Savanah Way,

It's an absolute cracker of a road when dry. Pretty much tar from Burketown to Doomagee, then a great, dirt road to Borroloola. There are some bulldust wallows on the very eastern end, but not many.

Sadly, the scenery isn't too varied. It's the usual tropical Savannah most of the way.

Thanks Kevin

Hi Rob,
I travelled from Borroloola across to Burketown about 3-4 weeks ago. It is a tough drive as far as Hells Gate (near Qld border). From there on it is fine - pretty well sealed all the way. If you are towing it is a good idea to slip into 4wd for the river crossings although they are worse going from east to west. One or two are a bit steep in and out and there was a bit of water in them - no more than wheel height but if you have a van behind you, approach and departure might need some consideration. You will get through ok but this is certainly a stretch where you need to drive to conditions. Tyre pressures for corrugations are important and the first 50 ks from Borroloola are particularly corrugated. There are some pretty reasonable stretches but you can't relax. I gather the mining ops around Borroloola are contributing to the condition and graders just can't keep up. Take it easy and you'll be ok - some good camps on the way at one or two of the river crossings too.

There are about 5-6 water crossings on that road in dry weather, this one is fairly typical:
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So if you're towing, yes, 4WD is a good option. But I always use 4WD once on the dirt anyway.

The road itself is pretty much like this most of the way:
[img][/img]

Rating the degree of difficulty for dirt roads from 1 to 10, with 1 being easy & 10 being hard, I'd rate this road in the dry as a 1 to 2. Thinking about it, I'd say it's probably the most enjoyable dirt road drive I've ever done.

When did they seal the road from Doomagee to Hell's Gate?

Hi Rob,

I did a blog covering this section last year.

BLOG

Cheers
Alan

We did it a bit over week ago. Pretty good condition with some corrugations, bulldust sections etc, but no problem if dsriven sensibly. All the water crossings were no more than hub deep.
Once you get to the bitumen past Doomadgee it's sealed through to Leichhart Falls, and then excellent gravel all the way to Normanton.