Hi all,
I’d like to plan a two-week trip in late December/early January with my parents who are visiting over Christmas to either
Adelaide to Alice/Ayres Rock to see the post-rain desert/outback or Darwin to Broome
Obviously, the post-rain situation is something that cannot be postponed, that’s why I would favour the post-rain desert trip. However, maybe the scenery of the Darwin/Broome trip would be more interesting for my parents. I know that in general December/January is not the greatest time of the year for either trip. In your experience, would any of these trips make sense at this time of the year? Would it be too hot to see many birds/mammals? Would it be miserable at this time of the year for my parents (who are not the youngest anymore)?
Cheers,
Nikolas
Hi all,
I got a large number of responses – online and offline. I’d like to thank everyone! The take-home messages were 1. Darwin-Broome could be not only hot and humid but also problematic due to muddy roads. 2. Adelaide-Alice will be very hot but still birdy if one sticks to the rules.
I.e. likely neither option isn’t a great idea for my parents.
Thanks a lot for all your comments and suggestions (which I will discuss with my parents),
Nikolas
P.S. Although I got the message about the conditions out there, I had to smile a bit about the different sense for “hot”.
For me (and possibly some other European and American expats) Sydney is COLD for approximately 9 months of the year, MILD for 3 months (Dec- Feb) with a few interspersed hot days (this past summer there was one week of hot weather and I don’t remember any hot days the summer before…).
Hi Nikolas,
Darwin to Broome at the time of year you are talking about is still mid-monsoon, so there are potential issues with flooding to contend with. I would say you definitely wouldn’t be able to do the Gibb River Rd, and may not be able to access a lot of the most pretty scenery in the region, though the main highway still goes through some nice country. Broome is extremely hot and humid at that time of year, and you will need to check with the Broome Bird Observatory as it usually closes for a month over the Christmas period. The road to the observatory is closed to all traffic when rain is heavy enough, as the red soil turns to thick mud and any car passing through can ruin the road surface.
Those difficulties aside, Broome is still my favourite birding place in Australia and seeing flocks of 60,000+ shorebirds in January is worth some heat and humidity in my opinion.
Cheers, Chris Sanderson
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The Arid Lands Botanic Garden ( http://www.australian-aridlands-botanic-garden.org/) at Port Augusta is a great place on the Adelaide-Alice trip – lots of plants and birds. But how it is in summer I don’t know!
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Hi Nikolas,
my Adelaide to Alice Springs trip was mid July (very belated trip report to come soon). Although we had poor weather for the first half of the trip it did get quite warm in the middle of the day once we were in the NT, say about mid 20’s. I would imagine this would be up around the mid to high 30’s come January, maybe higher.
One option would be to to taylor your trip so that you got up early and birded until it got hot and spent the hot part of the day driving to the next destination and birding the late afternoon/early evening, there are some pretty long drives on this trip.
I don’t know much about a Darwin to Broome trip but I think an Adelaide to Alice trip could be productive as long as you’re prepared for some very hot days with periods of low bird activity during the middle of the day.
Cheers,
Rob