N.t's New Maximum Rural Default = 110km/h

[wonkynutz]

Yeah, broome is just as bad as darwin, got some friends here from Darwin who reckon the heat is worse .

Evil

Move.

[SS8_Gohan]

a lot of car companies do testing on those roads. speed and hot weather testing, and obviously a combo of both.

there goes that,

I stand corrected

feel sorry for you NT'ers who lost the privilege

[siksII]

...it floods like crazy in summer, even down south.

This worries me, can anyone tell me how bad it is? For example, around Alice Springs, how many days in December it rains, and when it rains how bad? Flooded roads?

Looking at past weather records (although the records stopped ages ago) it seemed that around Alice it only rained around 6 days per month in December, although when it does rain it is very heavy. Is this right?

[Duncan]

the wet is appalling....I was in alice for a year.

assume after every one of those days that the highway was udner water in a few places for at least 3-4 days....it is so flat out there the water takes forever to dry

at times the gap (only road out of alice to the south) is totally underwater.

and of course the todd river is dry 90% of the year but floods in Dec-Jan most years.

[siksII]

Ahhhh crap...

Doesnt sound too good! I didnt expect it to be that bad... after lots of thinking i decided for a number of reasons, stuff it i will go up there for a holiday, NOW! One of the minor reasons was to enjoy the unrestricted roads before the new laws are in place.

I guess that wont be happening if we are unlucky with the weather. Dates are sort of set on the last week and a half of this month.

Would you say it is still worth going for a holiday in this month, or not worth it due to the chance of a washout? We plan on holidaying around the red centre, probably not up towards Darwin at all.

[phee]

You'll be fine. There has been no serious rainfall up here yet and you wont get flooded in anywhere. Just take plenty of water for you and the car cause it does get a bit hot.

[siksII]

You'll be fine. There has been no serious rainfall up here yet and you wont get flooded in anywhere. Just take plenty of water for you and the car cause it does get a bit hot.

Thanks for the reassurance! So im assuming you live in NT, whereabouts in NT are you?

I have a rough idea of what we will be doing for at least half of the 8 days we will be there:

Alice springs, Uluru, Kings Kanyon..

Not sure about the last 4 days.

We will have our own car the whole time(not 4wd), and are prepared to camp if necessary.

Any ideas?

[phee]

Thanks for the reassurance! So im assuming you live in NT, whereabouts in NT are you?

I have a rough idea of what we will be doing for at least half of the 8 days we will be there:

Alice springs, Uluru, Kings Kanyon..

Not sure about the last 4 days.

We will have our own car the whole time(not 4wd), and are prepared to camp if necessary.

Any ideas?

I am in Darwin. If you are going to do the red center make sure you drive when the sun is up only. The first few hours of day light be VERY careful about roos and rabits etc cause they will be everywhere and if you get stuck driving at night find yourself a 'pilot car' or 'clearance vehicle' (whatever you like to call them) and stick behind them so if anything is attracted to their headlights, it has been hit and off the road before you drive through Sounds cruel to let some else take the hit but I would pefer the landcruiser with the bullbar than my front bar of my r33.

I drove back from Brisbane in March and we had to go up to Townsville and around because the Longreach way was flooded out. Then we had a few issues with Pine Creek on the NT side but we managed to get through no problems. If you're not heading this far up you wont need to worry too much about it, and as I said before, there hasn't been much rainfall AT ALL this 'wet season' so you should be right.

As far as camping goes use the AANT site to check out what they suggest: http://tol.aaatourism.com.au/searchgateway.asp?sit=9

AANT are the NT's road side assistance and affilliated (sp) with the rest of Australia so you might get some discounts.

Best of luck and I hope you enjoy the trip. The Red Center is really a wonderful place to visit, and I was hoping to get back down there over the Easter break next year just for a quick run in the car, climb the rock and run back, but I doubt I am going to be in Darwin then. Make sure you take heaps and heaps of photos.

[siksII]

Thanks heaps for the advice, we will try and avoid driving at the bad times altogether

I want to go quad biking!!

[siksII]

Update...

I have been too lazy to post, but I got back on the 27th of December, the trip was awesome, barely any rain, and sometimes nice and overcast so less direct sun

Ill start a new thread once I have all the pics organised, heres a pic to start with

Wont be seeing many of these around anymore!