Day 21: From scabby roads to sand dune country made for more fun driving today, except the tracks were not well defined and confusion reigned supreme. Paul sorted it out with his trusty GPS.Found a good camping spot a few klms. further on. Sue produced damper and butterscotch pudding to finish off another great day. But wait there’s more!!!! Paul produced my missing registration plate from Lake Disappointment a few days earlier, which was the subject of a lot of ribbing – but I had broad shouders and took it in good spirit.
Day 22: Now into big sand dune country interspersed with severe track conditions which led to more running repairs. Visited wells 39/40/41 where we made camp.
Day23: Rattled our way to wells 42/43/44/45. Nice camp but no wood or water. Car feels like it has been shaken to pieces but still keeps on going like it is unstoppable. Met up with our Mallacoota friends again which was nice to exchange stories.
Day 24: Today was another highlight day – visited wells 46/47/48. Camped at Breaden Pool in the Breaden Hills. No water in the pool but we enjoyed a great walk just before sunset and took in amazing scenery with the sun on the escarpments. This area would be as good as it gets as far as scenery goes.
Day 25/26: visited the last three wells 49/50/51, then went to Stretch Lagoon for another 2 night stay. Our Mallacoota friends re-joined us here. What luxury – a waterfront camp with birdlife and evensong. A large flock of Brolgas and Royal Spoonbills plus many small variety of birds. Also saw more Camels today. More work for the shower tent.
Day 27: Fuelled up at Billiluna and then visited Wolfe Creek Crater National Park. Very interesting but not a good campsite so we headed down the Tanami Road and camped at the NT/WA border and had a secluded camp all to ourselves. The road is still rough but we are able to keep up a bit of pace. A lot of works occurring installing a gas pipeline to the Newmont Mine, big money in mining operations!
was closed from well 23 to well 33 and a 500 klm. detour was unavoidable. The weather was warming up during the day but the evenings and nights were still cool. Made good time today and camped at well 10.
Day 13: Nice drive today through sand dunes for a while but the rest was back to the old grind with the usual judders! The escarpments of Calvert Range were stunning in the afternoon sun along with a great view of the Canning Cairn. We met another couple from Mallacoota at Wiluna and they re-joined us at Well 16 Durba Springs for a couple of nights. We enjoyed their company, they were also driving a Pajero so we had a lot in common.
Day 14: Easy day at Durba Springs with a nice walk inspecting aboriginal art and taking in the wonderful scenery. Some running repairs were needed and were duly attended to followed by a nice hot shower in my new shower tent (it worked a treat). Great place to camp.
Day 15: Rough drive again to wells 18/19/20. Well 17 could not be accessed, and was the only well so far that we couldn’t photograph.
Day 16/19: Went to wells 21 and 22 where we encountered a major problem. My rear shockers were stuffed and had to make a decision to leave the group for 3 days to get new replacements. We parted company at Georgia Bore and headed for Newman, which was not a good drive without rear shockers. The 1276 klms. detour took us to Marble Bar which was a bonus as we would never have got there under normal circumstances. In the meantime Paul & Sue went to Rudall River National Park and stayed a couple of nights at Desert Queens Baths and had a good relax before detouring 500 klms. via the Telfer Mine. We had arranged to meet again at Punmu which worked out well as we were only about an hour apart. We camped just outside Punmu. Good photo of a Dingo near our camp at sunset.
Day 20: Off to well 32 (very rough and slow), then back to wells 33/34. Good camp here and enjoyed some steak and vegies washed down with some wine.
40