Canning Stock Route
We get our last supplies in Kununurra, drive south to Halls Creek and wriggle out the back to the start of the Canning Stock Route, cutting into the Tanami Desert before snaking south through the Great Sandy, Gibson and Little Sandy deserts. Each is markedly different - and Lake Disappointment isn't at all.
It is a great adventure; an education in landscape, history and the human story of the interior of WA.
These have long been tribal lands but, in the 1900s, the Kimberley cattle industry needed to walk its stock south to market.
Alfred Wernam Canning surveyed the line for the stock route in 1906and 1907 (he had already surveyed the 1891km No 1 Rabbit Proof Fence over three years).
Between 1908 and 1910, Canning then led a team of 20 men, 62camels, two horses and 400 goats for milk and meat. They built 51wells - all a day's droving apart -and, in doing so, they established this great transect through the interior.
By 1929, the wells and equipment needed refurbishment urgently and the Government contracted a construction team, led by William Snell. But they couldn't complete the task. Canning, now aged 70, was famously asked to come out of retirement, led the team and did the job.
More modern travellers have passed down the Canning Stock Route than cattle ever did - caught by the story, the physical challenge and the romance of running through a truly deep artery of WA.
Don't be fooled by the word "desert". There is vegetation and ever-changing landscapes.
I have many extraordinary memories of the stock route -sleeping in a swag in a grove of desert oaks; the hardy, curly barked desert trees; and rocky outcrops such as Ingebong Hill which give a view over the desert.
But, most of all, crossing 1000 red dunes and seeing the country pretty much as Alfred Canning himself once saw it.
The mind is filled predominantly with gold. The oceans of spinifex are ruffled and swagger in the desert breeze, deepening in colour in the lowering sun. Oceans is a good word as the stock route's desert landscapes are as fluid as water and with as many quickly-changing moods.
The oceans of spinifex roll over the 1000 dunes, regular as waves, peaking, troughing in swales. The face steep, the back less so, and drifting away, driven flatter by the wind. Just like water waves. Salt lakes. Mud pans. The wriggly remains of trees. Bonsai landscape of endless plant varieties.
Our technologies allow us modern travellers the luxury of romanticising on the Canning Stock Route.
And they leave us in awe of a man once leading camels and men into a largely unknown place.
FACT FILE
Canning Stock Route: A Traveller's Guide, by Ronele and Eric Gard.
See www.australiasnorthwest.com
WHERE
1850km between Old Halls Creek in the East Kimberley and Wiluna in the Goldfields, through the Tanami, Gibson, Great Sandy and Little Sandy deserts. Undoubtedly, it is one of the world's great off-road treks.
WHO
Anyone planning to travel the Canning Stock Route needs a properly set-up vehicle and it is highly recommended to travel with other vehicles. I have travelled it from north to south - the recommended direction as the dunes are easier heading south - and it's one of my most memorably trips in WA. Fuel is limited. A fuel dump is often arranged at Well 23 from the Capricorn Roadhouse in Newman. Permits are required.
WHEN
April to September. Daytime temperatures are nice and mild but often literally freezing at night.
>> Adventurer Dick Smith once said that Durba Spring - a rocky outcrop with a creek and almost permanent water at Well 18 in the lower section of the Canning Stock Route - was one of the prettiest places he knew. He was right. It is an oasis and the east face of the gorge has some of the best traditional rock art along the stock route. It is easily accessible.
