Plenty Highway conditions?
Submitted: Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 12:32
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Ian from Thermoguard Instruments
Hi All,
We're intending to depart SE Qld and head for the Top End again, now that The Wet has just about had it. But instead of doing the same old Barlky Highway thing from Mt Isa to
Tennant Creek (including the dreaded
Camooweal stretch), we're thinking seriously of taking the Donahue & Plenty Highways from
Boulia, Qld. to
Alice Springs, before heading north again.
We'll have a our new (
well, new to us - 2002 model) tandem poptop caravan in tow. We've done lots of solo trips on outback roads, including a lot of Red Centre roads and the
Simpson Desert, so we're quite familiar with corrugated roads, sand tracks, gibber plains, etc. etc. And we've proven the dustproofing of the new van over a few hundred kms of Central Qld unsealed roads but we don't really want to subject it to hundreds of ks of gut-busting corrugations.
I know everyone's opinions of unsealed roads differ and a smooth, freshly-graded highway can turn into a horror stretch within a few days if there's rain or if a few dozen triple road-trains go through after de-stocking a station. So, does anyone have up to date info on the Plenty/Donahue - say, in the last few weeks?
Thanks for your responses.
Reply By: pmacks - Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 13:01
Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 13:01
Hi Ian,
this is a bit out of date now but we did the plenty in october 2003 towing an off road goldstream camper and our freinds was towing an on road coramal van we had no problems with either the corrigations or the bull dust.
We had done this trip before and the bull dust was very bad just out of
boulia on the way to alice but the last time there was no sign of it.
Hope this helps
Pmacks
AnswerID:
105547
Follow Up By: Ian from Thermoguard Instruments - Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 17:33
Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 17:33
Thanks for that pmacks, your info is a lot more up to date than the last time I drove the Plenty - 1983 in a XD Falcon ute...
Have to see if anyone else has been that way more recently.
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Willem - Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 18:20
Thursday, Apr 07, 2005 at 18:20
Always check this website first for road conditions. Go to On the Road button at the top of the page and then to Road Conditions and follow it from there.
At the moment the
Plenty Highway is closed. That would normally only last a few days. Some of the creeks may be in flood
AnswerID:
105598