End in sight

With 12 brand new, Bilstein shock absorbers fitted to six of the seven G-Wagens, we're off again after a frustrating day-and-a-half of no forward progress.

With seven new people joining the convoy for the second leg of the trip, everyone is keen to get back in the driver's seat and get a few more kilometres closer to our final destination of Halls Creek.

Day 9 of the Mercedes-Benz Canning Stock Route drive starts a bit slowly for 'Car 4', co-driven by your motoring.com.au correspondent, with a flat battery, courtesy of running the beer fridge for most of the previous day.

After a jump start from the G-Professional ute, we're off and running, only to have to slam the brakes on midway through a corner when a spare tyre falls off the roofrack of the G-Wagen in front.

Another 20 minute stop to allow Benz PR man, David 'Macca' McCarthy, a satellite phone interview with a Melbourne radio station, and a stop off at Well 36, means the first 30km takes a leisurely two hours to complete.

Well 36 would have been our Day 7 campsite if not for the Shock Absorber Meltdown (see Day 7 report). Good thing we didn't stay there though, as a few days earlier, an unfortunate camel had fallen down the well while trying to get a drink.

A truck had already come to pull it out, but its decomposing carcass and the rotten stench nearby might have ruined the otherwise delicious roast dinner served up by our 'Outback Masterchef', Bill Rogers, that night.

Pressing on, we complete 109km before stopping for lunch at the very dry Lake Tobin; hard to believe that six months ago, during the wet season, it was flooded, with no access across.

Our resident twitcher, Dr Luke, takes the opportunity to pull out the binoculars and continue his search for some of the more rare bird species in the region, including the highly prized and elusive Night Parrot and Princess Parrot.

"This is the probably the last opportunity I have to find them. This is prime territory," he says, pointing to some nearby vegetation where they might reside.

Thankfully, we're now mostly off the corrugations and back into the sand dunes, enjoying some enjoyably twisty and flowing sections through spinifex and saltbush terrain.

Stop-offs include an eye-catching cave embedded into a red rock escarpment, and an abandoned, rusty motorbike frame which some wag had put a $25 pricetag on!

After lunch we cross over Lake Tobin bypassing some massive termite mounds, before stopping off at Well 41, which was restored in 1994 but appears a bit worse for wear now.

Although the water is supposed to be drinkable, it's got a slight odour and beer colour due to staining from the nearby melaleuca scrub, and we decide to stock up our dwindling supplies but use it only for showers and washing up.

We're also starting to pass a lot more vehicles along the track, heading southbound, including six convoys of between two and nine vehicles.

By all accounts it's looking like a bumper season on the Canning Stock Route, with the manager of the Kunawarraitji community we stayed at a couple of nights ago confirming that he'd already had a near record 750 vehicles pass through for the season.

Although again slightly behind on our tight schedule, tour leader Geoff Becker is buoyed by another solid day of 186km and importantly, no punctures, shock absorber blowouts or other setbacks.

The original plan was to be camped at Well 44 by Day 9, but Becker is still happy to have reached a site halfway between Well 41 and 42, by nightfall.

With only two and a half days to go to meet our strict deadline, the plan is another couple of big 150km days before the final run in to Halls Creek on August 9.

"Although we're well short of where we wanted to be last night, today we have got back on course and tomorrow we'll be back on schedule," Becker said, with the confident air of a man about to get the job done.

Halls Creek, here we come...

Tracking the Canning Stock Route: