Hi gang,
Just got back from a 5 week trip down the CSR. We left
Perth and drove via
Marble Bar and
Broome to the Bungles, back to
Halls Creek, then down the CSR taking in
Helena Spring, Separation
Well, Deibel Hills,
Calvert Range,
Carnarvon Range and other side tracks in between.
The track into Helena was clear and easy to follow – thanks Mick O for your efforts earlier in the season.
The CSR is getting a lot more traffic nowadays, we didn’t need a spinifex blind, the spinifex just doesn’t get a chance to grow.
Saw more then 160 vehicles on the CSR alone, most were from NSW or Vic. I guess they know a good place when the see one – lol. Met quite a number of European tourists as
well – difficult at times to understand them over the UHF.
Also saw some crazy things - like a guy with Rangie towing a tandem trailer carrying an absolute heap of gear as
well as three 200 litre drums of fuel. Not sure how far he got before he struck problems with the dunes and mechanical probs. Hopefully he got thru and if he did get thru hopefully without tearing up the dunes making passage for others even worse than they are now.
Corrugations -
well they are getting worse each season, because of more traffic and the “make sure your tyres are pumped up hard so you don’t get a puncture” thinking. One guy driving a current model V8 Tojo Ute couldn’t get up a dune - we suggested he let his down tyres. So he did - when he finally got over – he said “letting the down to 36 PSI does make a difference doesn’t it”. Down to 36 PSI!!! We did the whole trip down the CSR at around 20 to 25 PSI.
Another item of note was the rapidly increasing number of campers on the back of utes i.e. snail like. A lot of thought has gone into some of these creations. However some I reckon are far too heavy and big for rough travel and are more suited to ‘lounge chair type touring’ on tar roads. However it seems to be a rapidly growing market and I expect more and more will grace our remote areas in the future.
The country especially the upper two thirds of the CSR is very dry, the driest I have ever seen it. Many trees have died and many others looked under stress by dropping leaves. Durba
water levels were way down on normal.
The final wash up
1. 7500 kms
Perth to
Perth
2. 2900 kms between
Halls Creek and
Wiluna
3. Four vehicles 2 x Tojos and 2 x Nissans did the trip
4. We got a total of 3 punctures on the CSR.
5. One of the Nissans almost tore a rear right coil spring mount off the chassis and one Tojo cracked a cross member support under the ute tray on the rear left. Both were fixed via 12 volt battery welding and some bits of steel plate and angle we were carrying.
6. Lots of small items needed tightening e.g. roof racks, battery clamps and so on.
7. Fencing wire also came in very handy to twitch up rattles, exhausts and the like.
I had ball and am glad to be home and rest – but I’m off again in 5 weeks for a 2 week trip around the Gascoyne with another group of mates.
cheers
Phil