kimberly

The Kimberley (no s) is a massive area. We recently spent about 10 weeks of a 16 week trip in the area and there is heaps we didn't do.

You can see a lot of it with a good van, but a lot you can not (or probably should not).

Vans are prohibited in the Bungle Bungles. We saw a couple of vans (Bushtracker type) on the GRR and even one on the Kalumburu Road, but the reports we got were that some of them have serious problems with dust and the inside shaking apart. But I don't have a van, so have no personal experience.

Road conditions vary dramatically, from horrendous to very good. Most dirt roads will have corrugations. It's just a matter of how bad they are at the time.

For fishing in the Kimberley you need a boat to get to the good spots and to keep away from the crocs.

Do a search of this site and spend a couple of hours with Google. You will find heaps of info.

g'day mate,

we have a coromal 5.49 dual axle corvair pop top off road version, went along the whole length of the Gibb River Rd in Autumn 2005 and no probs at all. all I can say is drive to the conditions and you should be right, we had a jayco outback camper trailer the year before and wellll I could swear but the rivets on the door popped out, cupboards started falling apart, and the shockies weren't happy
.... regards Ric

Most areas of the Kimberley's are accessible with a caravan.

I would definitely not recommend going into Mitchell Falls with a caravan. You can leave your caravan at Drysdale Station and head off from there. Take a tent as well for that purpose.

Drive to the conditions - plenty of people have driven standard caravans across the GRR without any problems by driving slowly.

If you don't have a boat there's still some good fishing to be had, just be croc-aware, as has already been said. The Chamberlain holds good fish, from small Tarpon to Barra (depending upon the time of the year) and is easily accesses from within El Questro, if you want to go there. That's not too far along the GRR though I'm not sure I saw any caravans there?

If you are heading out to Lake Argyle Tourist Park (carefull of SWMBO, they sell nice diamonds around there!) as you are heading back out there is a dirt road going left which follows the release channel. Great fishing at a number of points along here, look for the (huge) eddy pools. Options are endless but a boat makes them even endlesser!

Watch for crocs (not kidding now).

Cheers,

Mark

Hi Sam,
As to suitable for vans or not depends totally upon road conditions at the time of travel.
Go to our web site, check out road etc page and see why conditions can vary so very much !
www.drysdaleriver.com.au
If roads in the North Kimberley have been recently graded you will have no problems at all BUT they may also be pretty shocking just at the time you chose to do the trip, then it's a different story.
cheers, Anne