Savannah Way: Cairns to Broome - maui

Thirteen nights and more than 3,700 kilometres from Cairns to Broome in a campervan, along the Savannah Way across the top of the continent.

The route is one of Australia’s great named drives, linking the Great Barrier Reef coast to the Indian Ocean through tropical Queensland, the Gulf country, the Northern Territory’s Top End and the red ranges of the Kimberley. The day-by-day stages are set out on the maui site.

What the corridor delivers is a cross-section of northern Australia that no coastal route can match: rainforest and tablelands behind Cairns, then the dry savannah woodland that gives the road its name, open to the horizon and dotted with termite mounds. Cattle stations run to the size of small countries along it, the river crossings are seasonal, and the towns are a long way apart. Broome at the far end is a pearling town on a twenty-two kilometre beach, with the Kimberley behind it.

The camper and the day-by-day plan come from maui, 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. Fourteen days for this distance is a committed schedule and the driving is the holiday rather than an interruption to it. The dry season from roughly May to October is the window: the wet closes roads across the north and some sections are unsealed year round, so the route needs checking against the hire terms before booking. Fuel, water and spare food matter more here than anywhere else in the country. This is a one-way hire the width of a continent, so a relocation fee is worth confirming at booking.