Kimberley/fly drive

There are a lot of different opinions out there on how long you need to do trips. Some people will say you have heaps of time to drive that far and others will say not nearly enough. There is no doubt that you can spent years in some of these amazing places however in my opinion is if you only have 9 weeks, better to see some of it than none at all!

We did a 6 and a half week trip from Melbourne up the centre, up the tanami, across the kimberley, to broome, cape leveque, down the west coast, through southern WA and across the nullabor and home. We reached the kimberley in 5 days. We spent the majority of our time in the kimberley and broome and coming down the coast as far as Geraldton. From then on it was really only an overview and we will certainly go back to the areas we liked. However, it was an amazing trip and we didn't feel like we were driving all the time, we also saw as much as people with double the time but we used every minute of daylight every day.

To help you decide if you would be driving all the time or not, i would recommend writing out an itinery and use travelmate.com.au which has a trip planner that gives you distances and driving times. Then compare this to other trips you've done to get an idea of how far you will be driving.

To help make the distances feel less we got up very early most days (dawn at the latest) which meant most of our driving was done in the mornings. We spent the afternoons site seeing and relaxing and had early nights. We also tried to do say 4-5 days on the go then 2-3 days stopped in one place. It is not a style of travelling that suits everyone so you need to give some thought to what you want out of the holiday.

Probably my only other tip is that we aim to see the places we can't see as easily on shorter holidays. For example you could fly to Perth and hire a car to do the SW and drive back from there in a 2-3 week holiday, whereas in the Kimberley you need your 4WD and its harder to get to.

Hope that helps! enjoy your planning!
from

'Draff's wife

All good advice above.

We have a bunch of people doing a fly-drive in Aug/Sept, hiring vehicles in Broome and returning to Broome, but they are on a very tight scheule, so it suits them. Others are joining us in May, going Alice to Alice via the Gibb River road and various other NW WA places for 21 days.

Each approach has its merits depending on what time you have etc. The planning advice above is excellent. Start with the total number of days and then work out distances. Try to driveabout 3 to 4 or maybe 5 hrs max. Have some places where you stay a few days.

Dave O

Last May/June 2006 we went from Adelaide accross the Nullabor to Esperance, Margaret River, by-passed Perth up to Ningaloo, Pt Hedland, Karijini, Kalgoorlie and back accross the Nullabor. Towing a caravan. We travelled with two other vans who were time-constrained, so we did it all in 7 weeks. Averaged about 300/km a day, but of course didn't do 300km each & every day.
Heather and I felt like we had just done one of those European tours - 10 capital cities in 8 days, and did not really enjoy our trip at all. Never got to smell the roses, swim with the whale sharks, meet some locals, etc. We would really like to do it all again, much slower, and see all those things we had to "leave something to see next time".
A couple of years ago we did Adelaide - Kununarra via Dunmarra & Buchanan Hghway, Gibb River Road to Windjana and Fitzroy Crossing, Tanami Road, Alice Springs and back home. Took 11 weeks, which was about right, as there were some long driving stretches that ate up the "miles" meaning we could spend a lot longer "on site", do walks, swim in natural pools, try the worlds best beefburger in Wyndham, etc.
I just thought 'd put the alternative view.

If you really want to get inspired, track down a copy of Tim Bowden's book Bungles to Broome. Sydney to Kimberley region and down the coast, inland to Mekkatharra and back along the Nullabor. They did a cruise tour up the Kimberley coast and according to the author it was well worth it.

Sounds great. Good luck. I hope to get there someday.

Yendor ,

Take the car from home with all the gear that will make for a comfortable and enjoyable safari . If you fly drive , you will only be able to take the bare necessities . You will constantly be saying " I wish I'd bought the bigger camera , the mask and snorkel , the fishing gear , the eski , the comfi chair etc ".

I go across there every year - it is a 5-7 day drive to the Kimberley - depending on how many hours a day you can stay on the road but only about 4-5 days drive back from Pert . Even if you use up 12 days travelling there and back , they will be interesting days going through unknown country , and you still have 7 weeks to discover the Kimberley , The Pilbara and the WA coast .

Have a great time ,

Willie .

A couple of years ago I was part of a party that used hire vehicles from Alice to Broome and then GR road to Darwin. We were in fact returning the hire vehicles to Darwin. Another party had hired in Darwin and did the opposite trip to us. Given time do you think you could find some other people to do a one way hire in reverse to what you want to do? This would save heaps of driving.