2016 Tour – Part 4 – The Gary Junction Road

The parts for Harold and Di’s camper were ordered from Perth in a timely manner but Star Track managed to send them to Darwin instead of Alice Springs. After eventually getting some senior management involved we eventually got the parts on Thursday the 23^rd June. The complete story of Star Tracks stuff up is too involved for further discussion here.

With nothing to do but wait, we decided to take a day trip out to the East MacDonnell ranges to visit Emily and Jessie Gaps.

Alice Brake and Clutch did a sterling job to get the job finished by about 1 pm on Friday the 24^th of June and so we set off on our journey west, hell bent on getting as far as we could that afternoon. After topping up with fuel at Glenn Helen and with threatening skies, we headed for Papunya via Haasts Bluff.

About 30 km short of the border to Aboriginal Lands we made camp. This would make getting to Papunya for fuel before the store closed at 11:30am the next morning an easy task. Also according to the conditions of our permit from the Central Land Council, we were expected to transit the NT Aboriginal land in one day, which meant we had to reach the WA border, an impossible task the first day (afternoon) out. The first nights camp was very make shift off to the side of the road. The skies were still threatening so we made sure that the cars were facing down a slight slope towards the road in case the heavens opened up during the night and turned our camp site into mud. Despite the austerity of our camp site, we were able to rustle up a wonderful meal of Cajun Salmon cooked on the Weber. Thanks to the culinary expertise of our wives and in particular Harold who is master of the Weber Baby Q.

A little rain fell overnight so all was well and we set out the next morning for our next fuel stop at Papunya via Haasts Bluff. What an incredible drive through fabulous country.

At Papunya we filled up with fuel and we were pleasantly surprised that diesel was only $1.90 per litre. The guys in the shop warned us that we should get as much fuel on the NT side of the border as the price escalates very quickly in the communities on the WA side of the border.

Unfortunately, as it was Saturday we were never going to reach Kintore while the store was open. We were even concerned about our ability to buy fuel at the WA communities on Sunday (the next day). We were resigned to the fact that we may have to camp over somewhere and get fuel on the following Monday.

By-passing Mount Liebig and Kintore, as the stores were both closed Saturday PM we headed for the WA border. Still the skies were threatening. About 4pm and well into WA, we started looking for a place to camp that would be easy to depart from if we suffered a downpour. Luckily we found an old “borrow pit” that had a built up gravel track as access. We set up camp on the track. The weather was still very cold with intermittent rain. After the Cajun chicken the previous night we followed up with garlic prawns.. Aaaah! Food fit for a king.

As we set off the following morning the skies began to clear and by midday we pretty much had a blue sky. At last the plague of rain clouds seem to have passed on.

We arrived at Kiwirrkurra at around 10:30 am expecting the Store to be, as the literature we received with our permit (issued by the Kiwirrkurra community) clearly indicated, that the store (including fuel) was open for a couple of hours on Sunday mornings. As we arrived in the community it appeared absolutely deserted. Eventually we found the community nurse who said she would rustle up “Chris” once she had attended to a patient.

Apparently there was an important event at Kintore 200 km back towards Alice that most people from the community were attending. We waited by the bowsers for a while and before long, along comes a smiling and very pleasant Chris. Chris is a really nice bloke and did not mind opening up the bowser and the store for four intrepid travellers. The fuel here is $3.00 a litre and we were warned that it increased further west. But in these very remote areas you simply except the price as there is no alternative. The explanation for the high price, according to Chris, was that the old store had “burnt” down and so a premium was put on the fuel by the elders to pay for a new store. The new store has been operating for some time but the price for the fuel has remained. However Chris most kindly waived the “$20 per vehicle” opening fee explaining that they don’t normally charge tourists the out of hours opening fee, only the locals who are too lazy to top up when the store is open.

After a very pleasant chat with Chris about the functioning of the community and picking up a few items from the store that Chis opened just for us we continued on our relentless journey west.

We found a great spot for lunch among some desert oaks at a Len Beadell marker that points to Jupiter Well. After a relaxing lunch in wonderful sunshine we headed for Jupiter Well about 16km up the road. Jupiter well has a handpump with perfectly good drinking water. It was mid afternoon and we had been travelling at a fairly hectic pace and because the Jupiter Well area provided a fantastic camp spot we decided to slow down and enjoy the good weather. That night 5 spice Pork in the menu. Harold lived up to his reputation once more.

The following morning after a pleasant walk around the area, we headed for Kunawaritji, which is often referred to as Well 33. Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route is only about 6 km up the track. Kunawaritji community try to provide various services to the tourist community in particular those travelling the Canning Stock Route. Fuel here was the most expensive at $3.40/l. One service that we took immediate advantage of were fantastic hot showers. After showering we again headed west and about 50 km up the road we found a great camp spot a fair way off the road with a fabulous rocky outcrop as a back drop. Once again another sensational meal around the camp-fire.

 

The next morning, Tuesday the 28^th we headed for our last and most important fuel stop before Marble Bar. This is another Aboriginal Community called Punmu. Punmu is actually within the Rudall River (Karlamilyi) NP and on the edge of Lake Dora (Salt Lake). We had set ourselves a target of having to potentially travel 1000km without additional fuel. While probably not needed we did not want to be limited by fuel if we chose to do some considerable exploring in Rudall River NP.

A short video of our journey across the Gary Junction Road

 Next post, Rudall River and Beyond