Adelaide to Darwin Road Trip – March 2019

In March I wanted to drive back up to Darwin from Adelaide to be with Col.  Thankfully my Son, Sam, and Daughter-In-Law, Steff, wanted to join me on the trip.  I would not have been particularly keen to do this drive on my own in case anything went wrong.  It is also a very long trip to do on your own.  It is an added bonus that Sam was a mechanic so could help if we had any car issues along the way and that we had three drivers to share the load.  Also great to get the opportunity to spend time with your adult kids.  I am so privileged to have a great relationship with all of my kids and their partners, so I was really excited that Sam and Steff wanted to do the road trip with me.

I had done most of this trip back in 2015 with Col and the camping crew when we did the Broome trip, but we turned off to head down the Tanami Road then whereas this time we will be continuing on up to Darwin after Alice.  Sam and Steff have not driven this stretch before so we decided to make a roadtrip out of it and fit in some touristy stuff along the way.

We started looking into what to see and do along the way and where to stop and this is what we came up with.  We wanted to leave after work on the Friday so decided to stop in Port Augusta for a quick overnight stay.  We would then get away early in the morning to make the drive to Coober Pedy.

This was where we stopped on our journey:

For those that haven’t travelled much around Australia, there are some practical tips worth noting.  There are some long distances between towns, so always be aware of where the next petrol station is and top up your tank.  There is a good phone app called ‘Fuel Map Australia’ and this tells you where you can get fuel as well as the prices.  Prices are updated by people using the app, so it is the last known price at that station.  There is another one for gas bottles too ‘Gas Finder’, and if you are camping then you should also have ‘WikiCamps’ to find the best spots to camp along the way.

You really don’t want to get stranded without fuel.  While the traffic on these roads is increasing and is perhaps not as remote as it once was, I still think it is worth having a cube of water in the car and some food in case you get stuck somewhere for a while.  It can get really hot in the centre of Australia and people can get into trouble if their car breaks down and they wander off to get help.  It is recommended to stay with your car, so having some supplies with you will make this more comfortable if it happens.