The 4400-kilometre haul up Western Australia's arching coastline from Perth to Broome, across the Kimberley and on to Darwin in the Northern Territory, is one of Australia's great road journeys. Even without detours it's a huge, transcontinental trek between the country's two most isolated capitals, fringing the barely inhabited wilderness that separates them. From the WA-NT border 40km east of Kununurra, it's still another 730km to Darwin.

 

If any single trip across Australia benefits from independent mobility, it's this one: a car enables you to explore intimately or linger indefinitely. While some days in WA's Northwest will be punctuated by nothing more than road trains, road kills and roadhouses, there are several places where the climate, scenery and ambience will collectively conspire to subdue your road fever for a few days. If you're interested in discovering the wayside attractions, allow at least a fortnight for the journey right through to Darwin; otherwise a week to ten days will let you whizz through the highlights.

The route is sealed all the way, but a glance at any map clearly shows the long distances between roadhouses, let alone settlements. Your vehicle should be in sound condition, particularly the tyres and the cooling system, both of which will be working hard in the heat and dirt-road detours of the Northwest. If you're undertaking the trip between January and March, once you get north of Exmouth you can expect storms , flooding and even cyclones. Following damage, roads and bridges on Highway 1 are repaired amazingly quickly, but if rain persists, routes can be closed for weeks. A radio is a handy aid to keeping track of cyclones, similarly troublesome "rain-bearing depressions" and the status of roads. Unfortunately, beyond Geraldton reception fades a few kilometres outside each settlement; but you can rely on roadhouse staff to know the latest. With forewarning, it's usually possible to gun ahead of a front or find somewhere agreeable to sit out the storm.

If you don't have a car, the rigid schedules and butt-numbing sectors of long-distance bus travel require a certain equanimity. Greyhound Pioneer and Integrity Coachlines offer a range of good-value regional passes up the coast to Exmouth, Broome and Darwin. It should be noted that by doing the journey from Perth, schedules generally match connections to places off the highway with little delay. In the opposite direction, you are travelling "against the flow" of the timetable and can expect long waits on roadhouse forecourts unless heading directly back to Perth.