Comment: Norm and Kabby's Travel Adventures - The Kimberley and Gibb River Road

Submitted: Thursday, Feb 11, 2010 at 21:34

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Norm and Kabby's Travel Adventures - The Kimberley and Gibb River Road

We did this trip in 2006 and despite our almost constant travels since then, the Kimberley remains our favourite trip to date. It was our first big Australian travel adventure after I had 'retired'

Damien B

Hi folks,
Fantastic summary of a gigantic trip. You can understand why you take so many photos given the stunning scenery about.
I am taking my family, wife and two boys, 11 and 10, up to the Kimberley in April via the clockwise trip from Melbourne via the Nullabor, Perth and surrounds and up the WA coast. We intend to take 3 months and have just bought a new Ultimate Camper that we hope will treat us well on our journeys.
Being reasonable novices and doing our first outback trek can you just advise if we will have any problems on the kalumburu trek upt o Mitchell falls with the Ultimate.
Did you happen to catch any fish on this holiday?
Cheers
Damien

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Reply By: normc - Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:57

Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:57

Hi Damian. Wow that is a big trip you have planned. What a great experience for your boys.

Your Ultimate should do the trip well. We had friends with one a few years ago and I believe it has similar (good) off road capabilities to the Odyssey we had. The key is to drive to the conditions. In the really big corrugations (8 to 10 inches deep - you will know them when you see them), all you can do is slow down to about 15lm per hour and ride over them for a while.

On water crossings, stop before entering the water. We came across at least two vehicles that had hit deep water fast and put the fan blade through the radiator.

On the rougher dirt roads, I reduced tyre pressure by 8 to 10 psi and often engaged 4WD to improve control.

We did not take a boat on this trip, but I did fish a few times. I got a small barra in the river at El Questro, a few salmon and a couple of sharks off Cable Beach at Broome and some whiting off the beach at Middle Lagoon.

We now carry a boat on all our trips to the North. If interested, I have another Blog on this.

Have a great and safe trip.

Norm C

AnswerID: 547339