Video: The track west from Hanging Rock (Rudall River) to Christies Crossing and the Oakover.

The track west from the Rudall River National Park takes in some amazing and historic locations. Hanging Rock (named by Rudall in his 1897 expedition in search of the missing members of the Calvert expedition), Tchukardine Pool, Meeting gorge (Where Rudall “ran into” Frank Hahn, the legendary old prospector), Bocrabee Hill and then the plains leading into the Oakover River and Christies Crossing.

Around 2004/05, tumultuous rains associated with a particularly bad cyclone season in the Pilbara did untold damage to the tracks. In many places, what were marked on maps as small creeks were subsequently etched into 4 metre deep ravines! Where the tracks crossed areas of soil plain, many centimetres of water running across the surface had washed away all signs of the path. Follow that up with the new grass growth of the following spring and it becomes a difficult process to navigate this country.



Such was the case when we attempted the track west from Tchukardine Pool in June, 2007. As this video shows, the track was often so overgrown that the only way to progress was on a wing and a prayer. Occasionally you would get a glimpse of a track but more often than not is was simply a matter of judging the gap between new bushes as being a little wider than was natural (if there was any gap, that’s where the track must have been!) and plunging ahead.

This is Scott and Gab’s (Camel loving Canadian EO members) video but it gives a reasonable indication as to why duco protection is worthwhile lol. Poor buggers! We’d only just met them on the Canning and then dragged them through all this. They must have liked it because they keep coming back!

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