Submitted: Monday, Jul 07, 2008 at 00:00

Monday 7th July. 2008
Durba Springs - Canning Stock Route.

It was a torrid wind that sprang up at about 1:00 a.m. It rocked the car and cause me to wake and bolt upright remembering that the chairs were by the fire and had their backs to the wind. I got down into the bitey breeze in nothing but my jocks and secured them to a more suitable location before ascending to the warmth of the Taj once again. The car was being buffeted so I resorted to the earplugs and managed to drift off.

I was up into a sunny but windy morning. S & G had indicated that they wanted to circumnavigate the Calverts on the ATV’s so I decided that I’d rather take advantage of the wind and do some washing. I had a bucket of hot water and delicates soaking by breakfast. Good lord did that water turn to mud. Near killed myself lugging two buckets (the 20 and 12 litre) back to the camp. Managed to get most of the washing done and on the line before having a morning tea break and heading into the gorge to explore. What an experience. I left that place feeling privileged to have been given permission to visit. That it is of deep significance to the local people is beyond doubt. The quality of the artwork is amazing and I’m referring to the etchings here if nothing else. The rock paintings are of similar ilk to the surrounding countryside, circles etc but the rock engravings, the petro glyphs are like nothing I’ve seen before.

The gorge actually forms a “Y” shape. At the apex of the Y sits a large pool of water. I followed the right hand branch finding a cave with a fair bit of art work and etchings of emu feet on a large boulder. These feet formed a track along the rock so showed a degree of sophistication in excess of those single etchings I’d found in the past. Continuing on to the end of the right hand branch found the gorge wall terminating in a pool shaded by white gums. On the southern wall, water dripped slowly from lichen and moss covered cracks. Who’d have thought small patched of green like that in the middle of the desert. On looking up the wall I did a double take as I spied something that resembled, well no it was, a smiley face etched into the rock. Surely not. If that was a petroglyph thousands of years old, I could see some copyright issues coming up. The carving was high on the rock wall and looked largely inaccessible. I climbed to the base of the wall and then onto a fallen boulder to gain a higher vantage point. Sure enough, the carving appeared to resemble the classic smiley face of the 70s. Clambering on further I found a full sized carving of an emu high on the rock face, sans head. It was one of the most detailed carvings Id seen to date until I rounded the bend. In a small chasm formed when a huge slab of rock had parted from the main wall god knows how many years in the past, I found a carving of a ceremonial man fully 2 metres long in a reclined position along the chasm floor. The detail was fantastic. The chasm itself being about 4 metres wide with walls about 10 metres, I looked up and found the rest of the tribe. On the top most section of the wall a series of carvings of people in ceremonial adornment extended along a good 10 metres of wall. Each of these figures were about 1.8 metres in height and their human shape was outlined by intricate patterns of dots, grooves and shapes worn and carved into the rocks. Surrounding them were other fantastic shapes carved to take advantage of the natural features within the rock, a hole becoming a mouth. The level of detail was amazing. You could only guess at the age of these carvings as the more recent efforts bear no resemblance in either form, style or technique. Sited as they were, they were quite difficult to get to so I had to satisfy myself with photographs taken from a vantage point nearby. This ended up being slightly above the cave I’d found initially but could only really be accessed by clambering all the way around the back.

The left hand fork when explored ended in a stepped series of pools with an obvious spring at the far end. There were plenty of finches piping from the surrounding trees and shrubs, often flying down to the pools to drink. On the walk out I found another emu carved on a monolith in the middle of the gorge, again headless as if someone had knocked the head off. Perhaps they finished it that way. In most of the carvings I’d seen here and across the western deserts, there is a certain reticence to display the heads of the animals etched.

When I got back to the camp area, Scott and Gaby had returned and loaded the ATV’s onto their trailers so we had a quick bite of lunch and then headed on the track out meeting a group of two east bound vehicles about half way to Sunday well. We drove through the well area for a looksee. The crazed tumble of dunes between the Calverts and the Canning follow no linear order at all forming circles, eights and u-shapes. A crazy gods sand pit. We saw several large bustards who were disturbed from beside the track. The track was heavily corrugated in some areas which I don’t remember from last year. The track is easier to negotiate heading west to the Canning than it is in the opposing direction.

We reached the Canning in good time and Scott halting to pump his tyres up again and then we were off north to Durba, collecting firewood on the way. Only two kilometers from Durba, where the road winds down the narrow wash of a creek, we came across a smallish snake. Vividly patterned. White with brownie-red mottling. He got a bit stroppy and pulled into a major strike pose as we photographed him (from a good distance I might add). On passing he decided the patrol was too big a beast and slid off to the side quickly. He was in fact a Stimsens Python.


We reached Durba to find only two camps there. Selected a nice shady spot not too far from the water and set up camp. Showers were the early call followed by a one pot wonder of chorizo and beans on rice. Some loser had set fire to the toilet block in the intervening 12 months since our last visit but I do love Durba. It remains one of my favorite spots.

Tags: 4WD, Camping, GPS/Navigation, Places/Destinations, Travel Journal
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