Monday, May 6, 2013

2wd versus 4wd Campervan Hire

By Paul Garret


Darwin and the Northern Territory are some of the most rugged & stunning destinations in Australia and the world. To understand and definitively experience their heart beat, you must get off the bitumen. The problem with 2wd campervans is that they are not permitted to travel on dirt roads, yet, around 467,00km of Australia's 823,000km of roads are unpaved. That's 57% of roads that a 2wd camper can't go on!

On top of that there is all the terrific locations, dirt tracks, sand tracks and beaches that are on private property and not included in these stats. Let's be honest, without 4wd campervan hire, you are missing out on over half the country.

In Darwin and the surrounding Northern Territory there is about 36,000km of roads of which about 19,000km are dirt - that's 52%! In addition to that, the NT offers a larger proportion of private properties that allow travellers to drive on them than most other states. If your intention is to appreciate the best aspects of the Northern Territory, you are going to have to go dirt. This means a 4wd campervan hire from Darwin!

Even a number of the leading trourist attractions like Kings Canyon and The Olgas near Uluru have dirt tracks around and it just takes one serious downpour and a 2wd is going to be easily stuck. Head to a number of the greatest sights surrounding Darwin, like Kakadu and Litchfield national parks, and your adventure will likely be considerably more boring being forced to stick to the over-touristed paved areas in a 2wd campervan.

If you are going to get all the way to the Northern Territory, you might as well set off to some different destinations from the rest of the 2wd pack while you are there. Here's just a few ideas you might not know about....

The Savannah Way

The Savannah Way is Australia's 4wd adventure track that links Cairns on the Queensland coastline in the east to Broome on the Western Australia coastline and traverses right across the Northern Territory. There are lots of places in the NT to connect to the track and then have the journey of your life heading to either to Qld or W.A. Do so as a one way journey and drop your 4wd campervan hire off at your destination. In the dry season, you can find enough people doing this track that there is regularly help coming along it if you need it, although not so many people that you will ever be in a crowd.

Binns Track

The Binns Track starts off down near the South Australian border with the Northern Territory at Mount Dare and leads north around 2200km to Timber Creek. Along the way is reveals the shifting nature of the Northern Territory landscape and takes you on a route through a few of the lesser known and lesser touristed national parks. It is a suitably signposted route. From Timber Creek you can connect with the Savannah Way or stick to the black stuff for a while and head to Western Australia or Darwin. For anyone who is proceeding south from picking up your 4wd camper in Darwin, this track could be your launching pad into Adelaide, and then onto Melbourne.

4wd camper hire from Darwin could be the best experience of your life. The Northern Territory is there to be relished by those who are prepared to accomplish things a little different. Grab life by the scruff of neck and shake it. If you are coming all the way to Australia from overseas, or perhaps heading as far as Darwin from within Australia, don't merely persist with the restrictive 48% of sealed road of the Northern Territory. Pick up a 4wd campervan and genuinely go out there and discover.




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