Just came across the
Great Central Road from
Laverton to Uluru. Have to agree with cobber for the most part on the trek conditions, although the road got significantly rougher after the Tj Roadhouse...up to that point, it had been better than most bitumen roads. A few Kms before Docker River it got rougher still, and was consistently rough corrugation from that point on. It was extremely windy as
well (not sure if that's common for this area) and the red sand blowing across the road made it a bit tougher to see, not to mention, pitching a tent was a real treat:) We stayed at the Tj roadhouse, and drove the rest of the way through from there the next morning. Took us about 9-9.5 hours (from Tj), only stopping for diesel and the occasional picture opportunity. It is a beautiful and amazing drive. The sun had just set as we hit the paved road so we drove over to the picnic,
lookout area for
Kata Tjuta before heading to
Yulara to find a
camp spot.
The one thing I would like to mention is the time change. We were prepared to lose the 1.5 hours crossing into the N.T. and since we were traveling on a Saturday, that was vital, because the roadhouses pretty much all closed by 3pm. The thing we did not realize, and really lucked up, is the time actually changes BEFORE you get to the N.T.
Warburton is on N.T. time, we pulled in thinking it was 1:30 and we were in good shape, it was actually 3 and they were getting ready to close up. Thankfully, we were able to fill up, and there were no issues.
Having done the trip up to
Cape York a few weeks ago, we were prepared for the
Great Central Road to be in similar condition, we were surprisingly pleased in the overall condition though. It was definitely better than taking the long way around!!!!