Plenty Hwy

Have you read our trek note yet? Can do in 2 days, but there are good places to stop, walk, camp etc so you might want a little longer. July is typically peak season and roads are generally perfect, except of course corrugated. Yep - its rougher on the Qld side, but you just cope with that. You'll have no dramas in a Prado, but if it was another month and it was raining, well its almost impassable then. Rough and rocky is still only a term to describe corrugations, its not like slow going rock steps or anything, just bumpy, loose and you have to be careful on corners and on the lookout for straying animals - not that frequent if you drive during the day. We have however spotted feral donkeys, but not in the middle of the road or anything. Its not one of the "hard" roads. It's only 4WD due to the corrugations really. YOu want actually engage low range 4WD. Its a bit like a sandier version of the Birdsville Track I guess.
Hope that helps - as I said check out the trek note.ExplorOz

A couple of days should do it. We got caught in the rain on the Plenty a couple of years ago. Had to use fwd mode for 150km. Normally the Plenty is OK apart from corrugations. From Tobermorey Station there could be bulldust patches. Before you leave Alice get the latest info from the Police and also ring Tobermoey. These are roads, not tracks, and are normally open at all times and not difficult to drive. Enjoy your trip.Cheers, Willem

Never a dull moment

Agree with all the above. we did the road last year, from the Boulia end. The Qld side was some of the worst made roads I've travelled, hadn't been graded for about 18 months. The road travels through some beaut country and we found a nice spot, off the road to camp, on the Qld side. We also camped in a nice shady spot by the river outside Boulia, at the start of the Donohue/Plenty. Worth the trip but I won't be rushing to do it again.

Happy trails, Mike.

PS. the Camp ground at Gemtree is great as well.

G'day
Agree with all the above comments - for the mix though. I unfortunately had to go across pretty quickly when I did it about 3 years back. Planned to stop, but made good time and went right through to Alice from Boulia in one day.

In the party of four vehicles were a couple that got a few flat tyres - suspect this was the result of having to rush a bit.

Felt like I missed something though and plan to go that way again some time.

Cheers

We went across the Plenty from the Boulia end in Aug 01 (in a Prado), and found it quite OK except for the drainage dips going across the road at regular intervals!! Just don't get going too fast..... We camped at Georgina River one night and it then took 8 hours to get to Gemtree the next day. I guess it would get a little untidy during or after rain. We saw quite a few lizards, snakes, emus, dingos etc, interesting landscape and a huge anthill which you won't miss. We were in a hurry (8500 km in 3 weeks) and will certainly take more time to enjoy it next time. I had no trouble with flats or tyres the whole trip, although had beefed up suspension and good BFG A/T tyres. Don't know how Grandtreks would go or standard Prado suspension with a big load.Russell S

Prado RV6

We travelled down the Plenty Hwy from Mt Isa via Urandangi to a small aboriginal community call Bonya on the Bonya Creek in August 2002.

A mate of mine works at the hospital there and runs the ambulance - It is not even sign posted from the road. (Great emergancy coverage if you need it)

I asked around before the trip and I must of got everybodys horror stories as we found the trip to very easy and fast. Averaged over 100km/hr for most of the trip.

The road was great, only a couple of slow patch's which was cleary visable. Easy to pass on and very little traffic or wildlife. Many 4wd where towing trailers and saw plenty of subaru outbacks.

Have a great trip

Brett