Canning Stock Route

Canning - Wells 7 to 15 Departed camp at 8am. 8.15 Mt Davis track (left) led up to the top and group members thought it was also accessible from Well 9. Geoff thought there was rock art at its base. It’s in the Carnarvon Range with the Ingebong Hills on the right. Sadly we pressed on instead of diverting and exploring the track and possible rock art. 8.45 Passed a good camping spots amongst trees, casurinas. Road was rocky and chopped up. 9.00 Well 7. Same country as above is shady casurina scrub. Glen Ayle Station which we are travelling through has "no camping within 1km of track" signs along the track. They don't like rubbish or shooting on the lease. More wildflowers started appearing 5-6 km after well 7. Toothbrush grevilleas, small white everlastings, cotton tops,cassia, wattles of several types, the tall 'triffid" grevillea and myrtacea- small bushes with masses of purple flowers. 9.10 Again we are traveling on rocky high tops with low cushiony scrub but no spinifex. Carpets of cassia, cotton tops and purple myrtacea. 9.30 Arrived Well 8. Young Brahmin steer greeted us. 9.38. Casurina scrub and some eucalypts round well 9.Bumpy road through this scrub. Chopped up clay. Rusty well artifacts scattered round well 9 including an old CSR diamond shaped sign on a post as we departed the well. Amazing it hasn't been snaffled. New type of creamy wattles starts to appear. Shrubs are few. We are in open grassy plains since well 8. Sighted some emu and light casurina trees started to appear with some spinifex patches in spots. 10am Purple solenacea and patches of yellow wattles. Track has degenerated into wash-aways rocky bars and ruts. But great flowers , birds and views on the tops of hills. 10.30 Well 9.(Weld Springs) morning tea on the tops. Great spot. Lovely creek with trees, water and flocks of budgies wheeling around us as we stood still to drink in the scene. Fairy martins there too. They wheel and wind through the sky too. Also saw quite a few cuckoo shrikes. 10.55 Departed well 9. This spot was as far as John Forrest the explorer got in 1874. He did a brief circle north then headed back southwards. Saw 2 cars at well 9 travelling S. 11.10. One motor bike travelling south. Lots of isolated mulla mullas here-purple. Also blue solenacea and CTs (cotton tops) 11.30 carpets of mulla mulla. By escarpment, Took photo. 11.35 Well 10. Ruined well, with old wood and rusted bits and wire scattered round. (the usual!) Open savanna country with spinifex and low shrubs and the occasional acacia tree. Well 10 was known as the "lucky" well as it marked the end of the spinifex country for the drovers heading south. Departed well at 11.45. 12.00 Dunes start just north of well 10. McConckey Hill photo. Nice eroded bluff. Low firm sandhills start interspersed with badly rutted sections. Low scrub abd red sand. Spinifex, shrubs and dead trees. Some flowers too. Cotton tops, Mulla Mulla and Grevilia. Meg thinks we were also seeing lots of clusters of 'snowdrops' too. 12.10 Well 11. We passed White Lake just near it. No water but covered in fresh green grass. This well also ruined so we drove past it. Following a nicely packed down sand track. 12.15 Horrid lunch stop. Two bustards in the scrub. Windy, no shade. Departed 12.40. Country appears to be dunes interspersed with clay strips filled with wild flowers, low trees and shrubs. Some spinifex plains - open gully areas between the dunes also appear. Blue pincushions, snowdrops and other usual flowers. 1.05. Passing round the north edge of White Lake, shortly to be followed by the larger Lake Aerodrome. Red and grey saltbush on white salt lake surfaces. Track follows the edge of these 2 lakes, Lovely medium shrubs start to appear like a white grevillea 1.20 Full extent of Lake Aerodrome comes into view. So named because it was discovered during the World War 2 as a site that would be OK for emergency plane landings. Terry took photo stitch. 1.37. Back in the sand hills leaving the lake behind. Lots of small (3-4) groups of fire tail finches in the area. (We would continue to see these birds throughout the rest of the Canning whenever we were near water). Wildflowers all over: yellow toothbrush GV and yellow triffid Grevillea', white Grevillea,and pink Grevillea, also blue small flowers and what Meg thinks is a pink pimelia with 5 petals. 3.40 Well 14. (Did we pass well 13 near a burnt out vehicle? Hmmm! didn't note it down. We were now not getting out at all the wells). Small stand of white gums. Enough shade for 3-4 camps. Not much left of the well. Also some red Grevillea Rosmarifilia (look-alike) ranging from shrub to tree size. Took photos. 4.25 Well 15. Set up the night camp after a longish push. No firewood so we only had afire of small sticks. Excellent water at the well. Meg started a sketch of the general scrubby view from our tent. She did this while cooking dinner. She finished the colors the next morning before we left. Meg resolved to push herself to sketch more. “This constant traveling with little time over doesn't suit my sketching at all” she claimed.