Savannah Way - Britz

Six nights from Mount Isa to Cairns in a campervan, on sealed roads, which is the eastern end of the Savannah Way.

Clem Walton Park comes first west of Cloncurry, a reservoir in red rock country where the camping is free and the fishing is good, then Cloncurry itself, which holds the record for the hottest day measured in Australia and is where the Flying Doctor Service began in 1928.

The Burke and Wills Roadhouse follows, named for the expedition that passed this way in 1861 and did not come back, then Normanton with the Gulflander railway, and Karumba on the Gulf of Carpentaria, where the sunsets over the water are a local institution and the prawn boats work out of the river. Mount Surprise, Talaroo and its hot springs come next, a thermal system on Ewamian country, then the Undara lava tubes before Cairns.

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. Keeping to the bitumen is the distinction here, since the western half of the Savannah Way is unsealed and needs a 4WD. Seven days for this route is comfortable. Winter is the sensible season, and the gulf country is at its best in the weeks after the wet, when the rivers are still up and the birds are everywhere. Karumba is the turning point and the one stop worth a second night, since the barramundi fishing and the sunset over the gulf are what people come for.