Broome to Darwin in a 4WD - Britz

Ten nights and 3,162 kilometres from Broome to Darwin in a 4WD camper, on the Gibb River Road and then across the Top End.

Windjana Gorge comes first, a cleft through an ancient reef with freshwater crocodiles out on the sand, then Manning and Bell gorges off the Gibb, each a short walk from the road to water worth swimming in, on a route that was cut as a cattle road and remains largely unsealed.

Home Valley Station follows below the Cockburn Range, after the Pentecost River crossing, which is the one that photographs well and needs respecting. Purnululu comes next, where the Bungle Bungle domes stand banded orange and grey and the access track takes a couple of hours for fifty kilometres. El Questro and Emma Gorge follow, then the route crosses into the Territory for Waterfall Creek and Gunlom in Kakadu, Cooinda, and 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. Eleven days for 3,162 kilometres with both the Gibb and the Purnululu track in it is a demanding schedule, and tyre damage is the most common problem on this route. The season runs roughly May to October, and the river crossings govern the early weeks of it. This is a one-way hire, so a relocation fee is worth checking at booking. What it delivers is the two best known pieces of driving in northern Australia, the Gibb and the Kakadu escarpment, inside a single trip.