Yes, I feel the need for a road trip. Seems like ages since I finished the last one (goodness, is it 6 months already?). Sit here much longer and I’ll take root. Origin Broome, WA, destination Broome. Pick somewhere in between, say Port Fairy, Vic. We like Port Fairy and summers are coolish there. A loop then. How big a loop? Let’s go for the max. Anywhere special on the way?
The classic Highway 1 loop covers roughly 15,000 km (9,400mi). This is Australia, there will be any number of special places on the way, unavoidably. But there is one place the lovely Gayle and I have not visited. It’s been on proposed itineraries but the weather has denied us every time. In this dry, dry continent nothing stops outback traffic faster than rain. Borroloola, NT, population 755. Setting off towards the end of the dry we have a fairly good chance of making it this time. It’s not flooded at the moment. An early start to the wet, though, could soon fix that!
That determines the direction of travel. It will be clockwise again this time. The journey breaks down into four major legs. The journey across the top, Broome to Cairns, is the Savannah Way. It can be completed on sealed road but there are a couple of alternate sections. If Borroloola is included then it would be remiss not to include Hell’s Gate and then Burketown, 365km of corrugated suffering. Tape your beer cans so they don’t rub through. It gets easier from there to Normanton. At that point you choose to take the Burke Development Road via Chillagoe, once again shaking your teeth out of their sockets or the bitumen via Croydon. We’ve traveled both before and unless overtaken by a bout of masochism I suspect we will opt for the latter (and a soak in the Innot hot springs).
Before dropping into Cairns we will pause on the Atherton Tableland, our first opportunity for a flurry of new (for the year) birds. Then up to Cooktown.
The next leg is the east coast, but all in good time. First you will need to endure heart wrenching bulletins of the trip to Hells Gate.
bobmcgee 