Our Trip

Day Ten 

WARNING:

Extra long post follows

(so grab a cup of tea and put your reading

glasses on, maybe grab a bikky too) 

Day Ten and there's still quite a few

days to go, but this is where our

Canning Stock Route trip took a little 

different, unplanned turn. 

The weather this morning was cold

once again, it looked liked we'd be

wearing our beanies and warm

jackets for a while longer. 

Not that we were complaining much,

as at least we weren't sweating it out during

the day, which was just as well, as showers weren't 

a regular thing. 

A fella and his wife pulled in late at night

and he came across in the morning to borrow 

our fire for his billy. Him and his wife do 

outback trips taking supplies to very isolated places.

(that is his billy in the photo)

I made sure I took a few more photos

of the windmill (I love windmills),

and the galahs were happy to pose for me. 

I had hoped, the night before to take a silhouetted star

long exposure photo over the windmill, but alas, 

with the extra vehicles turning up, that put 

an end to that idea with them shining their torches all around

and going back and forth to the tank to get water. 

Sigh. Another day, another windmill, another shot. 

While we were packing up, a truck rolled in 

from down the road at a work camp, 

to fill up his tanker with water. 

That's all fine and good, but we were just about

to fill up our water tanks and needed a fair bit. 

Dave had a chat to them and they said they'd make sure

they left the level above the pump. But, they took too much,

so then they kindly pumped some back in so we could fill up. 

This was a time consuming job, but we managed to 

be on our way to the community close by at 9am. 

We were all very excited to be going to 

a shop and seeing if they had cold coke! 

It was a little strange travelling on a wide,

pretty decent road after so long on 2 wheel tracks. 

We rolled into Kunawarritji and found that

they had a really nice new set of buildings with laundromat,

showers and toilets. That's ok, we had managed well

with our camp shower and hand washing all the clothes. 

It was a very small community and there 

wasn't many locals around. There was a very

cute little boy called Justin that I got to talk to

with his mum. 

Kunawarritji is the only place you can buy

fuel on the CSR and don't they know it! 

It's also the only shop, so the prices are exorbitant!

We paid a fortune for some mayonnaise 

(that was out of date in June 2017),

some more bottled water, bread, frozen sausages and yes a coke!

Because we were about to take a 600km detour

that we hadn't planned on, so we wanted to 

add to our stocks just a little in case. 

It was a pretty well stocked shop tho. We were like

kids in a lolly shop, looking at everything

and having our jaws dropping at the prices. 

They had some giant tins of jalepenos

and other odd things that we wondered who

in the world out there would buy them??

When we went to pay, their eftpos machine

was down and there was a Telstra man driving around

so we waited quite a while for him to fix it, as our friends

didn't have enough cash on them and we decided

that we would put 80 litres of fuel in the cruiser

just in case. 

Regarding the fuel price, well, 

hang on to your hats.

We paid...……….

$3.40 a litre!!

Yes you read that right. 

It cost us $272 for 80 litres of diesel. 

(interestingly enough, I sent this information

into our local paper in reply to an article

about fuel prices and they forwarded it to a newspaper

in Mt Isa, which saw me talking to a journalist 

who wrote a little story on it) 

Anyway, we also saw in the shop, that they had a coffee machine

of sorts, a pod machine. So we splurged on 

semi real coffee at $5 a pop. 

It took the lady sooo long to make it. 

She had to clean the machine and fiddle around

and get her trusty UHT milk.

Anyway, we realized that pod machine coffee

made with UHT milk is not very nice.

(but that didn't stop us doing it further down the road)

Desperate times call for desperate measures! We had been

surviving on coffee bags, which at least are better than instant! 

Well, after spending 2 hours in the community

we headed out. The seismic people were doing 

what they do and the road was like a highway to us.

Smooth and wide and stretched on forever. 

Which is why, an hour later, Dave and I had our first 

flat tyre? I mean, who gets flat tyres on rocky terrain,

sand dunes and corrugates? Nope, we get them on nice

smooth roads. Ha ha. 

It was so crazy. There was an extension cord

running down the side of the road with little connector

boxes all along. It was the weirdest thing to see.

The longest extension cord in the whole world I'm sure! 

Their big trucks did this strange stamping thing

and left imprints in the dust. Some geological thing. 

Regarding the detour:

the Canning Stock Route had had so much

rain in a certain section, that it was flooded and 

totally impassable so we had to skip quite a few wells,

and like I said, do a 600km loop around it. 

So, of course, now Dave and I have to go back 

and do that piece, it just doesn't look right on the map. 

If we hadn't done the detour tho,

we wouldn't have gotten to experience 

some of the excitement that you'll read about soon. 

After travelling a couple of hours,

we came to a little community called Punmu.

Now this community is a little bigger than the last

one, but on this particular day, they were having a massive

football game and there were 5 other communities that

had descended on the place, so it was pumping with action. 

We checked their store out too, as it 

was better supplied (even with roo tails)

We were able to buy a cold and very welcome 

ginger beer, as the road had been super dusty

(we don't have air con, so it's all windows down

and all dust in)

Anyway, now for the fun part. 

We were topping up again with some fuel,

after finding the man with the key for the bowser,

(only $3 a litre this time),

and what should come along, but a little 

tractor, pulling a whole set of 'carriages' 

made from metal drums, fitted with

a plank of wood for a  seat.

This was the local school bus! What?

How come they never had that when I went to 

school?? The 'bus driver' goes around each morning,

ringing his bell and rounds up the kids for school.

Then, in they hop and off they go to school. 

Well, when he saw us, he sung out to 

see if we wanted a "10 minute ride" to the footy 

oval, do a couple of laps, then he'd bring us back! 

You know, I hightailed it for my seat in the train!

I dragged Chloe with me and our friend and one

of her daughters jumped in too. 

(Maddy and Emilee were too mortified to even

consider it. Well, they missed out didn't they?)

We had the time of our lives!

We bumped along, picking up kids along the way,

all the way to the oval. Which when we got there, 

we realized that every single person, from 

each one of those 5 communities must have 

been sitting around that oval. It was packed!! 

So, here we are. White skins. Wearing cowboy hats,

sticking out like sore thumbs, waving to people as we

passed by, taking photos and thoroughly enjoying ourselves!

(okay, so Chloe was totally embarrassed, but I was 

having a ball). The 'couple of laps' around the oval

turned into numerous laps, with lots of bell ringing,

kids hopping on, waving to passers by, 

getting our photo taken by some government groups

and I even had an adorable little girl come and hop on my lap,

so I held her for the duration of the ride.

I had to stop taking photos, as she was very intrigued 

by my camera and wanted to touch all the buttons. 

That and it was so dusty my camera was suffering. 

At one point, the driver hopped off and 

came and grabbed my camera off me

and took a photo of us all. 

(After I had to explain to him how to work

my customized settings)

In the photo above, you'll see that I'm sitting

in the back of a gator, or side by side

 or something. When we had gone around 

and around and around, the fella must have 

realized he should take us back to our families,

so he off loaded us into this, and we set off

to find our husbands who by now were wandering 

where in the world we had gotten to. 

(some unknown, strange man comes along,

the wives jump into a train with him, and ride off

calmly, not knowing where they're going or

how long they're gonna be? What's  the problem there? )

Well, it was all very exciting, but we 

were covered in dust and the fellas were well and truly

ready for us to leave and look for somewhere to camp 

for the night. It was an experience of a lifetime that 

was totally unexpected and never would have 

happened except for the detour we were forced to take. 

And for those interested, I just came across this video on 

You Tube on the making of the train and some details and footage

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=325&v=n-0mDmF-9lw

But it was over all too soon, and we were on 

our way. We headed out of town and down

the road, with Dave and I scouting out a place to camp.

We couldn't find any really good spots but

as the daylight was fading, we settled down 

near a dam (which Dave found out, after tasting it, 

that it was very very salty, which is what I said 

I thought would be the case. But, he had to try it for himself) 

I enjoyed myself immensely, taking photo

after photo of the beautiful pink sunset 

reflected in the salty, clear water of the dam. 

Another day was ended,

and a new one, just around the corner. 

To be continued...……………..

Our Trip

Day Nine 

Brrr. The temperature was dropping.

Day nine saw 3 degrees at 6:30am. 

Chloe and I made yummy pancakes

for breakfast with some fried devon

and maple syrup and of course, billy tea.

Our little friends loved to ride the 

'horsies' each morning when the girls rolled 

their swags. After they'd had a few 'rides'

the girls would tell them that the horsies had to go

to bed, and they'd load the swags onto the ute

and the little girls would 'feed' them spinifex grass

through the cage. 

There were quite a few dingoes calling

throughout the night and we had a very 

scrawny, malnourished looking camel come

by for a visit as we were packing up. 

He had white foam all around his mouth, 

so I guess he'd just brushed his teeth and was

looking for a place to rinse. 

Well, we set off and managed to do 20 km 

in one and a half hours! 

This was due to having to cross numerous sand dunes that were 

very soft and the track being very windy and doubling back

onto itself and a lot of track damage that had you rocking

slowly, back and forth as you came down off the dune. 

It was very slow going, but we pressed on. 

We came across a motorbike

that hadn't quite made it some time ago. 

And then we reached Well 36 ruins. 

Some of the wells along the track

(other than the restored ones),

are ruins that are distinguishable and others,

are just a few scraps of metal, maybe

a bucket or two, and a semi caved in hole in the ground. 

At one Well, there were 2 drums of

water sitting under the sign. 

We guessed they were for some passer by,

possible a cyclist, that had prearranged for them

to be left there. Whatever the case, we left them

for someone who needed them more than us. 

Thanks to the restored Wells, we were well supplied.

(pun intended)

We stopped along the way

when we saw good supplies of firewood.

We were carrying a lot more now as 

the weather was getting colder, which meant

the lingering over the fire was longer,

and the showers (the few we had) needed

to be hotter. So, we would radio that we were stopping

to collect wood, or that we were stopping to pick 

up the firewood that had fallen off Emilee's ute,

which was often the case due to the rough track,

do our collections and set off again.

Of course, I would jump up on the roof,

get a few shots in, then help out with the gathering. 

From Well 35 to Well 34,

we hit some of the worst corrugated

stretches of road that we have ever come across! 

It was a teeth rattling, bone jarring,

belly jiggling, cruiser debolting,

step tread cracking, aerial wobbling,

engine mount loosening, series

of bumps that had you flying along

at the fastest pace you could, 

and no stopping allowed! 

As you can see,

we did have to stop now and then,

which was a pain for our old girl

because she found it so hard to pick up her pace again

and bumpity bump she went to try and catch up once more. 

Notice the piece of firewood dropped

from Emilee's ute. We did NOT stop and pick 

this one up! No siree! 

We finally reached our days 

destination and boy were we all glad! 

It had been a very, hard and bumpy day,

but we were very excited to get to Well 33.

Kunawarritji.

I think in the photo below, 

Dave is reminiscing over times gone by,

when he used to climb these old mills

and work on them with his dad. Sigh. 

Good old days. 

Here at Well 33, we had massive

supplies of water, that was fed into a tank

with a tap!! Very exciting as we didn't have to hand

crank to get water. Just turn the tap and the water 

came gushing out. 

So, with the ease of this, we were able to 

do ALL our washing! 

This was quite an undertaking, but

so worth the effort to be able to climb

into freshly washed clothes. 

After numerous trips back and forth 

to the tank, we finally finished the mammoth 

task and had everything hung out to dry 

on every available line, space, bull bar,

tent rope, ladder, stump, bag on the ground or

whatever we found that would work. 

Maddy and Emilee even decided to wash each

others hair. Which had them shivering, by the way,

as the water was FREEZING! 

And if you're wondering,

yes, it was a mammoth task to wash

Emilee's hair. Just as gargantuan 

as the hand washing of our clothes. 

We were happy to relax by the fire

and watch the beautiful sunset over the windmill. 

 Four other vehicles came in after dark

and broke our reverie,

but we were content to be wearing

clean clothes after a nice shower,

and sipping our billy tea after

a meal of chilli and cornbread. 

We had managed to come another 104km

down the track and were looking 

forward to a good night's sleep and

a little trip into 'civilization' 

in the morning (with the possibility

of a cold can of coke). 

To be continued...…………. 

Our Trip

Day Eight

Day Eight rolled around and the weather

was cooling down rapidly. 

The girls and I pulled out the beanies

and the warmer jackets. 

It was getting harder and harder to move

 away from the campfire each night and 

early in the morning. We would add 'just one more

piece of wood', then maybe 'just another' and so on. 

There had been quite a few dingoes hanging

around the night before so their tracks were in abundance. 

We made sure we didn't leave any rubbish or 

food scraps out to entice them more. 

(I know the tracks below are not 

from dingoes, but I liked them!)

We headed out and arrived at Well 39.

This was a dust bowl and we were glad we 

had been advised not to camp there. 

Well, we began once again to cross the 

numerous sand dunes, and let the tyres down on 

the old girl (cruiser) just that little bit more.

Emilee's ute was kept in 2WD unless absolutely necessary. 

She did have to put it into 4WD for one of them,

as 2WD just didn't cut it. 

We stopped at a rocky outcrop and climbed

up to enjoy the view. It was amazing 360 views.

As we travelled south, mid morning,

we crossed from the Sandy Desert into

the Gibson Desert. 

We stopped for lunch at some caves that

had rock art in them. 

They had a nice view from above them

and a cool interior. 

Our second step tread was now cracked 

and totally loose and rattling, but it held on. 

We came across some more

interesting caves and explored them for a while. 

As we climbed the sand dunes

and crested the top, we came across 

our first caravan of camels. 

I was very excited to see them in the wild 

and they were happy to have their picture 

taken, numerous times, although they were far away. 

As we came up to a sand dune,

as usual, the lead vehicle called out on

the radio that we were headed over,

and low and behold, 3 Japanese tourists

came flat stick over the top and very nearly wiped

our friends out! Not nice, not nice indeed! 

At Well 37 we explored some ruins and 

3 graves of men killed by natives back in 1911.

It was a very interesting site. 

As the end of the day drew near,

we found yet another beautiful campsite

under some she oaks, where we got the billy

boiling and the damper baking. 

And with the stars putting on their

nightly, awesome, majestic, totally mesmerizing,

beautifully intoxicating, sky show,

we settled down for the night,

excited about what the next day's adventures would be. 

To be continued...………..