TRIP to CANNING STOCK ROUTE DAY 40 - CSR

21 July 2012

STAGE 3 CSR Day 19

WELL 45 – JINTY, JINTY, WELL 46 – KujuWarri (kuduarra) then track to Well 48 (118 km)

It is our son-in-laws 40th birthday today. We toasted him with Krupnikas and hope good vibes reach him from us.

Another windy day and the wind was cold. Several of us checked the campsite for dingo prints but there were none.

We entered termite country. It was interesting that in some swales they were everywhere – looking like a cemetary. Then the next swale would have none.

In other swales it is as if there is a magic line drawn in the sand with no mounds in front of the line and then thousands behind the line.

These termite mounds reminded me of the ones we had seen on Tanami Track four years ago.

At times the track was lined with groves of shrubs. At other times it was all burnt out.

A strong feeling of desolation hits you travelling through dry burnt areas. There is no sign of life and even no spinifex in places.

We did enjoy the short section without corrugations.

The landscape today was more varied although the driving somewhat monotoneous due to the ongoing corrugations. We crossed 29 dunes to get to Well 45. There is not much left of Well 45.

From Well 45 we soon came to a Jeep that was burnt out in April this year.

We seem to have taken the direct route to Well 46 when we intended to go the more scenic way via Mt Ford but we didn’t see the track. We passed through a ‚forest‘ and then came to gravelly, rocky track. We stopped to pump up the tyres before continuing through the rocky terrain.

We saw several camels today.

Well 46 has been restored and has water but there was no bucket for pulling it up.

There were lots of zebra finches flitting around. After lunch we travelled on. We decided to by-pass Well 47. We passed Gravity Junction and came to a Mount Romily from which there was a wonderful 360 view of the tablelands surrounding it. There were two tracks up. We all chose the less steeper track. A cairn on top provided an opportunity for a group photo.

We camped tonight about 18km south of Well 48.

The wire holding the spring in place snapped over the corrugations and the pump of the back water tank needed minor repairs to get it working. Nothing major – just little minor things keeping us on our toes.

Another great campfire tonight as we relaxed as the sunset over the horizon. Hubby got out the accordion and played whilst dinner was getting prepared.