Canning Stock Route 2004

Monday 23^rd, August.

We received a message from Warwick this morning via the VKS 737 network. Colin did some checking of his vehicle due to concern but everything seemed to be OK. Alan and Colin transferred some fuel from jerry cans to vehicles. We left Well 15 on a bright sunny day with a nice breeze. Our first stop was at Rankin’s trolley,  abandoned in 1974  following a failed attempt to travel  from  Wiluna to Halls  Creek. The trolley  was a most  unsuitable  thing to try and drag over sand hills. A group of four vehicles headed south waited there for us to pass. There were beautiful bushes of pink flowers around here. We had to negotiate a very rocky section, followed by a run through a dry creek bed with vertical  red  sand  walls. Moving  on, the  next stop was at

  Well 16. The top of this well is now a  lot lower and the water is of poor quality. A small goanna was climbing a nearby tree and a hive of feral bees also lived in this tree. This area had sand hills to cross before we turned off to the Calvert Range. It was a very hot day. Some sand hills caused problems and more that one attempt was needed by most of our group (but not by us). The Calvert Range is a rocky outcrop and we camped in a lovely camping area near a spring. We did a round trip of the range, stopping at Calvert’s Cave and some authentic aboriginal art sites and beautiful rock pools. This area is very rugged. Upon coming back to the campsite we found quite a lot of king wild quails  nearby. We were the only  people who are  camped anywhere in the range. The sense of isolation is  a great experience.

Tuesday 24^th August.

Alan and I went on an early morning walk to see “art” on the surface of a rock pool, a crocodile etched in the rock and some very strongly coloured red ochre rock paintings on protected walls and overhanging rocks. The same group of quails were around again on the track. It was a clear, fine day and we waited for a group of four vehicles to pass us at Sunday Well. We almost met head on with a group of four army idiots at the top of a sand hill. They were travelling at a reckless pace and were not on UHF 40 as everybody else was, so they had no idea that other people were around. We needed protection from the army, not by the army. This was a very frightening experience.  After this, encounter we continued on and turned north back on the CSR, finding Sturt’s desert peas near Canning’s Cairn. Spectacular! We continued on to Well 17 turnoff and met one southbound there. Driving along a very rough track we entered a gorge and found some stunning rock formations. Following this was Durba Springs where we arrived after lunch. After setting up camp we had a very refreshing swim (somewhere between chilly and freezing). No shower was needed tonight.  Five vehicles were already camped there and the four Oztent travellers came later. CALM people (entomologist and botanist) were hunting  and  gathering at Durba Springs. Today  was  clothes  washing day.

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