Canning Stock Route July 2013

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Back from a weekend away so here I go for a few more BUT first of all to answer some questions and "set the scene".

The Prado performed 100%, but remember we are a bunch of retired or semi retired guys so were not in a hurry...for us it wasn't about "fastest to do the route", it was about stopping, smelling the roses and taking in the history including visiting every well site and reading from the Gard book about the history of that site from the Canning 1908 expedition and the later one with Snell.

The track part (for us) was great fun but it was just as much the scenary and the history.

Anyway some more photo's, firstly the mighty Prado in action



Some wells were in great condition



Others were not!!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

The Southern section (on this occasion) seemed to be much harder than the north (which is mainly sand dune country).

There had been very heavy rain on the track just two weeks before we started, and there were some (still) quite muddy and rutted sections.

They don't allow trailers on the Conyu section and for good reason, some quite steep descents and ascents in and out of dry creeks, "track wise" this was one of the sections that was most challenging, but nothing the Prado couldn't handle (and I don't even have lockers"!!



The creek crossings were fun, and this section also had a lot of muddy sections as well (our bright and clean fourby's didn't stay that way for long)

This is my mate's 100 Series Cruiser escaping out of one of these.



We also found the corrugations worse down here than in the north, although the 30 KMs before and after well 33, around the aboriginal community were bloody horrendous......I thought the Cape was bad in 2012....it's got NOTHING on the CSR!

"When" I get my video organised I have some great vision of traversding the corro's, I'll add that on here as well....we found that about 50-60 KPH was about ideal, sadly much of the track didn't allow for that....much slower and it would "shake the s..t out of you!!".

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

We were pretty well set up, second spare (a MUST), I had 3 jerries (but only needed 2 and could have even made it with 1), box of spare most things, spare front and rear shockies (not needed) and we have about 50 litres of water on board (although PLENTY of water on the route and we probably didn't need to take as much as we did.



And don't you love that red dirt???



Maxtrax (just in case) but these were never needed....our group were fairly experienced having done the Simmo in 2011 and the Cape in 2012, so whilst I had them on board we didn't get them off once!!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Our four vehicles...the Cruiser 100 / Cruiser 200 / my Prado and a current model Troopy, as you can see all pretty well set up although the 200 series (apart from tyres) was stock standard!!



Our home away from home (Black Wolf Turbo 300 plus)....there were two of these and two Oz Tents (RV4's).



And the bride and I at Durba Springs



Durba is an "Oasis", we had two nights there and now wish we had another one......after the dirty / dusty / corrugated track coming in and finding "green grass" and a pool of enticing water was fantastic....it can often get very crowded, our first night there we were one of 19 other 4WD's and there were even more the next night.

This is where we also ran into Gaynor the Canning walker.....amazing feat check out her website www.canningwalker.com

I asked here how the corrugations were affecting her, she said "just as bad as you guys and is why you'll see my footprints going from side to side to try and avoid them".

Just think of her as you cruise past in your air conditioned cabin, with your fridge full of cold beers and cryovaced steaks...she really IS doing it tough!!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

We saw some amazing Aboriginal Rock Art, I have dozens of photo's these are just a few.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

We saw a few of these (not as many as we thought though!!)



Surprisingly hardly any Roos (think we saw 2 for the entire trip), a few foxes, HEAPS of birdlife but we really thought we'd see 100's of Camels and then ther count at the end of the trip was only 18.

Saw some beautiful tree's (I am into these especially Gums)



And the odd (thousands of these in the north) Termite Mounds

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

And there was even a river to cross (near Lake Dissapointment).



Although NOTHING like Cape York!!




Lake Dissapointment is some sight to behold, salt as far as the eye can see!!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Don't you just love red dirt (think I have said that before....I do whilst I am there BUT you get sick of cleaning it out when you come home!!)



The fuel drop site (we didn't use this but did go for a look)......$3.00 a litre V $3.40 at Kunawaritji......we were happy to pay the extra



We decided that the Donga's at Kunawaritji were the go for a night, a chance for a real shower and to clean some clothes and bedding....$100 for a night was money well spent.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Now whilst a little further than "half way" we always looked at Kunawarritji as the half way point. We had taken 10 nights to reach here, including the two nights at Durba Springs.

You could do it faster than we did, we had an aim for 100Kms a day only.......we started by 8.30am (sometimes a fraction earlier) and pulled up by 4.00pm.....along the way we stopped many times for photo's, for morning tea (15 mins), lunch (30 mins) and afternoon tea (15 mins).....also when the shockies got a bit hot.

This was just the way "we" did it, many were going much faster and some slower, we ran into a family who had spent a month on the track and were just exiting (they had a trailer) at the Granites, and also ran into some guys who were were doing 200 Kms a day and planned to do the wholoe thing in 8 or 9 days.

This wasn't our go at all, it will be the only time any of us ever do it so we wanted to do it well.......we planned on 18-19 nights for the total trip and were bang on the money.

We had visited 32 Wells to that point (for the life of us we coulde not find well 4B).....whilst I had Hema Navigation the others wanted to do it the old fashioned way, so it was maps and guesswork and following the well worn track.

Fuel wise, I used 154.41 litres from Wiluna to Kunawarraitji , 1064 Kms and at a rate of 14.5 litres per 100KM.....this was slightly higher than I thought (the average seems to be about 140 for a 4 cyclinder Prado, but we did get some heavy going in the early sections with a fair bit of mud so that might have had something tyo do with it....otherwise I am a leadfoot (and that could be the case as well).

Fuel cost at this point was $3.40 per litre with a cost to refuel of $525.00 (ouch!!)

As I mentioned above we found the first "half" or southern section harder than the north....once leaving Well 33 we mainly had sand dunes for 90% of the rest of the way (l keep adding photo's of the second half and give you fuel figures for that leg at the end, should have this done in the next few days).

I do hope you are enjoying this, as I said I do plan to put some Go Pro vision up BUT I just have to work out how to condense it down and then load it into Youtube or something.....given I am not a "techno nerd"....you'll have to give me time.

In the meantime enjoy the photo's

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Small world, Mark. I ran into Gaynor on my 2010 trip when she was a hitchhiker in a Peugeot 505. This got the whole way down the CSR without any need for a tow or a snatch from their accompanying 4x4. I am in touch with that 505 driver [in Kalgoorlie]. Like me he also has a Pug 504. He was recently up the CSR in his 4x4 doing all of the supply drops for Gaynor. Your timing on the CSR looks to be identical to mine [ I went with Great Divide Tours] and you are right- you need to take your time to enjoy what will probably be a once only experience and to not break anything, especially on those mongrel corrugations either side of well 33. A tough but fabulous trip. Neil

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Small world, Mark. I ran into Gaynor on my 2010 trip when she was a hitchhiker in a Peugeot 505. This got the whole way down the CSR without any need for a tow or a snatch from their accompanying 4x4. I am in touch with that 505 driver [in Kalgoorlie]. Like me he also has a Pug 504. He was recently up the CSR in his 4x4 doing all of the supply drops for Gaynor. Your timing on the CSR looks to be identical to mine [ I went with Great Divide Tours] and you are right- you need to take your time to enjoy what will probably be a once only experience and to not break anything, especially on those mongrel corrugations either side of well 33. A tough but fabulous trip. Neil

Those Corro's either side of 33 were ther worst I have ever experienced...anywhere.....we had to stop every 45 mins or so to let the shockies cool down......we ran into a group of 3 at Well 33, between them 7 busted shockies (they were waiting on replacements to arrive).....I'd say they were going far too hard.

We never had an issue BUT,

****Our Tyre pressures were pretty low (low 20's).

****We tried to "skip over" the corro's at about 50 KPH (could not go much faster anyway)....any slower and god knows what would have broken.

****And most of all we were not in a rush, lots of stops......I am 100% convinced that this helped!!

I have a story about a "Tag Along Tour" on the trip, don't know the company but it was in the southern section.

*************My "almost" head on story***************

We rotated the lead each day and this day it was my job......as anyone who has done the CSR will know the track is often narrow and there's lots of vegetation...meaning it's VERY hard to see who is coming.

I was travelling along a fairly corrugated section so was travelling about 50 maybe 60 KPH.......about every 10 minutes I would call forward on my UHF (which by the way had the longest range of of the 4 vehicles)....when I got to the narrow sections I would always "up the ante" and call more often.

We were in one of these on this day and my following team members confirmed I had broadcasted our position 3 times in a 10 minute period.....and in fact just 2 minutes before my near miss.

Coming around a corner I just saw the bull bar of a fast approaching 4WD, had I kept going we would have hit.....luckily there was a small gap between two trees and I aimed for it...the other 4WD wizzed past me just as I turned....about as close as I have ever come to a head on!!.

It turns out he was a leader for a tag along (7 in total)....yelled at me saying "I never heard you".....to which I replied...." I broadcasted 3 times in the last 10 mins and just 2 mins ago"....he was angry but I was even angrier.....he had not broadcasted once (That any of us heard).

The 6 following all happily waved as they went past and the incident was over.

BUT...it got me thinking WTF happened??

My theory is this......he kept his tag along people on say 15 and just scanned to pick up any on 40 (the official chanel).....each time he was talking to them I was broadcasting so he missed the calls. I reckon they were doing a lot of chatter so he kept them away from 40.

IF (and that is a big if) this is correct it is a VERY dangerous practice.

If I knew which company they were from I would e-mail / write and tell them....that is assuming my theory is right....as you have been on a Tag Along PUG can you confirm that this happens???

[cfryback Find all posts View Profile Close cfryback]

Oh, wow - but I have to ask the question as well, was your UHF set to scan as well?

Talking with our Car Club's UHF guru (and on my WaveLan experience) running a 6db aerial or lower (3 or 2.1db) would give better coverage, though the 3 or the 2.1db allows for hills and the like. See below for an illustration.



That being said, I don't know what the stock UHF configs are, but our Car Club on the GME radios limits talk time to 40 Seconds with the programming.

I wasn't there so I can't judge on what happened, but that Tag Along sounds unprofessional to me - if they wanted to do UHF Talkaround and there was only one leader, then he should have 2 UHF's or at least a handheld for talkaround.

Good thing that you were quick on the reactions though, and no nasty outcomes from it!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

And so on we headed, 33 Wells down another 18 to go!!



And yes the scenary (and track) were still fantastic......don't you just love that red dirt (sorry that's the third time I have said it)



And as always give Pradopoint a plug!!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

We continued to see some amazing sights, such as "Godfreys Tank" (well worth a side trip and we actually cammped in the "day use" area there for a night.



More of that area

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

We were into Dune Country now (and lots of them)......I love the Dunes (mainly as the track is a bit better with sand conditions BUT not always the case with the CSR which I'll expand on below....in the meantime a photo or two of the mighty Prado atop a Dune).





Unlike the Simpson (and depends on which route you do) where we did the French Line and there was dune after dune after dune with short swales in between....the CSR however was of course a "stock route" and as such Canning found the lowest Dunes for the stock to cross....this sometimes meant we'd cross a dune and then travel 5 KMs down the swale to cross another Dune, and then come 5 Kms back to do the same again.

The CSR is about 2100 Kms long but I'd love to know the distance as the crow flies from Wiluna to Halls Creek....I bet it's only half that!!

SO.....this meant there were LOTS more corrugations in the swales.....sadly they were back!!

I don't know how many of you actually explore Dunes, but we did, they are amazing things to walk up and the views....incredible