Mildura to Cape York to Darwin and back to Mildura. Can it be done in 4-6 wee

Hi wee, I think you should cut out Darwin and just go to the Cape. You will need every bit of the 6 weeks just to do that. I would also bypass Brisbane and go inland as the Bruce HWY is a nightmare. Head to Moree and then St George up to Charters Towers by the Gregory Hwy then to Cairns via Townsville, the roads are much better and less traffic, oh flat and straight, not winding roads up and down hills following trucks. Hope you have a great time.
Andy

The other guys have laid it out, the time frame is too narrow to do anything on that trip justice.

Here's an alternative though:

Drive up to Darwin - get the long haul stuff out of the way early on.

Call in to the obvious places on the way up - Katherine (for the gorge). Mataranka (for the hot springs and/or cave), perhaps take a day out in Alice to see some of the West Macs - getting into the East Macs will take you longer - by camping out in one of the Nat Park sites and walking some of the gorges. The road through is sealed and none of the gorges are a long trek.

Skip Darwin, it's just a city, and head west from Katherine across to Kununurra.

See Lake Argyle and all the local stuff.

If your van is up to it, drive the Gibb River Road and see some of the gorges through there.

Come back from the Broome end via the bitumen and call in to see the Bungle Bungles. You will need a short or high van to get through the creek crossings to get in there (easy driving, just steep angles), but the place is well worth seeing.

Then, from Halls Creek (you'll need to backtrack 50 klms) you can take the Tanami Track (more of a dirt highway) across to just north of Alice and then home.

Six weeks will be enough to catch the highlights of that trip.

I have carefully planned my 7th trip to The Cape for next year.
Leaving Adelaide and cruising up to Cairns, then up to The Cape via Bloomfield and Battlecamp, Lakefield and then back through the goldfields and across to The Mitchell River area, Burketown, Kingfisher, Lawnhill and then Mount Isa.
We are doing a flying trip and we have 4 weeks to the point of Mt Isa.
You will be struggling.
Each night for us is a single night stop over.

Cheers.

PS. I did your trip in 2005 and it was a brisk run and it took 8 weeks.

Hi Dags

You must be a masochist thinking about something of that magnitude - and with children? Do yourselves all a favour, and do a little bit each year, stay sane, see the places not just drive past, and enjoy yourselves. There may be a bit of double running there are are mostly alternative routes. What time of year is you holiday leave?

I have a few examples of our trips (WITHOUT children) in my website, Travel Time Frames. When you allow for touring, shopping, doing the laundry, vehicle servicing, waiting for spare parts, together with sightseeing - the purpose of the trips, we average between 100 and 200 kilometres per day. I consider we move fairly fast, somewhere different most nights, and see only a slice of what is on offer at each place as we have so much more to see in this vast country. We also have the advantage of being self sufficient bush campers, so drive until we are ready to stop. This means we can do long days on the homeward leg and just stop at dusk where ever we are.

Motherhen

It really comes down to whether you are interested in the journey or just the destination.

Given that you have a young family and presumably want to do more of this sort of trip then the journey is probably what you need to look at. There is plenty to see and do along the way if you just aim for either Darwin or the Cape, but trying to do both in your proposed time frame might make it a one-off experience. In any case you have time on your side and these places will still be there next year and the year after - there's no need to try to cram everything into one trip.

Take as much time as you can and go to one or other of your proposed destinations. Make that enjoyable and your family will probably want to go exploring again. Don't try to drive too far in one day, stop often to take in the sights and let the kids run around and you will be fine.

Cheers,

Val.

Whoaaa, I know you have time constraints but speaking from experience leave these long trips until you have the time otherwise your navigator and kids won't do another rip, tear and bust trip with you ever again, cooped up in a hot vehicle for many boring hours a day would put most people (kids) off.
Another thought, you'll use roughly the same amount of fuel on that trip whether you do it in six weeks or six months. Have a rethink and do a camping trip up thru the Snowy Mountains for example and take the time to relax and smell the roses.

rr

this year we did Brisbane to Darwin and back again (with kids) in 5 weeks and that was rushed, i wouldn't want to of added the Cape to that aswell (though we did consider it briefly...lol).
i think the time frame is way to limited, you need to do one or the other IMHO. here is a link to the trip we did in that 5 weeks if your interested... http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=179&t=121720

15 yrs ago, we did a trip around most of Australia in 7 weeks.....with 2 kids ( 10 & 8 ).. in a soft floor camper..

Started at Sydney...up to Cairns ( stayed 5 days), across to lawn Hill gorge., across to Katherine...up to Litchfield Nat park, then Darwin ( 6 days) ... Kakadu( 3 days), then down the middle to Coober Pedy, Victoria, Phillip Isl, then up the coast and home..

We saw a lot of other places I haven't listed, but the point being, it all depends on how much travelling you want to do...

Nowadays, seeing I'm a lot older......I wouldn't think of doing something so quick...but if your kids travel well ( and the missus) it's all possible. !!!

G'day Offroaddags,
You have got plenty of good advice so far.
One thing I would like to mention is that all the factors of success & failure will firstly be dependant on how well the trip suits your kids.
You can plan to do great things & conquer great challenges, but if it is out of sorts with the kids you & your wife will not be happy.
Travelling with my kids was the greatest travel I have done in Australia. They made the trips worthwhile. It didn't always start out so great. There was usually a settling in period until we got things working right. With experience this period got shorter each trip.
If you push the kids to hard it is going to backfire on you. They like simple things. Most of all they like Mum & Dads attention.
You can set out with a plan, but for your sake don't make it set in concrete. Be flexible.
You might find the kids can handle 1500 km days. Mine did at times.
Then you might find they can't handle 500 k days. Mine were like that at times too.
What they can & can't handle is something you will have to find out on the road.
One trick my wife worked out early on & it is one that I have mentioned before on this forum, is to have your wife, or whoever is not driving, sit in the back seat. In your case it would be in the middle. Then at each stop rotate the kids through the front seat. That keeps them happy as pigs in mud. They love the attention from mum & dad.
Can the electronic gizmos as well. Family relationships are strengthened by talking. Not I phone apps.

Hmm, approx 12000km give or take over 6 weeks = 285km per day on average.

Do-able.

Wont see everything but will see more than staying at home.

One trick that some friends used for a long trip from Melbourne to The Cape was the dads drove up in 3-4 days and then the girls flew up to meet him, expensive i know but a whole lot easier to put in the 12+ hours driving days.

Also we did cape york as an explorer trip (no kids or wives) some years ago in 2 weeks from Melbourne, a lot rushed, but still worth while, so 3-4 weeks would be great, fir in some Gulf Counrty, but i agree drop the Darwing/top end leg for another trip. Then we cheated by leaving the cars in Cairns and flying back, cars got trucked back for a grand each a week later.

Thanks all,
Some good advice. Thought I might have been a bit adventurous. Will look at the NT leg some other time.

Why not ????? a lot of people will tell you to cut it short and take your time but if it was me i would go for it............
We did around 11,000 klms in 6 weeks ...... we live in Doomadgee north of Mt Isa, we went from Doomadgee to Isa to Birdsville down the Birdsville track to Marree went up the Strazlecki to Camerons corner down the Broken Hill, to Port Broughton to Port Agusta to Nullabour to WA Gnowangerup to Albany to Bremer Bay to Gnowangerup to Perth to Kal accross the great central road to the Rock/s to Alice Springs to tennent creek to Three Ways to Barkly up the tablelands Hwy accross the Savannah Way back to Doomadgee...........
All in six weeks and it was ABSOLUTLY AWSOME, would i do it again YES YES YES....
Would i do your trip YES, you get to see heaps of stuff, yes you may not stay as long as you wish but if you find a place you really like you can come back and spend time there, i reckon DO IT..
Trick is not to plan to far ahead and that way you are flexable we had our plan as far as Birdsville, when we got there we looked up the "track" and the ferry and away we went, we drove up to the Strazleckie sign and decided to go up to Camerons corner, we then went on to Broken hill, went to the Caves on the nullabour, went to see family at GNP and Perth and then went to Kal and accross the guts to see the rock ........
Cheers
Joe