Mereenie Loop Tourist Drive

200km of unsealed road can easily take up to 4h to get from junction to Kings Canyon! Road is epic, havent seen anyone during entire trip, really hard conditions at times, wild animals like horses, camels or even donkeys! easily spotted as sometimes crossing the road :) Drive with care and enjoy the ride 🧡

Great experience to drive through 4wd track and get to see wild animals with the strong character of landscape.
PS. A long way a few people lost their wheels (caravan, trailor that not a good tyres for dirt road)

What a beautiful drive. We did it from the Hermannsburg side to Kings Canyon. Don’t be put off by the reputation. Road was in good condition and easy to navigate. Rented Toyota Fortuna did it easy.

Not a bad run road was rough in part but that's part of the experience

No or little 4WD off-road experience required if you drive carefully and slowly. And I shall assume: you are driving from Kings Canyon to Alice Springs. I recommend: make a stop at Tnorala = Gosse Bluff. Even if you don't love it, it is the only place where the stories of the Aborigines and the geologists are almost the same = it fell down from the sky. Make another stop at Finke Gorge National Park, at Kalarranga lookout. Climb to the lookout, the view is definitely worth it (two photos attached). (From here, at least some off-road experience required to continue further into the National Park). (Add 1 to 2 h each for both stops).

Very corrugated road. Allow for extra hours of travel time because it is impractical to go fast on a road that is as rough as this one.
It's a unique and memorable experience with great scenery, but it's punishing on your vehicle's shockies.

We did this trip about 10 years ago for our Honeymoon - Alice to Uluru to Kings Canyon. It was a great drive, absolutely beautiful scenery and found the road to be in good shape. Perhaps it has deteriorated since then? I did find the tree decorated with garbage to be very sad. Some respect for the world we live in would be appreciated by those who come after you.

Fantastic tourist drive. The road from Goose Bluff to Kings Canyon is badly corrugated. Goose Bluff to Alice Springs is tar. Well worth the drive to do the "Mereenie loop" from Uluru, through King's Canyon and to Alice Springs via Namatjira Drive. Lots to see along Namatjira Drive. We will come back to the West Mac's. We enjoyed it more than Uluru.

Drove the loop back in november 2019, road was in a good condition, I think they upgraded the last (bad) part to a paved road. In the middle you have some paved parts too. We did it in 2 hours, if you drive faster the bumps are less annoying and we crossed 8 other cars. Good luck and enjoy!

In der Trockenzeit gut zu befahren. Viel Wellblech, aber mit etwas Reifenfruck reduzieren gut auszuhalten. Wir haben wilde Pferde und Esel gesehen. Die Kamele haben sich leider vor uns versteckt.

So stellt man sich die Fahrt durch das Outback vor. :-) Schön war es und sehr staubig.

Je l'ai faite en mai 2019 à bord d'un 4×4 loué à l'aéroport de Ayers Rock. Les conditions météo étaient heureusement bonnes, pas d'innondations. On ne croise presque personne sur 200 km, l'aventure.. Quand la piste était vraiment trop mauvaise, je roulais à l'extrême gauche de la route. Seuls animaux sauvages croisés : un troupeau de chevaux. Très bon souvenir, mais j'étais content quand j'ai retrouvé le bitume. A savoir : en 2019, il fallait une autorisation pour la prendre, délivrée dans les hôtels de la région. Je suis parti sans, ils n'avaient plus de formulaires. De toute façon, aucun gyrophare 😉

merci pour votre avis ; une question : nous programmons ce trajet pour mi avril ; le considérez-vous comme difficile pour un conducteur lambda ? nous avons réservé un 4WD ; combien de temps de trajet de kings canyon à glen helen ? merci

Fajna jazda przez pustkowie, miejscami droga dość trudna. Nawierzchnia w większości tarka posypana żwirem. Wymaga ostrożnej i niezbyt szybkiej jazdy, choć są i odcinki relatywnie "szybkie".

It's like the Canadian Prairies; something that everyone should experience: Once!

We were in a Suzuki Jimny. Suggest getting a vehicle with a longer wheelbase. Saw 3 cars in the entire 123km stretch, all going the other direction. Could average 70-80 km/hr, but there were sections that even 20 km was too fast, Jimny side slipping and bouncing like a bucking bronco.

We saw camels, horses, burnt out vehicles and lots of blown out tires. Glad we did it, but would not do it again. My kidneys wouldn't forgive me. :-)

Don't forget to get your pass from the Tourist Center in Alice Springs.

We were quite worried about taking the Subaru Forester (MY13) on this road as it is not 4WD (but it is AWD). The road gives you a bone rattling drive (thanks to about 70km of corrugations), however in the end it was OK. The car was fully loaded with camping gear incl two tents, car fridge etc, and barely enough space for the 3 people inside. Luckily, there had not been any rain in the area for at least 1 month, this allowed the road to dry up and made for a firm surface for most of the way. The road was being graded from the Namatjira end (about 40km had been completed in late July23). Scenery is fantastic (as for most of NT), and you might see ponies/horses and donkeys. There is a terrific rest stop (also free camp) with awesome views close to the end of the dirt section near the Kings Canyon end. A tough road to drive, but rewarding (and it can potentially save several hours if you the long around on bitumen). Make sure your car is up to it, you'll need good tyres and suspension, and take it slow (we took approx 3hrs). If it has been raining recently, you'll most definitely need a 4WD as the clay surface turns to slippery mush. At the end of July23, there was quite a lot of traffic on the road, so if you do run into difficulties, someone should pass by soon to help or carrry a message.

Varies from gravel to heavily corrugated road. Uncomfortable if don't stay at correct speed. Needs careful sensible driving, can be done with little 4wd experience. Car renters need to check if insurance will cover.

À faire, grande aventure