Hi all,
Just got back from a 10 day desert trip out in the Little Sandy
Desert.
Went from
Newman to
Jigalong,
Puntawarri Track to
Durba Hills
(CSR),
Calvert Range to
Eagle Hwy to Gunbarrel Hwy to
Wiluna. 3200 kms
all up, averaged 14.5l/100kms.
Four vehicles on the trip- My Landrover D2, a 6.5 Chev V8 diesel Range Rover,
100 series and Troop Carier. Five flats on the trip, 3 on the Troopy
with split rims, one of my MTR's and one of the Coopers on the 100
Series.
I also had my air bag's start leaking. First off the LH side which I
replaced with a spare I was carrying. Six days latter the RH side
started going down over night. Did the rest of the trip ok with it.
It would only start going down when I climbed up into the rooftop
tent at night.
Also broke the arm of the LH ride height sensor. Ran over a branch
which flicked up under the car and punch a hole straight through the
mud flap and snaped the plastic end of the lower arm off. Only notice
when the car started topping out on the shock with the left side of
the car lifted to it's max height setting. I repaired the arm with
some super glue and reenforced it with 3 cable ties and some duck tape
( 20 min and back on the road).
Past two vehicles on the
Puntawarri Track towing trailers with quad bikes. They had come from the
Eagle Hwy-
Calvert Range the week before. They had a lot of trouble finding the track from Ngarinarri Clay pan to Mt Madley to Birill
Rock hole. They must of bashed a new track for most of that section. You could see were they had been criss-crossing
the Desert buy the wider tracks their trailers left behind. Going west to east was much easier for us to navigate the older tracks with Ozi explorer running on the laptop, basicly just following the track to each rockhole or
native well.
Aparently the Rangers were out at the Calvert Ranges checking permits the week before we got there. We had all the permits but did not see anyone out there. Had a nice refreshing swim at
Yowyungoo Gorge at Constance headland,
water was about 8 DegC.
We were going to go down to
Empress Spring but cut back to
Wiluna when my second air spring started leaking(did a minor repair with some superglue to slow the leak down). The 40 kms of the
David Carnegie Road we did do was in excellent condition with a bit of
water and plenty of camels. We were lucky this year with great weather and no rain. The easterlys have just started blowing again back home here in
Karratha.
Regards
Glen.