The proposal is to basically follow the blue line on the map. We have probably decided to avoid the Gibb River Road at this stage. We may alter that decision as the planning goes on. This is the first draft of the route.
The route is about 12,000km’s and I’d expect it to take somewhere between twelve and twenty weeks depending on where we actually end up going and what we want to see and do. Campground Hosting in NT and SA are high on the agenda so that’ll add a few weeks as well.
Travelling about a thousand kilometres a week seems reasonable, at this stage anyway.
Once the route comes together a bit more we’ll be able to get a better handle on approximate fuel costs. Currently it looks like about $3,500 given that we’ll get around 13 or 15 Litres / 1ooKm’s and working on an average fuel cost of $1.50 or $1.70 / Litre.
Looks like a plan to me, Mark. I’ve been watching a series on our Discovery t.v. channel where a guy goes on the route you’ve outlined. He’s looking for a gold mine he can buy and operate in Australia during the off season of his Alaskan gold mining operation. I believe he spent 3 or 4 months on that route stopping for a few days at a time at different mines that were for sale. It was very interesting . I’m not sure I could handle the heat of Western Australia though.
Hi John,
Yes, the temperatures can get a bit extreme. On one of our trips we had two weeks of temperatures over about 43 deg C (110 deg F). It sounds intolerable but it isn’t. The heat is a very dry heat with humidity of less than 5%. All you need to do is to wear a big hat, a long sleeve cotton shirt and long pants. Stay out of the direct sun and drink plenty of water and it’s almost pleasant.
Cheers,
Mark