Plenty highway

Heard back from our daughter today. She said the Donahue was pretty decent. The Plenty up to Jervois Station was a bit ordinary. After that it was OK.

Jan

Spent 3 nights fossicking zircon and garnet at the public area about 6km? down the Binns track...quite successful. Avoided Gemtree camp as they were a bit pricey and had big water restrictions on washing machines,showers etc. Their problems may be solved now? Also, altho not a boozer, I had a great over night camp and hard case company at the Middleton pub.

Hi Gerard, Had a night or two at Middleton over the years. Yeah ole Lester is a hardcase alright, but he never forgets a face or a name.

The sort of place that makes Australia so great

Cheers Greg

Have heard from our daughter today. They have spoken to a number of people who have just come across the Plenty, and all report it is in good condition.

Thanks all for your help.

Jan

Road condition reports are always subjective.

Good to get that from a number of people though, especially if any of them were towing (in particular medium to larger caravans).
Towing will make a difference, as will volume of traffic on the road, road trains, etc.

But daughter and co will get their own first hand look at it soon I think, be good to find out if it's still slower / care needed in some places with bulldust patches.
It may well have been graded in the past recent month or two.

The most important thing is driving to your own conditions (vehicle, towed camper), and driver experience, as this varies a lot from vehicle to vehicle, and between drivers.

Let us know how they go and what they thought of it.

We have just done it, Boulia to the Stuart Hwy, 4x4 wagon with tyres way down, towing a hard floor camper. I agree with Les.

We have traveled quite a few gravel roads. No way I'd call the plenty "good" as it is at the moment.

We have "plenty" of photos of the corrugations lol. The bulldust was pretty ordinary too.

There's still not one wayside stop on the entire route either. Very little traffic when we were on it.

"There's still not one wayside stop on the entire route either."

What is your Idea of a wayside stop? Does it have to include flushing dunnies, fuel stations and hamburger shop?

WikiCamps shows over 20 sites suitable for camping, including a handful with caravan parks with facilities and fuel.

A wayside is just that, a wayside stop. There are none. My idea of a wayside stop is a bare minimum of a loop off the road where I can park. There are no pull off's at all, not even for Road trains. If Wikicamps shows any wayside stops on that highway, I'm glad I haven't wasted my money buying it.

Seeing as you refer back to Wikicamps, I'm guessing that you've never been out there? It's outback, so you may have a little difficulty comprehending what it's actually like ;)

The flushing dunnies and hamburger shop are all yours! We don't need them.

KevinE there are literally scores of places where you can get off the road for a cuppa or a camp. I'm not sure what road you were on.

Hi Kevin, there’s lots of places to stop across the plenty. I ve traveled that road quite a few times as I said earlier. The last time I went across it was night and I saw 2 groups of 4wds camped 30 or 40 metres off the road. I could see the campfire of the first group for ages before I passed by.


I stopped in the middle of the night to make myself a coffee on my small gas stove. I just stopped in the middle of the road. Not as if there is any traffic at 1 am on the plenty.


If you are indeed familiar with traveling the outback you should know that you can pull up virtually anywhere to cook a meal and sleep the night.


I’ve worked and traveled in the bush all my working life and have never been stumped looking a place to camp.


Cheers Greg

Ps. As for the road conditions. I realise 4 weeks can make a huge difference in road conditions and we were in vastly different vehicles but the road surface was quite acceptable to me. Been on a whole lot worse !!!