It’s frightfully hard to believe that 5 days ago I was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and sipping cool ones in the
Kimberley to be now replaced by the harsh realities of
Melbourne weather. bleep it’s cold!!!
Sadly after after nearly 15000 kilometres and three months on and off the road across the north west and
Kimberley, the sojourn has come to an abrupt and reluctant end. We put some 1600 km on the quads while away and covered some fantastic and remote country also managing to return and introduce friends to some of my favourite locations (think
Rudall River). A definite highlight was finally making to Dragon Tree Soak and the even more unique
Elizabeth Soak. Some great adventures. Here are a few road conditions as we found them. The earlier sections will be dated by now (although some things never change) but the
Kimberley and Tanami were travelled in the past two weeks.
Cheers All. Mick.
P.S. Sorry I missed you Fred....I looked!
Old Gunbarrel Hwy
Very corrugated from the turn off the
Great central Road and continuing out the first 70 odd Km along the
Rawlinson Range to Mt
Forrest. Not too bad after that.
Gary Highway
Getting overgrown in patches with the odd patch of corrugations and a few washaways here and there particularly around stony rises at the northern end. No issues here.
Northern Section of the Rudall Access
Track from Telfer
Great and
well maintained as you would expect now that they’ve popped a bloody great Uranium Lease on the top side of the park (
Kintore Lease). Last 7 km to the DQB turnoff deteriorates quickly to the sandy
track it’s always been. Access to the DQB is still rough and rocky. I always forget just how rough that
track is!
Skull Springs Road
Blessed by the
Grader Gods in mid July but now possibly rain affected.
Check locally.
Gibb River Road (As at July 22nd)
I thought it was in good nick comparatively speaking. Coming from the west it is in very good nick up until Mt Barnett. 15 km of road works after
Mount Barnet and then the odd sandy patch and corrugated section. A bit rougher in the eastern section to and around
Ellenbrae and further deteriorates to poor condition once passed the ELQ turn but you’d expect that.
McLarty
Track (West)to
McLarty Hills (Entry from Shelamar or Nita Downs – Permission required)
Gone – forget it. It’s now a memory only if trying to access from the west. No better past old McLarty 1 site on the top edge of the Great Sandy (south of the
Edgar Range)
Anna Plains
Track
What
Track???? Overgrown and gone once passed the rocky ranges 100 km east of the Great Northern.
Kalumburu Road. (as at 7th August)
Lives up to its name. Heavily corrugated all the way from the
Gibb River Road to the
Mitchell turnoff. Condition improves once passed that with perhaps 10 km of further corrugations before the road improves. Still patches of exposed rocks and the occasional dip to watch for though. Road is fairly rocky once past the
Carson River.
Mitchell Plateau Road (As at 6th August)
Corrugated and rough. Road was littered with vehicles awaiting new shocks or
suspension components. Take it slow and do the trip in 3 hours for comfort and your vehicles sake. Still a lot of water at both
Mitchell Falls and
King Edward River.
Tanami
Track (as at 8th August)
Reasonable to good for the first 200 km from Halls with the odd bit of corrugation and rough stuff as expected. Great sections of compacted
limestone surface holding up
well leading down to Billiluna Turnoff. Road deteriorates in condition as you head further south east with water across the road still at Tanami Range. Plenty of traffic on the
track though. Heavy corrugations in patches particularly when crossing the NT border area. Still large puddles of water on the
track in the last 100 km leading into the bitumen at Tilmouth Roadhouse.
Grader was commencing work around Cassidy
Bore filling in the holes.
Coober Pedy to
William Creek Road (168 km)
Very Good condition and easily traversed, Little if any corrugations.
Oodnadatta Track –
William Creek to Maree.
OK for the first 100 km then fairly cut up down to
Marree. Road was closed passed the
Roxby Downs Turn (Borefield Road) from Tuesday due to rains. Borefield Road to Roxby is treacherous and now closed thank god. It should never have been opened earlier this week.