which way to go

Hi Cissal,

My Girlfriend and I are leaving from Perth on Friday for our trip. We decided the best thing was to chase the sun, ie, head North for the winter then by the hotter summer months we will be tracking down the east coast towards Tas where its a bit cooler.

I have heard others say it's more fuel efficent to go the other way.

Might see you out there

Hi Cissal

Plan your journey to go south in the hotter months, and north in the middle of the year. There is the whole of Central Australia to see, so zigzagging north to south and vice versa is not such a bad idea depending on your time frame (eg one year or two?). Don't forget Tasmania if you can fit it in. Wonderful, and very different to most of the mainland.

Certainly May is the time to be leaving to explore the Kimberley in June.

As for the Nullarbor, you will often meet head winds when going east to west, but the strongest headwinds we have had (we chose to stop until the next day) was when travelling west to east. Really, it is the luck of the draw, although winter months may be more westerlies with easterlies more in summer, but it varies week by week or day by day.

My Blogs totalling nine months travelling during 2008 and 2009 show where we went. We didn't go as far as coastal strip in the east, sticking more in the agricultural areas inland. South Australia was travelled through fairly quickly as we had been several times before, although we always pick up a few new roads to travel. Even NSW was a pretty quick run as we had a deadline to get home.

Motherhen

If the return is in the wet then drive clockwise. Head north first doing the top half in its cooler and less humid weather and around and across the bottom after winter. But that depends on how long you will be away.

Other than that I do not think it really matters.

Phil

Hi Cissal,

4 months is not a lot of time to do the whole loop with kids. Suggest going north is best - do the northern half across to and including the north-east coast of Queensland but have the option of cutting back west via Alice Springs and all the delights around there before heading home. That should see you in warmish weather most of the way, with just some cold nights in the inland areas to contend with.

If you head east in May you will be heading into cool to cold weather - its down to zero at night here in Canberra already.

Have a great trip

Cheers

In that time frame Cissal, why not just tour the Kimberley and some of the Northern Territory? Just travel for around half the time frame, then check your options for the best way back. Relax and enjoy. To fit a full lap in such a short time may well be torture for the kids and torment for you, as well as a big fuel bill. Our four month trip in 2008 took us through the Kimberley then we only had time to go straight to Alice Springs via the Tanami, tour around the MacDonnells and to Kings Canyon and Uluru-Kata Tjuta before heading straight west from there. We had to pick up the tour again in Alice Springs last year and go north to see some of the Northern NT and Qld. And we weren't travelling with youngsters! You do need to factor in days to do the washing and shopping time, as well as allow time for delays due to breakdown (even regular parts can take some time to reach you in the outback) or road closures due to weather. You can get across this country very quickly, but you don't have time to really enjoy it, or to relax when you have deadlines.

Mh