The Alice to Marble Bar

"Easy".
One of our favourite routes.

2005.

2008.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

Its a good road. We went that way last year with a 20' van and had no difficulty. If you like that sort of country you can spend plenty of time doing it. We took 7 days from Glenn Helen to Carrawine gorge. No problem finding good camp spots.
We also found it worth while taking the long way round to Marble Bar via Carrawine gorge and skull springs road to Narragine.

G'day George,
The Gary Junction Road was no trouble towing offroad caravans. Fuel supply at Kintore is reliable but very restricted opening times. Lots to see, Jupiter Well, Well 33 and Carawine Gorge. Have a drive over the pebbles if you have some backup. We met police patrols at around 8pm just outside Papunya, then at Well 33 and at Carawine Gorge. ( Where they proved they had NO offroad driving skills on the pebbles, smoking their tyres). You will need 2 permits to do the trip. Have a look at the track on Google Earth. It surprised me how many hills you see. I thought it would be totally flat - the road is of course. We struck a bit of water but no problems.
Enjoy the trip.

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks everyone for the informative replies

R

George

I'm not sure of the significance of the FV marks but they look like survey marks to me.

The NMF's on the Gary Junction Road are definitely survey marks.

There is an explanation on NMF's on Facebook here:

NMF Explanation on Facebook

Hi George

No problems with our caravan and a lovely drive. See My Blogs 2009.

Motherhen

Hello

As indicated by others they are survey stations. Not 100% sure what FV stands for but based on the other supplied info "F" may refer to Western Australia. "V" = value? The number just seems to be sequential. So BM FV 47 = Benchmark, Western Australia, V?, Number 47....next one along is 48 etc etc.

Where just BM is used the number is the height above sea level e.g BM 354 = Benchmark, 354 m above sea level.

Cheers
Greg

I travelled this track late last year and can thoroughly recommend it

Great views, safe, good camping areas, fuel is readily available and the track itself is a pleasure to drive.

If you are looking for a different way to get from the east to the west this is definitely worth a look.

I have done a short trip report here ( 4.5Mb) - it is mostly pictures, so easy to read :-)))

Alice to India (Ocean that is)

G'day George,
I just got back from there last night. The road is very washed away at the moment in places, and some sections with fair bit of sand blown over the road. We didn't see another vehicle at all for 3 days, from Telfer, to Kiwikurra and back to Telfer.
As we got back to Telfer turn off the grader was just heading out to start on the rd, fixing the washouts heading East, then turning around at the border and heading back West, grading the rest. So by the time tourists start hitting it it should be perfect. Road has a really good gravel base, and good sections are easily 100kmh.
Telfer road was heavily corrugated from the constant Quad traffic from the mine.
But again, was getting graded and would get done fiarly regurlarly that section.

Cheers
Al