Great Central Road
Submitted: Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 07:40
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Austag
Hello everyone,
Will be travelling the GCR in the coming weeks, anyone travelled it recently? How's the condition? What sort of speed can we travel? How are the teeth chattering corrugations?
Just trying to gauge time it's going to take to cross it. Just vehicles, no trailers or caravans.
Thanks.
Reply By: Member - DingoBlue(WA) - Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 13:30
Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 13:30
Hi Austag,
have driven the GCR many times and in general is a pretty good run. The sand corrugations between Docker River and
Yulara can be a bit annoying but the rest of of it is ok , a bit rocky in
places but should be able to run at about 80kph. If you allow 4 to 5 days from
Perth you'll do it easily. I usually run tyre pressures of around 35psi and haven't ever had a flat.
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Reply By: Member - Min (NSW) - Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 18:24
Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 18:24
Hi Austag,
We travelled the GCR in August, i.e. not very recently. Compared to our previous trip the Docker River Road was a dream - mildly corrugated. There was one place where people were chatting on the side of the road and giving me the 'slow down'
sign. I slowed right down, as you do when passing people on the road but he was still signalling 'slow down' as I crawled passed him. Thank goodness because I came to the lip of a dry riverbed very gently and was able to negotiate it easily. The rest of the road was excellent, wide and no corrugations or potholes anywhere. We had to be careful to keep our speed down to a sensible level.
We were not impressed with the management at Warrakurna, near
Giles weather station. It was poorly run by backpackers when we were there. Beware that they close quite early and there is a time difference from Uluru. If closed you can't get fuel or key to amenities.
I understand that
Warburton is a safe,
well run
campground with good facilities. Also the
art gallery is said to be excellent (closed Sunday but will happily open for you). We only stopped briefly as were headed to Tjukayirla for a couple of days.
Tjuka has excellent facilities and motel style accommodation. The managers have been there on and off for years and work hard to keep the place top-notch.
We stayed at
Laverton and restocked at the large (by outback standards)
supermarket and could get everything we needed. Many prefer to stay at
Leonora but we don't. If you stay at
Laverton don't miss the hologram exhibition about local
explorers at the
Visitor Centre.
We had an amazing trip 7 week trip (12,500km from nr
Canberra). Hope you do too.
Min
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Follow Up By: Zippo - Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 18:44
Thursday, Apr 06, 2017 at 18:44
Warakurna Roadhouse (and police) operate on NT time, the same as Uluru. They (roadhouse/store) close at 5pm (NT time) which is mainly a problem for unwary eastbound travellers, but WILL make arrangements for those with a booking who expect to arrive after 5. I would much rather stay there than
Warburton, but each to his/her own I guess.
Last July - like the other replies - we found the NT part of the GCR to be smooth as, apart from the many areas still holding ponded water. This was in stark contrast to 2014 and 2015 when the NT corros were really tooth-rattlers.
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