2008-09-16 Derby Wapet Road
Early in the morning I said goodbye to the people in Birdwood Downs and set out for the big desert trip. My plan for this day was to reach Sandfire Roadhouse, only 45 km away from the start of Wapet Road, the beginning of the desert track. Since I left early and the road was bitumen all the way I reached SAndfire Road House (appr 500 km) around two o’clock. I filled the two fuel tanks and another four jerry cans for maximum range. I had in total 340 litres of diesel fuel on board. That should be enough to get me to the southern end of the Canning Stock Route.
I travelled the first 60 km on Wapet Road and made camp on the junction with an even smaller and overgrown track. It was one of the few places where I had enough space to put the vehicle with the front in the wind. And there is absolutely no other traffic.
This first part of the Wapet Road was easy. It is a narrow track, often only two ruts, but in reasonable condition with only a few rocky places and hardly any soft ground.
2008-09-17 Wapet Road Crossing to Swindell Field
Sofar Wapet Road turned out to be an easy track as far as driving is concerned. There were a few short sections with soft sand where 4WD was necessary, but went alright without lowering the tyre pressure. Then there were sections with wash outs which I had to negotiate carefully. Some sections had really bad washouts, but there was a parallel track, obviously formed by other vehicles passing through. The dune crossings were easy as well, the dirt track continued over the dunes, there were serious wash outs on the slopes, but easy to avoid. The challenge is in the fact that the track is really remote and that there is no other traffic.
The scenery changes often. It is desert country, the Great Sandy Desert. Typical for Australia’s deserts it is full of vegetation, even healthy looking gum trees which need a bit more water than the real desert vegetation. I did not see much wild life: the occasional lizard and two dromedaries. I spotted no birds at all.
Somewhere along the track the map showed a windmill with a water tank and suggests that water is available. That must have been a long time ago. The whole lot is in a deplorable state. It is also suggested as a campsite. The location is not bad, but the debris laying around made me decide to go somewhere else. I proceeded to to Swindell Airfield, a since long deserted airstrip with the vegetation taking over again, although the airstrip can still be seen clearly. Also the mast is still there where in better days had been the wind sock.
The weather is good. A hot sun, air temperature was good during the day with plenty of wind. During the night it cooled down to 15 degrees or so.
2008-09-18 Swindell Field CSR Well 32
Wapet Road maintained its quality, no difficult spots, a few washouts which were easy to avoid. Traveling slow, which means 40 – 50 km/h, makes it a relaxing trip. I came upon a windmill with water tank. The windmill was running but not connected to the pump. Amazingly, the water tank contained plenty of good water. I filled up my bush shower and had a shower there and then. It took a filled bush shower with me for another shower in the evening. What a luxury in the desert!.
The next windmill along the track was in perfect working order, connected to a water tank and signposts indicating its position, about a kilometer from the track.
At Rocky Knoll Wapet Road joins the road to Punmu and further on Marble Bar to the west and Kunnuwarritji, on the Canning Stock Route, to the east. This is a wide, well graded road, as good as any well maintained dirt road in Australia, which made the last part to Kunnuwarritji a quick and easy run. On this road I came upon three locals from Kunnuwarritji with a flat tyre and missing parts of there jack. I lent mine and found out they were on their way to Port Headland, quite an expedition with their vehicle which was in a deplorable state of maintenance. When I told them I came from Wapet Road, the first thing they asked was if I had found the windmill with the water tank, typical the most important question for a man who lives in the desert all his life.
At Kunnuwarritji I calculated that I had plenty of fuel to reach Wiluna, so there was no need to by very expensive fuel. It does pay after all to be able to carry 340 litres of diesel. I therefore went straight on the Canning Stock Route, which looks well used and was very corrugated. The first well I came upon was Well 32, only ruins left. Opposite Well 32 is a short track to Mallowa Native Well, a depression in the desert with a native well, which did not contain water at this time. It makes a fine camp site however so this is where I stayed for the night.
2008-09-19 CSR Well 32 Thring Rock
I visited two wells, both ruins, another native well without water at the surface but clearly close under the surface by the look of the trees and a cave. This cave apparently holds water. However, the entrance collapsed recently so the water is no longer accessible.
This part of the desert is rocky, also the track is rocky. After passing Well 30 the surface becomes more sandy and the track has several dune crossings. Here I had to lower the tyre pressure.
There are large rocks between the dunes. I made camp at the base of Thring Rock, which is a nice lookout over the surrounding desert.
Traveling is not difficult but slow. When the track is nit rocky or soft, it is corrugated. The scenery changes all the time, there is a great variety of vegetation, ranging from 10 cm high grasses to 10 m high trees where water is closer to the surface.
It is obvious that this track is well traveled, but I was traveling out of season. After joining the Canning Stock Route I did not meet anybody, neither did I hear another party on the UHF radio.
The weather remains great. At night it is cool, during the day it warms up to 30 or 35 degrees which is comfortable with the ever present wind. Early morning and at the end of the day the conditions are great to walk around or climb the rocks.
By this time the bush shower is as good as empty. Tomorrow I will pass an operational well, if the map is correct, so I can have a refill of it. It is quite a luxury to have a shower in the desert nearly every day. That was certainly different in the Simpson Desert.
2008-09-20 CSR Well 29 Well 26
In the morning I climbed the Thring Rock again for a good view over the desert and took a few more photos. I made a leisure start, filled the fuel tank from two jerry cans and did some estimate on fuel consumption to the Wiluna. So far there is no fuel shortage.
Most of the country is red sand with many dunes to cross, non very high or very steep. At a few places there are rocks like Thring Rock and there the track is rocky. I drove very carefully at those sections since the tyre pressure was still low for the sand and the dunes.
At the dune crossings the track often has some sort of an extension so that you can make speed to cross the dunes. I never use them, I just follow the lessons of Richard: the correct tyre pressure and then drive slow and steady. So far that never failed.
I stopped at all the wells and took photos. Most wells are ruins and closed, well 25 is not operational, but the well is there, you can see the water. It is not properly covered to prevent dirt and animals falling in and there is no windlass. You could get water here in case of emergency.
Well 26 is fully restored, including the trough for the cattle and a memorial and visitors book. I filled up my bush shower and made an early camp. Many people camp here, there is a separate site for the bush camps. I was here on my own. The previous party which made an entry in the book was three days earlier. For the month September there were 3 entries.
The camp site is nice, enough shade when the sun gets a bit lower.
The weather remains unchanged, only the wind has dropped a bit and disappeared completely in the evening. That was different the night before; there the wind blew during the night as well.
2008-09-21 CSR Well 26 Handpump Rudall NP
It was a busy day in terms of encounters with other travelers. The first encounter was with two people driving a truck and a Landcruiser ute underway to a geological expedition in the middle of the Gibson Desert, still some 1000km to go. They reckoned it would take them two days, I expect it would take them a lot more since they did not seem to have any relevant experience in driving with driving in soft sand and crossing dunes. And a big truck is not something you easily pull out of a bog.
The second party was two families, 5 vehicles in total, setting up camp at Georgia Bore, where a hand pump delivered excellent water. In a way it was amazing what they were occupied with. The men were rigging up tents and, shower tent and tinkered with the vehicles. Some of the women were doing the laundry. The children were carrying water from the pump to the camp. It looked like a nomadic tribe, only not with camels and wooden tools, but with cars and colored plastic buckets and so. They enjoyed themselves a good deal, doing the laundry with cold water from the pump and rigging up a line to dry the laundry between the branches of a tree. They came from the south and we exchanged experiences on the track still to travel. Again water and wells was the main issue. They seemed to rely a great deal on the water they would find underway. I do that differently. I carry enough water to live on for three or four weeks. The water I find underway is an extra for a shower, I use it for dishwashing and to wash the dust from the Troopy. All the same, I must admit that I am also attracted by water in this arid country.
The day began with a lot more dune crossings and corrugated tracks in between. I crossed several clypans as well. After passing Well 23 the country there were no more dunes, Instead the track became rocky passing along low ranges.
Well 24 is in ruins, but the well itself is still there and it contains water very close to the surface, not more them 30 cm under ground level. I guess this is because it is all rocks around the well and the water is caught in a sort of underground rock hole.
Georgia Bore is not one of the original wells. It is a leftover from a geological expedition. When the expedition left, the company decided to change the well into a hand pump as a service to all the traveler. Later that day I came upon two more hand pumps, installed as a service to passing travelers.
I did not feel like camping at Georgia Well because of the number of people already there. At this point I decided to make a detour to Rudall River National Park, some 100 km to the west. There is an aboriginal community where I can buy fuel to get to Wiluna, maybe they even have some sort of a general store so I can by some fresh food as well. Under way to this national park I met two Germans traveling in a Troopy. They just came from Rudall NP, confirmed that there was fuel in Cotton Creek, or Parnngurr as it is called now.
I made camp at the border of the Rudal NP at a bore with a hand pump. The campsite looks as the bed of a river with a long line of gum trees. My camp was under a gum tree at the foot of a red sand dune.
While I was there a vehicle full of aboriginal people, how can they get so many people in one car, stopped at the pump, they all had a drink and the left again. This also looked to me like very ancient behavior, only with a modern means of transport.
It took quite a while for the wind to drop in the evening. Then in the middle of the night the wind picked up again and increased considerably when the sun came up.
2008-09-22 Handpump Rudall River NP Desert Queen Baths
The accessible part of Rudall River NP is a rocky affair. The tracks traverse several ranges, where the erosion is well advanced there are stony plains, at some places there is red sand. It is rugged country. In terms of number of visitors it is certainly a lot more remote than the Canning Stock Route. Sandy desert looks friendlier to me, but is off course equally lethal when treated lightly.
The Rudall River and some more creeks cross the ranges. This is where the waterholes are. I visited several of these waterholes. The ones in the Rudall River were very small, muddy and smelly, clearly the end of the dry season. The tracks to these waterholes, all the tracks leading off the main track are narrow, sometimes soft and rocky at many places.
The Desert Queen Baths, at the end of a 19 km track, was a surprise. It is fairly large and deep, it is a gorge really, and contained clear and cool water. It does not warm up very fast because the gorge runs north/south and is therefore in the shadow for a fair part of the day. Also, the weather, or rather the air remains cool with a strong easterly wind that whistles through and around the rocks. The sun is strong enough to make it comfortable during the day, the temperature difference between day and night is at least 20 degrees, maybe more. All in all, it makes a great spot for a bush camp. Wood was at hand, so I spent the evening at a campfire.
I spotted two herds of dromedaries and one herd of donkeys. These were too far off for a photo. Further there is no wild life to be seen, not even birds. I saw a few dead dromedaries and even there were no scavengers or birds of prey, not even a lot of flies.
2008-09-23 Desert Queen Baths
I stayed at the Desert Queen Baths. In the morning I walked up the river and past a few more rock holes with water, one rock hole where I expected water was completely dry as if the water drained from the bottom. I stopped at a rock hole with steep cliffs at both sides; it would have taken an irresponsible amount of climbing to get past this place. However, according to the mad there are more rock holes up stream.
After this walk I made myself another breakfast and then took the Troopy across the valley to a ridge, which had a track to the top. I stopped at the bottom of the slope and walked up and followed the ridge to a saddle point. It was a place with good views, see some of the photos. It all looks very desolate.
Back in camp I walked up the ridge close by, then had a swim in the still very cold water and spend the rest of the afternoon reading a bit and just enjoying life in general. It was also a good time to shave with the warm from the bush shower.
2008-09-24 Desert Queen Baths Christmas Pool
I traveled about a hundred kilometers further north to where the map indicates Christmas Pool. This is a historical place. Aboriginal people have visited the place for ages, with grinding grooves in the rocks as a witness. For white people it is an historical place because some rescue expedition camped here during Christmas in the early 1900-s.
When I visited the pool was completely dry, again because it is late in the Dry.
I went back to make camp at Desert Queen Baths, just because I liked the place and did not fancy to drive to fat this day.
2008-09-25 Desert Queen Baths CSR Well 22
After a last dip in one of the Desert Queen Baths I backtracked to the Canning Stock Route. Underway I made the detour to Parnngurr (Cotton Creek) to buy fuel and food. Parrngurr is a small aboriginal community. Fuel was expensive and the store had a very limited choice of food. Enough though to get me to Wiluna. Fresh vegetables and fruits will have to wait.
Back on the Canning Stock Route I first stopped again at Georgia Bore. Someone was already there. We had a chat and then I moved on to Well 22 since I fancied a solitary camp again. Well 22 is just a hole in the grount and the remains of a trough. Some 100 meters away from the well is a good camp spot with view on a rocky hill, a sand dune and lots of gum trees.
2008-09-26 Well 22 Lake Disappointment
From Well 22 to the northern tip of Lake Disappointment, a large salt lake, is only 60 odd kilometers, passing quite a few dunes again and a few clay pans. The dunes were so soft that I had to lower the tyre pressure again.
The Canning Stock Route follows the shore line of Lake Disappointment. I soon came upon a beautiful camp site under desert oaks with view on the lake. Although not yet noon, I decided to stay here. The desert oaks give a whistling noise in the wind, different from other trees. I guess it is caused by the very thin leaves, or needles.
At my camp site, the lake is narrow. I walked across, taking photos on the lake and and on the dunes at the far site. Walking on the lake in the early afternoon is hot, the heat reflects on the white surface and therefore has twice as much impact as on dunes with vegetation.
Well 22 was completely in ruins, then I passed Well 21, the well is still intact, there is water but it is not covered and there is no windlass to get the water to the surface. With an operational well only a short distance away, I used one third of one of the spare jerry cans with water to fill the bush shower, so I could have a shower in the evening.
2008-09-27 Lake Disappointment FX15
I find the salt lake inspiring to take photos. I made a walk on the lake at sunrise. On this walk I found a hole that had been dug by a previous traveler. It was only 30 or 40 centimeters deep. It showed that the salt crust is as thick as 15 cm. Then follows black mud. The hole was filled with water; the water table is only 25 cm under the surface of the lake. The water is saturated with salt.
The track leaves the shoreline of Lake Disappointment. The scenery changes into red sand dunes again, this time with an open forest of desert oaks. Beautiful scenery. I passed two wells, nr 20 and nr 19. Both are completely ruins and easy to miss if you are not looking for them.
I made camp under a few big desert oaks between the sand dunes before reaching the next well.
My fresh vegetables and fruits are all finished, so dinner is now meat, rice and spices. And no desert either, that was finished a few days ago. It certainly adds to the feeling of being remote.
Yet, now and then I meet someone. The day before yesterday, after I left Cotton Creek, I met a bloke at Georia Well, traveling alone like me. Yesterday I did not meet anyone at all. This day after I made camp the bloke from Georgia Well came along the track. After a short chat he went on to find his own camp.
NB: FX15 is the number of geographical mark of which there are many along the track. It is just a block of concrete in the ground with a steel pin to indicate the position.
2008-09-28 FX15 Durba Springs
Shortly after I left camp I took a turn off east that brought me again to the shore of Lake Disappointment. The track followed the shoreline closely and gave again good opportunities to take picture of the salt lake. After 8 kilometers or so I turned back. The track probably went on for a long distance.
The next turnoff was to Onegunya Rockhole. The track turned from sandy to rocky, not surprisingly. The rockhole was dry It probably lasts only a short time after rain.
Then there was well 18, according to the map restored and fully operational. The well was indeed in good order, with a closed lid to prevent dirt and animals from falling in, but no windlass and no bucket. Since I wanted to refill my water supply I used my own bucket and rope. I emptied one of the water jerry cans in the main water tank and then filled up this jerry can and the bush shower with water from the well. The water was clean, no funny smell, probably potable without cooking.
From Well 18 I went to Diebil Hills with Diebil Spring, a detour of 20 kilometer one way. The track turned from sandy with dunes into very rocky. The spring is situated at the end of a gorge, also here no water. The scenery was great with the great boulder and red cliffs. The way back had an interesting high and steep sand dune, I just made it to the top without further lowering the tyre pressure.
From the turnoff to Diebil Hills the track was wound its way over and between many sand dunes. These are not the neatly arranged long dunes but are crisscrossing through the landscape forming depressions with sanddunes all around. It was slow going and again beautiful scenery. I stopped at Killagurra Spring and Gorge, which serves as Well 17. There was very little water left. Although a nice camp site I had to negotiate a long section of very rough rocky track, I decided not to go there but take a 8 kilometer detour to Durba Spring of which I had heard that it had a great camp site under gum trees. This turned out to be true, I am sharing this large camp site with a party of 4 vehicles. There is a little bit of dirty water by the side of the camp, the spring is a few hundred meters further down the gorge. I postponed a visit there to the next morning, because the sun was so low that this gorge, which opens from the east, was completely in the shadows.
2008-09-29 Durba Springs Well 13
Before leaving I walked into the gorge to Durba Springs. It is really a rock hole. It has not been flowing for many years, I guess there has not been enough rain to saturate the rocks enough to keep the spring going in dry times.
My first stop was Biella Springs, a place similar to Durba Springs, only the spring itself is a kilometer or so upstream from the end of a very rocky track. I walked part of the way, found some water and decided not to walk the hole way since I expected not to find more water anyway.
Cannings Cairn is about the highest hill of Durba Hills, the track passes close by. It is possible to climb the hill, I decided to be satisfied with a low hill, which gave a good view anyway.
After a few more wells and filling up on water at well 15 I made camp at Well 13. It is a good site, plenty of places with shadow. The well itself is completely in ruins.
This section af the track has still a few sand dunes, but most of it is either rocky or red mud. At places the corrugation was really heavy. It was another day of often changing scenery, even areas with gibber.
2008-09-30 CSR Well 13 Well 6
A final change of landscape today. I had to cross one or two low sand dunes. I entered cattle country again. The track and the terrain is mostly hard red mud, sometimes passing through clay pans and skirting two salt lakes. It was also corrugation day, the worst I experienced so far, not so much the size of the corrugation but the total length of corrugated track.
The wells are anchor points, some of them totally in ruins and only a shallow hole left, some with water still there but otherwise in shambles, some, specifically Well 6, beautifully restored. All these wells give the luxury of a shower every day, different from my other desert trips.
When I decided to bring the pressure of the tyres up my compressor failed. I took it apart and found that one of the spring valves was completely gone. Since there are two valves in parallel I closed one valve with the tank repair kit, let it harden out, put the compressor together again and yes, it works. We will see how long it holds, I can always repeat the repair. I probably have to be in a big city to have it repaired properly.
Well 6 is a great camp spot with many shady places under gum trees. There is even a pit toilet with a battery/solarcell operated light and some electronic equipment to count the number of visitors.
2008-10-01 CSR Well 6 Well 3
Todays section of the Canning Stopck Route was mostly flat, all hard dried mud. The scenery changes frequently again: gibber plain, small rocks, big rocks. There were a few dry creek crossings. And of course a few wells to visit.
I passed a Windlich Spring, a large waterhole, where I had lunch.
I met a few interesting people. First a couple, retired, sold there house and were now traveling outback Australia and moving from station to station to do the odd job for keep and feed. They said they could spend the next 200 years in this area because all the property owners would like to use their services. Now they took a week or so off to visit the good places around the Canning Stock Route. The were obviously very pleased with life.
At Well 3 where I made camp, I met a bloke I had met two times earlier. We shared a beer or two and talked about the good things of life. He traveld around in his Troopy, is not exactly retired but only works when he feels like it. Sounded familiar.
2008-10-02 Well 3 Wiluna
In the morning I shared a cupper with Warren and he told that he was a motor mechanic by trade. Since I did not trust the adjustment of the front wheel bearings of my Troopy I ask him his opinion and after feeling the front wheel said the indeed they needed adjustment and that he would be glad to do it immediately since he was carrying the right tools. I accepted gladly, learned how to do it and liked the ‘bush repair’. In all honesty, many workshops in the small townships differ only in the fact that these have a roof and two walls, often not even four walls.
After the repair I left for Wiluna, the last section of the Canning stock route. Well 2A is dug out of solid granite. Was not really a well but a man made rockhole. It is not that big, no water in it at this time. Well 2 is still in use but now with a windmill. There is plenty of water in a tank, continuously kept full by the windmill.
A kilometer or so from Well 2 the Canning Stock Route ends on a pretty good dirt road to Wiluna, the last 38 km only took half an hour.
Wiluna is the usual aboriginal settlement. It is one of the larger ones, it looks as though some small mining operation is in progress not far away, so there are also quite a few white people. There is a supermarket with fresh vegetables, fruits and yochurt, just great to fill up the fridge again. I was seriously beginning to miss the fresh stuff. Canned meals become boring very fast.
I had a first go at my e-mail, but is was to late to go through all of it. I made camp at the caravan park, where of course Warren turned up again as well. The park is expensive for the quality and facilities, on the other hand the use of the washing machine is free, which makes up for a few bucks.
And that was the end of the trip on Canning Stock Route. It certainly came up to my expectations. It was the longest (2300 km) and most remote trip I made so far. Because of its length the scenery changes regularly. I do not find it a difficult trip in terms of four wheel driving. It is comfortable in terms of water supply; with a bit of planning you can have a shower every day. There are many nice and shady camp spots. It is certainly remote in terms of food and fuel supply, the same goes for communication. I did not find it remote in terms of other traffic. I met other parties every two or three days. It is after all an attraction for all four wheel driving Australians and foreign visitors. And it is good to think of the achievement of the early explorers who build the route and all the wells when no one had been there before, there were no maps, no GPS and no 4WD vehicles with all sorts of luxury.