Canning Stock Route 2-8-2013

[Big Red]

The Canning Stock Route is one of the toughest and most remote tracks in the world. It runs from Halls Creek in the Kimberley region of Western Australia to Wiluna in the mid-west region. With a total distance of around 1,850 km (1,150 mi) it is the longest historic stock route in the world.


Alfred Canning left Perth in March 1908, along with 30 men, 70 camels, four wagons, 100 tonnes of food and equipment and 267 goats (for milk and meat), and travelled the route again to commence the construction of well heads and water troughs at the 54 water sources identified by his earlier expedition. He arrived back in Wiluna in April 1910 having completed the last of 48 wells and bringing the total cost of the route to £22000 (2010: A$2.6 million)

In 1968 the entire length of the track was driven for the first time. During the 1980s fuel dumps were created and adventurous travellers became interested in the history of the track and the challenge to drive it.

The Canning Stock Route is now a popular but challenging four-wheel drive adventure. On rare occasions, people have traversed the track on foot, by bicycle, and in two-wheel drive vehicles.

In 1976, Murray 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 Borman and Rex Shaw. Ralph turned back after becoming ill, but the others completed the journey in just under three months
In 1977, the first commercial tour completed the drive.
In 1985, a Beach Buggy and a Citroën 2CV became the first two-wheel drive vehicles to complete the entire route.
In 1994 long distance walker Drew Kettle walked the route.
In 2004 Kate Leeming completed a cycling trek on the route.
In 2005, Jakub Postrzygacz became the first person to traverse the entire track without backup, travelling alone by bicycle for 33 days. Using large tyres and a single-wheel trailer, he carried all his food with him, stocking up on water at the periodic wells.

http://oneroad.canningstockrouteproject.com/#

[Big Red]

Three of us will be leaving the Gold Coast on Friday the 2nd August and meeting up with 6 others at Halls Creek then heading for the Canning Stock Route on Wednesday the 8th August
After completing the Canning we plan to head back across the Gunbarrel and Abandoned Gunbarrel to Uluru.
Next [depending on time] we head across the Simpson to Birdsville then home.
All up around 10,000 kms in my 4 weeks holidays.

[Big Red]

Friday 2nd August
I was still as crook as a dog but since i had to sit up to stop choking and wasn't getting any sleep i thought i may as well hit the road and catch up with the others who were staying the night at Morven.

The Ute was ready last weekend and all i had to do was chuck in my food bag and swag and i was off out of Jacobs Well.....

[Big Red]

I rolled the swag out at around 10:30 and managed to grab i couple of hours of fitful sleep before Sue handed me some toast.
last thing i wanted was to eat but i'm scared of Sue so over the next hundred Kms or so managed to eat most of it

sat 3rd

We stopped to have a look at the tree of Knowledge






love the fire escape on the Pub across the road

[Big Red]

We travelled on through the outback passing some interesting hills etc as we drove on through winton and Boulia before camping at the Georgina river

[Big Red]

Sunday 4th

We stopped at the Qld/NT border where the Donoghue Highway changes to the Plenty Highway


A few minutes later Jeff destroyed a tyre


not long after Jeff destroyed a Second tyre


after that we let Jeff lead us the rest of the way into Alice Springs where we found out nothing is open on a sunday and monday is a holiday

Sue and I stopped to take some pics of a big Termite Mound along the way


we camped at the Heavitree Lodge and met up with Djebel so we had dinner at the tavern ... my first meal for 5 days so i was starting to feel a little better

[Big Red]

Monday 5th

Jeff stayed back to wait for tyres while Sue Dale and I headed for the Tanami




we dropped in to Yeumundi [or something that started with a Y] for Dale to put a bit of extra fuel in the tank.


then hit the corrugations again ...


We camped on the side of the road mid afternoon

[Big Red]

Tues 6th
We had a dingo prowling through camp all night much to Sue's discomfort

We had a bit of a late start and moseyed on up the road to the WA/NT border


saw a mob of ten Camels cross in front of us


We drove in to Wolfe Creek Meteor Crater for a look mid morning




a small lizard on the rocks of the rim


We set up camp and stayed the night

[Big Red]

Wed 7th

The sunrise over the crater was not much but the colours the other way were not too bad


We headed in to Halls Creek Caravan Park and fueled up, showered and did some washing then settled in to wait for the others.


Dale had stayed in bed at Wolfe Creek and turned up a couple of hours later then Jeff turned up with 4 brand new BFG AT's on his Pajero.
People turned up through the day and we were all accounted for by the afternoon so wandered over to the Kimberly Hotel for Dinner.

[Big Red]

Sue made it to Halls Creek ok then drove down the street to get her wokka wokka wokka valve looked at and the Defender went into "Limp Mode" so she spent the afternoon yesterday getting the EGR valve dismantled and repaired before a reset of the computer had her back on the road again.
You could see the smile on her face from across the caravan park so we knew she had had it fixed.