Burketown-Borroloola-Roper bar Trek

depends on the wet. if its late forget it. cheers

Hi swabo, I'll try to haelp as much as I can.

We travelled part of this road last year (Roper Bar to Kingfisher turn off (just before Doomagee). Because of the big and late wet, the road opened quite late. We went through in July and were told by many people we would not get through. In fact, by then the road was pretty good. Lots of washouts that had only temporary repairs. But with care they were no problem. We found the rest of the road pretty good. But we had just done GRR, Kalumburu Road, Mitchell Plateau, Cape Leveque etc, so that was our reference point.

We will be back up there again this year. Hope to hit the area in mid to late April, but that will depend on the wet. If roads are still difficult, we'll head for the NT end (where access is generally a bit easier) and fish for a few weeks till the roads dry out enough. If the roads are OK, we might do the Qld end first. We are pretty flexible - plan on spending at least 6 or 8 weeks fishing across the Gulf.

Last year we came accross people who had come through the road in late May / early June, but they were in a group and had done a fair bit of rocovery and winching to do it. Not smart I reckon.

Hard to give times. How long is a piece of string and how big and late will the wet be? Apart from the wash outs, we had no trouble averaging 70KPH. One tip. If you come across 'water across road' signs, slow down. Even if the the last 3 were false alarms. The next one might be 400mm deep. Not fun to hit at speed.

If you have the time, Lawn Hill is a must (do the canoe thing) and camp at Adel's Grove. Kingfisher Camp is pleasant and you can go via there on the way into or out of Lawn Hill (via Lawn Hill Station and Bowthorn Homestead). Hells Gate is OK for an overnight stop.

At least one of the 'Lost Cities' is worth a visit. We did Caranbirini last year. Will probably do Sothern Lost City this year. If you are in to fishing King Ash Bay is worth a visit. We'll spend a couple of weeks there. Further up there are camp grounds at Limmen River and Towns River.

Hope some of this helps.

We went from Roper Bar down to Borrolloola in June 2005. We only spent one night at Roper bar but I would like to fish there for a week or so. We towed the Kimberley through there. A good road except for a few corrugations and lots of stone at the Borrolloola end. Done one BF Goodrich with a stone to the sidewall. Probably going a bit fast. There was some good looking fishing spots closer to Roper Bar on the roper river, but if you are not into fishing, probably only a few spots worthy of spending more than a night or 2. Definitely worth the effort though.

G'day Swabo

Did this run but from the west in May 2003. Every year would be different I suppose but we had no problems with the track.

Left Mataranka, through Roper Bar and stayed 1st night at Rocky Bar Crossing on the Hodgson River. Nice spot.

Numerous campsites along the Roper River

2nd night Towns River.

3rd night at what is probably now Limmen National Park. It was still "Nathan River HS" back then. Nice area. 2 "Lost Cities". Camped at Butterfly Springs. Nice spot.

4th night Wearyn River.

5th night at Hells Gate Roadhouse. Pleasant night in the bar.

6th night Through Burketown and stayed at Liechhardt River. Nice Spot

7th night at Karumba.

We think the above is a comfortable minimum time frame but as is always the case there are places we could have stayed longer and a number of side trips if you have the time.

It's a great area. We loved it.

Have Fun

Dodgin

Re Butterfly springs..If I recall correctly we visited it in 2005..It is south of Nathan River only a few miles.Nathan river runs into Linmen river.Butterfly is a really pretty place but I am sure it is not on the river..Worth a visit ,the track was fairly rough and overgrown then..There were signs on the main road ..Lorella Springs station is also a little further south .I would have liked to visit it too as they cater for tourists and have access to some coastal areas.I was put of however by the prices they advised thru web sites they ran ..Good luck..Murray