Must-See Off-Road Destinations for Serious Tourers

Serious country is not measured in kilometres, it is measured in how far you are from the nearest bloke with a welder. That is the number I care about, because it decides what you carry, how you drive and whether a broken shackle ends your afternoon or your whole trip. These destinations are the real deal, and each one will punish a rig that was not built and prepped for it. I will tell you what tends to break on each, because knowing the failure mode is half the battle when you are self-recovering a long way from help.

The Tip of Cape York

Standing at Pajinka with the sign that says you are at the northernmost point of the mainland is a genuine tourer's rite of passage, and the run to get there is most of the reward. It means the Peninsula Developmental Road, the Jardine River ferry, and the choice of whether to run the old Telegraph Track crossings or take the bypass. The estuaries and beaches up here hold big salties, so treat every creek and shoreline with respect and keep the swimming for the designated safe spots only. What breaks: sidewalls on the sharp PDR gravel, and shock absorbers that fade and blow their seals on the endless corrugations. Carry two spares and a spare set of shocks if you are running budget units. The Cape York Telegraph Track guide has the crossing detail and the bypass routes.

Fuel and food thin out fast the further north you push, so plan your supplies before you commit to the run. The last big supermarket is over at Weipa or back down at Cooktown, and Bamaga near the top has limited and pricey stock. Fill the tanks and the water at every reliable chance, and carry more drinking water than you think you need for the heat.

Mitchell Falls, the Kimberley

Punamii-Uunpuu, the Mitchell Falls, sits off the Gibb via the Kalumburu Road and the Port Warrender track, and that last stretch is genuinely brutal. Sharp rock, deep ruts and stutter bumps that murder suspension and shake bolts loose. Two spares is the minimum, and I check every U-bolt, shackle bolt and shock mount at the end of each day out there, because they will walk loose whether you believe it or not. A four-tiered waterfall dropping into a gorge is your reward for the pounding. Get across the Gibb itself sorted first with the Gibb River Road guide, because the side track is a step harder than the main road again.

Cape Leveque and the Dampier Peninsula

North of Broome, the run to Cape Leveque was sealed a few years back, which took the sting out of the main road, but the side tracks out to the pearling and Aboriginal communities and the remote beaches are still soft red pindan sand that will bog the unwary in a heartbeat. Drop your pressures down to the teens, keep your momentum up, and do not stop on a soft rise. The white sand against red pindan cliffs and turquoise water is some of the best coastline in the country, and worth the effort. Fuel and supplies are limited on the peninsula, so stock up properly in Broome and carry your rubbish out. Some communities require a permit or a booking, so check before you turn off.

What actually catches people out on the Dampier Peninsula is the soft stuff off the main sealed road. The side tracks out to places like Middle Lagoon and the eastern beaches are deep, powdery pindan, and I have watched more than one rig sink to the axles because the driver would not stop to air down. Drop to the low teens, keep a steady momentum, and do not stop on a soft crest where you cannot get rolling again. Carry recovery boards and a shovel, because a bogging out there is your own problem to solve. Sharp tidal country and soft sand in the same day is why this peninsula sorts the prepared from the optimistic.

The Madigan Line, northern Simpson

If the French Line is the Simpson's front door, the Madigan Line is the back block, following the route of Cecil Madigan's 1939 crossing. There is no fuel, no facilities and precious little traffic across the northern dunes, so it is total self-sufficiency or nothing. Sat comms are not a nicety out here, they are the difference between an inconvenience and a coronial inquiry, so carry a sat phone and a PLB, not one or the other. What breaks: engines that overheat in soft sand with a radiator blocked by dust and grass seed, so fit a sock and watch the gauge like a hawk. Travel in a group of two or more vehicles and carry the recovery gear to get each other out. Plan it off the Simpson Desert guide.

Googs Track and the Canning

Googs Track near Ceduna is a great weekend taster of dune driving, a few hundred sand dunes and a couple of nights out under some of the darkest skies in the country. The Canning Stock Route is another animal entirely: roughly 1,850 kilometres, 51 historic wells, fuel drops arranged in advance and weeks of remote travel with no backup. Here is where I get blunt. Do not tow a caravan up the Canning. Take a proper off-road camper trailer or an off-road hybrid built for it, or do not go at all, because a full-size van will hammer itself and you to pieces out there, and recovery costs are eye-watering when it goes wrong. Build up to it with easier trips first rather than making it your first big adventure.

Permits, seasons and the wet

Half the planning for country like this is paperwork and timing, and getting either one wrong ends the trip before it properly starts. Arnhem Land, Kalumburu and the Aboriginal land the Canning Stock Route crosses all need permits arranged well ahead, sometimes weeks in advance, so do not leave it to the Friday before you go. Some are quick online forms, others need a phone call and a wait for approval, and turning up without one means turning straight around at the boundary. Check the current requirements with the relevant land council or parks authority every time, because they do change and last year's advice may be out of date.

Season is the other half of the sum. The Top End and the Kimberley run on the dry, roughly May to October, and the wet closes roads, floods crossings and cuts whole regions off for months at a stretch. The Gibb and the tracks off it typically open once the road has been inspected and dried out, often around April or May, and close again with the first big rains of the build-up. Push the shoulders of the season and you risk being turned back at a boom gate or, far worse, caught on the wrong side of a rising river with no way home. If you are crossing the north between these spots, the Savannah Way is the through-route, and it is dry-season travel too. Build the whole trip around the seasons and the permits first, then worry about the fun.

What to carry when help is days away

Leaf springs, shackle bolts, CV boots and chassis welds are the usual casualties on this kind of country, in roughly that order. Carry a spare set of springs or at least a repair kit, spare shackle bolts and U-bolts, CV boots and the grease to pack them, tyre plugs and a couple of spare tubes. A small welder that runs off your batteries, or at least a tube of chemical metal for a bush repair, has saved more than one trip I know of. Match the rig to the trip before you leave, because the wrong van is a liability out here no matter how careful you are; our notes on choosing an off-road caravan and rig ratings explained are the place to start. Build these into the framework of a longer Big Lap rather than chasing them all in one hit and burning your gear out in a single season.