2008-10-04 Mingol Camp Eagle Highway
I reached the beginning of Gunbarrel Highway three quarters of an hour after leaving camp. As far as I followed mit today it is a good dirt road. It looks as though there has been a grader not too long ago. I stopped at two lookout points and a few other places to take some photos. Since traveling the Gunbarrel is much faster than I had anticipated I decided on a detour to Empress Spring via Eagle Highway. Eagle Highway sounds serious but is no more than to ruts with low bush in the middle. There are a few washouts. Earlier travelers have formed detours so these are no problem. Since this track apparently carries very little traffic, there are practically no corrugations. Traveling is easy at a speed of 50 km/h. Empress Spring is 174 km from Gunbarrel Highway of which I covered about 100. I made camp by the side of the track at a place where there was a bit of an opening between the spinefex. It was early enough for the sun to warm up my bush shower. It is always great to have a shower at the end of the day. Hopefully Empress Spring contains water to fill up the bush shower again.
Today I spotted quite some wild life: a dromedarie, wallabies, several emus and many more birds than I have seen for a long time, under which an eagle which was feeding on a dead wallaby.
2008-10-05 Eagle Highway Hunt Oil Road
It was a cold and windy day with a clear blue sky. At the end of the afternoon I put on my fleece jacket against the cold and cooked and ate dinner in the Troopy.
Todays trip was satisfactory. The first stop was Empress Spring. It is a cave in which you descend via a chain ladder. There ought to be water at the bottom. Apparently it has been dry too long. The bottom was completely dry. From the spring to the Great Central Road the track was maintained. This part of the track is obviously used now and then. In the visitors book at the spring I saw that the previous visitor was a week earlier.
On the Great Central Road, as wide as a real highway and well maintained, I stopped at a roadhouse for bread and spririts for the fuel stove. I then proceeded to the turn off into Hunt Oil Road. On the map it is indicated as a maintained road, in reality it is again just a track with two ruts, vegetation in the middle and here and there wash outs. This track is hardly used. There are no detours around the washouts.
There is a bore with a hand pump along the track where I refilled the bush shower, probably a left over from the time there was actually oil drilling going on along the track.
I made camp around half past four just 20 meters off the track between the mulga trees.
2008-10-06 Hunt Oil Road Gunbarrel Highway
The morning was as cold and windy as the evening. During the day it warmed up a little bit, but with the strong wind it remained cool and it cooled down quickly at sunset. I guess that the advantage of the cool weather is that there are hardly any flies, last night not even other insects after sunset.
This section of the Hunt Oil Road was slow and beautiful. I find it amazing that all the springs and rock holes which I visit are dry and at the same time the desert is full of flowers. Wildlife is still minimal. I spotted a few dromedaries and two raptors which I could not identify and that was all.
The track is no more than two ruts, no corrugation, hardly signs of other traffic, and many washouts. I found some sort of visitor book by the side of the road, the last entry seemed to be January 2008.
This part of the Gibson Desert consist of large areas with spinefex or grass and than smaller areas with trees, most mulga.
Just past three o’clock I reach the Gunbarrel Highway again at Geralton Bore, where I made camp.
2008-10-07 GBH Geralton Bore Mangi Rockholes
This is the second day at a row where I did not meet anyone. I heard some conversation on the UHF but apparently they were far ahead and traveling faster than me.
Gunbarrel Highway is narrower from here on. It is mostly single lane, lots of corrugation and lots of parallel tracks which are corrugated as well.
The terrain changes often from rocky when crossing a hill or a range to mulga forest, to grass and on one short section red sand with a few low dunes. This part was very beautiful, flowers everywhere.
The Gunbarrel Highway has been surveyed and build by Len Beadell, a famous explorer/surveyor who lived from 1923 to 1995 and spend more then 40 years surveying outback Australia. On the Gunbarrel Highway there are quite e few memorials to him and places and hills named after him.
I made camp at Mangi Rockholes, no water again. This is no problem because at regular intervals bores have been sunk with a hand pump so there is in fact plenty of water available.
Then weather is changing. During the night there was a distant thunderstorm and I had a little bit of rain, however not even enough to leave marks on the Troopy. During the day the sky became overcast and the temperature of the air seems to have gone up a few degrees. To me it does not look like serious rain, it looks more like an inactive weather front.
Wildlife is still minimal. I spotted two dromedaries, a few wallabies and birds.
2008-10-08 GBH Mangi Rockholes Blazed Tree
The weather cleared up during the night, a clear blue sky in the morning. There was still a fair bit of wind which decreased during the day. At the end of the afternoon it was the occasional gust of wind. The temperature went up and remained comfortable after sunset.
I spotted again several dromedaries, also a young animal. They were too far away for a photo. It was again the only wild life apart from the very occasional bird.
The Gunbarrel Highway stops at Jackie Junction and then becomes the Old Gunbarrel Highway, abandonded according to the map. The first 100 km is however an excellent road leading to one or more aboriginal communities. On this section I towed a vehicle with three aboriginal man. They had been camping next to there vehicle for three days since it broke down. At the turnoff to their community another vehicle from that community came, so I left them to sort out there problems for themselves. There vehicle was in a state that it was amazing that it had come so far.
In an article I read about the Old Gunbarrel Highway that it was in a deplorable state and much the same as the Gunbarrel Highway itself, so why bother to travel it. The track turned out to be better than what I experienced for days and the scenery is absolutely beautiful. It is all light red sand dunes with all sorts of vegetation and large desert oak forests.
I made camp under the desert oaks quite early, since the end of the track is not very far anymore and by the look of the map camp sites will be less comfortable further on. It gave me plenty of time to warm up the bush shower and take a shower in the warmth of the setting sun.
2008-10-09 GBH Yulara
It was a fine morning which I enjoyed with lots of tea and a lazy breakfast. Once underway I found out that I was right in choosing my camp site. From there on I did not find a single good camp spot.
The end of the Gunbarrel Highway was only 80 km. A surprise at the end: a road sign saying that the road was closed and unsafe. By the look of it this sign must have been there for many years.
The Gunbarrel Highway end on the Great Central Road. That was 350 km well maintained and wide dirtroad to Yulara. Close to Yulara Kata Tjuta came in site. It was a feeling of home coming. Firstly, because it was the real and of three and a half weeks of real outback traveling was all bush camps except the one in Wiluna. Secondly because a visit to this place was one of the highlights of my first trip to Australia.
The camp site at Yulara is large and busy. In half an hour I saw more people and vehicles than in the four weeks before.
Wild life today was again limited to dromedaries and an occasional bird.
2008-10-03 Wiluna Mingol Camp
In the morning I filled the water tank, dealt with the remaining e-mails and filled both fuel tanks. With still four full jerry cans it will be enough to travel the Gunbarrel Highway and Great Central Road to Ayers Rock. I left Wiluna around eleven o’clock after saying goodbye to Warren again. We will probably see each other again on the Ann Beadell Highway.
The Gunbarrel Highway starts at Carnegie Homestead, 340 km from Wiluna. I traveled only 280 km and made camp at Mingol Crossing (crossing Brockman Creek), where there actually is a shelter, a woodstove, a few pots, a table and a few beds. Brockman Creek is not flowing but there is a large waterhole with indeed some birdlife.
It was certainly different to travel on a wide and well maintained track again: no sand, no rocks, no corrugation, keeping up a speed of 80 km/h is no problem at all. The track is deserted however, I met only to other vehicles, both traveling in opposite direction. It is no surprise that there is little traffic, the road is only the access to several stations, Carnegie Station is the last one. Ginbarrel Highway is practically only used by tourists/travelers and is not maintained. The forecast is that the corrugation will be very heavy.
