Our Trip

Day Four

Well, I'm finally getting around to 

day 4 of our trip, for those who are

still interested! Been a little busy round here of late.

Below is a map of the actual Canning Stock Route

in perspective, for those who are clueless as to 

where it is (as I was before we started planning this trip)

As you'll see in another map photo soon,

we actually had to detour from this a little

(only 600km), due to impassable flooding on the track,

so the actual route looks a little different, but you 

get the picture. 

Oh, and this is all desert too! Awesome isolation. 

We passed through the Sandy, Little Sandy and

Gibson Deserts and later on the Great Victoria Desert. 

Well, day 4 saw us leave our pretty lagoon and 

get back onto the roughest corrugates we have ever

encountered in our travels throughout the years. 

With the sand flags now on and the tyre pressures

down, we headed off. 

By the way, you're going to see a lot

of 'road' and 'track' pictures in these posts, 

because, I mean, well, duh! that's the point of 

the trip! It's an old stock route, so...……That and 

the fact that we couldn't continually stop and take pictures

or we'd never get anywhere, and also, once you got your 

speed up on those corrugates, you just kept on going,

no sparing the horses or it would be ba bump, ba bump,

bump bump bumpity bump to pick up the pace once more. 

Not fun. Especially in our old girl whose horses had already

got up and left, so she was left in Emilee's dust. Sigh. 

The country and scenery changed continually

and sometimes spectacularly ! 

You'd come over a rise and wow! the country stretched on and on. 

And way off in the distance, you'd see a couple of dust clouds that

only proved to Dave and I how far behind we were, 

but we didn't care, we were happy rattling along in our trusty,

old beast. 

Thankfully, with radios, we were able to keep

in constant contact and those ahead let 

us know of what surprises lay up the track,

or which fork in the road to take. 

Signposts weren't plentiful out there, but

we didn't get lost. 

Sometimes, the road would branch into 2 or 3

as people who'd gone before had blazed a new trail

to try and get out of the corrugates or mud or whatever,

so you just picked a line and hoped it was the smoothest one! 

Note to self: don't change your mind, 

mid track, as to which road you want to 

take. Dave nearly had us topsy turvy a 

couple of times and Emilee and our fellow travellers 

had some interesting tales to tell as well! 

As you can see in the above photo, 

one of our step treads decided to crack

(as did the other one a couple days later)

due to the rough roads, so from then on,

Dave and I didn't have much conversation,

as it was pretty much, "WHAT??" " I said, oh, never mind"

We couldn't hear anything but the rattling and banging of

the step treads bashing against the side of the car. 

(At the end of all the posts, I'll post a video so you can

experience the sights and sounds a little better

and you'll get to hear the noise it made)

Often, when we would stop, I'd jump up onto the

roof and snap a few quick pics of the scenery to 

get a better perspective. 

 Well, we finally made it to the very first well

(or last, actually, as we did the trip backwards)

Well 51. Most of the wells on the old stock route

are in disrepair and just ruins, but they have fixed 

up quite a few, as you'll see later, that have good and 

plentiful water. 

We were glad to get out and explore a little

and have a break from the bumpy road. 

Once we arrived at Well 49, where we would 

camp for the night, we discovered how bad the fuel

leak from one of the fuel drums on Emilee's ute

really was (after watching it drip off the tray most of the day).

The continual corrugates had busted the base of the drum enough

to cause a leak that spread to everything on the tray. 

Swags, clothes bags, tool boxes etc. 

So, Dave and Em and Kon spent the afternoon

emptying the drum into the cars and jerry cans,

sanding the tray to soak up the fuel and 

fixing the problem. 

All an adventure. (at least our firewood would burn well)

We also met up with our first south bound travellers,

in a convoy of 5 vehicles. 

While all this was going on, Maddy and Chloe and I

began the handwashing of our filthy clothes. 

This particular well was restored so it was great to

get things cleaned up. 

With the beautiful weather, we washed and dried everything

and even got a cold shower from a tank they had there. 

 If you're wondering what that trailer is,

well, it's the, um, toilet waste. Yeah, great huh?

It was a drop dunny that empties into a trailer,

that when full, there's a nice little sign telling you

to hook it up and go and bury it at a designated spot. 

Just glad, none were full on the trip so we didn't have to do it. 

Anyway, below is what most of the restored

wells looked like. 

You lower the bucket down, by cranking the handle,

then you dip it in the well, and crank it up again. 

Simple as that. Then you fill up your buckets, 

pour some water into the trough, if there's one, for the animals,

and go on your way. 

Some of the wells were VERY deep,

so you wouldn't want to fall in. 

As always, the skies were epic and 

the colours were beautiful. 

And so ended another long, tiring but awesome day. 

And below is what happens when you try to get a star

shot with campfire smoke getting in the way. 

Kind of eerie, huh? 

But, the Milky Way lived up to 

it's reputation once again and didn't disappoint. 

If you take a look at our Australia Map,

that hangs on the wall in our dining room,

you'll see all the travels we've done around Australia

as a family. And the red circle is our latest trip!

See the little detour loop? Yeah, well that was fun

and another adventure you'll hear about in days to come. 

So, I hope those of you who are still with me,

are enjoying the trip photos and descriptions. 

There's so much I'm leaving out 

(for which I'm sure you're glad),

but seeing it all just proves over and over

what a great God we have! 

What an awesome God to have created

such beauty for us to enjoy! 

Nehemiah 9:6 

 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.