Last few night shifts have been rather busy and I don't look like finishing this til later next week, therefore I've posted this as the first installment.
Dave
Trip Report for
Canning Stock Route Trip 2005
I travelled as one of a group of 7 blokes from Shepparton &
Melbourne in May to tackle the
Canning Stock Route over a couple of weeks.
Vehicles
GQ Patrol Wagon (ULP)
GU Ute (Diesel)
Bikes
Honda XR650
Yamaha WR450
Suzuki 400
May 10th:Left
Halls Creek on 10th May after a night in the Kimberly Hotel and propped up the towns economy a little with $400 fuel ($1.349 ULP $? Diesel) and $400 alcohol after proving we were from out of town. $55 a block of VB and a whopping $90 for a slab of Bundy & Coke. ($55 a bottle for Bundy straight)
Proceeded out to Wolfe Creek Crater and
Carranya Station (now in
ruins since ATSIC bought it in ‘91) before
bush camping south of there. It was interesting to see the high watermark on the end wall of the shed from the floods.
Woke the next morning to find the contents of our fridge (1 of 3) warm. A quick bit of dismantling found oil in the bottom of the case due to a cracked pipe (100,000km of travel over the past 12 years – mostly off road or dirt - had taken their toll and chopped out rubbers on the compressor.) Team conference and it was decided that we could do a run back into
Halls Creek on the off chance we could get it repaired or replaced. VKS737 operator Lou advised that there was a repairer in
Halls Creek but due to the early hour couldn’t contact them. We figured we’d be back by lunch either way.
11 May: After a snappy 150km into
Halls Creek the fridge was assessed as repairable but a delay for parts was a problem. The Retravision (
Kimberley Outfitters) turned out to keep a 40litre Engel in stock at a fairly reasonable $1400 so we bought that, modified the fridge mount, bought another $55 slab of VB, $96 fuel and made a quick return to the boys back at
camp. We figured better it broke here than at
Well 40.
After repacking the ute to fit in the dead fridge we headed for Billiluna and the Canning. Stopping at Billiluna we filled water tanks with good water, the tanks with fuel ($296) and had a chat to the mechanic there. Only one other group had gone south in front of us that they knew of this season. Some crazy European on a mountain bike with a support vehicle – we later found out that she was only riding the easy bits if you can call any of it easy.
After a week and 3000 or so km getting there from Shepparton we finally hit the Canning (CSR). Travel in the north end is fairly easy, open and flat, and the spinifex was quite small. We camped night 1 on the edge of a minor
lake (Guda Soak or Rilya Stretch) at a beautiful
camp. The water and swim was welcome, sunset spectacular and water birds were plentiful. An amazing place and the nicest we camped at in my opinion.
May 12th: Left
camp at 0800 and visited the first of many wells on the way south.
Well 51 or Werriado, was a
dry dam, dead windmill and
well ruins. A detour further south after
well 50, which was a bit of a search in amongst the scrub, found Culvida Soak. Wandering up the dry creek a ways found water in a deeper hole in the creek bed. Just next to the water was a crevasse in the
rock wall which held more water and some
rock art, along with a name from 1931. Fossils could be found in the slate like stone in the creek bed.
South of
Well 50 the spinifex increased in height to 50cm or so and the blind was going to be necessary. The area around the 303 tree & track care signs had been burnt out but we found it intact. Stopped at
Well 49 for lunch and the first
well that had water in it. Water was good quality but no bucket on this
well.
We stopped to inspect the burnt out Ford Explorer which was a bit of a spine tingling moment and reinforced the need to
check the vehicle regularly for spinifex build up, which we had cleared a few times already by now – and smelled it warming up at times too.
Well 48
ruins were exactly that. The trip into Breadon
Pool and
Godfreys Tank was disappointing. Having taken the track on the map we found the overgrown path and set off on foot. Within 1000m of
Godfreys Tank on the GPS we came to a low area that looked positively awful to hike through and fairly snakey. In the distance the guys on the bikes and in the ute were driving in! We gave up and headed back to the truck. Rendezvousing back out on the track we found them trying to locate the CSR again. They had found a different track in to the south around the hills and when they got to the end of it the
sign indicated a 3km walk to
Godfreys Tank. They didn’t go as a result. It would appear the track they used is now the common route in and possibly someone moved the signs from the track we were on around to the new track’s end. If this is the case the distance is no longer 3km but a few hundred metres. We ended up missing the tank as a result. The HEMA and Westprint maps don’t show the second and probably better access track at all.
With the GPS the CSR was picked up again (not obvious at this point if traveling south due to erosion) and we bypassed
Well 47.
We camped at the restored
Well 46 and the water was good. Used the 5 ltire sprayer as a shower to good effect.
Nice camp amongst the snappy gums. Many aboriginal stone tool chips around about this
camp. Took the opportunity to ring Leigh (Luxoluk) from the HF and remind him he wasn’t with us :o)) – Radtel Network worked really
well.
May 13th (Friday): Proceeding from
Well 46 we visited the
ruins at 45 which is dry. South of
Well 45 we wound our way around the flood bypass track which though the floods have subsided appears to have become the defacto standard track, with the original route hard to find at the north end.
Well 44 which is also a ruin found us getting into real dune country now. Though the dunes had commenced much earlier they were getting bigger and softer. Wells 43 & 42 also in
ruins, as was the Gard’s 1985 44 gallon drum
well project is now a muddy smelly bog. Saw a few camels in the area, the first of many for the next few weeks.
A plan to visit the motorcycle and trailer was foiled by the spinifex and scrub on the track which was over a metre high and threatened to pull the boys on the bikes handlebars around as they attempted to navigate it so the main track was chosen as the route to take.
Camped at
Well 41 which was flooded in 2001-2003. The flood has subsided leaving dead melealuca all around – which will be consumed as fire wood over coming seasons. The water in this once good and restored
well was foul. It smelt and tasted strongly of sulfur. This is a real pity as it looks to have been a
well restored
well and the effort has been wasted as it will be many years if the
well is to recover if at all. Dingos visited
camp during dinner and overnight.
After uneventful scheds over the past few nights the nightly Alice Sched had an F150 broken down on the Finke Rd, a traveler at
Yulara whose mate had left with the keys to his vehicle and was beyond contact and a rescue crew using the channel out at an MVA – all on Friday 13th! Coincidence??
May 14th:
Today was only going to be a short day but on arriving at our intended
camp at
Well 39 we found the area around it burnt out, so we headed further down the track.
Well 40 was nothing more than some troughs & steel work in a still flooded clay pan. Smelled of sulphur also.
Well 39 south of Tobin’s
Lake was a timbered hole a few feet deep and a small puddle.
Camped at
junction of track to west of Water 38. Nice spot under trees and about 2.5km drive to water in rockpool if you need it. Replaced the buggered shocker rubber on the back of the GU ute. Looks like ARB dealer supplied the wrong ones. Listened to the footy on the HF and had a chat to the tag a long group who we were expecting to pass on their way north further down the track.
We found an unusual rocky outcrop today north of Tobin’s
Lake. Lot’s of
rock on track which slowed progress for a short time. Very lunar looking landscape.
May 15th:
Macca didn’t want to talk to us. Clearly doing the Canning is a common day to day occurrence barely worth a mention on his show.
Stopped at Water 38 again on the way past and in different light to last night found some of
the rock markings such as the RMC Duntroon ones, didn’t find Canning and Trotmans though.
VKS737 operator investigated the likely hood of fueling at Kunnawarritji on a Sunday for us and it turns out they no longer open at all on Sundays, so we camped at the windmill at
Well 33.
Well 37 was bone dry. From
Well 37 progress was very slow toward
Well 36. The track is unusual here in that it follows along the dune tops as opposed to traveling between dunes and crossing over them as it does on the rest of the route. This appears to be to avoid a previous flood and there was no
sign of the original route at the northern end. The track was very soft and travel was very hard work on the bikes and even on drivers in the 4wds.
Well 36 is no longer under water. Water in the
well is not deep but looked crystal clear and had no smell to it. Might be okay but we didn’t try it. Bungabinni
native well was a reedy
swamp only.
Well 35 is now accessible and is not boggy. A rusted set of broken leaf springs was a
sign of someone else’s drama. The
bore casing is there still but the cap was obviously lost in the flood and the water in the
bore looks poor at best – an unpleasant scum sits on the surface. The water underneath if it was cleared & pumped out may be okay.
We skipped
Well 34 as it is off the track and the boys on the bikes went in and came out reporting little to see. A puddle and some troughing was the report on the UHF.
The track to
Well 33 from 34 was badly corrugated from Kidson’s
Bluff onwards. We did see a Thorny Devil on the track so that broke it for a bit. After the dunes the corrugations were not all that welcome.
The
old well at 33 is still there near the new windmill. The windmill has been fixed and is now operating again after many months sitting idle. The water was good and the builders who use the fire on Sunday evenings for their weekly escape from the community have been watering so there was grass around the tank. Not an unpleasant spot at all. The builders and a white couple from the community were the first people we had seen since leaving Billiluna.
There can’t be many
places left in civilized countries where you can drive for a week, cover 700-800 km and not see a soul.
Part 2 to follow.
Dave