Our Trip

Day Fifteen

Waking up on Day Fifteen

and the temperature was down to 3 degrees!

Brrrr. An extra jacket today.

Even Dave needed his extra jacket, 

which means it was REALLY cold!

It was very difficult packing up and moving

away from the lovely warm fire.  

We stopped for a quick look at the Well 13 

ruins and passed a burnt out Land Rover

along the way. 

More sand dunes and corrugates.

All similar, but all different. 

I stopped to take a photo of this

tree as I just loved the weird bark? 

or whatever you call it. 

Arriving at Well 12, a restored well,

we found a sign that read,

"Be careful. Live snake in well. We retrieved one live one.

 Still one live one in there. Was hiding in rocks at bottom of well.

 Tuesday 10 July 2018 2.45pm" 

It was dated 6 days before we got there,

so we didn't see any snake. It must have left. 

Further down the track, we came to

Lake Aerodrome. 

You follow the track along the edge of the salt

lake, skirting the edge for the whole width of the lake. 

We headed on to Well 11 ruins,

passing another 3 vehicles headed north.

There were 2 families headed south

that we would catch up to, then 

they would pass us and so on. We actually continued

this little game with one of the vehicles,

until the Stuart Highway,

at Hi Way Inn, only 311km from Katherine. 

One of the families was a fella and 2 kids from

Darwin. He was quite the bogan, and super 

unprepared for the trip, but his mate and family 

in the other vehicle was able to keep him going

and supplied until he parted ways with them

at Wiluna, at the end of the Canning. 

Emilee tells me, that this particular

day, the girls were being excessively 

annoying. Not sure what that means,

but they obviously needed to use up some 

excess energy when we stopped, as seen below. 

More relentless corrugates

and multiple tracks to choose from. 

At Well 10 ruins, we stopped for lunch.

On opening the back door of the cruiser,

I found that my lovely roll of chux, 

had unrolled!! It was quite funny,

but not so fun to roll back up.

Needless to say, it did NOT get rolled up 

neatly, and I pegged it this time.

Heading off, we were driving along 

happily when we happened to drive under

a branch that was obviously too low.

All of the sudden, I see our sand flag bend

backwards, and disappear!

We pulled up, and low and behold,

there it was stuck in the fork of a branch

that had neatly snatched it from our car.

We retrieved it and were on our way once more. 

On this trip, we always brought up

the rear, with our friends taking the lead,

and Emilee in the middle, hence all

the rear end views of Em's ute. 

We picked up the firewood that 

bounced off Em's ute and gathered dust

to add to our collection inside the old girl. 

We were now at Well 9 ruins,

on Glen Argyle Station property. 

"Palatji / Weld Springs / Forrest's 'Fort' / Well 9 is a special place. For generations the local Martu people have regarded Palatji as an important source of water, food and other resources and nearby is a significant tjukurrpa (dreaming) site. However, it's also a contested site. John Forrest and his exploration party travelling to the area in 1874, naming it Weld Springs after the colony’s governor, and a conflict ensued with the local Martu people. The spring later became an important stop on the Canning Stock Route, and a watering hole on Glen-Ayle Station"

There is interesting history at this place

and we spent quite a bit of time

looking around. 

"Forrest spent two weeks camped at the springs. On the seventh day of their camp, Forrest records in his diary that a group of 40 to 60 Martu men, “all plumed up and armed with spears and shields”, appeared over the hill overlooking the springs. According to Forrest, the men rushed, “yelling and shouting”, towards the explorers brandishing their spears. Forrest and his men fired at the group forcing them back up the hill where they regrouped. A second approach followed soon after and this time one man was hit and wounded. The next day Forrest records finding blood near the camp and speculated that two men were hit by rifle shot, with at least one suffering a severe wound."

As usual, our old girl

was puffing out her smelly blue

smoke, but I don't think the cattle minded much. 

Travelling along,

we met an American man on a bicycle!

Yeah. Go figure! 

Keen to experience the Australian Outback I suppose. 

I'm guessing he did a lot of walking over the sand dunes. 

After Well 8, we wound our way

through a strange section of track 

that was made up of spindly trees

and a windy track that felt like you were going 

round and round in circles and not actually

getting anywhere, until you finally came 

out into the open once more

and regathered your bearings. 

A bit further on we experienced some

crazy angles on the track that were fun. 

Then Chloe lost her hat out the window.

Don't ask what she was doing hanging that

far out the window. I don't know.

Maybe trying to get away from her sisters. 

We finally arrived at our campsite

for the night. Well 6. A very beautifully restored

well surrounded by huge shady gum trees,

and a little walk to a drop dunny.

We had met up once again with our 2 families

that we were playing chase with.

Somewhere along the way, a couple 

of bolts that held our roof rack on, had

sheared off, which just added to the rattles

but didn't make too much difference to our roof top tent. 

It was getting pretty cold,

so we boiled a lot of water to make our 

shower good and hot this particular night. 

Dave was kept busy collecting and boiling 

water and we all went to bed somewhat warm,

but clean for once! 

I made a lovely damper that 

we lathered in butter and dripping golden 

syrup. Together with smoky billy tea

and a nice hot fire, we were happy campers. 

Another day had come and gone

and we were ready for a sleep

and a brand new day to start

when we awoke. 

To be continued...……….

Our Trip

Day Fourteen 

Up again, bright and early on Day Fourteen. 

Dave decided to tackle the broken step treads

again, but this time with tie down straps and 

small tree branches. It did the trick!

For the first time since they broke,

Dave and I could actually hold a conversation

in the old girl without shouting above the racket. 

Cold morning once again, some clothes drying

over the fire for our friends, some more 

lingering over the warmth of the coals, before

packing up and heading south once more. 

We met 4 more vehicles headed north

and travelled over more sand dunes and 

some rocky terrain. 

We passed the scenic Diebel Hills

and more beautiful scenery, which 

kept me happily clicking away 

out the window or thru the dirty

windscreen whenever I could hold the camera 

steady enough or even if I couldn't. 

 We saw an emu and his? her? 

chicks, but we were too far away

for a close up shot. 

We wove our way around the hills, over

soft sand, little jump ups, dunes and rocky terrain

which at times was quite steep and slow going. 

(ok so it's all slow going, but all the better for taking

photos don't you think? I mean, we could easily have

taken an extra 2 weeks on this track if we had had the time) 

Soon enough, we arrived at the picturesque

Durba Springs. Now this is a place that would be 

wonderful to camp for a couple of days,

but due to our time pressure, we were unable to 

stop the night, and we just explored around

and had a snack.  It is a shady, green campsite 

with a drop dunny and it's surrounded by a spring 

and tall red cliffs. 

Durba Springs is an oasis in the desert.

With it's towering red cliffs, date palms

and red river gums, it's the perfect

campsite for a couple days unwind. 

Maybe next time we pass through, we'll be able

to stop there! 

The girls and I did a bit of exploring

and they climbed up a little into the crevasses. 

I managed to get them to stay

still long enough to take a group shot. 

(and yes, we were all in red once again!)

I enjoyed watching a swarm of 

bees going in and out of an opening in 

a big gum tree. Thankfully, they weren't interested

in me. 

All too soon, our hour of exploring 

was over, and we hit the track again. 

I never tired of these red rocks 

and the rugged landscape. 

Leaving Durba Springs we headed onto

the Well 16 ruins. 

Some more rocky terrain and then sand dunes once more. 

Well 16 was very green and seemed

really strange compared to most 

of the other wells. 

It was beautiful tho, and I can imagine

travellers in years gone by enjoyed the 

refreshment of this well. 

Because of the recent wet season,

the track presented a lot of washed out areas

that you had to manoeuvre around.

But it just added to the excitement. 

There were some bumpy rocky

ledges to climb slowly up and over,

and then more sand. 

No, Emilee. Not that way! 

Ah, too late. Yep, put it in 

4WD and get yourself out. 

Righto, on our way again. 

Up the track further, we came

across Murray Rankine's Trolley. 

An interesting piece of history. 

Here is a snippet on the story of this trolley. 

"In 1972, before the route was regularly negotiated in four-wheel drives, ambitious attempts to complete it on foot took place. A New Zealander, Murray Rankin, and two English brothers, John and Peter Waterfall, fashioned homemade trolleys from bicycle wheels and metal tubing, and began their attempt starting from Wiluna in early June 1972. First John and then Peter turned back, but Rankin continued to Lake Disappointment before being forced to abandon the attempt. 

The remains of one of their trolleys lie 19 km north of Well 15.

In 1973 Rankin tried again, this time starting from Old Halls Creek with Englishman John Foulsham. This time they had professionally built trolleys with motor-cycle wheels. The walk began on 1 June. Soon after reaching Godfrey's Tank they were unable to pull the trolleys over the high sand hills. They left them and walked on to Lake Tobin and there abandoned 

the attempt and returned to Halls Creek.

Three years later,in 1976, Rankin achieved his ambition to walk the stock route. After driving the route in a Land Rover and establishing food depots along the way, he set out from Halls Creek on 12 July 1976 with three other bushwalkers, Ralph Barraclough, Kathy Burman and Rex Shaw. Barraclough turned back after becoming ill, but the others completed

 the journey in just under three months"

If you'd like to read more of it's history, 

click  on the link below. 

http://www.canningwalker.com/69-walkers/156-murray-rankin-john-foulsham

 When you're crossing sand dune

after sand dune, you don't expect to come

upon a sign that says, "Hump"???

Yeah. Weird. But funny too! 

Well 15 was a nice restored well

and was really green too. 

Then, because we hadn't had many

that day, we were in need of some

corrugates to shake us all up a bit. 

Hmmm? 

We came upon a panoramic lookout

that we spent a bit of time clambering over. 

Adding our rock to the pile,

Dave looks like some sort of giant. 

Photographic perspective. 

The rim of our friends' vehicle was severely

bent? rippled? corrugated? from the rocky terrain. 

Their vehicle was a newish Land Rover

with all the mod cons. 

So far they had fared pretty well,

with only their sand flag coming off,

a loose aerial, a roof rack mount disappearing

and the park brake making horrendous noises

when in use (maybe sand in the workings somewhere?)

More corrugates, more washouts,

more wildflowers, then time to make 

camp for the night. 

This was the first day I had had to wear 

an extra layer of clothing as it was getting

pretty cold out there! 

We stopped just short of Well 13 and 

made camp in some dry spindly trees.

It was freezing!

We fuelled up the cars and left our

leaking 44 gallon drum there 

(as other travellers have done before). 

I guess, evidence of our having been there

(although I didn't know until we'd left, so 

I didn't get a photo of our lonely drum

fading into the distance as we drove away)

Some fun with the lens ball

and the sunset, complete with

the moon and stars showing up

in the crystal sphere.

We were also treated to a fox

coming into camp as we sat by the fire.

Maybe he was cold too?

I made some damper to use for 

bread in morning and we enjoyed a 

piping hot sausage and vege casserole

to warm our insides. 

And another amazing day of travel

had ended. 

I know this was an extremely

long post, but I'm not sorry.

I couldn't stop. 

I was reliving the moments. 

To be continued...………….