Hi,
We are off for a month in Sept and are trying the nomad thing with Subaru Outback, a Radical trailer, an Oz tent and not much else apart from a Hema map.
Any tips regarding the best route ? - do a circular route via Broken Hill, Tibooburra then south via Coober Peedy, Lake Eyre (when do the migratory birds come in?) etc?
Woudl love some comments please.
Thanks
Margy

Hi Margy, A few random thoughts follow.... Try and fit in a few days in the Flinders Ranges. AVOID the highway up the middle, as much as you can. Your Subaru would have no trouble with the Oodnadatta Track, if you don't mind a bit of dust, and it is MUCH more interesting country than the bitumen. Call in to the Mound Springs etc,etc, free camp at Berrisford (sp?), try the hot springs at Coward Springs...... Go up at least as far as the William Creek pub, (duck out to Halligan Bay on Lake Eyre from there, but the birds are only there if there is water, which is not often). Then maybe Coober Pedy and back to Oodnadatta, via Moon Plain and The Painted Desert. After that the tracks are rougher, but if you are inclined, Dalhousie Springs (is a gem), Mount Dare, Old Andado, or .......

hi there

for what it's worth -

I stopped at Broken Hill for a few days in 03, just out of town is a nice scenic vantage point worth visiting .. I remember BH being a nice place with a very good atmosphere at the big town hotel ... I came into town via Bourke and down the dirt track to Wilcannia .. Wilc not nice at all ... after BH went north on the dirt up to Oodna ... if you're thinking of dirt then the Oodna track is much more aggressive than the Wilc stretch but Oondna is a nice roadhouse n the trip across to the tarmac at Cadney Park is (was) v straight-forward .. and scenic - nice for pics of the 'painted desert' ...

I was at Coober P a few months ago .. the town is ok, I didn't see anything nasty .. v nice rooms at the motel ... a reasonably new place to the south of the town just by the main highway ... and its a long way south to the next petrol so fill up that can as well if ur going that way .. Port A is a busy town / city - nice enuf to stop at? .. erm, well I carried on but I think PA would have been ok .. I seemed to think I stayed at Gladstone on the way out this time ... only 2 hotels, nice people but the town is quiet and doesn't look appealing ..

I would recommend the trip down thro to Renmark and on to Hay .. via the quaint ferry x-ing at Morgan (free) - I stayed at one of the hotels facing the river there .. was ok ...  v nice camp site in Hay on the east side, as if u stay on the highway and go past the left-turn for the actual town .. maybe 1.5kms further on .. the road towards / thro Hay is the big truck route and I heard several people talking about how truckies like to stick to the speed limit .. '+10%' ... on the bike I typically would just pull over a little ..

Mildura is also nice and worth a stop-over or two, Wagga is ... ok, but the main drag thro town is soooooo busy - again its the major truck route ..

plenty of open roads along that area so pack the sandwiches and a flask .. or stop n get the billy on!

oh, Alice? this was the second time I stopped there ... only to glad to be up the next morning to move on . and I didn't do the touristy rock trip on either occaision ... the roadhouses r v good along that road

good luck
rgds
K