Finke River Gorge

Hi Stephen, brilliant! Thank you for the response and info. Safe travels.

Hi PhilD, great info, thank you. Some of the other responses suggest it may be open again, but your info on the track condition is very helpful and if we take that route will definitely be something we need to be vigilant of, especially as we are solo. Thanks again and we would love to see those photos.

Hi Anthony, I can find no map on the NT Government Parks site that shows a road or track taking that path, or even references it. Likewise, Exploroz has no track shown on EOTOPO.

As to going there, you would have to approach the NT Parks people to find out if they would allow it. I have thought about it in the past and maybe the Outback 4wd Club in Alice may be a really good group to approach for info. They have a Facebook page or email them at outback4wdclub@gmail.com

From my experience, recovery if you have trouble would be quite expensive and travelling with a group such as that local Club would be the best way to tackle it, even if you were allowed to go that route anyway.

I found a couple of photos, and I may have more but they would be buried in a large number of slides that I haven't looked at or scanned in a long time. About the attached one's, there was a fair amount of water in places when we went through and a lot of soft sand, some as I described earlier were impassable. I was following the other vehicle and catching up to him and finally had to stop. It didn't take long to get out thankfully, but the manual gearbox wasn't the greatest in those conditions. Bearing in mind that it had aftermarket front and rear diff locks and still had issues. The other picture is part of the track that bypasses some more troublesome stretches of riverbed and likely more overgrown in the decades since.

Just like the Hermannsburg to Plam Valley stretch of the Finke River, it all changes after any flooding.

If you do find out more, or get to go there, then it would be good to hear about it and see any pictures.

Hi PhilD, I have to say I have always had a soft spot for the old Range Rovers...Yes part of the reason I posted this was because I could find very little on this section of the Finke River. Interestingly Hema maps have it marked as a track, the same grade as the Boggy Hole Access track. I did find a YouTube video of a couple that got lost coming from the South, got to the Ellery Ck and Finke River junction and turned left to keep following this track...they didn't get very far.
That's a great tip on the Outback 4wd Club in Alice, not a massive Facebook fan, but will definitely reach out to see if they can offer any advice. In the meantime, we are well set up, need to be as we always travel alone and as such are very risk aware. Unless the club in Alice advise otherwise, we will stick our nose down there, see what it's like and if it starts to look too crazy we'll go back the Hermannseberg way. Thanks for the advice mate, much appreciated.

Hi Macca, thanks for the response and the great info. We are definitely getting some mixed responses here but it seems it will defeinitely be worth a look. We have the time, and the patience...We are no stranger to the corrrugations that ripple thir way along some of our greatest roads, I have just gone from Tough Dob suspension all round to Oztec, after years on the previous naively thinking they were quality gear. My godlike mechanic advised me to go Oztec and the difference is incredible...but i digress. That is exactly the way we will be going and we cannot wait. What we have heard about this part of the Red Centre sounds simply incredible. Safe travels and thanks again!

Hi Packeteer, thanks for the follow up on this, very much appreciated. We have found a small number of brief Youtube videos that correlate with your experience, specifically the difficulty navigating that part of the river bed.
Have no idea what weather there is like currently, but we will certainly be keeping a close eye on it from now given we are getting closer to trip day. Our intention is to poke the nose of the little DMAX down there, see what it looks like and if we have any doubts turn her back around and go the more conventional way through Hermannsberg.
Wish us luck and if we make it back, we will be sure to update all.