Gibb River Road - Britz

Nine nights and 1,200 kilometres from Broome to Kununurra in a 4WD camper, along the Gibb River Road.

Derby comes first on King Sound, where the tides run to eleven metres, and then the road turns to red dirt. The Gibb was cut as a cattle route to get beef from the Kimberley stations to the ports, and its 660 kilometres are still largely unsealed, with corrugations, river crossings and a season that runs roughly from May to October.

The gorges are what the route is for. Windjana is a cleft through an ancient reef with freshwater crocodiles in the pools, and Tunnel Creek runs underground for several hundred metres through the same limestone, walked with a torch and wet feet. Bell Gorge, Galvans, Lennard, Manning and Barnett River follow, each a short walk off the road to water worth swimming in.

Mount Barnett Roadhouse and Drysdale River Station supply fuel, then Home Valley Station and El Questro Wilderness Park sit below the Cockburn Range at the eastern end, with Kununurra beyond. Britz supply the camper and the day-by-day plan; 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. This is the best known 4WD route in Australia and the one most likely to punish an underprepared vehicle, so the tyres, the spares and the water deserve attention before departure. River levels matter too: several crossings on the Gibb are impassable early in the dry and the road is closed outright in the wet, which is why the season is as short as it is.