Camp Trailer & Canning Stock Route

Hi Mary,

Can't help with your Camper type, however we did from Well 33 to 5 in July August this year and had a great trip.

We travelled north to south on advice from a couple of experienced travellers, and I'm pleased we did. The dunes on the section we travelled were a lot 'easier' approached from the north side. As well as that when travelling from the north you have the sun behind you all day rather than beating in through the windscreen all day.

Tips based on our experience are,

Keep weight to a minimum, easy to say hard to do!
Reduce tyre pressures and then again, we ran 18psi front, 20psi rear and 18psi on trailer, and I really think we could have been 2psi lower on each axle.
Be absolutely vigilent with your radio, know exactly where you are and keep calling travellers in the section you are travelling. The majority travel S to N which meant we had 3 scary moments where people did not know where they were on the track or simply did not respond to radio calls.
Don't set your daily travel target too high, we found 4-5 wells was enough.

Overall a fantastic trip, incredible country, our 'side' trip to Rudall River Ntl Park was also great.

Hope this is of interest.

Rob.

Mary,

It can get very cold of a morning, below 0 most of the time but because it is dry it does not feel that cold.

When I have done the trip I have gone south to north and the sun in the eyes is not a real problem.

I take 20 days to do the full trip and that includes a few rest and repair days.

It is a pity that you have to tow a camper as you will miss the best part of the trip and that is the stars of a night.

You also haven't said what type of vehicle you are driving, it would be hard work for a 4cyl vehicle at that time of year. The track will be chopped up by then.

The weather can vary quite a bit, I have done trips on the CSR where it has been raining and other years very hot. If it is cool or high humidity the dunes will be easier to cross, but if it is hot the sand will be soft and can cause problems.

I will also be heading up the CSR (south to north) in July next year, so our paths might cross.

Wayne

The problem I see with any trailer on the CSR is the difficulty in backing out when getting stuck on a dune. The further north one travels the higher and more multi humped the dunes get. I got stuck on two of them - no trailer, just the troopie - because I had stopped on the flat part between the humps to take a picture - twice!
Got going again by shoveling and putting sand grids (just ordinary 50 x 25 mesh, 6 pieces of 400 x 1800 ea) under the wheels.

Plan for getting stuck and have a way to get going, especially if you need to disconnect the trailer for that.

Mary B2

Our reports

Thread ID #71971

Thread ID #72655

Thread ID #73014

And finally some Video's
Thread ID #75237

We did it, with our Trak Shak, 4.7 tonne fully loaded. 320 lts or 340 lts of fuel, and 140 lts of water.
We actually Travelled Nth from Well 5, cut out into the Pilbra, from Well 33 to Nullagine and Marble Bar, then up to Broome and the Kimberley.
We then rejoined the Canning from Billiluna, headed Sth to Well 33, and turned out along the Gary Junction Rd, back to Alice and home.

Have a read of the threads and enjoy the videos
If we can help in any way just emai me bloh@iinet.net.au
Cheers
Bucky

MaryB2,

We drove the Canning from south to north in June/July this year. We took 18 days from North Pool to Billiluna, so averaged about 100km per day which seemed to be a pretty good pace. Some days we only did 70km and other days we did 140km depending on the terrain and what there was to see along the way. We had two two night stops to have a rest, one at Durba Springs and one at Well 49 (not a great camp spot but plenty of water for washing).

We met some people coming from the north towing camper trailers who were trying to average 150km plus per day but they just couldn't do it, it was beating them and their vehicles up too much.

In regards to the climate, I only have the one trip to base my experience on but it was quite cold at the bottom end - zero or below some nights up to 15-16 during the day - and got warmer at the top end - high 20's during the day. I have heard of it being much colder and much warmer so I'd pack for it to be zero or below overnight and cool during the day. You can always strip layers off when it gets hot.

In regards to direction, I don't remember any issues with the sun in our eyes heading north. It seemed to me that the dunes were of similar steepness in both directions but for reasons I can't explain the southern side of many dunes was really chopped up whereas the northern side was relatively smooth. Maybe its just more people going south to north? This made it a rough trip up an over many of the bugger dunes at the northern end and we used low range many times, not because we needed the grunt but simply to be able to go slow enough to prevent being knocked around.

As for the camper trailer, while at the end of the day it's each to their own, I wouldn't tow one on this trip. There will be plenty of people who have done it and good for them, but it will make the drive much harder. I have seen vidoes of people towing campers (two of them had 100 series cruisers) and speed and length of run up they needed to get over the dunes is silly. You will see the "run-up" tracks at each dune for those towing trailers. You would know that towing also requires significantly more fuel to be carried which adds to vehicle weight which compounds the problem more.

Like any sand driving tyre pressures are critical and the lower the better. Once we hit the dunes after well 9/10 I dropped my tyres to 16 psi and left them there.

Good luck and have a great trip.

Its a long track Mary as reflected in the conditions we encounted in our trip last july.

We only took 10 days, travelling with some other cars, all of which sleep in
or on their cars. This gives you a real edge over those travelling with trailers and
also means you can travel the entire length.

A combination of weather and other people meant we didn't find anywhere worth stopping at longer than overnight.

Our trip began at the Southern end where it was quite warm almost 30 and
the driving was quite tame but we had ice on the ground once or twice.

By the end of the 10 days a lot of rain had fallen and it was cold and wet
and a real battle to get thru the last 100km which was constant mud ruts
and newly formed lakes.
We would not have got thru with trailers - the cars took quite a beating
with mud encrusted salt leaving permanent scars.

Still, for us the challenge made the trip worth while.


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Hi MaryB2
Just to let you know, you cannot take a trailer of any sort pass Well 5. does not matter which way you do the CSR. So if start at Wiluna you have to go though Granite Peak or if you come from Halls Creek you still have to go though Granite Peak, you can not do 1-4 as the Station owners do not allow trailers on that part of the CSR. If you would like more info on that part of the CSR you can me at the Shire.

Regards
Debra McNeill

Hi Garry
No I can not, but if you would to contact the station owners, the station is Cunyu station and talk to them they will give you more info.
Cheers Debra