April 06 Canning Stock Route Trip

We did the canning south to north a few years ago and were the first group through for the season. If the spinifex is high you won't believe the amount of seeds that it sheds when you hit it with the front of the 4by. You need to wrap up the front of all vehicles with 50% shade cloth as carefully as possible. I had to take the radiator out of my troopie at Derba Springs and back blast it to remove the bl...dy things. Hint, have an air hose with a tyre valve fitting on one end, have the spare tyre at 60psi and use it for an air reservoir and blow the seeds out from the BACK of the radiator. Do not hose them, they expand when wet!
Have a great time and take it easy, there ain't no rush.

G`day Kelpie. One word of advice -for what its worth. Take one of those garden sprayers that holds about 10 litres of water. Can be obtained from Big W or Bunnings. Keep this full of water as it has a pump that can pressurize the bottle. Its just a garden sprayer used for killing weeds. Every few Km get out and check for any spinifex that may have been caught up around your exhaust sytem. If there is a large amount of Spinifex tangled up around the exhaust and you see smoke coming from underneath, get the pump out and place the nozzle in the direction of where the smoke is eminating from, and give it a quick spray with water .There is the remains of a burnt out Ford Explorer which caught fire owing to the build up of spinifex under the exhaust sytem, particulary around the catalytic converter and the silencer. A pair of gloves is essential to remove the spinifex, without burning your hands, and an old wire coat hanger is useful for probing around and getting the remains out. Would hate to see you stranded there with a burnt out vehicle. Also an old burnt out Land Rover sufferd the same fate. I take our garden sprayer everytime we go bush . Have safe trip. Will be doing the Canning trip in 2008 in August. All the best

Thanks for the helpful advice. I'll head off to Bunnings this weekend and pick up the garden sprayer. I've got some spare shade cloth in the shed, so I'll sling that in the back as well.

plenty of wet weather this year, check the c.s.r site for track conditions.
the ford exploder was in front of us in 2003 ,by a couple of days, lucky they were towards the end of the track,(more danderous being petrol vehicle which that was)