I am trying to find my way in this tech maze fellow travellers so pls forgive if I post this in wrong place. Have just returned from abroad & could only leave end of Aug to do half moon trip to Broome. Id love to follow coast rather than NT & fish the western coast. Question is what would be the minimum time required if not staying wks on end in 1place & would it be too hot/humid Broome way end Sep? I dont do well when over 30c.It will b my 1st attempt in my sprinter MH(self contained). Have tried wiki camps but Im either not reading properly or do they not show FREE camps? Any input would b appreciated.
I am trying to find my way in this tech maze fellow travellers so pls forgive if I post this in wrong place. Have just returned from abroad & could only leave end of Aug to do half moon trip to Broome. Id love to follow coast rather than NT & fish the western coast. Question is what would be the minimum time required if not staying wks on end in 1place & would it be too hot/humid Broome way end Sep? I dont do well when over 30c.It will b my 1st attempt in my sprinter MH(self contained). Have tried wiki camps but Im either not reading properly or do they not show FREE camps? Any input would b appreciated.
Any camp sites on Wikicamps are noted with the green spot (circled) but not all are free. There are literally hundreds of places to just get off the road to camp, with no hassle. Almost impossible to find free camp in or around Broome, which is overrated in my opinion, and nothing like it was 40 years ago. Too commercial and "touristy" now. There is a cheapish caravan park out near the Roebuck Roadhouse. (Not the one AT the Roadhouse). Temperatures will be in the low 30s in Broome by early September. Where are you starting from and when do you plan to depart? Cheers
P.S Just noticed your itinerary!. Driving distance Sydney to Perth is 4000km, and driving distance Perth to Broome, on the coast, is 2500Km. Thus you plan to drive 13,000km and the time you need is entirely up to you! Have you considered returning via Alice Springs rather than back-tracking to Perth?
-- Edited by yobarr on Sunday 30th of July 2023 06:30:23 PM
Nothing around Broome, or the various other towns. You have to get a long way out. We found a spot, still a long way out of Broome under high voltage power cable, but we were in a car only & could massage our way in & be discreet, just.
We were at James Price Point for 4 days in winter. It was hot, other actually fainted one day from heat stress.
We had a screen enclosure about as open as they come, which was great. Kept us safe from the sand flies. Radiant heat from above was ok due to double ceiling & extendable awning all around.
But when the air is hot & humid not a lot you can do unless you have air conditioning.
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how much time have you got and how many hours do you want to drive each day? as mentioned, the trip from Syd to Broome via Perth is over 6000 klm one way , if you said 500 klm per day you would be looking at nearly a month without taking a lot of time out to smell the flowers to do a return trip
how much time have you got and how many hours do you want to drive each day? as mentioned, the trip from Syd to Broome via Perth is over 6000 klm one way , if you said 500 klm per day you would be looking at nearly a month without taking a lot of time out to smell the flowers to do a return trip
Agree.
It won't be the heat that will fry your brain, it will be the repetitive daily driving.
I did Sydney to Perth to pick up other half as she flew in from overseas, then we carried on with our holiday. Allowed myself 2 weeks for the drive to Perth, so on average 350km a day. Driving a bit slower is mentally easier & you have the added benefit of saving fuel.
You can do more km the first few days, but it really does get tedious. So I had a day off here & there. Just getting out of Sydney is exhausting. First & 14th day didn't really count km wise!
You don't want to be driving at dawn, dusk or night. An accident well & truly waiting to happen.
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yobarr wrote: Any camp sites on Wikicamps are noted with the green spot (circled) but not all are free. There are literally hundreds of places to just get off the road to camp, with no hassle. Almost impossible to find free camp in or around Broome, which is overrated in my opinion, and nothing like it was 40 years ago. Too commercial and "touristy" now.
Agree compleatly. IMO. Broom has been ruined along with many other beautiful towns not only by the tourist industry but by the thousands and thousands of people just like us like us roaming the country in caravans all chasing the same dream. its a shame really. Landy
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Hi traveller we just got home yesterday from our west coast trip. We basically followed the coast from Kununnara all the way to Esperance which took us around 10 weeks we could have spent a lot longer if we opted to stay in more places. We purposefully avoided some of the tourist hot spots but that wasnt always possible, it probably got less crowded once we got south of Geraldton but then it increased again in places like Mandurah, Margaret River, Albany and Esperence. I couldnt believe the number of campers heading north on the west coast which really came to a peak during the school holidays. I thought travelling on the NSW north coast and Qid at this time of year was bad but that was unbelievable.. There are plenty of good free camps in WA especially as you head further north but they are also well known and popular, a lot of the caravan parks were expensive and you needed to book well ahead in the popular tourist haunts like Broome, Exmouth, 80 mile Beach or in National Parks like Karijini. There are plenty of places just off the road where people will park up and spend the night which aren't actually designated as free camps - we were told numerious times by locals do that and they said you will find that you wont be there long and someone will join you. Broome was in the low 30s when we stayed there in June so I imagine it will be similar in September but probably getting more humid by then. We lived in Dampier over 40 years ago and I had forgotten just how windy it was on that coast at this time of year.
BB
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 3rd of August 2023 01:31:22 PM
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 3rd of August 2023 01:32:26 PM
-- Edited by The Belmont Bear on Thursday 3rd of August 2023 01:34:21 PM
You could do the trip in a couple of months - plenty of white line fever & need another holiday to recover when you get home. I would recommend a minimum of 6 months for the trip you've asked about, but you could just as easily take a couple of years.
As far as Broome goes it seems to divide people. I imagine most who are negative about the place stay for only short periods. We lived in the area for over a year, & absolutely loved it, but it really is the sort of place where you need to afford the time to slow down & enjoy what the locals love about the place. Brief 'in & out' visits are expensive, Broome is very tourist oriented & tends to prefer the cashed up variety of tourists BUT for those who want to there is another welcoming & far more affordable side of Broome, but you do need to be there long enough to become part of the community...... & it really is quite a different community to anywhere else in the country.
We did a similar trip to your proposed trip April to June 2014, we missed Cape Levique, Beagle Bay and a few other off-road sights due to road conditions at the time. We didn't spend much time around Dampier and Broome as we had a definite date to be home.
We travelled anti clockwise which seemed to assist fuel figures with wind directions.
It was too rushed and another three months would have allowed us to have a much better look around.
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I agree guys you could spend months or even years exploring the west but unfortunately a lot of people are governed by how much time, money or other comittments they have. Like you possum we had a definite date to be back home or we would still be over there. The advantage we had is that we lived in the north of the state for 3 years so we had some idea of the places we wanted to stay longer like the Karratha, Dampier area. I know what you mean Cuppa about becoming part of the local community if you really want to experience what a place has to offer. During our working years we were fortunate enough to have lived and worked not only in places like the Pilbarra but in different countries around the world. We got to know the local people, experience different cultures and visited areas that tourists probably never even knew existed. We just accept the fact that when travelling in Australia sometimes we are going to have to do long drives but we try and plan our trips so that we stay longer in areas that interest us. We spent 3 months in Qld last year and and we planned the trip exactly the same way, we do it like that because although fully retired we are not permanently on the road. We set aside 3 months each year for our longer trips (no set months it can be at anytime) we then put together a basic plan that suits that window of time..Good thing about being retired is that you get to do things whatever way that you want...
the OP has not come back to enlighten us on her situation as to how much time she has available and if her trip is focused on the journey or the destination
the OP has not come back to enlighten us on her situation as to how much time she has available and if her trip is focused on the journey or the destination
Yes, I too noticed that Michelle had not been back. Perhaps the fact that the temperatures will be in the 30s by early September has made her reconsider her plans, as she did say that she doesn't "do well when over 30c".
Let's hope she at least lets us know if our information was of any use to her.
Personally, I consider many other places to be far more pleasant than Broome, which is vastly over rated, and nothing like the lovely place it was 40 years ago. Still very pretty, but waaaay too "touristy", and now a rip-off IMO.
Who remembers the tourist information office being in an old DC3 aircraft tied to the ground at the entrance to the town? Cheers
-- Edited by yobarr on Friday 4th of August 2023 11:41:51 AM
