Tuesday, September 4, 2012

TRIP to CANNING STOCK ROUTE DAYS 44-45 - Tanami


24 July 2012

STAGE 3 CSR Day 23 and STAGE 4 West to East Day 1

BILLILUNA, TANAMI

 Hubby had decided that we needed an early start today in order to have enough time on Friday in Alice Springs before certain offices closed for the weekend. So I was expecting to say goodbye and leave before everyone else. To our utter surprise everyone decided to join us for the early start so that we could all drive out together to the Tanami. How magic was that to finish this part of the trip together.


Jenny and Harry
Chris and Gary
 Us

We drove into Billiluna, topped up with fuel and together drove out to the Tanami.

Our last photo shoot together by the sign before we headed east and the other two Oka’s west. It was hard to say goodbye. I am sure we will keep in touch and maybe do another trip together.


The Tanami Track was very different this time round to that we travelled on four years ago. It is in reasonable condition particularly to NT border. After that there were several more corrugated sections but overall it was a ‚highway‘.


The mine seems to have expanded mid way along the track. An airport with several large jets and many road trains going up and down to Alice suggest it is a busy place.

Instead of having two nights on the Tanami we only had one as we made such good time on the track. Before we knew it we were in Alice Springs on Thursday mid afternoon.





TRIP to CANNING STOCK ROUTE DAY 43 - CCR


24 July 2012

STAGE 3 CSR Day 22

well 51 - Weriaddo, Guda Soak, bloodwood bore (110km)

A leasurely start as we headed towards the gorge and to search for the soak. We never found the soak but the gorge was spectacular.




We seem to be dragging our feet a bit today as if trying to prolong the trip.

We travelled to Well 51. The original well has been abandoned.



A group shot was called for here and we put our Oka numbers on the drum for posterity.




We detoured a little to visit a bore that was not part of the original track. The track today was corrugated. No sand dunes of note.

As soon as we pulled up for the night at Bloodwood Bore a lone motorcyclist pulled in. 

 We heard about his trip and compared notes as we enjoyed the last campfire on the Canning.

As we travelled today I thought about this experience we had had of travelling the Canning.

1,838 Kilometres of track through a very remote part of Australia. 1,838km of spinifex country, desert, sand dunes (they claim 900 we didn’t bother counting), woodlands, corrugations (everywhere it was flat, except for 7km across one claypan) and so far from anywhere. An incredible trip.

The highlights of the trip were many. We had the best company you could imagine. There was great team work, great companionship and friendships forged. When we met at Curtin Springs we were strangers. Now we were the best team – a most amazing group to travel with - friends. It was an incredible journey with this team of wonderful people - Garry and Chris from Oka 306 and Harry and Jenny from Oka 45. Jenny and I even share the same birthday. What a coincidence. We are six very different personalities but whilst travelling we came together as a great team and really bonded well. Whenever maintenanca or repairs were under way everyone pitched in. Thank you to you all for this wonderful experience we’ve had.

Other highlights included Pierre Springs, Durba Spring, Georgia Bore the constantly changing landscape, the amazing colours of the vegetation, the birds, the abundance of flowers and of course our campfires at the end of every day but one. I enjoyed crossing the hundreds of dunes but definitely did not enjoy the corrugations. The night sky was just glorious and the stars were just so bright. A beautiful canopy above us. During the day the bright blue sky with wispy clouds or corrugated like effect was just beautiful and provided such a strong contrast to the red, sandy or rich brown soil, the multitude of greens, and the reds, pinks, violet, yellows of the flowers.

I was disappointed to see as much traffic on the track as we did and expected the dunes to be more challenging. What annoyed me most on the trip – the negatives – wind, wind, wind and corrugations. It also seemed as if I was constantly getting dirty on this trip and I couldn’t figure out why. I didn’t touch anything to do with the mechanical side of things but I ended up with not oly reds on my clothes but black smuges as well. „Go figure“ as my grandchildren would say.

Particularly as we travelled through the burnt out sections you could feel a sense of desolation. Walking in that scrub felt very hot and you realised how quickly you could feel parched. Even though there was traffic on the track there was a feeling of isolation. Many we met were on a schedule and zooming down or up the track, not having much time to chat as they had to do their 120km or so that day. We took three weeks to cover the length of the track in a very leasurely manner.

The history of the track also brought home the resilience, determination and perserverence of the those surveying the track, building the wells and the drovers bringing the cattle down the track. Not an easy life they led.


Monday, September 3, 2012

TRIP to CANNING STOCK ROUTE DAYS 41-42 - CSR


22-23 July 2012

STAGE 3 CSR Days 20-21
BREADEN HILLS, BREADEN POOL, GODFREY’s TANK, Well 48 – Yawalyawul, well 49 – Lampu, well 50 – jikarn (82 km)

A howling wind came in at night and was around till about 9:00 am. It then calmed down to something stronger than a breeze but not quite a wind. Moving air is what it was.

After engines were reving, the usual morning call of „Gas off“ saw all the men jump out of the cabins and go around the side to turn off the gas. A frequent morning ritual. Rarely no one gets out at the call before moving off.

An interesting day today.





The Breaden Hills are just spectacular. One looked like it had a chimney top.


Wind and water over thousands of years had carved the hills into interesting formations. A short walk into Breaden Pool revealed a lerge rock hole/cavern. When the rain comes it would be a beautiful sight as water falls would run into the pool.



A bit further on on the other side after a climb over a rocky hill and a walk was Godfrey’s Tank. I chickened out of going up after climbing half way up. I was told that it was very interesting. Hubby took some photos so I could see the pertoglyphs that were on the rocks.


We met a convoy of three vehicles going south whilst here.

On the way to Well 48 we came across a flowering corktree. There are quite a few cork trees on the track but this was the first flowering one we had seen.



Well 48 was a depression in the ground where once had stood a well.

From Well 48 to 49 the spinifex was very green. You would think you could see fields of grass. How deceptive – it is the sharp spinifex. We are out of dune country and the landscape is quite flat.






Well 49 had good water and had been reconditioned. Not far from the well was the grave of Jack Smith who died droving in 1939.




Lots of termite mounds were in the vicinity of the well.

As we drove to Well 50 we got somewhat concerned as we could see smoke in the horizon. After sometime we determined that it seemed contained as it was not spreading. We camped not far from Well 50 on a claypan. No spinifex here. The earth is extremely dry – as if it has not seen rain for many years.





Some good logs were found so we had a good campfire and decided to have a lay day before continuing on and going our separate ways at the end of the track. At about 8:00pm the moving air hit again and we stood with our backs to the fire to warm up the back of our necks. Somewhat of a ritual by now.

Next morning four of us set off in search of the soak. After walking close to an hour we decided to head back. The temperature rises very quickly in the morning and it was getting very hot by the time we got back to camp 6.2 km later.

The men had quite a lay day until, after photographing the bottom of one Oka and then their own, someoone found a hair line crack via the photograph on the welding done earlier on the track. So several batteries were again hooked up and a weld was done to fix the problem.

Some of us again had the golden opportunity to have a shower but it ended up being quite a comedy. The water on the ground created a quadmire of mud. So the challenge became how to avoid getting it on yourself. So the second person had to bring an additional mat so as to avoid standing on the mud. But the gas ran out and we heard some shrieks as the second person copt a cold shower and quickly retired back to thrit van. By the time my turn came the mud was quite a problem. The gas bottle had been replaced and I enjoyed a very quick but pleasant shower.

I spent the day making bread, pavlova and organising our photos as we were all exchanging what we had taken. I had taken tons so I needed to cull drastically.

Our campfire tonight was absolutely to die for. Just fantastic. The accordion was out and pavlova was shared by all.