The Outback Way - Perth to the NT Border

July 1st, first day of the school holidays and we were off. Not quite as early as some of our friends expected - but it had been a busy week. Our destination? Uluru via the Great Central Road also known as the Outback way. Here is a map of how far across Australia we went. Two thousand three hundred and sixty kilometers one way to reach our furthermost destination - Kings Canyon. Nine hundred kms of dirt road.


We had a lovely day for our drive to Kalgoorlie following the pipeline most of the way. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky. Little did we know that this was not going to last. We arrived at Kalgoorlie late afternoon and set up the camper with the ease of seasoned professionals. Only one problem - no lights inside, despite being on power. We did all the obvious things like check the power source and the fuses - nothing. At 4:55pm on a Friday Fiona decided the best thing to do was call Jayco for some help. We did manage to get someone but after suggesting checking the power source and the fuses he was out of ideas. So we did what we should have done in the first place - googled it. Then it all came back to us - the safety switch under the roof. We checked it and found it had got stuck. A bit of a jiggle and all was good again. We were very glad it happened in Kalgoorlie as we did not have phone reception between there and Yulara which would have been a long time without lights!


Next morning we were up early to check out the superpit. A very large hole indeed. It was freezing but luckily we were warm as toast in our down jackets and could shelter from the wind inside a handy piece of machinery!

After a quick coffee in town we were back in the car and off to Menzies. Menzies was much more charming that expected with a lovely lady in the tourist office who told us lots of interesting bits and pieces. She was however the bearer of bad news telling us that the excellent coffee we had been told of in Menzies would not be available as the cafe was shut for the school holidays. On her advice we had a quick look at the town grave yard which had some unusual headstones (made of tin) and headed out to Lake Ballard.

 At Lake Ballard we managed to secure a great campsite overlooking the lake. The day had become quite hot so we changed into some shorts and after lunch set out to explore Lake Ballard. We had been warned it could be very muddy so were happy to find it was relatively dry. That evening we had our first off grid camp in our (yet to be named) camper and cooked dinner on our trusty Weber Q. It rained in the night and the next morning we were very glad we had walked Lake Ballard the day before!

A bit soggy the next day

The mud begins

In light rain we packed up and headed down the muddy road back to the bitumen. We stopped in Leonora to get petrol and saw two cars that had just come in from the Great Central Road - not very reassuring. They were very MUDDY! But we were on the bitumen all the way to Laverton where we refueled and set off on our first bit of dirt. Fiona was nervous and even Rob entered into a discussion on whether this was a good idea. The rain was falling, the road was wet and the mud was flying. Roadworks around Laverton were not helping. After a bit of discussion we decided to press on and camp the first night at the Pines and reassess in the morning. Putting up the camper covered with mud was great fun!

Symi and Rob built a fire and the next morning things looked much better although we we still quite muddy and damp which made packing up the camper interesting. We headed off early. The road was much better and Symi and Rob saw a dingo. The bush was fantastic. It was lovely to see spinifex and the western woodlands. The country along the Outback Way was always changing and interesting to look at.  We stopped in at points of interest along the way admiring the flowers and the landscape. 

Symi enjoying the front seat

Next stop was Tjukayirla - "Most isolated roadhouse in the world". Like the other roadhouses along the way all the fuel pumps are in padlocked cages - one advantage is that you get the driveway service that has disappeared in the city. At Warburton we stopped for more fuel keeping to our decision to fill up when ever we could. Probably a wise decision as although we wanted Diesel they had no unleaded as the pump was broken. It was in Warburton we were told the story of the Mazda 121 which had come along the Outback Way - in the dry. I think this was meant to reassure us after the man giving us fuel called our car a low rider - not confidence inspiring!

Our next camp was at Yarla - a lovely spot where we all indulged in a hot shower courtesy of our new poptop. Then it was up the ridge behind the campsite to enjoy a picturesque sunset before retreating from the cold for dinner.

Enjoying an alfresco shower

Next morning we left the campsite early. All the canvas was wet from the dew and combined with the mud it made for a cold and dirty packup. We were glad we had refueled at Warburton as Warakurna Roadhouse had no diesel - broken pump. We enjoyed lunch and coffee at Giles Crossing and while up on a ridge spotted other cars in at what looked like a good campsite to use on the way back.

We were closing in fast on the Northern Territory Boarder. We were also closing in on the large circle on the Outback Way Guide (kindly lent to us by Katie and Jez) which indicated bad roads. This circle became known as the "Circle of Jez" (despite us later finding out Katie had drawn it!). It was all true. The roads got worse. We crossed the boader to find they were worse and WET. It seems that road design for drainage is not a priority in the NT. On arriving at the border we we surrounded by other cars. It seems the outback tours make a trip from Uluru to the boarder - a little over 200kms. This was good as we were able to get someone to take the photo above.

Coffee break on the side of the road

Kaltukatjara Campground

We decided to get fuel in Docker River before camping the night. We followed the sign and found ourselves on the worst kilometer of road for the whole trip. We could barely go above idle speed. We got fuel off a Japanese girl who had been working in Docker River for one day - we think - there was a bit of a language barrier. She will have some stories to tell when she gets home. We were relieved to find a new road had been built from the highway into Docker River (to replace the one we came on). Seems the signs are still to be done but the drive back to the camp was much better. Kaltukatjara Campground was 5km east of the border. We found a nice spot and set up. After Symi had done a bit of driving the car around the campground we had a walk and met some of our fellow campers. A bit like trekking in Nepal you see the same people around as they are travelling the same way. After another dinner cooked on the Weber we headed off to bed excited that tomorrow we would see the Olgas. Stay tuned for the next post!