Broome to Broome incl Gibb River Rd and Cape Leveque for 13 days

by Sue
(Sydney)

Thank you for your Destination Kimberley guide. It has been amazingly helpful in starting to plan our camping trip in July. My husband and I are are travelling with our 3 adult children and 2 of their partners. We have camped before (in rain and snow usually) and travelled as a family group before and 2 members of the party have driven 4 WDs before.

We have hired one Landcruiser and one 4WD Bushcamper that will sleep 2. Hopefully, this will allow us more efficient packing/unpacking. We hope to have a relaxing time together and I'm concerned that the following proposed itinerary will involve too much driving so I would really appreciate your advice. We have allowed 2 nights for each stop to have some relief from driving and make the camping easier.

  • Day 1: drive from Broome to Cape Leveque
  • Day 2: Cape Leveque
  • Day3: drive from Cape Leveque to Fitzroy Crossing (is this too far?)
  • Day 4: Fitzroy Crossing
  • Day 5: drive from Fitzroy Crossing to Bungle Bungles
  • Day 6: Bungle Bungles
  • Day 7: Drive to El Questro
  • Day 8: El Questro
  • Day 9: drive from El Questro to Manning Gorge (or there abouts)
  • Day 10: Manning Gorge
  • Day 11: drive to Windjana Gorge
  • Day12: Windjana Gorge
  • Day 13: drive to Broome
Thank you for your help.

Comments for Broome to Broome incl Gibb River Rd and Cape Leveque for 13 days

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The driving days are long days.
by: Birgit

Hi Sue,
Thanks for your kind words! Much appreciated.

I like your approach. Every second day you have a day that's all exploring and relaxing, and every other day you move camp a drive a good distance. Since you don't have any major excursions planned for those days, you should be able to enjoy the mornings and a leisurely breakfast, and again the evenings and sunsets. And you do the driving during the hottest time of the day. The idea as such is good, but...

Is the driving too much? Well, to drive from Cape Leveque to Fitzroy Crossing will take you about 7 hrs by the time you stop for fuel. And you have about 11 hours of daylight. Will you get up with the sun? Is 3.5 to 4 hours for the morning and evening enough for you? What about lunch? You also need to allow time to check in at Fitzroy Crossing before you can start unpacking again.

To drive from Fitzroy Crossing into the Bungles takes about the same time. Then you have about 6 hours to El Questro. (Always assuming one fuel stop, but not allowing for a big lunch break.)

The leg to Mt. Barnett should not be a problem, assuming the road is not too bad. The leg to Windjana is very short, but I assume you would want to have a look at Bell Gorge on the way, and then it becomes another long day.

Well, so your driving days will be long days. The thing is, it doesn't matter how you plan it, if you do the whole loop in two weeks then it will be a busy schedule.

I would usually say this is reasonable, and for people who don't mind the constant activity and who'd love to see as much as possible, it is a very good time frame. But if the focus is on relaxation, then you may find your driving days a bit tough.

How much time or stress you will have with your setting up and packing up camp is a bit hard to predict. Everybody is different in how organised they are, how much they fuss over the meals and everything... (It does get easier and faster with practise.)

And how much those days overall will bother you is something you will have to discuss in a family conference I guess.

One more thing I thought of is that I don't know how your vehicles are set up. Do you have tents to set up separately? Because if that cruiser has a roof tent, then you can't use it for exploring on the days when you don't move camp...
thanks
by: sue

Hi again,

Thank you so much for your observations.It is really reassuring to have input from someone with your experience. Referring to your comment about the tents, yes, I know about the roof tent on vehicles as we have used on of these on the Finke river and would not do it again because of the lack of freedom to use the vehicle. As we have 3 couples travelling and one other person I thought we would take 3x 2 man tents with one couple in the bushcamper so that we would essentially all have our own "bedrooms".
We thought we might also take a tarp or gazebo for meals but we are limited with weight as we are flying to Broome. Do you think this is a good idea for shade or with netting for flies?
Gazebo
by: Birgit

Well, I guess everybody is different, but in my eyes this would be just more stuff to lug around, unpack, set up, dismantle, re-pack...

July isn't hot at all and there aren't many insects. Shade can be found under trees, and over lunch time you would be either driving so definitely not stopping to set up your gazebo, or you'd probably be out exploring somewhere...

I personally wouldn't bother with a gazebo or tarp if it's a hassle to take (e.g. because you are restricted with luggage on planes).

If it was just a matter of stowing it in a corner of the car, just in case, then why not.

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