2wd versus 4wd Campervan Hire

By Alex Williams


Darwin and the Northern Territory are some of the most rugged & beautiful locations in Australia and the world. To understand and truly experience their heart beat, it is important to get off the bitumen. The problem with 2wd campervans is that often they are not permitted to travel on dirt roads, however, 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 fantastic locations, dirt tracks, sand tracks and beaches that are on private property and not included in these stats. Let's face it, without 4wd campervan hire, you will be missing out on over half the country.

In Darwin and the surrounding Northern Territory there is about 36,000km of roads of which approximately 19,000km are dirt - that's 52%! On top of that, the NT has a greater percentage of private properties that permit visitors to drive on them than most other states. If your intention is to discover the greatest aspects of the Northern Territory, you are going to have to go dirt. That means a 4wd campervan hire from Darwin!

Even some of the leading trourist attractions like Kings Canyon and The Olgas near Uluru have dirt tracks around and it simply needs one serious downpour and a 2wd is going to be easily stuck. Head to a number of the greatest attractions surrounding Darwin, like Kakadu and Litchfield national parks, and your adventure will likely be significantly 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 go some different destinations from the rest of the 2wd pack whilst you are there. Here's just a few ideas you might not know about....

The Savannah Way

The Savannah Way is Australia's 4wd experience 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 link up with 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, there are 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 down close to the South Australian border with the Northern Territory at Mount Dare and leads north around 2200km to Timber Creek. In the process is reveals the shifting character of the Northern Territory landscape and takes you on a route via some of the lesser known and lesser touristed national parks. It is a suitably signposted route. From Timber Creek you can join the Savannah Way or follow the black stuff for a while and head to Western Australia or Darwin. In case you are heading south from collecting your 4wd camper in Darwin, this trail could be your launching pad in to Adelaide, and then onto Melbourne.

4wd camper hire from Darwin can be the best journey of your life. The Northern Territory is there to be relished by people that decide to accomplish things slightly differently. Grab life by the scruff of neck and shake it. Should you be heading as far as Australia from abroad, or perhaps going as far as Darwin from within Australia, don't just persist with the limiting 48% of sealed road of the Northern Territory. Pick up a 4wd campervan and really go out there and discover.




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