The Great Central Road

Wednesday 7th July

Started on the Great central road today.
Drove from Laverton to Tjukaruru Road house for the first fuel stop, we saw so many eagles and the road was pretty good though very, very remote not much really to see but the landscape is always changing from small trees to big trees to scrubland to sandy plains so that keeps you entertained. Stopped for the night at Paradise camp, it wasn’t quite paradise but we were the only ones there and the sunset was amazing.

Thursday 8th July

Drove to Warakuna Road house with a stop off at Warburton to checkout the Cultural center and fill up with Fuel and water. The road was great the whole way however we still managed to get our first flat. Within 5 minutes an old guy in a land cruiser had pulled over to give us a hand and lucky for us he had a trolley jack and rattle gun which made the job much easier. He’s been living in Warburton for the last year working with community projects and now drives around with 4 spare tyres, a trolley jack, a rattle gun and plenty of water as he’s constantly stopping to help people out. The rest of the ride was very smooth as informed by old mate we were pretty unlucky however there are often a few flats even when the road is as good as it was because after being freshly graded it exposes plenty of sharp rocks, if you hit the wrong spot…..then bad luck.

Warakuna station had nice hot showers we met a few nice people and saw our first dingos.

Friday 9th July

Woke up early to see the weather balloon as it was released at Giles weather station where I also found my own Kc dog.

We then continued on the road and drove right through Docker River. Stopped off at a few lookout areas to check out some Gamma holes, (natural holes in the ground that collect water) and Lasseter’s cave. We Crossed the W.A Border at about lunchtime then on the Northern Territory side of the track it started to get pretty rough compared to the rest of the road. Caught out first sights of the Olgas a few hours later, they are pretty impressive. We took a walk trail around them then headed down the road to get our first Glimpse of Uluru. It was getting pretty late so we headed out of the National park to find a free camp for the night as the caravan park for charging $50 for unpowered sights.

Saturday 10th July

Went to bed Friday night with clear skies but had to wake in the middle of the night to fold away the awning because it felt like the car was going to tip over the winds were so strong. The plan was to wake up for the Sunset over Uluru but the weather was so bad we slept in and headed out late in the morning to start the 10km base walk around the rock. Then cruised over to the sunset area cooked some dinner and sat back to watch the sun set over Uluru.

Sunday 11th July

Woke up early to catch the sunrise over the rock. Instead of watching it with ten thousand other people like the night before we actually watched the sun rise all by ourselves in the sunset area (Its school holidays so to get anything or be anywhere at the moment by ourselves doesn’t happen too often). Cooked up breakfast and sat back to eat as the sun kept rising. At 10am we headed over to do the Mala guided walk near the base of the rock but only a few k’s around. Then headed to the Cultural centre to find our keys we lost on the track the day before, checked out some art and the displays then drove back out to the Olgas to do the 7km walk though the middle which was amazing! Finished up at about 2pm then back to Yulara for supplies then cruised out to Mt Conner rest area for the night. A hot Bucket shower under the stars then jumped into Bob to catch up on some sleep.