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. 

Our Trip 

Day Eleven

Part Two 

Okay, so you've had a long enough

break. I'm back with part two of 

day eleven!

On our trek down the track,

we had a couple of people tell us

that we should take a trip into

Desert Queen Baths, as it was 

beautiful, and because we were having

to do the detour off the Canning, we might as well

see some other sights in the Rudall River National Park

Well, that was all fine and good, 

but they neglected to tell us that the 

18 km into the baths, stated on the sign,

was not your standard 18 km. 

We thought, well, we might

as well. It's only 18km, we can

just go in there to camp for the night

then head back out the next morning 

and be on our way. 

Now, don't get me wrong,

it was very picturesque and 

the landscape was beautiful,

but the road in!! 

My word! Needless to say,

our 18km trip took us just over an hour

and it was a very tight track, twisting 

it's way through the bush over rocky sections

and washouts galore with steep little inclines

and very complicated sections of road. 

(Emilee once again did really well)

The radio was very essential 

on this track as without it,

you wouldn't know that other vehicles were 

on their way out, and there wasn't much 

room to pull over in a lot of the sections,

so you would radio up, let people know 

which way you were going and one or the other

of you would pull over and wait for the other 

to pass. And most the time, it was a small convoy 

of vehicles coming in or out. 

It was amazing country but we 

were getting towards the end of the day

and tiredness was setting in and we 

just wanted to set up camp and relax for a while.

So, it was a very long hour.

(funnily enough, coming out it didn't seem 

half as long, even tho it took the same amount of time) 

Photos, as usual, do not really 

do it justice and it's quite hard to 

take clear, unblurred photos while bumping

along an uneven track, but it was great outback

driving experience for Emilee. 

(she is a pro now)

Well, we finally made it to 

camp and found a secluded little spot

under the trees at the base of some stunning,

red, mountains. Maddie and I set off to see

how far away the water hole was,

and found that there was one quite close by. 

The water was absolutely FREEZING!! 

(we did without showers that night)

We weren't sure how to get to the actual

Desert Queens Baths, but we didn't really have 

time to do much exploring, so we left it for another

time, on another adventure. 

I did some reading, since getting home,

and it's probably just as well, we didn't go

looking as this is someone's comments on the baths:

There is a large, permanent pool right at the mouth of the gorge and very near the camp area. Once past this stretch of water you have a walk of over 1.5 km across the rocky creek floor jumping from boulder to rock until you get to the first of the series of pools that forms the DQB. Once reached the only way forward is to swim each rock hole in turn. The first pool was long and deep and shockingly cold. We managed to traverse it and clamber out the other side. The second was shallower and a fair bit warmer. The third, you had to push the ice aside. It was deep, shadowed and freezing. To make matters worse, the far side exit had to be gained up a sheer wall and drop off of a couple of metres. Believe me the cold water spurred you on. Above this there was another pool of equal size but a bit more survivable temperature.

So, yes, maybe another day.

The area was spectacular

and the water hole so still

(until someone through a rock in it,

which spoiled my reflection shots)

that I was very happy taking photo after photo. 

This was the first body of water we had 

come across on our trip, so it was quite 

exciting to see. I only wish we could have jumped

in, but nobody would join me. 

After setting up,

we all headed down to look at the pool,

with Maddie and I taking the lead. 

We spent a bit of time down there enjoying the 

coolness, then we hunted around for firewood

on our way back. 

Funny story. This particular day,

EVERYONE, except Dave (because

he wouldn't dare be seen in red),

was wearing red! 

It was so funny, as it wasn't planned at all,

it had just happened, so I made sure we

got a photo of that momentous occasion. 

(we must have looked like a school group,

traipsing around all looking alike)

On the walk back, I took 

a few photos of the different flowers

I saw. I noticed that on our trip,

the flowers were either purple,

red, yellow or white. There wasn't

many other colours but they were all pretty

so I tried to get a photo of each different type I saw. 

As the sun was starting to make it's way 

down over the horizon, the girls and Casey 

decided to do a quick little hike to the top

of the nearby rocky hill. 

It was quite a steep little climb,

as Dave and I found out when it looked too 

enjoyable not to be up there as well. 

But the view from the top was well 

worth the climb. It was truly magnificent!!

Yep. That's our little camp, way down below. 

The sun setting brought out the extraordinary reds

in the rock faces and way over on the mountains 

in the distance. 

 There was also some strange little

purple flowers on a fuzzy green plant. 

Dave gave me quite a scare when the slab of

rock he was climbing down on, slid out from under

his foot and had him grabbing for a hand hold. 

We had a nice time of exploring up top

before we clambered down again 

to beat the light that was rapidly fading. 

The sun's rays were majestically

casting their light across the valley 

and lighting up every rock face 

and every mountain. Everything

glowed red and shouted to all who could see,

that the God and creator of the universe 

knew exactly what he was doing when he spoke

the world into existence. None of this could have been 

caused by a 'big bang'. There had to have been a 

master creator to bring about something as beautiful as 

what we were watching as the night fell. 

And so, our long day ended,

over a warm camp fire, billy tea

and a nice hot meal of butter chicken 

and veges with pancakes on the menu for breakfast. 

A new adventure lay just over 

the horizon and we settled down 

to get some sleep and be ready for 

whatever lay ahead of us. 

To be continued...……...

Our Trip

Day Eleven 

Part One 

On the road again as day 11 rolled around. 

The weather was not so cold, but 

we enjoyed left over curried mince on toast

for brekky and the packing up commenced. 

The dingoes were calling again last night

but none ventured near us, that we knew of anyway. 

Dave pumped the tyres back up again

as we were on different roads now,

being off the Canning for our detour. 

The road constantly changed in colour

and so did the landscape around us. 

We saw another caravan of camels

that all turned our way to watch us go by. 

We passed a large crane going very slowly,

on it's way to the next community. 

As we were driving along

we noticed we had a bar of reception! 

Wow! First time since our real adventure

had started. I was able to text Lauren

and let her know we were okay. 

We turned off towards Telfer Gold Mine

and pulled up at the security stopping place. 

(sorry, don't know what it's called)

Here Dave and Kon had to 

let them know the driver's details,

the number of passengers, the make of 

the vehicles and such and then we waited

for our own personal vehicle that would 

escort us 'safely' through the mine site. 

(I think that they knew Dave would be off

exploring and digging for gold if we weren't properly

escorted off the premises ha ha)

Anyway, we felt very special nonetheless.

And we had reception to catch up on 

quick phone calls and texts. 

I would have liked to stop

and take photos of the huge dump trucks,

but there was no stopping or sight seeing allowed. 

Just pass on through and be on your way, yes siree! 

We pressed on and occasionally

passed vehicles coming the opposite

direction headed for the Canning as well. 

Pretty soon, we were turning onto the

Rudall River Road (Rudall River National Park).

We drove over some of the most horrendous

corrugates in Australia's outback then it became

even more interesting,

as for quite a long time,

you literally drove down the dry river bed.

It was very sandy and soft in parts

which made for interesting driving techniques. 

(but our very experienced and capable drivers

handled it like pros! Emilee included)

The Rudall River National Park is 

the largest national park in Western Australia

and one of the largest in the world. 

It's actually more than 2 and a half times

as large as the Grand Canyon National Park

in Arizona, but is also one of the remotest parks. 

We didn't have time to explore so we 

kept on the not so straight, but yes, narrow, road. 

(this was only a means to an end,

this part of the country would have to 

be explored another time) 

The road was an interesting one

and I was kept very busy taking photos

and listening to the never ending rattle

of the old girl enjoying her 30 year anniversary

tour in the magnificent Australian Outback. 

Sometimes you'd come over

a rise and be taken aback by 

the breathtaking views and the vast

expanse of such a huge country. 

What awe-inspiring scenery God

allows us to see and enjoy!

At times, the road would fall away

into a washout without warning,

but occasionally (only once I think),

there was a witches hat on a picket to 

give us warning. 

Not a road to zip along at any great speed.

Why you'd want to anyway, is beyond me. 

There was so much to see all around you! 

The remarkable, reds and yellows

and purples of the wildflowers were

eye catching, but unless we stopped 

right near them, I was content to capture

them with my camera as we drove on by.

(this was an abstract version. ahem)

And as with each post, I seem 

to be getting more long winded

and more photo happy,

I have divided day eleven into 2 parts

as there's much more to tell

and I wouldn't want you getting bored

and skimming over everything quickly. 

So for now, we stop, half

way through the day,

and about to turn off the main road 

onto another, rocky, desert track into

the wild unknown.

To be continued...……….