Saturday, Jan 12, 2008 at 08:31
John & Helen,
We travelled that way in July, 06, though in reverse to the way you are planning.
Had lunch just near Barkly H'stead, then travelled up to
Cape Crawford, and camped about 100 km west of
Heartbreak Hotel. Stopped at one of these roadside stops (October Creek), tank, shelter etc, and it looked a bit ordinary. Negotiated the "land mines" not far from the shelter, and found a good
camp about 150 m back off the highway. Traffic was extremely light, so not disturbing through the night.
Now, as I remeber it, the bitumen is single lane all the way from
Bark Hut, to
Daly Waters, though there may have been some overtaking lanes scattered over this distance.
As mentioned above, the road surface just south of Heartbreak is very ordinary, but this soon smooths out further south. Some great photo opportunities around here too, so keep the camera handy.
The road to
Daly Waters had a lot of
wildflowers and trees in flower then, so we didn't make good time, because of photo stops. Were passed by a defence dept std 100series wagon, that left us in its wake, but we caught up to them at
Daly Waters, where they were having "refreshments".
There are other camps at Kiana Turnoff, and on Brunette Downs, 271 km &149km north of
Bark Hut. Heartbreak has beautiful big lawns for campers etc, so that might be worth a stop, especially for some "refreshments".
As mentioned only fuel available is at Heartbreak, along this route.
Don't let the narrow bitumen dissuade you, it's
well worth a look, if only to see the vast
Mitchell grass plains through Brunette &
Alroy Downs.
Hooroo,
Bob.
AnswerID:
281144