Unnamed Rockhole - Little Sandy Desert WA

Thursday 3rd July, 2008
Unnamed rockhole, Little Sandy Desert WA
24 19 57.06 S 123 43 21.34 E
(NOTE: All hyperlinks go to Exploroz "places" descriptions)

A day that had everything today. A great sunrise, braised steak jaffles for breakfast, a lot of confusion over tracks, NO tracks, staked tires and a remote geocache! We are about as remote as one can get anywhere in Australia. The sun has set and I am perched on the bonnet of the vehicle typing madly with the clinking of tools on metal echoing in the silence as Scott refits the split rims. I’m ready for a scotch and a good fire.



We only managed to cover 35 kilometers today the majority of which was without track. We skirted Mount Madley early in the morning finding a large rockhole that I believe to be Katu Katu Well about 2 km north of the base of the Mount. It was about a meter deep and contained a goodly supply of water. Unfortunately a bit steep sided for the smaller animals to get to as evident by the dead rat like beasty floating on the surface. After that we managed to re-find Babul Rockhole but lost the track. After various hypothesis, we decided to head off on our own way. After travelling less tan one kilometer, Scott staked his second tire, a bad omen.


We had it changed in no time and were back surfing the spinifex and acacia on a northerly bearing. I was using the Natmap 250K maps as it gave a better definition of sand hills and terrain than the Hema (1:1,250,000). We aimed for the last charted point of Peasley’s expedition which was a straight line distance of 17km. Not a great distance until you take into account the terrain, sand, rocks and spinifex. It was very slow going in first gear towing the trailer. We eventually rounded the first sand hill and then traveled westerly in the swales stopping for lunch under the only large tree we could find. Dragging out the chairs we enjoyed a Gaby prepared feast (pitas) in the shade of the tree. It was tough going and Scott and I were fairly tired by then. Gaby made lunch and we washed it down with a beer and a piece of fruit cake or three. We wrote and buried a note and Canadian coin in a jar at the base of the luncheon tree leaving an arrow like blaze at it’s base.

Very shortly after recommencing we found the faint outline if a track. It was like following a wraith, the track disappearing more times than we found it. I tried my best to anticipate where the track might go to no avail. More times than not I was making the track. Frustratingly Scott staked and destroyed a rear tyre a little later on. A large mulga root tore a hole about 10 cm long In the side wall. We’ve no wire so he’s done to one serviceable spare (flat). Another tyre change and frustratingly, when I pulled up, the faint impressions of a track were only a meter away from my door. So it went again heading east with me leading. Up rocky knolls and rises, down into dune swales and then my fourth staking, back left this time. It took thumb sized and shaped stake in under a tread block. Easy least it was very easy to find! It took two pieces of spaghetti and a few minutes and then we were back on the track about 3:30 p.m. As I climbed on the bearing I found the track again and followed it into the area where the Unnamed Rockhole was supposed to be. It was 4:00 p.m. and too late to go further so we have camped in a pretty little spot on the rise between two rugged creeks. The ground is a deep red coloured shale like stone.

After setting up camp, I walked the creek that wound it’s short way down out of the rocky hills finding a small rockhole with water inside and a depression with wet earth nearby. I got the shovel and dug this out over 15 minutes to reveal a beautiful round rock hole about 600mm wide and 800mm deep. As a shoveled the dirt out, it filled with water. This would be the original rockhole that Peasley recorded while searching for Warri and Yatunga in 1979. With no indigenous custodians depending upon its water and remaining to clear it debris from the hole, It has fallen into neglect. At least it will last until the next heavy showers fill it with dirt and rubble again. I’ll check it and see how much water is in it in the morning.



Tins for dinner tonight, everyone’s buggered by the hard, tiring driving of the day and the stress caused by constant damage to the tyres. The attention required to maintain course, avoid obstacles and stakes is amazing. I’m rung out. Scotty is working on his tyres in the fading light.

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