The The Savannah Way is a 14-day, 3,700 km drive from Cairns to Broome by campervan. A 4WD is essential - it's rated moderate. Best in Autumn (Mar-May) or Winter (Jun-Aug). Budget from about A$2,500 per person, plus roughly A$1,110 in fuel.
Some road trips are a route between two points. The Savannah Way is a crossing of a continent. Over 3,700 kilometres it hauls you clear across the top of Australia, from the rainforest edge of Cairns to the pearl-and-ochre coast of Broome, through a north most Australians only ever fly over. You trade the Queensland tropics for the endless golden savannah of the Gulf, the Gulf for the gorge country of the Territory, and the Territory for the banded domes and boab plains of the Kimberley. Fourteen days barely does it justice - but it is enough to feel the sheer scale of the place settle into your bones.
This is remote travel, and it rewards those who plan for it. Fuel ranges stretch hundreds of kilometres, phone signal vanishes for days, and the whole route is only passable in the Dry - the wet season closes it for months. Come prepared and it becomes the drive of a lifetime.
Barramundi at sunset over the Gulf on Tuesday, a canoe beneath 30-metre gorge walls on Thursday, dinosaur footprints in the red rock at Broome the following week. That is the Savannah Way - one road, a whole continent of country.
Why drive the Savannah Way?
Because nothing else in Australia strings together this much wild country in a single line. The Savannah Way links fifteen national parks and five World Heritage areas, and every few days the landscape reinvents itself entirely. One morning you are underground in ancient lava tubes; a week later you are craning up at the beehive domes of the Bungle Bungles.
It is also a journey through the world’s oldest living cultures. From the Jawoyn country of Nitmiluk to the Gija lands of Purnululu, you are travelling through places held and cared for across tens of thousands of years - sites that ask for respect, quiet, and a willingness to listen rather than conquer. Drive it that way, unhurried and self-sufficient, and the Savannah Way gives back more than almost any road in the country.
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Day by day
3,700 km total · about 45 hours behind the wheel across 14 days.
- 1
Cairns to Undara Volcanic National Park
275 km · 3.5hClimb out of tropical Cairns into the green, misting hills of the Atherton Tablelands, pulling over for a swim beneath Millaa Millaa Falls before the country opens out into dry savannah. By late afternoon you reach Undara, where you drop underground on a guided walk into one of the world's longest lava tube systems - cathedral-sized tunnels of collapsed rock older than memory.
Highlights Atherton Tablelands · Millaa Millaa Falls · Undara Lava Tubes
Stay Discovery Parks - Undara · from A$45/nightcheck availability
- 2
Undara to Karumba
450 km · 5hA long, flat run northwest through spinifex and cattle country delivers you to Karumba, the only town on the Queensland coast where the road meets the Gulf of Carpentaria. Cast a line for legendary barramundi or join a charter through the tidal channels, then park at Karumba Point to watch the sun sink flaming into the water - the only place on this coast where you can watch it set over the sea.
Highlights Gulf of Carpentaria · Barramundi fishing · Karumba Point sunset
Stay Karumba Point Sunset Caravan Park · from A$40/nightcheck availability
- 3
Karumba to Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) National Park
300 km · 4hTurn inland across the dusty gulf plains to reach one of the outback's great surprises - a lush emerald oasis hidden in the ranges. Hire a canoe and paddle Lawn Hill Gorge, gliding beneath towering red sandstone walls hung with pandanus and fig, the water so clear you can watch turtles below the hull. Climb to the gorge rim at day's end for a view that few Australians ever earn.
Highlights Lawn Hill Gorge · Canoeing · Rim walks
Stay Adels Grove · from A$50/nightcheck availability
- 4
Boodjamulla & Riversleigh
60 km · 1.5hA full day to slow down and go deep. Wander more of Boodjamulla's spring-fed trails in the cool of morning, then drive out to the Riversleigh World Heritage fossil fields, one of the richest ancient mammal sites on earth, where 25-million-year-old creatures lie set in the limestone underfoot. Back at camp, the gorge glows copper as the light drops.
Highlights Riversleigh World Heritage Site · Lawn Hill Creek · Wildlife spotting
Stay Adels Grove · from A$50/nightcheck availability
- 5
Boodjamulla to Katherine
500 km · 6hThe big westward push: cross the invisible line into the Northern Territory and roll on through endless golden savannah to the friendly frontier town of Katherine. Shake off the road dust in the palm-fringed Katherine Hot Springs, a warm, thermal creek that runs clear and gentle beside the river - the perfect reward for a long day behind the wheel.
Highlights Northern Territory border · Katherine Hot Springs · Nitmiluk National Park
- 6
Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge)
60 km · 1hA rest day given over to one of the Top End's masterpieces. Cruise or paddle between the sheer sandstone walls of Nitmiluk, thirteen gorges carved deep by the Katherine River, where freshwater crocodiles bask on the sand and rock art marks country the Jawoyn people have held for tens of thousands of years. Hike a lookout trail for the full sweep from above.
Highlights Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) · Gorge cruise · Jawoyn culture
- 7
Katherine to Kununurra
515 km · 6hCross into Western Australia and the Kimberley - remember to eat your fruit and veg before the quarantine checkpoint. Detour into Keep River National Park for its beehive-striped sandstone domes, a quiet preview of the Bungles to come, then drop into green, irrigated Kununurra on the banks of the Ord as the boab trees throw long shadows.
Highlights Keep River National Park · WA quarantine border · Kununurra
- 8
Kununurra & Lake Argyle
140 km · 2hSpend the day on the water at Lake Argyle, an inland sea so vast it holds many times the volume of Sydney Harbour, ringed by red ranges and alive with wildlife. Cruise past freshwater crocodiles and rock wallabies, tour the Ord River irrigation country, and step into the pioneering past at the relocated Durack Homestead Museum.
Highlights Lake Argyle cruise · Ord River · Durack Homestead Museum
- 9
Kununurra to Purnululu (Bungle Bungle)
250 km · 4hA short highway run, then the adventure earns its name: the 53 km Spring Creek Track into Purnululu is rough, corrugated 4WD country with creek crossings, and it can take two hours to grind in. The payoff is the World Heritage Bungle Bungle Range, thousands of orange-and-black banded sandstone domes rising from the spinifex like something from another planet.
Highlights Bungle Bungle Range · Spring Creek 4WD track · Purnululu National Park
- 10
Explore Purnululu National Park
30 km · 1hA full day among the domes. Walk into Cathedral Gorge, a vast natural amphitheatre where a whisper carries and a still green pool sits at the base of soaring walls, then thread the cool, narrow slot of Echidna Chasm as midday sun spills red down the rock. For the grandest view of all, take a scenic flight and see the whole beehive range unfurl beneath you.
Highlights Cathedral Gorge · Echidna Chasm · Scenic flight
- 11
Purnululu to Fitzroy Crossing
400 km · 5hBump back out to the highway and turn west into the Fitzroy River country. At Fitzroy Crossing, board a boat through Geikie Gorge, where the river has sliced a canyon straight through an ancient limestone reef - its walls scoured pale white by wet-season floods, freshwater crocodiles and stingrays cruising the shallows below.
Highlights Geikie Gorge National Park · Fitzroy River · Ancient reef walls
- 12
Fitzroy Crossing to Derby
260 km · 3hA gentle leg to Derby, the western gateway to the Gibb River Road, where the highest tides in the tropics swing the coast by eleven metres twice a day. Photograph the hollow, thousand-year-old Boab Prison Tree, then, if the budget stretches, take the trip of the trip - a scenic flight and boat ride out to the surging tidal cascades of Horizontal Falls.
Highlights Boab Prison Tree · Horizontal Falls · Gibb River Road gateway
- 13
Derby to Broome
220 km · 2.5hThe final leg south to Broome, the old pearling port where the desert finally meets the turquoise Indian Ocean. Kick off your shoes on the endless white arc of Cable Beach, swim in the warm shallows, and end the day the classic way - a camel train silhouetted against a fiery sunset over the water.
Highlights Cable Beach · Sunset camel ride · Indian Ocean
- 14
Explore Broome
20 km · 0.5hA day to savour the finish line. Trace Broome's extraordinary pearling history through Chinatown and Japanese cemetery, catch a film under the stars at Sun Pictures, the world's oldest operating outdoor cinema, and time low tide at Gantheaume Point to find 130-million-year-old dinosaur footprints pressed into the red rock.
Highlights Sun Pictures · Gantheaume Point dinosaur prints · Broome pearling history