Trek Comment: The Tanami Track

Based on what I experienced last year on the Tanami and this year on the GRR and the route into the Michelle Plateau I'd say the complete reverse.

Problem is these roads change dramatically within 24hrs. This was definitely the case in mid June this year going into the Mitchell Plateau. I was expecting worse on the way in and yes it was bad but within 24hrs and on the way out things had changed for the worse by I'd say 200% and on the Kalumburru Rd we were down to a crawl in places. Yes I'd lowered pressures and was driving to the conditions.

Lots of contributing factors more like but I ended up having to have a new RHS wheel bearing stub axle and free wheeling hub end etc etc plus shocky bushes fitted. I could have lost the whole wheel apparently so lucky it happened while we were in town.

All you can do is drive to the conditions experienced BY YOU on the day. My vehicle is a 75 series Troopy so heavy as all buggery, leaf springs and my tyres are Toyo M55 so a very hard carcass tyre. Ran them at 30 front and 32 rear. So more than likely a totally different set-up to you and most others.

Enjoy the journey. I enjoyed the Tanami and the millions of termite mounds.

Cheers

Dunc

I've done the Tanami twice (including a couple of months ago) and it's a piece of cake; don't know what Gone Bush is talking about.
As always, be conscious of the conditions, recent railfalls etc, but it's basically a good gravel highway, and a handy short cut to Alice.
Cheers

Hi Bill agree the GRR could have been a lot worse. What we noticed travelling west to east was that the west bound side of the road appeared to be in much worse condition and that could be attributed to there being a whole lot more traffic going in that direction. Like every other time I've been on the road you get fantastic bits, you get some roughish bits and you get some where your false teeth might fall out. A real mixed bag. The only bit of road that was being graded and resurfaced was between Ellenbrae Stn and the Durack River and if you saw the size of the rocks that get crushed to surface the road you can understand where some of the punctures that you hear people getting come from.
I think as roads go up there the unsealed portion of the Kooljaman Road in the Dampier Peninsula is over-all one of the worse road.
cheers
Dunc