Great Central Road

We arrived at Coober Pedy this afternoon to find that we have telephone and internet access!  We are only staying for the night since we already toured the area on the way up north a few months back.

Mike is busy chatting with a couple camped next to us.  It's a conversation we've had many times during the course of this trip, and has led us to some interesting people and places.  "How long are you traveling?  Where are you from?  Where are you going?  Where have you been?" Anyway, I thought I'd take advantage of the quiet afternoon to finally update the blog.

The Great Central Road is 1147 kilometers across the center of Australia running between Laverton in Western Australia and Yulara in the Northern Territory.  It's all unpaved road in varying condition depending on the weather and whether or not a grader has been through.  It runs through several Aboriginal communities and there is the occasional roadhouse where where you can buy food and fuel but other than that it's you and mother nature.  We set off from Laverton with permit in hand along with two spare tyres, extra diesel, tools and plenty of water.

Off We Go!!

Red dirt road - nice and smooth though.

We stopped  about 100 km down the road to have a look at Murray's bore mill and tank, which is supposed to be a good place to spot animals.  We didn't see any animals as we approached, but as we stood quietly I thought I heard hoof-beats.  Sure enough there were a group of wild horses eying us cautiously and waiting for us to move on so they could come have a drink.

The road had changed from dirt to crushed rock, but was still pretty easy going.

A long way from nowhere

We drove a total of 560 km with the occasional stop to stretch our legs or take in the views and only saw 2 other cars, some huge emus running across the road and lots of birds and dust.  That is, until we noticed some odd shapes in the distance.  It wish I had the camera at the ready to capture the look on Mike's face when it dawned on us that they were camels.  5 or 6 of them ran off as we approached, but one guy was intent on finishing the leaf he was eating and in no hurry to move. 

"Dude!  c'mon, there's a car coming!"

The car can wait til' I'm good and ready!

 This was not to be the only time we came across camels on the road.

Finally we arrived at Tjukayirla Roadhouse where we decided to spend the night.  The people running it were so warm and friendly, it was like an oasis in the desert.  An oasis complete with food, pristine amenities and plenty of hot water.  The truth is that you pretty much have to stop there for fuel regardless, so it was a bonus to be made to feel so welcome.

Food, hot showers and a playful pooch.

Like everywhere along the Great Central, the bowsers were behind locked cages and you don't pump your own fuel.  I can't remember the last time I've had someone pump my fuel for me (other than Mike - heh).  It's a long way to go for full service. ;)

The next morning we were treated to a few moments of bitumen just east of the roadhouse, courtesy of the flying doctor's service who use it as an airstrip.  It's a good thing we relished the smooth minute or two as the road was about to get far worse.

Ahhh ..  Smooth as glass.

But not for long

 There are an amazing number of abandoned wrecked cars along the road.  We saw at least 300.  It's nice to think that some of them may have saved lives by providing spare parts to travellers having car troubles.

This one is just an eye-catching advertisement for the Tjukayirla Roadhouse.

We pushed on toward the next roadhouse at Warburton which is a large Aboriginal community.  We were a bit unsure about staying there as we'd heard some unsavory reports.  Jeff, who we met at Pilgramunna campsite at the Cape Range National Park told us that he had stayed there with no problem.  There's an art centre there that's supposed to be quite impressive that I would have liked to see, but as we got closer to the community we were warned away by quite a few people, both travellers and locals.

There is no alcohol of any kind allowed along the road due to the high instance of alcoholism within indigenous communites.  We were also warned to hide our jerry cans of fuel as there are petrol sniffers around, and to be sure to keep any cash out of sight.  There is no petrol available for purchase along the road.  It has been replaced with "Opal" which can be used in unleaded petrol cars but is not sniffable.   Warburton was sounding less and less attractive.

I couldn't decide it the warnings were just people being wary of an unknown culture, or if there'd be petrol sniffers glomming onto our car like vampires looking for a blood fix.  We've been through several indigenous communities with no problems whatsoever.  Could this one in particular really be that different?  I suppose we will never really know for sure because as we arrived at the roadhouse a look around was all we needed to decide not to stay there.  In fact, although Mike bought diesel, I didn't even get out of the car.

The scenery as we drove through the area was lovely, but the road was extremely corrugated in places and we bounced around for quite a few kilometers.  In sections we were forced to slow to a crawl.

Definitely not the worst of it.  The camera was
too shaky to capture any of those spots!

Good road and lovely view!

We spent the night camped at the Warakurna Roadhouse in another aboriginal community.  Even though the roadhouse  is in Western Australia they run on Northern Territory time which was an hour and a half later than WA time.

The Giles weather station was meant to be one of the highlights along this route.  We'd heard it's a "don't miss" and we wanted to be there for the release of the weather balloon and tour which our map/guidebook said was at 9am.  A sign on the roadhouse indicated that the tour was at 8:30 am.

Since the roadhouse was on NT time we thought that the weather station may be as well, and to be safe we made sure to get to bed early so we wouldn't miss the tour.

We got there at 8:30 NT time, thinking if worst came to worst we'd have to wait around for an hour and a half for the tour to begin.  When we arrived we didn't see anyone.  We headed to the information area and called out but got no reply.  Then we noticed the clock on the wall.  What a disappointment!!

It seems that the Gile's Weather station is not only on Northern Territory  (Central Standard) Time, they are on a self imposed Northern Territory daylight savings time.  Huh???  The Northern Territory doesn't have daylight savings time!!  And the station is in Western Australia anyway!  Apparently people just make up whatever time zone they feel like being in, and if none suits they come up with one of their own.  Only in Australia....  Needless to say we were not happy campers. 

We crossed the border into the Northern Territory and our next fuel stop was at Docker River, another Aboriginal community located a short distance from the border.  Docker River was interesting to see.  The shop there was bustling with people, stray dogs and even a camel walking through the middle of town!

The road from Docker river through to Yulara had been closed and only recently re-opened due to heavy rains in the area.  It was rough going, and we were happy to have a reprieve from the bumping about when we stopped at Lasseter's Cave.

In 1929 Harold Lasseter  went on an expedition and claimed to find a gold reef.  When he returned to the reef in 1930 his camels bolted with his food and water supplies and he was left to fend for himself in the hot and arid outback.  He walked for 15 kilometers until he found the cave where he survived for a further 25 days.  Assisted by an Aboriginal family, he made his way East to meet the rest of his expedition party.  He died en route never having re-found his gold reef.  People are still looking for it today.  Others say it's just legend.

Shortly after he died his diary was found in the cave.  One entry reads:  "What good a reef worth millions?  I would give it all for a loaf of bread"  Fact or fiction?  You decide.

Lasseter's Cave

The road from Lasseter's cave was scenic, but started getting really bad.  Besides for corrugations, there were also areas of water across the road.

Mother nature's garden

outback swimming pool?

and another..

Suddenly, on the horizon the Olgas came into view!  Magnificent!

click me!

We finally reached the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park!!

And the end of the Great Central Road.

Doesn't that bitumen look lovely?  Oh - and the Olgas too!

I tried...

It took us three days to cross the Great Central Road, and what an adventure it was!  We arrived at Yulara and spent two days exploring Uluru and the Olgas, both of which are magnificent.

Last night I attempted to post an update from Yulara but there were so many photos to organise that it just got to a point that I was too exhausted to continue.

This afternoon we arrived at Kings Canyon where I planned to finish my update only to find that there is no phone or internet connection here!  We bought an hour of wifi access through the "resort" to at least get some of our updates posted but soon discovered that the connection is so incredibly slow that anything more than text just seems to hang forever.  We will have to wait until we get back into an area with proper internet access.

Tomorrow morning we plan on visiting Kings Canyon bright and early before the heat of the day.  From here we are heading south and homeward bound.  We have no idea where we'll be stopping at this point, or when we'll have a workable internet connection again but will update you when we do.  I really did try.

When you see the photos of Uluru I'm sure you'll agree that they were worth the wait!

p.s.   The pitiful internet connection conked out before we got a chance to post this and we are now sitting in reception pumping coins into a computer to get this out!!!  Ugh!!

Laverton

We arrived at Laverton this afternoon and headed to the visitor's centre to organise our travel permits through Aboriginal land.  We also visited the "Great Beyond Explorer's Hall of Fame" which was an excellent display and film about the explorers who first charted the areas we're going to be traveling through, sometimes with tragic results.

In the morning we head off along the outback way via the great central road. We're both slightly apprehensive and very excited about the journey we're about to embark on.  We feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to explore a part of the country that most never see.

I don't imagine that we'll have phone or internet access across our route, but one never knows.  We expect to be at Uluru in about three days, and will surely update from there.

Wish us luck as we explore the great beyond.

Leonora

We made the 5 hour trip from Mount Magnet to Leonora with a coffee stop at a lovely little town called Sandstone, and a fuel stop at Leinster.  I'm happy to report that we didn't encounter any "killer roos" in spite of the warning sign as we entered Leonora, although there did seem to be more than the usual population of roadkill about, all in various stages of decay.

Today we visited the Gwalia Historic Site, which is made up of a Museum, Ghost Town, Open Cut Mine and the Hoover House.

The Hoover House was built and designed in 1898-99 by Herbert Hoover who later became the 31st President of the United States.  The home was his personal residence while he was the Manager of the Sons of Gwalia goldmine at the tender age of 23.  The house also served as the residence for subsequent mine managers after Hoover moved on to work in China.  

Hoover House

There were a series of other tenants at Hoover House after the close of the mine in 1963, however in time it fell into disrepair.  Being recognized as historically significant, the house was restored and in March 2004 it was officially reopened by the American Consul General, Mr. Oscar DeSoto.   The house is the only President's home located outside of the United States of America.  Not only is it not on American soil, it's out in the bush in the middle of nowhere (and part of a Ghost Town)!

A section of the house is currently being used as a bed and breakfast with the proceeds going toward the continued maintenance of the home.

Side Veranda, Hoover House

Hoover's Bedroom

The fireplace and wardrobe are original

The back garden overlooks the modern day open cut mine.  Obviously a very different view than during Hoover's time.

I wonder what all those H's stand for?  :) 

The mine is 300 meters deep and nearly 1 kilometer across.  It has produced over 5 million ounces of gold.

In stark contrast to the Hoover house, the mine workers lived in cottages made of bush timber, corrugated iron and hessian, often with dirt floors.  The workers were mostly immigrants who came to Australia from Italy and Yugoslavia in search of a better life.

In 1963 the Gwalia mine closed and the townspeople literally walked away with what they could carry, often with only the clothes on their backs leaving behind their household and personal items.   In a three week period the population went from 1500 to 40!  Today Gwalia is a ghost town.

Mike checks out a "renovator's delight"

Below is a guest house built to accomodate the large number of single men who came to work in the mine.   Even the lucky ones who had cottages of their own would often eat their meals here as many of their houses didn't have water or kitchen facilities.  They paid approximately 30 shillings a week for their meals which was one third of the typical miner's wage.

Mazza's Store provided all of the town's supplies for over 50 years.  It closed in 1964.

Gwalia was such an interesting place to explore.  I found it eerie walking through the abandoned homes and thinking about the rough lives that it's inhabitants led.  Actually, the night we arrived we had driven through the area but didn't realize it was the ghost town.  Tired from the day's drive we decided to have dinner out and were looking for a good place to stop.  When we came across this area we thought we had driven into a dodgy neighbourhood and turned back.  No wonder it looked so run down, it's a ghost town!

The only bad part of touring the area is the fact that I can't get the song "We'd Like To Thank You, Herbert Hoover" (from the musical "Annie") out of my head!  This hasn't just started since our visit either.  It started a couple of days ago when I first read about Gwalia.  It's driving me insane, and poor Mike even more so!

Now, about that decision we needed to make.  As you may remember, in the early part of our trip we visited Alice Springs and had planned to go to Uluru and then across to Western Australia via the Great Central Road.  Unfortunately we had massive rain storms while we were in the area making the unsealed road potentially impassable and leading us to change our plans.

So, here we are at Leonora which is at the crossroads of heading home via Kalgoorlie and the Nullarbor or continuing on to Laverton and the Great Central Road to Uluru.  The temptation to go via the Nullarbor back into the part of Western Australia that we fell in love with on our last trip is strong, plus we are concerned that we may have left it too late and could arrive at Uluru to scorching temperatures (in our non-air conditioned camper - eek!).

On the other hand, as much as we adore it, we've already toured southern WA.  And, we're talking about Uluru for goodness sake!  If  we don't go now, what if we never get back to this area?  It would be horrible to miss it!  The road itself is another concern, although we feel as though we've got the right equipment to make it through, and have heard that it's generally good with a few rough spots.

So, wish us luck on our 1147 kilometer adventure along the dusty "Outback Way".  We will be stopping at Laverton tomorrow for permits and road information.  If all sounds do-able and safe we'll head off the following day.  We'll be out of touch for the 3 to 5 days it takes us to cross, but should be able to update before we head off in Laverton, and of course will give you the (red) dirt at the end of our journey.

We'd like to thank you Herbert Hoover!! - Oh crap!