Tracks Less Travelled

Over two years in the making 'The Desert Round about', was an adventure conceived by forum member Brett whilst convalescing after surgery. It was a journey through some of Western Australia's most remote and less frequented desert regions. Hence the working title "Tracks Less Travelled". This is the title of this years travel journal written by Kaye and is probably the 20th she's done.

The Desert Round about was a journey starting at Bretts property near Harrismith in WA's southern wheat belt (or now possibly more correctly Canola belt) near Hyden and the spectacular Wave Rock.

The route was Harrismith via Wave Rock and Hollands Track to Coolgardie then an off the beaten track route to Carnegie Station at the end of the Gunbarrell Hwy via Laverton and Bandya Station. From Carnegie Station along the Gunbarrell and Old Gunbarrell Hwy's via Geraldton Bore and some of Australias best outback scenery (and corrugations) to Giles (Warakurna) in Central Australia.

From Giles north up the Sandy Blight Junction Rd to Kintore an Aboriginal community on the Gary Junction Rd then west to Mt Webb where the real 'off road' started heading north via Lake Mackay, the sad abandoned community of Yagga Yagga and the absolutely stunning Balgo Cliffs on some of the most "Tracks Less Travelled" the country's got to offer. From Balgo via the fresh watered Lake Gregory cutting back west to the top of the Canning Stock Route near Well 51. Next Bililuna, Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater and Sturt Creek Station to the Duncan Hwy near Halls Creek where the group split up and each went their own way.

A distance of about 4200 Km over a period of 4 weeks with great scenery and excellent company, five Oka's, two motor bikes and a Pomeranian called Nugget.

For us, Dean and Kaye in Oka #413 the journey starts on the other side of the country in rural Victoria several weeks earlier. This is the first 'installment' and covers our journey from home in Tynong North in Victoria's West Gippsland to Harrismith and the start of 'The Desert Round about'. Later chapters cover 'The Desert Round about' in two parts with the final chapter covering our journey home from near Halls Creek in north west Australia. A total distance of 12,474 Km in nearly 8 weeks.








This link is to a low res Dropbox account, approx 3.5 MB

Deano & Kaye

Hi Dean & Kaye
Reading your dropbox blog, it was interesting you mentioned Pannikin cave.I seem to recall that James Cameron made a film based lightly on what happended at the cave some years ago. tThe film was called Sanctum. A group of cave divers got caught in a freak storm & were traped in the cave some 24 hrs before the could get out.If you do a web search for the cave it should come up. I have tried to add a link???

Regards
Stephen

Hi Stephen, thanks for the info. Pannikin Plains Cave, where the all action happened, is about 0.5 Km or so NW of Pannikin Cave and at first glance is just a jumble of rocks at the intersection of two dirt tracks and quite unremarkable.

This link from Geodata US actually highlights Pannikin Cave not Pannikin Plains Cave which is quite noticeable about 0.5 Km or so to the NW of the red marker. Our campsite was in the clump of trees on the track to the east of Pannikin Plains Cave sort of making an equilateral triangle of the three spots. Rain would pour into these 'holes in the ground' from the basically flat Nullabor Plain and the 'creek beds' rain has cut over the centurys. It would have been very frightening (and spectacular) for the cavers trapped underground.

Pannikin Plain / Plains Cave


Signs like this were at each of these caves.





I found it pretty funny that a remote hole in the ground could be made 'closed' and wondered at the physical difference between a closed hole in the ground and an open one.


The cave sites themselves are very accessible but unsigned from the Eyre Hwy. For most you'd need to be a mountain goat or have abseiling skills to enter them. At Warbler Cave, just north of Eucla, there was the overgrown remains of a crude wire cage which may have been used to lower equipment into the cave but any derick or whatever was long gone.

It's worth noting that that the caves we saw across the Nullabor were basically 'holes in the ground' formed when a cavern below had collapsed. They varied in size from blow holes less than 1 metre across to large, approx. 80 metres by 50 metres (Koonalda Cave). Both Pannikin Caves were approx. 15-20 metres across.

It was actually quite difficult to get a decent picture showing a cave site as the Nullabor Plain is just that, a flat plain so nowhere to get a decent picture from. This photo shows Koonalda Cave and is typical of what they looked like.




Deano & Kaye

Dean and Kaye, the pdf document worked just fine, thank you.

We're interested in the Nullarbor section of your story as we're currently on the Old Eyre Highway just east of the Border Village. We've done this unsealed section a few times now (the first in 1975) plus the track down from Haig on the Trans-Australia Railway to Cocklebiddy. We met Frank, Oka 410, a couple of days ago, and he was about to do the old highway section north from Madura above the cliffs, which I didn't know was still accessible.

Last night we were in the Nuytsland Nature Reserve, 50km south of Madura. The tracks there don't actually reach the beach, the bushland become impenetrable.



There's a heck of a lot more to the Nullarbor Plain than the boring bitumen route: sinkholes, caves, fossils, beautiful bushland and wildlife. The whole Nullarbor area demands a much more intensive visit some time.

David and Janet

Dean and Kaye Howells wrote: I found it pretty funny that a remote hole in the ground could be made 'closed' and wondered at the physical difference between a closed hole in the ground and an open one.

I agree Deano ...bit like closing a desert or a river crossing
We saw that exact same sign this morning at Capstan, Cocklebiddy, Murra el-elewyn and Pannickan Plain caves
Only the names changed and none are signposted on the highway
Mind you, looking at the size of the entrances to some of these caves and especially the blow holes, it would take a very brave man to crawl inside



Pannikan Plain cave this morning
Thanks for the great blog, we are also travelling through a few days behind David and Janet

Rick, duplicate post deleted.

David

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The next exciting installment is hot off the press.

Kaye's been working her little fingers to the bone so here's the 2nd. proof (hopefully not too many errors) of 'Tracks Less Traveled' - Part 2.

This covers the section from Harrismith to Giles.

Part 3, the main desert section AKA 'The Desert Round about', the off road journey from Giles to Halls Creek is at 1st. proof stage and should be ready in about a week or so.






5.8 MB low res pdf so should download OK.


Kaye & Dean Howells

Dean
You need to take the password restriction off the file.
Link leads to a login screen.
Pete

Thanks Pete, all fixed now. I posted the wrong link.


Deano

Not wanting to divert this thread, but in December 1954, my father organised a Scout trip to explore caves on the Nullarbor and I managed to tag along (at the age of .
There are some VERY big holes out there....







The telegraph station was still standing...