Great Sandy Desert - A day of stakes, dunes and hard going (& a masterclass on outback tyre repairs)

Thursday 18th June, 2009
Camped on a Cut Line east of nowhere (60 km west of Johanna Spring) “Spook Tree” camp.
20 00 04.0S 123 37 31.8E Od 208280


We had decided to have an early start this morning so I was out of bed at 5:45 a.m. to see my well laid plans evaporating fast. Both front tyres were flat. I’d missed the original stake on front left and then the right had a nasty little stake on the inside of the tyre that went down overnight. On the bright side, at least my bed on top of the car remained even. I had them pumped up and plugged in no time so with the dingos breakfast (and a cup of tea actually) under the belt, we were on the track east at 7:15 a.m.

It was an overcast morning which gave a redish sky to the start of the day. It was also a lot cooler which was great for both men and machinery as we slowly twisted our way through the scrub and tall spinifex towards the cut line. The route was often picturesque with the track taking tight turns through narrow dune swales often being no more than a deep gutter between two steep sided dunes. Tall euaclypt stood here and there, at times looking almost park like. It was easy to identify plentry of great places to camp. The track however was again largly overgrown and we were often forced off into the wilds to make our own way. At times I was hugging the slopes of the dunes, driving on an angle as it offered the best, flora free running.






We completed our 19 km run to the old Cannabis farm in 1.5 hours arriving at 8:45 a.m. and spending an hour picking through the ruins of what was obviously a well run cropping venture. Ah these primary producers, certainly resiliant and inventive. The would be cannnabis farmers had used lengths of discarded polypipe bore casing to constuct a green house and accomodation facilities. The main bore casings had been tapped for irrigation and the remnants of polypipe and drip irrigation systems were everywhere. They had even improvized a sigled bladed plow to till furrows. The remnants of the ventrure were amazing. I couldn’t help but wonder about the vicious murderer Bradley Murdoch who had been a drug runner from these very types of crops and wondered just what the chances of survival would have been for any outback traveller unwarily stumbling in to such a venture. We salvaged a couple of star pickets and some tin for a sign. John located the main bore casings and dropping a small stone down, we were able to guage the depth of the water...it was a bloody long way down!. We had fun picking over the detrituous of this past venture.

Our route from here followed the cut line roughly nor-nor-east for 34 odd kilometres to another cut line to run east towards “Aubs” bore. The dune crossings were endless and we soon lost count of the crests we crossed. There were certainly a lot more than displayed on the NatMap 250K maps. The tops of the dunes had all been knocked off during the laying of the lines but they were now choked with bush, blown out and often soft. In some places the line was great, particularly in the larger swales where the gibber rises could be found. Here and there we located old equipment, a tyre and split-rim, a headlight, lengths of old runway plates and even an upturned trailer complete with vehicle towbar attached.

I managed to suffer three stakes after midday, all within about 10 kilometres. Two tyres would require patching but managed to double plug the third. All front tyres and all inside stakes. I was a tired and frustrated boy by the 3rd let me tell you, Still I’m getting ahead of myself. We located the Anna Plains Station track intersection just on 12 noon and continued on a little while taking lunch in the shade of a large Native Walnut tree. From there it was only 6 kilometres and one tyre staked to the cut line intersection where we turned right and headed east. I sufferred a further two stakings within two kilometres as we puched through very thick scrub. It forced an early stop to the day at 3.45 p.m. in a dense thicket of scrub under a couple of large Adams Family trees or “spook trees” as we have come to call the large, twisted and eiry looking walnut trees.

After we had set up camp, I prepared our tyre workshop and used my new R&R bead breaker for the first time to great effect. Probably the most perplexing sight to Mr Magic was my initial job of sitting there grating lux soapbars into flakes to make a goodly quantity of thick soap past for the tyre fitting. I was a keen student to Mr Magic’s tuition on tyre changing. This bloke is incredible. Is there anything he cannont turn his hand or mind to fixing. He is in perpetual motion and generally has a fix in mind even before something has broken (well nearly). Every day in the bush is a master class in ingenuity and bush mechanics. Mind you he did like my steel coffee table which had been bought with a view to it being also used as a work and tyre changing bench should the need arise. I had bought a wire brush fitting for the 18 Volt cordless drill with a view to using it to scour the interier walls. This worked really well. We then patched using vulcanising agent and large Rema Tip-top Radial bead patches. The lessons continued as we reseated, inflated and checked the tyres. An almost euphoric feeling of elation after our success at repairing to a tubeless state, two severely damaged tyres. Mind you we were dirty, tired and in need of a stiff drink!

It was a can night for me by the scant fire offered by the poor timber of our camp surrounds. After that it was a clean up and billy bath before retiring. An early start again tomorrow and hopefully better luck with the tyres.

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