Travel Advice,Plenty Hwy.

Grunter

The Donhue/Plenty Hwy's are general outback roads with smooth sections, corrugated sections, dips and river crossings(normally dry). You could also find some bulldust patches along the way.

A solo trip over these roads is no drama. Just drive carefully and to conditions and you will enjoy the experience.

Cheers

As per Willem Grunter , but also sometimes you can't chose just when to travel and sometimes also those roads become marginally wet.

It is for those times that we always carry a set of light chains, which work extremely well on those sorts of roads when the top layer becomes slick.

Robin Miller

The Plenty is usually a piece of cake, but take an extra spare tyre if you can. It has a well deserved reputation for destroying them. Travel to conditions, with lowered pressures and don't try and do it in 1 day, I have and its a very long day indeed. Tobermary station is a great place to stop for the evening.

yeah I agree with all....good trip and not hard by yourself....Donohue is rocky and pretty bad but the Plenty is fairly good...Tobermorey just in NT is good for fuel and an ice cream.....a stop at Jervois for the night is good under the ghost gums and a $2 shower feels great!!

if wanting to get to Alice and see Altunga Ruins at the same time....go Via Cattlewater pass....bit of a 4wd track but a camper trailer got through fine...and a sooby forrester....

There are plenty of massive ant hills along the plenty ....massive just doesnt describe them so the boys will have fun measuring themselves against them!!

In Aug. 06 the sandy section on Plenty Hwy seemed to go for a good 30km without a break....friends sooby got a puncture in one sandy section but that was it for us along there....

Take it safe and you'll be right !!

Laura

Hi

Travelled the Plenty last August. Good trip but not a huge amount to see. Hartz ranges very interesting and lots of interesting tracks into old mica mines. have a look at the NT Mines dept web site for maps and details of the area. There is also a fantastic NEW camping ground in the Hartz range. Drive past the race track at the Hartz range police station and a couple of ks further in a brand new camping area, solar showers, etc. We stayed no one else no fees nobody else in site. it is marked on the NT maps but no signs posts on the road. You need maps to find your way around in this area as there are lots of tracks leading everywhere and no signs or markers of any kind. fantastic scenery.

Another good spot is the gem tree c/v park at the end of the tar. Good spot for a couple of days fossicking. Also, they have maps of places to go in the area, again old mine sites.

We also camped on the Georgina river probably the best spot on the QLD site of the H/Y. You can camp all around the river but the best spot is on the LHS after you go over the crossing heading to Boulia.

Boulia is also an interesting place. Go to the Min Min display, well worth the money. Also the museum is a quirky place.

Tyres are a problem, sharp rock in the bulldust are the problem. You can dodge the ones you can see, its the others that cause a porblem. Take and extra spare at least. I had a tube but the rock I hit pushed the wire into the centre of the tire so couldn't fit the tube. Jervois does tyre repairs but does not have many tyres on hand.

Have fun

Hi Grunter,

we did the Donahue/Plenty from east to west in mid- April, about a week after it had opened after flooding. It was rough, no two ways about it, and there is little positive to say about two days of shocking corrugations. The Qld side was less corrugated in general, but did have some wash-outs and deep wheel rutting.

Still it posed no problem for us or the vehicle (except for a broken air cleaner mount due to alfoil being used for the inner guard!!). We ran at about 28psi, although later in the trip (Dalhousie via Pedirka) I got as low as 22psi. 22 in retrospect would have been more comfortable on the Plenty. There were a few crews out, so some sections should be smooth as by now.

Stayed overnight at Tobermory. $25 for the site and $1.75 for ULP.

Hope that is of some use.

Cheers,
David

Thanks everyone,
we are heading off for the month of august,cant wait,boys chomping at the bit.

Appreciate all the advice.

Thanks Viv, good to know.