Great Central Road – Warakurna (Giles) to Laverton

From here, the roads were generally in fantastic condition.  Kevin and his mates had done a great job, and the road was at times like a highway.

From Warakurna, we kept moving west, through Warburton, and past many communities.  There were a number of turn-offs we glanced down that we would hope to return to one day.  Roads such as Sandy Blight Track, Gunbarrell Track, Heather Track etc.  They were tempting to run off onto this trip, however it wasn’t the time nor scenario to do this.  It did give us a great taste for the area though.

Cruising along the Great Central Road

We camped that night in a marked bush camping spot.  This had some vivid red cliffs right beside us which illuminated as the sun came down.  We all climbed up on the bottom of the cliffs to watch the sun dip below the horizon.

Great bush camp AND Savannah washing up

A perfect desert sunset

A very dusty camper

The next day, the roads generally got better again, with us getting closer to Laverton.  We did have a couple of other diversions in mind, but in the end, we were happy to make our way through the GCR safely, and not push the envelope too far.  We were also getting a bit weary from all the driving, so adding extra km’s wasn’t a great idea.

The girls did a fabulous job travelling through this country.  We had to do some pretty big days, and they coped amazingly.  With a mixture of playing together, reading books, listening to their music on their Ipod, and every now and then sleeping, the hours kept ticking away.

As a side note, ever since we had done the Cape York trip, and after the girls saw a couple of vehicle recoveries, their role playing has taken on a new angle.  It was only a week or so after we’d finished the Cape trip that we watched Savannah playing with her toy cars.  “Hey matey, you ok there?”  “No matey, i’m stuck in mud.”  “Do you want a pull out?”  “Yes thanks.”  “Do you have a rope”  “Yes, here it is.”  “Ok, ready, set go......  there you go matey, you're out”  “Thanks matey”

Hilarious.  This extended to a bunch of their other play, including stuff we were hearing whilst running down the GCR.

We rolled into Laverton mid afternoon, very satisfied that we’d been able to see some of this vast outback country we’d been reading about, and travelled on the Great Central Road.  It was also interesting how our view of this trek changed now having done it.  Whilst the area is absolutely remote, it is by no means isolated, given the traffic and communities you pass along the way.  Plans to make the GCR an all weather/ bitumen road will open it up even more. We definitely plan to be back this way, someday.

Leaving a lunch spot along the GCR