Darwin to Perth in a campervan

At Gallivanting Oz, we love hearing about our clients favourite highlights.  It is always interesting to see a route we love through someone else’s eyes.

Clients Mike and Jenny have shared some fabulous words below on the time they hired a Maui Ultima motorhome and travelled from Darwin to Perth during August 2017.  Check out what vehicles Gallivanting Oz have available for you here.

Mike and Jenny shared:

One of the few parts of Australia we had not visited was the west coast and the trip from Darwin to Perth and was on our ‘bucket list’ but as our interest was in the wild life it had to include as many National Parks as we could fit in the time available.

Gallivanting Oz made the campervan booking easy given we don’t live in Australia and their follow-up for information on the various NPs, permitted travel roads (campervans are restricted as to which roads they can travel on) and tips such as the NP monthly passes for WA NPs was always efficient, prompt and helpful.

We spent a month on the road with most of it in the tropics and only heading to powered campgrounds when we needed to recharge batteries, replenish water supplies and stock up on provisions – with care, three days off grid is quite achievable.

Highlights for us were the myriad of bird species readily seen and heard including: the seemingly numerous and colourful honeyeater, parrot, raptor, fairywren and robin species; the sight of thousands of fruit bats leaving their daytime roost – a cloud flying overhead for 40+ minutes at Kununurra; the reptile life – from the crocs and large monitors up north to the very colourful lizards all the way to Perth; the spacious and well-spaced campsites in NPs and the walking tracks, especially along the top or bottom of gorges as at Edith Falls, Katherine, Karijini (Dales Gorge) and Kalbarri cliffs coastal walk.  The coastal campground at Osprey (Cape Range NP) was delightful with a view over the ocean such that broaching and spuming Humpbacked whales were visible from the camper and at the other end of the scale the diminutive white-winged fairywren was a pleasure to watch as the male kept track of his 2-3 females.  A walk along the track at nearby Yardie Creek revealed the endangered black-footed rock wallabies, egrets and raptors.

The stromatolites at Hamelin Pool, while not super striking to look at are something to make you ponder time, being modern examples of a lifeform 3.5 billion years old.  While in this location we stayed at the Hamelin Pool Station Stay and thoroughly recommend the experience – it’s an old sheep and cattle station now a conservation reserve – you’ll be greeted by the amazing call of the chiming wedgebill, a walk around the pond to the bird hide will reveal crakes, rails and various water fowl.

One big surprise was Yanchep NP just north of Perth and just outside the rapidly expanding Perth satellite town of Yanchep.  The campground is new with very spacious sites, hundreds of the short billed black (Carnaby’s) cockatoos fly in at dusk and a few are resident all day, ‘roos graze the campground at dusk and are encountered in the bush when walking the tracks.

It was always interesting to check out the wildlife footprints around the camper each morning whether in a NP or free camping site; ‘roos, dingos, snakes and other reptiles were common tracks but seldom heard during the night.

All in all a great experience and wildlife adventure.   We would have liked to travel some roads unavailable to us but as it was we covered over 6100km and would have needed another type of vehicle and probably an additional 10 days to look around at some of the locations bypassed – they remain for a future time.

The latest version of Campsites Australia is invaluable as is the downloadable Wikicamps Australia – the camper comments in this app are very useful provided you accept some are to be taken with a grain of salt.

Gallivanting Oz, would really like to thank Mike and Jenny for taking the time to share their adventures.  It certainly gives us itchy feet to get on out on the road and in a camper between Darwin and Perth.

If you’d like to see more routes across Australia, check out our Travel Routes here and don’t forget to get in touch if you’d like to find out what special deals we have on offer too.