Need help with trip planning please

A good read of this site should help. Hema maps cover great 4x4 roads etc. See the shop.

First there is an outside lap which includes the gulf and Gibb river road. Then there is a road (Great central road) which goes diagonally from the south west to the north east across a lot of Australia. (Lots of dirt road)

Just doing the outside lap (with side roads) and then the Great central road would put ypu through a lot of the country. Beware of "the wet" up north during Xmas time and also the extreme temps over xmas. April - Oct is a greaat time to travel these roads.

Enjoy

Alan

best suggestion is when your planning on tackling a particular area or road etc about a week out ask for suggestions as to a good route or things to see along the way
that way you can get very specific information from people familure with the area.
asking a question thats too general overwhelms us on here as collectivly theres a wealth of knowledge

so perhaps start with the city your starting from and the direction your looking to go

Question, How long have you got? When that is known, the other question can be asked. Where will you be starting and finishing? The forumites will then be able to give you specific advise. Have a great trip.

Unfortunately outback Australia is littered with white crosses of Europeans who did not realise what the conditions would be like. Take some time and do the reasearch and you will be fine. The number one tip IMHO is to have a satellite phone which can be purchased for about $360. If you cannot afford this then I would say you cannot afford to go. To get ideas read some of the blogs on this web site. They will tell you about places and give some idea of the conditions. If you become a member you can download tracks travelled which make navigation much easier.

Reading your post it sounds as if you sepnt some time in South Africa. Is this correct?

If so - if you tell us what sorts of things attracted your attention then people may be able to give some hints along similar lines to your SA experience.

Hi Eef and Dries,
Good on you for asking for some advise before you venture into the outback.
One of the things I suggest you do is to download an app called Wiki Camps. This app provides you with thousands of camp sites in Australia, from free bush camps to highway stop-overs, campgrounds and dump points etc.. It also guides you to the campsites via GPS if you have a tablet or smart phone which is really handy. If you do not have access to a smart phone, you can purchase a book called camp7 or 8 which does the same thing but is in a book format locating the campsite on Hema maps. You can get this book in most camping stores or online.
If you are still working and have some time on your hands before you travel, why not join a local 4x4 club where you will meet lots of people that in most likelihood have traveled around Australia and where you will potentially pick up a lot of good knowledge. Just google 4x4 club and the city where you are staying and you should find a few clubs.
This forum and website is also a great source of knowledge, just reading the various forum posts will give you good ideas and information.

Best of luck and safe travel.

Hi all,

Thanks for all the advice.
We know that the post is wide, but we didn't really know where to start, we hoped that there was a book with more of the 'outback' of Australia, in stead of just all the Lonely Planets that cover most of the touristics parts.

But we already got some good tips now, thanks.
We're in Sydney at the moment, where we're working for 5 months, so we're taking the time to buy the right car and preper it for the trip.
We will also be looking into a 4x4 club, that's a good tip!

A sattelite phone, is that really necessairy?
We travelled through Africa (Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia,....) all without one.
There were always somewhere locals around :)
And the biggest trip (Lake Turkana, 8 days in the middle of nowhere) we crossed with 2 other cars.

Thanks for all your help and might see you on the road!
Eef and Dries

Hi all,

Here we are again with a question :)

What kind of navigator/navigatormaps would you recommand?

We had a look into the Hema maps and the paper ones look very good, would you also recommend this for the navigator?

We used Tracks4Africa during our trip through Africa, is the Tracks4Australia any good?

Hema vs Tracks4Australia, what is your thought? :)

Thanks!
Eef and Dries