt Isa > Townsville > Brisbane > Sydney.
You'll have to keep moving ... but you have enough time to do it well. But it will be hot just about everywhere.
thank you very much for your reply! we will have a 4WD car, but actually I made a mistake, we have only 4 weeks.
So I´m now thinking about not doing a roundtrip but just starting from Melbourne > Port Augusta > Ayres Rock | Kings Canyon > Alice Springs (and stay around Alice springs).
But we will not take just Bitume road, we will drive Inland, around lake Eyre and Witjira NP. Do you know how hard it is on these roads (like for example the oodnadatta track)?
Best
I've driven thousands of kilometres of dirt roads in the Alice Springs region ... and conditions vary. If the road has been recently graded, then driving is good, and can be reasonably fast, but otherwise it can be corrugated, or conversely, very sandy. Under both these circumstances, you go a lot slower. If there is heavy summer rain - and it does happen - everything, including your trip, will change.
I don't know the Oodnadatta Track personally, but a lot of people do it, so I guess it's manageable. The area around Alice Springs is outstanding ... in virtually every direction ... can easily occupy two weeks with a 4WD vehicle.
thank you very much for your reply! we will have a 4WD car,
There is more to it than simply hiring a 4WD. This does not bestow upon you magical powers of driving in remote areas nor does it guarantee your survival in the desert.
Coming from Germany, what experience do you have with off-road driving? What experience do you have with driving in sand or on heavily-rutted tracks? What are your skills in using a winch to extract your vehicle when it gets stuck? How will you calculate the fuel and water you will need to carry, and how will you calculate the weight of that extra load and the extra fuel consumption created by that weight? What will be your survival technique if you have an accident or a vehicle breakdown in a remote area? You will not be in range of any telephone service, and it may be a long time -- days or weeks -- before another vehicle passes.
Stick to bitumen roads, and work out a realistic schedule for travel between settled areas. Even on hard roads, a 4WD is going to use a lot of fuel due to its weight and your use of air conditioning.
Plan a trip that you can enjoy with minimum risk. Or else find a tour that specialises in these types of adventures.
One good (and quite safe) off-road experience is the Mereenie Loop Road from Kings Canyon NP (outstanding rim walk) around to Hermannsburg - a classic and open Aboriginal Community founded by German Lutherans a long time ago.
You need a Permit to enter Aboriginal Lands, and you can pick one up at the Kings Canyon Resort. There are adequate "backpacker" rooms at Kings Canyon NP, so you can avoid the high-cost hotel rates.
From Hermannsburg you can then continue back to Alice Springs, or head out to Glen Helen Gorge.
The (bitumen) drive from Alice Springs out to Glen Helen Gorge and / or the return - stopping at all the excellent gorges and waterholes - is (in my view) - one of the best inland drives in Australia.
Thanks a lot for this constructive advice. It´s super helpfull. I researched a bit on the drive to Glen Helen Gorge, it looks amazing.
No worries! For the drive to Glen Helen, allow two hours if you can at Ormiston Gorge in particular.
BTW - the little picture above my name shows the Devil's Marbles (Karlu Karlu) - off the highway near Tennant Creek. Probably not worth going all that way to see them ... unless you're heading north anyway.
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