Alice to CSR to
Georgia Bore............. Start date 20 April 2005
After waiting for three days to obtain a permit from the Ngaanyatjarra Council to traverse the
Gary Junction Road we gave up and pushed off without the permit. Talk about bureaucratic incompetence! Applying for permits is a total waste of time and energy as there is no one out there asking to see your permit.
That aside, we got out of Alice late in the afternoon and on the spur of the moment decided to
camp at
Red Cliffs Gorge on Ellery Creek. There had been no rain for quite a while in Central Australia and my recollection of
Red Cliffs with its beautiful pool was bleep tered when we found it bone dry. We turned around and on the way back to look for a half decent
campsite I snagged a
rock, which altered the straight lines of the GQ’s right hand side step. At the same time a small sapling bounced off the bulbar and broke the side indicator light. Nice start to the trip, eh?
Darkness was falling with speed and we made
camp on some rocky ground higher up out of possible flood waters, should if by some miracle, it would rain during the night. This was the first sleep in the new Oztent
Ranger (same size as RV4). The tent proved to be very good over the coming months and we are very happy with it.
Day two saw us drive through the magnificent
West MacDonnell Ranges past
Glen Helen Gorge, Haasts
Bluff and on to
Papunya Community and then further on to refuel at
Kintore. We ran out of bitumen at
Glen Helen and from there onwards the roads were pretty ordinary with long sections of severe corrugations. Both
Papunya and
Kintore Communities are a sad reflection of the hopelessness the aboriginal people subject themselves to and a far cry from our more ordered European way of life.
At Sandy Blight
Junction we met up with fellow travellers in a 100 series Landcruiser, towing a camper. We noticed the tail light of the LC was loose and helped out with some screws and a screwdriver. They led the way in to
Kintore and promptly picked up a nail on the main access road resulting in a flat tyre. We went and refuelled at $1.59 a litre from a fuel bowser, which was enclosed inside a brick building. When we were done we saw the bloke with the Landcruiser still fiddling with the flat tyre. It turned out that they were from the east coast and that the wheel nuts were rusted on. My mate George, and I, helped out with advice and a breaker bar and managed to get the wheel off without damage.
We pushed off on to the NT/WA border and once there decided to have a cuppa. Soon after the LC people rocked up and stopped to say thanks for the help. While we were chatting the bloke leaned on the front indicator light of his LC. It gave way suddenly and the whole light fell on to the ground, ripping the wiring out along the way. In an instant Judith sang “Oh what a feeling”………I could have wrung her neck! The bloke did not know what to say. They took off soon after that, making excuses that they were in a hurry.
We only made another 10 kilometres from the border when I spied a
gravel pit and decided that at 4pm it was time to
camp. The last week of April was still quite warm and a there were a few bities around. The flies were extremely annoying.
We scratched around and found enough wood for a fire to
cook dinner on.
The country side flattened out a bit on the way past
Kiwirrkurra Community. We did not drive the 3km in to the community. We started seeing lots of camels and over the next three weeks I estimate that we would have seen at least 1000 of them.
At one section of the
Gary Junction Road we came across this beautiful piece of road construction, formed higher above the plain and passing through a stand of Desert Oaks. Our spirits were lifted thinking that the road from here one was going to be good. Unfortunately it was only 2km in distance before reverting back to a corrugated track. We made our way past an abandoned community, searched and found one of Len Beadells originals plaques and made for Jupiter
Well for a rest. In the middle of nowhere the road reverts to a hairpin bend and the unwary could easily come off the rails (road) at this point. There was also a stretch of severe bulldust for about 20km. Then we passed a road construction gang just before Jupiter
Well. They were working on a washed out section of the road.
We spent two days doing nothing at Jupiter
Well amongst the Desert Oaks. The flies drove us nuts, A friendly Two-lined dragon lizard made itself comfortable in the
camp resulting in many photos being taken. George erected Jimmy’s Thunderbox, which was located very discreetly inside a
toilet tent and downwind from us. It was to be the only time we used this device. It is too cumbersome to set up and the old tried and tested method of bush ablutions works the best. No travellers passed while we were at Jupiter
Well.
At
Gary Junction we turned left along the Gary Highway connector road and made for Wau Wau
Bore and then after a short search found the overgrown track in to
Veevers Meteorite Crater. We camped at Wau Wau
Bore that night. The next day we made our way to
Kunawarritji Community at
Well 33 on the CSR picking up a 60 series LC grille, which from then on served as a shower, stand. The welcoming sign at
the entrance of the community is in stark contrast to other communities and you are made to feel welcome at this community. We filled up our diesel tanks and jerries at $2.20 a litre and bought souvenirs and some supplies. I had a chat to JayJay, a community elder about the weather and all things pertinent to community life. He introduced me to his son whom he said was a “Yellafella” seeing as his mother was white. The son seemed to ignore the comment.
Well 33 provided good water and we caught up with our washing, topped up our water containers and took mobs of pics of the finches at the
waterhole. The
Canning Stock Route south from here was quite overgrown in
places and we established that we were the third mob to pass along the route in 2005. We looked at some of the Native Wells and also for
Well 31. The track disappeared in to a thicket. I got out to walk a short distance when the mournful howls of a number of dingoes close by stirred my senses. I made a hasty retreat to the truck.
At Muginjerri
Cave we found that it had fallen in since the last time we had passed this way. Between
Well 26 and 25 we met our first traveller since
Kintore. A man of senior citizen stature who told us that he couldn’t stop to chat as he was running out of fuel and was making for
Well 26. He was driving a petrol LC. He had not made provisions for the harsh terrain and there was no petrol to be had at Cotton Creek. He mates, he told us, were following a short way behind, and one of them would have to drive to
Kunawarritji to get some petrol.
About another couple of kilometres further along we intercepted radio talk of how difficult it was getting over the particular dune. We interjected and said that we would come over before them. On the other side we found 5 other vehicles from
Adelaide. All senior citizens (about may age or more) driving new Prado’s and a 100 series with a trailer attached. When asked about tyre pressures they were running 30psi. I am afraid I lost it momentarily and told them in no uncertain way to drop their psi to below 20. The lead vehicle fella told me to “Get F………..” and took off at a rate of knots churning up the dune track with the trailer in tow just making it over the top. The rest followed, each one had to have two goes at this relatively easy dune. We shook our heads and drove on. Then we heard someone say on the radio that maybe I was right and that they were dropping their tyre pressures. The rest added that they would do so too.
It was late afternoon when we got to the intersection of the CSR and Talawana Track and after a brief visit to the
Capricorn Roadhouse fuel dump at Well23 we made for
Georgia Bore. The Talawana Track has by far the worst corrugations I have ever experienced in all my years of outback travel.
It was good to get to
Georgia Bore and to have a nice quiet
camp. The water out of the
bore had small black flakes in it and it was necessary to filter it. We managed again to find some dead wood and have a warm fire for tucker and
Port before tucking up for the night.