Wednesday May 21

Our last post had us at Tjukayirla Roadhouse on the Great Central Road, some 300km from Laverton, but with few details of our journey there because finalising the post there hadn’t been part of the plan!

We left Laverton in the rain last Friday, but happily it had largely stopped by the time we reached The Pines parking bay, 120 km east. The road had been corrugated in spots for the first 84km to Cosmo Newberry, but after that it was pretty good most of the time and often very good for an unsealed road and the rain at least meant that there was no dust!

A raindrop-spattered view of the Black Oaks (Casuarina pauper) at The Pines -
not really pines at all!

After leaving The Pines we had some sunshine, which was most enjoyable and also dried the car so we could stop and duct tape the expensive cardboard anti-stone barrier to the back windscreen and let some air out of the tyres to lessen the chance of punctures from sharp rocks. Not that there were large rocks on the road – the gravel was quite small and benign.

Marble Gums and spinifex

We were already in the Great Victoria Desert and were yet again surprised by the amount of vegetation  - mulga, spinifex, Marble Gums and the odd Desert Kurrajong. In areas which had been burnt, Native Poplars, lovely slender trees with light green leaves and white trunks were in abundance.

Native Poplar (Codonocarpus cotinifolius)

As we came closer to Tjukayirla, the rain started again – not a great surprise as the clouds ahead had been looking threatening for a while. We were now into country with sand dunes with only Black Oaks growing on them and they looked terrific.

As the rain was making things quite dark and time was getting on, we decided to spend the night at the Tjukayirla campground and it was quite an exciting time as Murray was able to light his first fire of our whole trip! He was so thrilled he actually lit two fires – one in the fire pit and another in his nifty little gas bottle ‘fireplace’ on which a plough disc makes a wonderful barbeque plate!

The perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine!

We had a few spits of rain overnight and left on Saturday morning with the sky still grey. Wasn’t long before we stopped to admire this beautiful big Desert Kurrajong. These trees are well adapted for the desert – as dry conditions set in they gradually loose leaves, stop setting fruit and seeds and the roots store water and were an important water source for Aboriginal people.

The road ahead

We were not underway again for long before we were brought to a halt by a bull camel and his harem of ten in the middle of the road. Apparently they often camp on the road at night! Even though they are a very destructive feral pest, it was quite exciting to see them.

I hope that droopy lip of the bull camel on the right does not indicate he is
unhappy with his family!

Sadly the drizzle started again after lunch, which made it impossible to see and appreciate the vastness of the landscape. We were able to enjoy the close up things though, like this gnamma, or rock hole on the side of the road. These holes in granite outcrops act like natural water tanks, holding water which is replenished from stores in the underground rock. The small surface area minimises evaporation, so they remain a vital source of water.

The landscape changed quite dramatically as we got closer to the Warburton Roadhouse, which is about half way between Laverton and Uluru and moved into the Gibson Desert with its red sand dunes. I had been keen to visit the Tjulyuru Regional Gallery which displays art work from surrounding communities, but discovered that it is only open Monday to Friday and as we had kept moving along faster than we had expected because of the rain, our timing was well out!

Approaching Warburton Roadhouse

Nothing for it but to keep going and as we left the community we were into the Warburton Ranges, with their beautiful dark red rocks. The rain meant that the light was not much good for photos, but I persisted nevertheless!

Towards the east!

Warburton Ranges 

Travelled another 90km to Yarla Kutjara campground, where we spent night all alone and laughed about having seen only two cars and one motorbike on the road all day. The persistent drizzle ruled out exploring the surrounding sand dunes, so we just enjoyed hearing the dingos howling all around – this is such an evocative sound.

What is left of one of the tractors used to make the Great Central Road, parked
for eternity at Yarla Kutjara

Another beautiful tree - Desert Bloodwood

Despite our fervent hopes for better weather, Sunday dawned as grey and cloudy as Saturday had ended. We again saw a herd of camels on the road early on – more on-road campers? We pressed on towards Warakurna Roadhouse and enjoyed dappled views of the Rawlinson Ranges as we came closer. Topped up with fuel here, checked out some Tjulyuru art work which was on display, offsetting some of my disappointment of yesterday and continued our trek east.

Passed two graders which were towing all the gear they must need to camp out in these remote areas whilst they take care of the roads – caravan, fuel tank, 4x4 vehicle. Looked pretty amazing.

The approaching 'grader-train'

We were now getting into even more interesting country and came across our first grove of Desert Oaks (Allocasuarina decaisneana), which look stunning against the red sand and spinifex.

A hunt for a suitable place to pull off the road for a coffee (these are few and far between) ended very well indeed – quite coincidentally we stopped by a tall Ghost Gum, which turned out to be the one on which the Len Beadell Plaque, commemorating the 1960 construction of the Sandy Blight Junction Road by the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party, is located. Even more importantly though, it was hosting lots of superb green and yellow budgies, some of which were checking out prospective nesting hollows. We were thrilled – the first budgies of our trip and we could have a good look at them, as they are usually seen as a flash of yellow and green as the flock whirls past.

Is this one any good?

The nearby range

We were soon approaching the NT border and the surroundings were changing yet again – ranges all around and it was hard not to make comparisons with the Pentecost Range in the Kimberly.

Don't you just love these colours?

How tough and adaptable Grass Trees must be 

As soon as we crossed the border the road deteriorated significantly – it was quickly evident that the NT government is not as interested as is the WA government in maintaining this as an important tourist route. We stopped for lunch at Kaltukatjara (Docker River) Campground, which was surrounded on all four sides by stunning ranges.

More beautiful Desert Oaks

Hopes that the road might improve were soon dashed and we spent the ensuing 150km to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) cussing and jiggling as Murray picked his way through the corrugations in a never-ending quest to find that magic speed which is just right to deal with the problem without wrecking the van. Stopped a couple of times to check inside said van, as visions of cupboards crashing to the floor were hard to keep at bay!

Sadly this van did suffer a terrible fate! Hope those towing it were not hurt

Happily no such disasters occurred – our faith in the quality of our Evernew caravan was not even dented and we finally drove on to the sealed road at Kata Tjuta with a great sense of relief and travelled the 50km to Yulara feeling like we were driving on cotton wool! 

Views of Kata Tjuta confirmed the end of the corrugations was nigh!

Set ourselves up in the campground and then spent a bit of time getting rid of the worst of the dust that had managed to infiltrate through fridge and battery vents. Still, it is small price to pay for being able to explore these interesting places and we are glad we decided to come back along the Great Central Road, but will probably not feel the need to do it again, even in really fine sunny weather! We thought that we would take longer to get to Uluru and that there would be more opportunities to stop and enjoy some walks, but it was more a 'road trip'.

We have had a terrific three days here, enjoying Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the ‘resort’ itself. There has been a fair bit of cloud coming and going, which has not allowed for the beautiful sunrises and sunsets everyone hopes for, but that is OK. As I sit writing this tonight, there are intermittent showers, thunder and lightning so tomorrow seems like the perfect time to continue our journey south. We plan to be in Port Augusta by Saturday, so will put some photos of our time here on the blog then.