4WD Binns Track Itinerary: Alice Springs to Darwin in 10 Days - Britz

Nine nights and 1,900 kilometres from Alice Springs to Darwin in a 4WD camper, on the Binns Track.

Gemtree comes first northeast of Alice, in the Harts Range garnet and zircon fields where visitors can still fossick, then Karlu Karlu, the Devils Marbles, a scatter of granite boulders split and rounded by weathering which are a sacred site for several Aboriginal groups.

Tennant Creek and Dunmarra follow on the Stuart Highway, then the route turns west for Top Springs and the Buchanan Highway, remote unsealed road through cattle country, and Timber Creek on the Victoria River, where the boabs start to appear. Katherine and Nitmiluk come next, then sealed road into Darwin.

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. The Binns Track was assembled in the 2000s as a 4WD route linking existing station and mining roads, and it is named after a parks ranger who spent decades working the country it crosses. Ten days is a sensible pace for it, and this is dry season driving: the unsealed sections hold water and the river crossings are not negotiable in the wet. Fuel needs planning between Top Springs and Timber Creek, where the gaps are long and the roadhouses keep their own hours. What the track delivers is a crossing of the Territory almost nobody makes, with the Stuart Highway traffic left behind for days at a time.