Booking accomodation

We did this trip last year at the same time. Very busy but we did not book a thing and all worked out ok. Trouble with booking is you commit to be at a particular place at a particular time, and that is pretty restrictive. Kings canyon etc is chockers in the school holidays. We fluked a caravan spot at G'day Mate Alice Springs, and the decent free camps are usually pretty full by about 2pm. You would probably be better off if you can set off in April, I reckon.

Wing it. In busy places try early afternoon so that if you cannot get in you can head out of town to a bush camp. CP's loath turning money away so can usually fit you in somewhere.

RE: Flinders
If your going outside of school holiday dates you should be fine with the exception of popular places.

It doesn't hurt to give some of these place a ring now to check how busy they'll be. Most of the operators in the Flinders are very honest and wont pull the wool over your eyes if their not expecting to be busy.

Greg, June-August is prime travel time in the Red Centre regardless of school holidays. Fink Desert Race, school Holidays, School trips, Footy carnivals and the big truck gathering are a few that come to mind. You would be mad not to book in Uluru, Kings Canyon and the Alice. I usually use the Macdonald Ranges Big4 and am happy to recommend it.

Avoid disappointment, book well ahead.

Cheers Mick

Mostly you only need to book ahead a few days in advance. We often lob into a place and quickly estimate how long we would like to stay. We then ring ahead if we feel we need to.

We found that it was not necessary to book far ahead in 2014. Obviously check for extra busy dates like Finke River Run and school holidays. It is easier to plan to avoid these times anyway. We did not want to be constrained by an itinerary and found that we had no trouble just ringing the day before if a place was likely to be busy. This gave us the advantage of arriving with a booking and, often, getting a better site. At Yulara (Uluru) booking a day ahead enabled us to avoid the very long queue at the gate and go straight in to an excellent site. Free camps will get very crowded at that time so be prepared to start looking for a spot soon after lunch. It may be a good idea to book a bit further ahead for Darwin at that time, especially if you wish to stay a few days. Don't worry too much - you will generally get in somewhere. Enjoy the trip! Lynne