Canning Stock Route — Fuel for thought

Day Four on the Mercedes-Benz Canning Stock Route challenge, and it's time to talk about fuel.

It's a big issue for the 500-plus vehicles that attempt the entire 2000km route each year, as apart from a couple of opportunities to 'fill 'er up', you're pretty much on your own.

That means, in the case of the 'Benz seven-vehicle convoy, 600 litres of extra fuel, carried in jerry cans, which adds up to 80 litres of extra diesel for each vehicle, plus 40 litres.

"That's all we could physically carry," said the man entrusted to get the convoy to the halfway point (Well 33) in less than six days, Geoff Becker.

"We calculated it so if we missed the fuel dump at Well 23, we could get to Well 33 on the smell of an oily rag," Becker explained, a man that always has a Plan B.

Luckily, we don't have to go into 'limp home' mode, as despite now being a day ahead of schedule (much to Becker's delight), the truck that delivers the 44 gallon drums of diesel to Well 23 has fortunately dropped off our 'three can stash' a day early.

So when we get to Well 23 in the afternoon, there are our barrels of liquid gold, with our name on them, and we proceed to hand-pump the precious fuel into the vehicles, with the remainder into jerry cans. If by chance we couldn't fit all 615 litres on board, we would have had to leave it behind for the next party, so once again, military-like planning is important...

The fuel dump isn't BP drive-through efficiency, but after about 45 minutes of piston-like pumping, we're on our way, fuel tanks bulging...

The way it works is that about six to eight weeks prior to your Canning trip, you should order the fuel from the Capricorn Roadhouse south of Newman, which then transports the 205 litre drums of fuel to the dump site near Well 23.

The only catch is that it costs $2.98 a litre -- but you can charge that when the only other option for fuel along the route is from the general store at Kunawarritji, an indigenous community a bit further up the track near Well 33 (where we'll also pick up additional fuel.)

Again, it's not cheap, but at least you can buy as much as you can carry from their large capacity diesel tank...

Meanwhile, at the end of Day Four our trusty G 350 Merc has clocked a very sandy 759km at an average speed of 32km/h, with fuel consumption of 18.4L/100km.

The tough Merc may be a tad thirsty, but this is a thirsty country, in more ways than one...

Tracking the Canning Stock Route: