Great Central Road and Sandy Blight Junction Track

September 8^th & 9^th

Didn’t hang around too long in our borrow pit on waking and spent most of the morning travelling further along the GCR toward Warburton (about 200km) where we purchased fuel for $2.08/litre. Another 230km along the GCR was the Warakurna Roadhouse (fuel $2.20/litre). All of these roadhouses support the nearby Aboriginal communities and are pretty well stocked with basic food and drink necessities. The fuel is expensive and is locked away – you have to get the store owners to come out and unlock and fill up for you. Warakuna Roadhouse had some excellent aboriginal art for sale too. A few things caught our eye but we didn’t make a purchase.

As we got to Warakurna Station there were signs saying that you were approaching the WA/NT border and so should put watches forward by 1 ½ hours. We didn’t want to lose 1 ½ hours of our day and figured we wouldn’t need to know the time for the next few days anyway so we didn’t change our clocks and instead worked on McLiseo time. We decided to put our clocks forward half an hour for three days so by the time we did end up in civilisation in the NT we would be on the right time. It is so nice to not be bound by time. We certainly haven’t worn out watches on this trip but there have been times when we have needed to know the time. Not so when remote travelling and bush camping. You wake up and get up when you feel like it and don’t know the time, you eat when you are hungry, stop driving when you have had enough and go to bed when you are tired. For most of us who are ruled by time in our ‘normal’ lives this gives such a wonderful feeling of freedom.

Very close to Warakurna is the Giles Meteorological Station which is a fully functioning meteorological observation station. It is the only staffed weather station within an area of about 2,500,000 square km and is situated mid-continent near the core of the subtropical jet stream. This means it plays an important role as a weather and climate observatory for the country, particularly eastern and south eastern Australia, and especially for rainfall predictions. Len Beadell selected the site in 1955. It was needed to forecast weather conditions suitable for nuclear weapons testing at nearby Emu Field and Maralinga. Later the station provided support for rocket testing programs at Woomera, as Giles was close to the centre-line of fire from the launch site. Wreckage from the first Blue Streak missile, launched from Woomera on 5 June 1964, is on display at the station. Len Beadell's grader, which is estimated to have travelled over 30,000 km in the course of making his many outback roads, was retired in 1963 and is also on display at Giles.

Leaving Warakurna, the landscape changed again and we passed a number of quite substantial and impressive mountain ranges including the Schwerin Mural Crescent Range  About 80km after this we reached the turn off to the Sandy Blight Junction Track. No fanfare here with a sign or visitors book.

The Sandy Blight Junction Track (SBJ) is around 400km long and is said to be on of the most picturesque tracks in outback Australia. We would certainly concur. The country that the track passes through is incredible and changes quite drastically every 30 minutes or so, from huge stands of tall Desert Oakes, to mulga scrub, to open spinifex plains along with magnificent stands of Blue Mallee and Mulga, Grevillea and Desert Poplar thrown in to mix it up a bit. The track conditions vary as much as the scenery, from hard packed tracks, deep sand to stony sections and the usual outback corrugations. It was very different to the David Carnegie Road but both beautiful in their own right.

The area of the SBJ track was first explored in 1889 by William Tietkens. He blazed a bloodwood tree near Mount Leisler with the blaze of a T above the letters 5.89. This tree would remain a hidden symbol of early exploration until it was rediscovered over 70 years later when Len Beadell opened this area up and created the SBJ track which is said to have been his favourite. It was given the name of Sandy Blight Junction Track as Len was suffering from the painful eye disease Trachoma or ‘granular’ conjunctivitis at the time of construction. Among the symptoms is a feeling like grit in the eyes; hence its other name: ‘sandy blight’. At the time, this seemed an appropriate name for this new outback highway. Along the way, Len and his construction team rediscovered the historic Tietkens Blaze tree as well as placing eleven signposts and one large rock (200 mile mark) at significant points along the way e.g. the Tropic of Capricorn.

The first point of interest that we visited was the Bungabiddy Rockhole where we stopped for lunch and wandered a short way into the gorge to a small rock hole complete with rubber ring and rope swing – obviously popular with the locals when there is more water there than currently.

We drove through the Kintore Ranges and did not see any other cars on the track. On our first night on the SBJ Track we camped amongst a stand of Desert Oak trees which talked to us all night with the wind whispering through the foliage. It is very nice to be able to walk around the site in bare feet as all the needles from the oaks formed a clean, soft carpet on the ground.

Had a great lie in and a cooked breaky and just as we were breaking camp, we were passed by another car. They stopped and had a chat to us – they were heading south while we are heading north. This was the only car we saw today. As anticipated, the road deteriorated somewhat as we continued on our way - mainly corrugations and rocky sections. The scenery is still fabulous and it is just a matter of taking it easy.

Our driving today for some of the time was alongside the Sir Frederick Range and at one point you can go to the top of part of the range which is the highest point that can be accessed by vehicle on the SBJ Track. The track had an extremely steep grade and was covered in rocks which made it difficult to get traction. The track is 3km to the very top with a turnaround point at about 2km. The view from here was great and we decided not to take the car the further kilometre to the extreme top. It was hard work and we would be pretty screwed if something happened to the engine while here in the real middle of nowhere. We have nothing to prove and the car has been going like a legend.

We crossed the border from WA to the NT today and stood with a foot in each state – seems to be a common thing to do during this trip.

Our camp for the second evening is in a grove of different trees but just as delightful as the previous night. We had a shower and relaxed while watching the incredible night sky. The stars out here are like nothing you can possibly see anywhere else.