Alice via the Plenty in April

Like all such trips, your plans are a lottery; but well considered plans pay off most of the time anyway. The issue with your trip is that options are few if a wet comes across, once you are out in far SW Qld.....a run toward The Isa then west would probably be the most practical. If not, plan 'C' might present itself, where you have to sit it out and wait for dry roads ...few outback travel fans have escaped such holdups. Unhelpfully for travellers though, there is a whole lot of graziers hoping that the SW will soon turn into a giant lake :-o)...but April is a slight chance for that I guess. ..Heck...do it anyway....that is a great outback trip!

We will be leaving Alice in late May to go across the Plenty. Keeping a close watch on the road and weather conditions. Not going up to Mt Isa but across to Winton.

Hi,
We traveled across the Plenty early last May in our LC200 with Lotus Trooper van.
Road from Boulia to border was very good and had been recently graded. Border on was very rough and corrugated until about half way when we caught up with the graders moving east.
April may be a bit early for the graders so expect plenty of corrugations.
If it rains will close the road but who knows when it will next rain?
regards
Guy

John & Lynne,

The crossing of the Georgina River, near Glenormiston, might be a drama, if the wet( for western Qld) is a bit late. Check RACQ site, or ring Boulia Police for advice, closer to the time. Around Easter, Boulia seems to get the odd storm, which can wreck havoc with their celebrations, and the travelling public, but this not a regular occurrence.

Another option if the Plenty was closed would be to travel to Mt Isa, then Camooweal, and along Barkly H'way to the Austral Downs turnoff, just past Kiama Ck, and follow this south until you hit the Sandover H'way. It's a great drive, though a bit bland in the scenery dept compared to the Plenty. Come out on the Plenty, about 27 km from Stuart H'way.

The Plenty is also accessible via Urandangie, but if the Georgina was up, then this route would no doubt be closed too. And the Sandover can be accessed via Urandangie and Lake Nash station, but ditto comment about the river this way too.

I'm not at home, so can't post any photos. Sounds like a good trip, hope it works out for you,

Bob.

We are planning a trip similar but leaving here at the end of March and going via Cameron Corner, Innamincka, Nappa Merrie Birdsville and then onto Boulia and then to Alice Springs via the Plenty. Planning to stay at Boulia till the roads ok to Alice. We wont be in any hurry so will just wait till roads are ok. If anyone has nice bush camping spots along this trip would love to hear about them. We will be towing a Bush Runner off Road Camper and are set up for bush camping.
Cheers
Mandy

Thanks everyone for your positive replies. It does seem that it is a bit of a lottery and all we can do is watch the weather and road reports. We are keen to do the trip and may meet up with Mandy waiting it out at Boulia! Last time we were at Boulia the roads to Birdsville and Alice were closed because of rain and that was later in the year - around early July! We know the farmers need rain but we are still going to hope for a break to get to Alice. Lynne