Kimberley and the Gibb River Road

Hi Peter, and Margaret,
thank you for the rapid response, we are going to have as much time as it takes to do the Gibb, and leaving the van for day trips to other sights up to 100klm away from camp should not prove to be to big a problem, after we have seen what's in the area we will then move on, to the next area at a casual pace, as I cant see any point in pulling the van all over the country side if I don't have too.
We lived In Wyndham for several years and have travelled the area extensively, and most of the places that are now national parks were operational cattle stations, and the area was more open to being explored. As for being adventurous, we are reasonably fit and do like our walks and kayaks and bike riding, so we can do most things a 72 year old can do. so please feel free to give us your choices of locations ,and any other words of warning and encouragement. May I be so bold and ask have you towed a full sized caravan up the Gibb river road, and if so what pit falls did you encounter

Never towed anything bigger than a 4.2m "Mack" boat with 70hp outboard along the GRR (and out to Kalumburu). But there is absolutely nothing that would inhibit a 23ft caravan beyond the corrugations, the dust and other vehicles doing 100kph.
All the jump-ups are now bitumen and all the rivers are concrete except the Pentacost and the Durack, neither of which should give any drama.
It is not like it was 40 years ago, sadly..... or even 25 years ago when we first went.

From our perspective, many of the really great places are more than a day trip away from where you would take a caravan. I am thinking about Walcott, Mornington, Cape Domett, Carson Station which need a week each (depending on what access is currently available to those places).

You could likely get the van out to Kalumburu, but it might be slow depending on the road on the day.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

We had no problem taking our caravan into Mornington in 2019. Plenty of other vans there. The road in was much better than most of the GRR. Only problem is ensuring you have enough fuel.

Most of the stations that welcome tourists have reasonable camping grounds suitable for leaving the van.

We left our van at Drysdale River when we went up to the Mitchell Plateau and glad we did as the road was horrendous even compared with the GRR. We spent two nights at the "glamping" resort there to save carrying camping gear. (Did the same at Bungle Bungle)

Cheers

Ian

Hi Ian,
are there any other places where you left the van and went off to do day trips and back of an evening, if I may ask

No Broodie, The only places we left the van were Drysdale river and the Caravan Park at the turnoff into Purnululu NP. They do not allow caravans into Purnululu and there is really too much too see there in one day and the track in, although not too bad, is not one you would really want to do two days running.

Some people do the Mitchell Plateau in one day leaving their vans at King Edward River. This would be viable but we're glad we didn't as the trip in from there was slow due to bushfires on the day and the really poor condition of the Kulumbaru Road between Drysdale River and King Edward river. There are probably other places that we missed. We were there in 2019 which was quite a dry year so things were not at their best. This year should be good!

Ian

Sorry

I forgot about El Questro. Spent a few days at the caravan park there exploring the area. The road into there was worse than the GRR as well but was worth it.
Ian

Hi Ian,
Sorry for being a busy body, but would you mind sharing how big your van is and did you have any problems navigating El Questro. road .

I had a 20' Bushtracker towed by Landrover Discovery 4. We were there early in the season and I don't think the road in to El Questro had been graded at all. They were working on it as we departed. There were no problems navigating it. The water crossings were shallow and had a solid rocky base - not too rough. It wasn't far from the main road, less than 20km as I recall, but it was a slow trip in! The tracks that we went on around the property were generally in better condition. It sounds as though you have no fixed time limits so you shouldn't have any real problems as you can take your time and drive to the conditions. The GRR is wide and generally well made. The only real problems as Peter said are corrugations, dust, and other drivers (The latter being the worst of the problems)

thanks Ian that was the type of information that I was looking for thank you very much for sharing with us, now we can plan accordingly, thank you.