c 305km after leaving Laverton, the road skirted another of Australia's great deserts, the Gibson. In such lonely surrounds, it was easy to fall prey to the fears of another era, to imagine what it might mean to leave the road behind and strike out into the desert that lay beyond. The desert's name provided a clue. In 1874, a young man named Alfred Gibson was sent to get help by explorer Ernest Giles on the expedition's last remaining camel. Giles survived, but Gibson was never seen again.
