Our Trip

Day Twelve

Day twelve and the morning sun

did not disappoint with it's light show on

the red rockfaces. They glowed!

It was not as cool this morning,

but we were beginning to hear 

stories of ice further south, so the jackets

were definitely staying out. 

We chatted again to a nice

farming family from Western Australia. 

They had come in late afternoon, with

diesel pouring from their busted fuel tank. 

So, we were not the only polluters on the track.

Their other family members had gone to

pick up another tank that they planned to 

put into their vehicle the next day, and carry on their way. 

(no mechanic garages or fuel tank shops on

the track, so they had to go a fair distance to

organize one to be brought out).

By 8 am we were packed up and ready

to take the long, rocky, narrow, windy track

back out to the main road, but as I said before,

it didn't seem to take half as long this time.

And the scenery was once again epic. 

But different this time with morning light

instead of late afternoon shadows. 

So, of course, I photographed it all again! 

The track had it's challenges and we bumped

along, pulling over when need be for other travellers

coming in. We stopped at one point 

to check out a strange thumping under Emilee's ute,

so I took the wheel of the cruiser for a while so 

Dave could drive Em's ute and try and diagnose the problem.

Which, of course, it wouldn't make the noise once he hopped in. 

(we later found out, that it was her anti sway bar, missing some

bolts. Go figure. Which, none of us can remember where we

stole bolts off another part of one of our vehicles, in order to fix

her problem. Doesn't matter, it was bolted back together and 

she didn't have to have hers taken off, like we did) 

Once we got out to the 'real' road,

we carried on for a couple of hours

before turning off to go into a small community

called Parnngurr. 

We had been told that the little store and fuel service

would close at around 11am, so we tried our best to make

it there, with our friends taking the lead and high-tailing

it in order to keep it open for us. 

(we were hoping to get a top up of fuel just in 

case and then there was also the lure of a cold fizzy something)

On our way, Dave and I had to stop

for a quick peek at an abandoned vehicle

just to see if there was anything useable

(like more fencing wire, as our supplies were

dwindling in that department due to 

all the little things that had been tied back up

after rattling loose), but alas, there was nothing of 

value left to be had. 

The map above shows in black our

little detour to get back onto the Canning

(the red line). So, yes, we still have yet

to do that little bit, but it's definitely 

on the bucket list, although it'll probably 

just be Dave and I and our trusty cruiser.

Well, we managed to make it into Parnngurr,

a little too late, but being a small 

community, we were probably heard before we 

were seen and the store owner came to the rescue

(after a considerable wait),

and opened up the store for us and kindly charged

us $3.20 a litre for fuel. 

We stocked up on some more frozen 

bread, some extra crackers and a coke! 

(at exorbitant prices of course, but you pay 

and you don't complain.... much). 

We headed out of town and had

lunch on a beautiful outlook overlooking

the magnificent countryside. 

A bit down the road, we turned off 

onto the Talawana Track.

A remote track that runs between Windy Corner

on the Gary Highway,  and the Marble Bar road

in Western Australia, a distance of 596kms. 

Of course, this hadn't been in our plans

either, but it was great to see more country

and do a little bit of the track anyway. 

It was a very busy little 

section of road, because of all the other

Canning Stock Route detourers on their

way north. Many times we had to try and pull over 

or squeeze by with an inch to spare,

as seen in the photo with Em's ute. That 

one had me holding my breath as they 

were so close, we were sure that Em's cage would 

leave a lovely long scratch on the other 4wdriver. 

But thankfully, they passed by without mishap.

It was very picturesque,

but we were not without our 

dreaded, relentless corrugates,

that rattled our old girl to pieces. 

Em and our friends would fly along them

with no trouble, but our old girl did not 

like them one bit! But we always caught up

with them once they hit the washouts and rocky ledges.

That's where our old girl shone. 

By late afternoon, (after Dave and I stopped to collect

more firewood),  we finally made it

back onto the Canning and to Georgia Bore.

Well 23. A restored well. 

I don't know why Maddy thought she

needed to snooze on the cage,

as she wasn't the one driving! 

We tried to let Emilee just rest once

we set up camp as she was 

pretty worn out from the driving

(not a walk in the park I'm telling you!)

This particular well had been restored to the point

of having a crank handle that you pumped

up and down, which was so much easier for 

Dave (he was chief water gatherer).

It was a mammoth job to cart enough water

for 9 people to have showers, boil the billy for 

the hot water, set up the shower tent, hook up

the 12v shower and have things all in order

and showers done before it got too dark or cold. 

But Dave was a champion, and he got it done. 

(showers were usually about every 3 days or so,

depending on the water situation)

We were all able to have lovely warm showers and also wash 

some more stinky clothes. The 2 older girls

even opted to shave their legs, which I told them

was pointless as no one saw them anyway, 

with jeans on 24/7 to keep the cold and the spinifex away. 

I came across some different 

flowers that I ended up only seeing at this particular

well. So, I was able to add that to my flower count. 

We were able to enjoy some bangers

and mash (thanks to the sausages we bought

at Kunawarritji) and of course a nice

little dessert and billy tea over the campfire.

Tomorrow would bring more corrugates,

sand dunes, salt lakes, a water crossing and much more. 

To be continued...…………. 

And if you're interested to know of 

our breakages etc up to this point,

here is a list so far:

On the Cruiser

Anti sway bar - off

Engine mount broken - wired up

Both step treads broken and rattling

Stereo front rattled off (doesn't work anyway)

Bolt rattled off battery - found a spare to put back on

Engine - blowing beautiful clouds of blue smoke

upon firing up, and missing like crazy. 

On the 79

Diesel drum spill way back at the start

- cleaned up but drum not off loaded yet, but empty

Front diff cobb and co'd up and 4 bolts missing

One step tread rattling

Anti sway bar missing bolts

Fuse for fridge broken - replaced 

So, so far, so good.

All well, and travelling on.