Finke Gorge Boggy Hole to Ernest Giles Road

Thank you for this information.
I haven’t seen this compact fact sheet yet. This really helps me.

Is the Travel Time with 3 hrs 20 mins really from Hermannsburg to Ernest Giles Road?
Don’t get me wrong I’m not an a rush, just for plannings.

Thanks
Matthias

I think the track log " treks" is from travellers experiences ?? & I understand there's a fairly good track through there these days...
Unlike the first time i did it in 1976? No track then , took closer to 2 days lol
Re hire car : i did hear there was a 100k limit from alice springs for some company's

Hi Mat,

It is about 120km Alice to Hermannsberg, sealed road - say 90 minutes driving. Then about 30-35km of dirt road and sand track to Boggy Hole. Some is slow going and you might get stuck. In my opinion I would leave Alice much earlier than 1400. But it is do-able if nothing goes wrong.

Boggy Hole to Kings Canyon: 75km track to Ernest Giles road. Then 52km unsealed road to the sealed road (Luritja Road) to Kings Canyon. It could be a big day if the track and dirt road are rough.

On most of your intended route there will be no cellular coverage. If you want continuous GPS service you will need a device with GPS built in and a suitable app which uses off-line maps.

You might find these PDF documents useful:

Finke Gorge National Park

Finke River 4WD route

Also, this screenshot might be useful (click it for a larger version):



Cheers

Don't use Australian 4wd Hire.....

… too late.
I booked everything about 1 year ago. So far no Trouble with the Company, everything seems to be well organized before it gets to the contract.
I did lot's of 4WD-Rentals within the past 10 years round the world. I hope my opinion wont change this time.

Read carefully and follow their conditions to the absolute letter. There's GPS tracking on the vehicles and strict speed limits to adhere to.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-07/4wd-hire-company-refutes-litany-of-scamming-complaints/9935858

https://mr4x4.com.au/4wd-hire-company-ripping-off-customers/

If it is at all possible to get out of your contract with Australian 4WD Hire, you should do it. They are the biggest rogues in the industry, and have been in court over their practices.

Macca.

EmT

It would be wise to read this page on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's (ACCC) website. You should also read the PDF linked to at the bottom of the page.

The PDF refers to ACL. That is Australian Consumer Legislation.

The ACCC is an Australian Government body set up to ensure consumers don't get ripped off by unfair business practices, and if you are ripped off, to help you get justice. If the ACCC takes legal action against a company you can be sure it is with good reason.

I don't know where you're from, but in the Australian legal system you are innocent until proven guilty. Proof is decided by the court. So while the ACCC has accused Aust 4WD Hire of unfair and unconscionable conduct, A4WD Hire is innocent until the court finds the accusation proved.

I suspect the court case has not been heard yet. Consequently I suspect Aust 4WD Hire will continue to apply its contract conditions because the court has not yet decided that they should not be applied.

As Macca said, if you can get out of the deal you should. I hope you haven't paid a large deposit.

A4WD Hire does seem to have toned down their Terms and Conditions. In fact, I wish I had saved a copy of the older version!

A4WD Hire T&C

I had considered using them in the past, because I liked their fleet and they let you go places the other companies won't. But reading that older T&C turned me off. Then all the horror stories started coming out.

Hello, to be honest yes I have read the conditions prior I made my first deposit. Compared with other companies the communication was really fast and professional and mainly I liked their advertising for unlimited access to 4WD-Tracks.

Many people in forums complain about the tracking. I have nothing to hide and do not plan to drive during night.
First time I was confronted with a tracking system was a couple of years ago in Africa. Most of the agencies there use tracker for their fleet. Already at this stage many years ago I decided that this is OK for me. Main reason at that time was hopefully to get help if I break down (in Africa even more than in Australia you don’t want to leave the car the call for help because of the big predators all over. Up to now I don’t know if this would be really take place that the company will rescue me cause of the tracker :-) )
Second thing not having a problem with this - in my opinion “if I hire or borrow something I look after it, as it’s mine”. So what should go wrong...

Since this time I had many rental cars with tracking software. And I never had trouble with police or when returning the car.

Yes because of that many negative news up to December 18 I got unsure with my choice.

The main difference in the T&C I made up, is that in other cases I always straight got my deposit back wenn I returned the car. (Deposit is blocked by credit card and after returning it is erased) Normally they take the car over, you have to wait 30-40min and if everything is fine you directly get the money back.
Here it says in the T&C you have to wait up to 1 week and at #8(h,I,j) that cause of abnormal speeding and the driver usage report generated by the tracker you can be requested up to 6 months after your usage ?!? I guess that’s really hard to discuss as the usage / break down of car parts is not only effected on speeding - on corrugated roads you have to find the best travel speed depending on the car-geometry and the frequency of the corrugations ( speed under 20k can destroy/wreck the car more than maybe 70k as it’s just perfect like driving on concrete - you know what I mean)

As already mentioned I will give it a try, and will post if you are interested my experience.

Best regards
Mat

PS: Great Forum here :-) Many thanks to all your comments and hints

The horror stories with the tracking concerned people going faster than allowed on gravel roads and being sent "speeding" fines and having them deducted from their credit card. I can't recall the speed allowed but seem to remember it as being 60kph on gravel....I might be wrong? Anyway, read the conditions, and I hope you have a great time.

Em T,

All I can say is I hope you have a great time, and are not penalised by not fully understanding what you are signing. No offence meant, but you have been warned.

Macca.

Read the terms and conditions and abide by them and hopefully you’ll be fine, considering how many vehicles that mob had around the country to hire out, there’s not a huge percentage of “horror stories” really. The “horror stories” appear to be from people that didn’t abide by the terms of use, doesn’t matter how silly they are or aren’t (ie: speed on dirt roads, times you could drive etc). Many of those conditions were set by that companies insurance mob I was told by an ex hire agent, the company struggled to get insurance due to the shear stupidity of some of it’s customers and what they managed to do to some of the hired vehicles.

Back from Holiday :-)

Unfortunately in your Forum I have only Visitor status und beeing not able to write a private Message.
I'd really appreciate it, if "Candace S." or "Michael H9" could contact me under my email. It's only about your opinion in my case.

boggy_hole(at)yahoo.com

Best regards and many thanks for contacting me.

Em T - how did it go? Can we please have an update? Did you make it down the track? Did you have troubles with the hire car company?

The track was no Problem at all.

If you take it easy, slow down at the rocky parts and don't go to the deepest sandholes to get bogged, it is quite good fun to do this track without any trouble.

We stayed at boggy hole with three more Campers that night (two of them with a trailer) and joined the next morning one of them to do the second part to Ernest Gilles road just in case one of us get stuck. But again no problem, just take it easy.

In my opinion full recomendation to do this track.
Unexperianced drivers should still keep in mind "you don't wanna break down there" and you should know how to manage rocky parts with a co-pilot and drive in loose sand. And the roads change from time to time, so it might get easier or even worse than my experiance :-)


With the rental comany I was not lucky :-(
Thats why I would appreciate to communicate with eather "Candace" or "Michael" in private via email.

Why am I not surprised?

Hi Frank,
not the whole thing was bad experiance with the company. If nothing happens, it can be really good. In my case something happend and now it's not that easy.

But if you can give me a hint for legal advice, please contact me under the named email. I would be pleased for every hint.