Darwin to Perth via the Kimberley - Apollo

Seven nights and 2,506 kilometres from Darwin towards Perth in a campervan, down the Victoria Highway and across the Kimberley.

Katherine comes first, where Nitmiluk is a series of thirteen sandstone gorges cut by the river, then Timber Creek on the Victoria River, and Kununurra over the Western Australian border, with Lake Argyle nearby, a man-made lake many times the size of Sydney Harbour.

Halls Creek and Fitzroy Crossing follow through the Kimberley, the first near the Bungle Bungle range and a meteorite crater, the second on a river that floods vast in the wet and runs to pools in the dry. Broome comes next, a pearling town on a twenty-two kilometre beach, then Eighty Mile Beach, which runs for very nearly that, and Port Hedland. The published day table ends there, with Perth the listed finish.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from Apollo, and the hire is priced live per vehicle rather than per person; campsites, fuel, ferries, park fees and activities are all extra, with a nil-excess insurance pack available at booking. Eight days for 2,506 kilometres is a hard schedule with long days at the wheel, and the Perth leg beyond Port Hedland adds a great deal more. The dry season from May to October is the window, since the wet closes roads across the north. The Bungle Bungles are reached on an unsealed four-wheel drive track or by air, which is worth knowing before counting on them. This is a one-way hire of considerable length, so a relocation fee is worth confirming at booking.