This month we reach the Canning Stock Route and experience all that it has to offer.
A cool wind churned the dust along the main street of Wiluna. It was near the end of winter and the Western Australian outback town was almost empty but for our three vehicles outside the general store where we were sipping on the last store-bought coffees we would see for the next few weeks.
After months of planning, our Canning Stock Route adventure was about to begin and soon we turned our vehicles north for a quick photo at the road sign with the reminder that Halls Creek was 1799 km away.
Our group consisted of Matto and Juanita in a 120 Series Prado, Pete and Di in a new Mitsubishi twin cab and Heather and I in a 100 series Landcruiser. All vehicles were diesels with long-range tanks and we each carried around 80L of water and enough food to start a supermarket.
From its beginning in the 1920s as a route to drive cattle form the Kimberley to the goldfields around Kalgoorlie, the Canning has earned its tough reputation as one of our most remote and challenging roads and a must-do for many off road adventurers. It winds its way through the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts and, because it passes thorough Aboriginal Lands, permits are required and travel is restricted to within a short distance of the track.
As difficult as it might be now, even in a well equipped air conditioned offroader, in the early years you needed to be a flint hard character just to survive.
History blends with the terrain and climate to imbue the Canning with a cult following that puts it in a worldwide list of best offroad adventures and as we set our course north there was a mix of excitement and relief that we were finally on our way.
Alfred Canning established the route in 1908 through inhospitable outback terrain by digging and blasting wells at suitable intervals for the cattle to drink. Many of these wells were in fact traditional waterholes that had been used by indigenous families for millennia and changes to the status quo and a lack of respect for the locals’ needs were naturally enough met with hostility.