river crossing issues Burketown to Booraloola
Submitted: Monday, Jun 11, 2018 at 16:21
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GrahamM
I am about to travel from
Lawn Hill north to Savanah Way and then west on to Booraloola/
Daly Waters in a 4WD Merc Sprinter 7.5m motorhome for the first time. Understand road is generally pretty good except for near NT border with bad corrugations so that shouldn't be too much of a problem, but there is apparently a potentially difficult
river crossing somewhere due to submerged rocks on the causeway which might give me a clearance problem (on front/rear diffs but otherwise) if I cannot navigate around or over them. Would much appreciate any advice that anyone can give me.
Reply By: KevinE - Monday, Jun 11, 2018 at 17:25
Monday, Jun 11, 2018 at 17:25
Hi Graham,
I just had a look through our videos & found 3 water crossings on the
Savannah Way in that stretch; there are some small rocks in 2 of them, about the size of large potatoes. We were in a stock Navara, towing a camper trailer. I idled through in a low gear & the Ute was rocking a bit in the videos, but other than that, no dramas.
If there were other crossings, my co-pilot didn't video them lol! But I can't recall any difficulty getting through there.
The road itself was an absolute cracker of a dirt road when we went through! Especially on the NT side.
Have a great trip mate! :)
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Follow Up By: GrahamM - Monday, Jun 11, 2018 at 17:37
Monday, Jun 11, 2018 at 17:37
Thank you Kevin - very helpful and reassuring. We had been told that there were large rocks and that they had bottomed out on them like I recall the
river crossing going into the Bungle Bungles (or at least as it was a decade ago) - hence my query. Maybe their experience was post major flooding or whatever. Thanks for going to the trouble of going through your videos - OTT assistance!! Much appreciated
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Follow Up By: mike39 - Tuesday, Jun 12, 2018 at 08:31
Tuesday, Jun 12, 2018 at 08:31
What can be a trap are the numerous Bulldust patches. The road suddenly looks smooth but 20cm. down can be very harsh bedrock which can give your rig a nasty shake up if you have not been aware and slowed.
Have been across several times but never had problems with large rocks in river crossings.
mike
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Follow Up By: KevinE - Tuesday, Jun 12, 2018 at 17:07
Tuesday, Jun 12, 2018 at 17:07
Ah, good point about the bulldust Mike!
We did strike a rather deep bulldust
wallow in the only
gorge we went through. Going from memory, it was near
Hells Gate?
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