Great Northern Highway - Britz

Seven nights in a loop from Broome in a 4WD camper, round the Kimberley on the Great Northern Highway rather than the Gibb.

Fitzroy Crossing comes first, with Geikie Gorge, where the Fitzroy River has cut through a Devonian reef and the lower walls are bleached white by wet season floods that rise more than sixteen metres, and the Mimbi Caves nearby on Gooniyandi country.

Purnululu follows, where the Bungle Bungle domes stand banded orange and grey and the access track takes a couple of hours for fifty kilometres, which is why a 4WD is specified even on an otherwise sealed route. Lake Argyle comes next, holding many times the water of Sydney Harbour, then Halls Creek, and Derby closes the loop on King Sound, where the tides run to eleven metres and leave the mudflats exposed for miles.

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 highway itself is sealed, so the 4WD is for the Purnululu track rather than the route. Eight days is tight for a Kimberley loop, and Purnululu alone deserves two nights given how long its access road takes. The season runs roughly May to October, with the park gates closed outside it. For a traveller who wants the Kimberley’s headline sights without committing to the Gibb River Road, this is the sensible compromise, and the Derby tides at the end are a genuine spectacle in their own right.