About Our Trip

Who?

There are six of us heading off on our “Way Out West” holiday; Emma and Rohan, their two daugthers Sarah (nearly 12) and Matilda (8), along with Emma’s parents John and Colleen.

Why?

Why not?

How?

Having discussed the various options, and constrained by specific time and budgetry limitations, we have decided not to go down the “4WD offroad back-of-beyond” track (no pun intended) and will be sticking mostly to the black top. As such we will be taking our current cars, my VX Acclaim wagon and John’s BF Falcon sedan. Yes, we realise we will “miss” many sights and attractions by choosing not to head off the beaten track, but we’re sure we will still be astounded by the grandeur and beauty of our great land.
Our accomodation consists of a 12-month old Jayco Swan camper trailer, which John purchased, new, last July. Whilst our route has been fairly well discussed and agreed upon by us all (see below), we have made only limited accommodation bookings at this stage, as we have a little flexibility iwth regards to our timing (bearing in mind we are planning to cover a lot of ground in a specific period of time).

Where?

“Go West, young man”. The author of this famous quote may not have had our holiday in mind when he penned these prophetic words back in the 19th century, but west is indeed where we are heading; Adelaide to be exact. From there, our itinerary takes us north through Port Wakefield, Snowtown, Port Pirie and on to Port Augusta.
The Stuart Highway then takes us further north into Outback SA, through Pimba, Woomera, Glendambo and Coober Pedy.
At Coober Pedy, John and I will be boarding an all-day Mail Run tour, which takes us on a 600km circuit, north east to Oddnadatta then south down the Oddnadatta Track to William Creek, and finally heading west into the setting sun as we return to Coober Pedy at the end of the day.
Back on the blacktop, we continue north into the Northern Territory, before turning left at Erldunda onto the Lasseter Highway and making our way to Kings Canyon, followed by Yulara (Ayres Rock and the Olgas).
Then it’s back along the Lasseter to Erldunda as we continue our journey north passing through towns and cities of various sizes and populations, such as Alice Springs, Barrow Creek, Devils Marbles, Tenant Creek, Three Ways, Elliott, Daly Waters, Mataranka, Katherine, Pine Creek, Adelaide River, and Humpty Doo before reaching the end of the road at Darwin.
In order to get to Western Australia, we retrace our steps back to Katherine and turn on to the Victoria Highway which takes us through Gregory, Timber Creek, Victoria and on to Kununarra, just over the WA border.
Our journey continues through the Kimberley, taking in the remote townships of Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing and Derby before we reach the WA coast at Broome.
We then head south into the Pilbara, following the Great Northern Highway as it turns inland shortly after passing through Port Hedland and making our way to Karijini National Park. The road back to the coast passes through Tom Price and Paraburdoo, on its way to Coral Bay.
Destinations we expect to visit on our way south along the WA coast include Exmouth, Carnarvon, Denham, Kalbarri, Geraldton, Jurien Bay and Cervantes before we make our way into the WA capital, Perth.
The south west corner of WA holds a lot of promise, with the following locations all on our itinerary: Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River, Cape Leuwin, Walpole, Albany and Esperance.
North of Esperance is Norseman, and the start of our Nullarbor odessey, an eastward journey that takes in such remote outposts as Caiguna, Cocklebiddy, Eucla, Bullarbor, Nundroo, Bookabie and Penong before reaching Ceduna, which marks the eastern end of the Nullarbor.
Time, or the lack of it, will most likely determine which fork in the road we take from here: left along the Eyre Highway, via Kimba, to Port Augusta (the “short cut”); or our preferred route, right along the Flinders Highway, which takes us down into the Eyre Peninsula. This part of the journey sees us pass through Streaky Bay, Elliston, Coffin Bay, Port Lincoln, Tumby Bay, Cowell and Whyalla before we make our way into Port Augusta.
Port Augusta “completes
the loop”
that we started 8-9 weeks ago; from here it’s homeward bound, via Adelaide and the Western Highway.
Wow! That’s a lot to see in nine weeks.