Perth to Darwin adventures - Britz

Twenty nights and 6,000 kilometres from Perth to Darwin in a campervan, up the Western Australian coast and across the top. It is the longest itinerary in the Britz range.

The Pinnacles and Kalbarri come first, then Shark Bay and Monkey Mia, UNESCO listed for its seagrass meadows and its dugongs, with the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool among the oldest living structures on earth. Coral Bay and Exmouth follow on Ningaloo Reef, where a fringing reef sits a few hundred metres off the beach and whale sharks pass through in the autumn months.

Karijini comes next inland, a set of gorges cut several hundred metres into some of the oldest exposed rock on the planet, with pools at the bottom reached by scrambling. Port Hedland and Broome follow, then Fitzroy Crossing and the Kimberley, Lake Argyle, which holds many times the water of Sydney Harbour, and Litchfield before Darwin.

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. Twenty-one days for six thousand kilometres is roughly three hundred a day, which is sustainable but leaves little room for a day off. A one-way hire of this length usually carries a relocation fee, and the whole route is dry season work, since the Kimberley section is impassable in the wet. Karijini and Ningaloo are the two places that reward an extra night if the schedule can be stretched.