ExplorOz Team - Michelle replied:

Shell - we are about to start offering private and customised trip itinerary planning for individuals such as yourselves. We will be charging $200 and for this you get the lot. We haven't yet advertised that this service is available but unofficially it is (and now that I've told the Forum I suppose it is now common knowledge). We will have a form on the site soon to enter your itinerary particulars and if submitted with payment through our online shop will result in you being emailed a completely detailed day by day itinerary based on your guidelines.In the meantime, you can use my email address on the contact us page and give me the following and I'll prepare your itinerary within a fortnight:
1.trip start point
2. trip end point
3. vehicle type (4wd, 2wd, motorbike etc)
4. fuel type (diesel, ulp, super, lpg)
5. are you towing? if so is it a van, pop top, camper trailer with or without suspension and rotating coupling?
6. what type of accommodation do you wish to mostly use? tent/bush camp, powered site, budget room, luxury!! ha ha
7. what are your "must-see" destinations on this route?
8. what are your "if we can fit it in" destinations?
9. are they any specific routes that you have decided you want to follow
10.do you have any special requirements? eg. where dogs allowed, facilities/access for disabilities
11. how many days have you allocated for the trip in total?
12. how many non-driving days would you like ideally? ie. is this a leisurely trip or a driving trip?
13. roughly how many driving hours per day would you prefer?
These qns will assist us to build an itinerary that suits your particular requirements and travelling preferences.If anyone has any feedback regarding the sorts of questions you would like to see in the form then please tell me here also. I need to be able to extract as much from you as possible if taking the order online. These are the fields I've already thought of and this project has been on the cards for some time and is seriously about to happen!! :-)Hope you like it.

Melissa replied:

Hi Shell,
Short answer...if you find somewhere you love to visit, 25 days is never enough. That's how I feel about the Kimberleys. Why don't you just take the trip as it comes? Don't lock yourself into a fixed itinery so if you want to spend a few extra days somewhere or take an inpromptu detour, you can. Sounds like you've gone to a lot of expense to set yourselves up which generally translates to being comitted to further travels and camping. If you run out of time and have to bypass Kings Canyon etc, so what. Good excuse to return at a later date. The main thing is that you have a good time and don't arrive home totally pooped from too hectic a schedule. Just my opinion...By the way, let me pass on a tip I rec'd on this forum a few days ago. Check out the offroad camper trailer group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/campertrailers. Full of good advise, travel tips and sharing of info and views with like-minded people. Happy travels, Melissa

ExplorOz Team - Michelle replied:

Shell, Melissa gives good advice here and we agree with her statements. Specifically however, the Kimberley in July/August is around school holidays for all states and it is well and truly the dry season. I think you'll finnd 25 days more than ample for your first visit there. "The Kimberley" is a huge area and I'm not sure if you intend to do just the Gibb River Road, or include Mitchell Falls, Kalumburu etc or visit station properties or do some real side trips. Most people tend to stick to the standard Gibb River, Kalumburu/Mitchell trek. Even so, 2 weeks is pretty standard. One travel tip however is that many people find that unless have some level of self-sufficiency or extra interests (fishing, serious photography, rock climbing, fossicking) when travelling you can never really get enough from your visit to stay longer than a few days in most areas. Many people will simply sight-see and move on unless they have an activity that can be done in the area that will keep you staying longer. eg. you need a boat in Kalumburu or a fat wallet to make your trip longer than a few days. In Mitchell Falls, you could spread the trip out to about 3 days by camping on the King Edward and at the main camp, one day on the helicopter and one on the walk. Add a few more if you make the rough trip down to Point Wanderer - more if you decide to make the 7km walk in to the falls! It's all a matter of how much "out of car" activity do you plan? Consider this because when you have a 4WD and are well setup it doesn't mean that when you reach these places you are well equipped to stay for long periods of time. So, I think you'll find 7 weeks will be just fine!

Bob Y. replied:

Shell, Worked in the East Kimberley for almost 6 years, in late '60's - early '70's, and that wasn't enough. The scenery is varied, from open forest to spectacular gorges, rivers etc, but it all has a charisma that I've never experienced anywhere else, in nearly 40 years in Qld & NT. The special pastel lighting, on those craggy sandstone peaks & escarpments, is a photographers delight.
Take 5 -6 days to drive up there, and recuperate in paradise!
Safe travelling...

coops replied:

25 days should cover the better portion of what you want to see & do in the Kimberley. There's a better than even chance that you'll be back there again one day - it has that effect on you. Don't bother with an itinerary other than for letting people back home know roughly where you'll be in the event that they need to contact you. Other than that I'd recommend just going with the flow

Snake replied:

25 Days? Well even if you had 125 days you will still want to go back.
Try not to set out to be at a destination on a certain day other wise you tend to pass places you would enjoy and when you arive home you regret it. Use these 25 days to plane your 6 month trip around north west WA. I spent 6 months traveling with a 5, 7 year old and wife we thourght we see Australia, NO WAY We should have spent this time in NW WA.
PS Were from central Vic
HAVE FUN

Bob replied:

Shell, I envy you enormously. One point to consider is that you don't have to see everything on your first trip. I like the idea of doing a reccy first, covering all the places you mentioned, then returning on subsequent trips to spend more time at those places you really need to see in detail. Personally I love returning to many of the same places time after time. While I love my home, I have a collection of special places that I keep going back to, and where I can travel in my imagination and dream about the next trip. So even as I sit in my office between clients my mind is somewhere else. The photos and maps on the walls help, as does reading posts from people about to head off like you.

joanne replied:

Did the Kimberly's june this year. Starting from Brisbane/longreach/mt isa/barkly h/stead/tennant creek/katherine/kunnarra/halls creek /fitzroy crossing/tanami/alice springs/devils marbles and back home in three weeks 12000klms. A great trip would have liked more time but not possible. We towed a coromal magnum rally xc camper van it was great very little dust. DO NOT stay at East baines rest area as we pulled in here for over night stop and had to pack up and leave at 8-00 at night because of unfriendly locals. Have a great trip...