Four years ago on our first Simpson Crossing the topic of the Canning Stock Route (CSR) first came up in conversations with Ed, Bill, Megan and Julie. Back then it wasn’t really something we had every considered doing or felt the need to do, since it was meant to be nothing but 2000km of the worst corrugations in all of Australia.

Fast forward to May 2024 and an email from Ed suggesting August 2025 as travel date for the CSR, since Angus and Teja would then be on the road for their honeymoon and could join us.

By mid December we had settled on a starting date of August 7 from Coober Pedy, on the second day of the new year we had a schedule and from there on preparations started in earnest.

We would be travelling ~1900km through one of the remotest parts of Australia with only one community along the way where we could get fuel and groceries. We needed to plan for 21 days of food, drinking water, fuel to last for at least 2 x 1200km taking the roughly 1000 sand dunes we needed to cross into account, camping gear, spare parts and electronics. But most importantly the car needed to be in tip top shape.

After long discussions, a lot of research, a couple set backs, many many phone calls and a ton of frustration Elsie finally had a brand new suspension installed – albeit not the one we originally wanted.

In parallel Markus started designing a shelving system to replace the back seat and give us an option to store 3 fuel and 2 water jerry cans plus the new 60L water bladder we had bought. The last two months before leaving we spent most of our free time with meal and inventory planing, ordering food and parts, building the shelving system in the car and packing while also getting the car to have a final inspection and having some extra plugs and cabling installed to run the fridge and the new water pump.

On August 1 we left Sydney to initially head to Ceduna in SA where we would spend five nights and four days working remotely before driving the rest of the way to Perth. On the way we realised we had left our wallets with credit cards and drivers licences at home, then got pulled over for carrying an avocado in the fridge at the quarantine station entering SA, then got Markus’ first speeding fine just after crossing into WA and Martina’s only second ever police breath test.

Martina then flew home to Sydney for work and final house and garden preparations while Markus stayed in Perth for a final service, getting new car tires for Elsie and packing the car with fuel and water. Five days later Martina flew back to Perth and early morning on August 16 we left Perth to head to Wiluna to meet up with Ed, Karen, Angus, Teja, Bill and Gina where we arrived just before 7pm and 5229km after leaving Sydney.

For the next 19 days we travelled 1945km over countless horrible corrugations, rocky sections, washouts and sand dunes, saw camels and dingos, bustards and lizards. We drove on average 100km per day and visited 52 wells – some restored and with various degrees of good water, some barely a hole in the ground. We saw salt lakes and water lakes, had amazing sunsets and sunrises, wildflowers and ever changing landscapes. Ed and Angus bushfixed and welded an exhaust pipe, a fuel line and a broken control arm. But we all made it out to Bililuna and on to Halls Creek on September 4.

Covering the CSR in one paragraph feels wrong. But it is hard to describe and do it justice without just describing the daily routine of packing up camp, driving, stopping, driving, setting up camp, cooking, eating, cleaning, having a chat, sleeping and repeat.
Some days we were wondering why we are doing this, particularly in the beginning where the track goes over cattle station property or when the corrugations were particularly bad for a long section and we couldn’t go faster than crawling speed.
It was hot and very cold, it was windy and we had a bit of rain.

But it was also wild and beautiful and untouched, no civilisation around you for a thousand kilometres. The silence at night was often absolute (if we didn’t happen to be under a flight path).
The desert was very different from the Simpson, the dunes were smaller, there were more trees, big stands of desert oaks. But driving through desert and red dunes was still spectacular.
This feeling you get out there, of being at peace, of being in the presence of something that is thousands of years old. It is addictive.

After arriving in Halls Creek we had nine days left before we had to be back at work. We spent another night with the group camping at Wolfe Creek Crater before saying our goodbyes and heading off to Alice Springs on our own. After another night camping along the Tanami Road, we arrived in Alice and spent a day and night back in civilisation and in a hotel to get our first good shower and do laundry.

We weren’t sure, if we should head back straight to Sydney, do something else along the way or stay in Alice until the opening night of Desert Mob on Thursday. We’ve been to the exhibition twice before and loved it.
In the end we decided to go out to Palm Valley for two nights, then spend two nights back in Alice, go to the opening and leave straight after that night to drive back to Sydney.

Palm Valley was as beautiful as we remembered, though not quite as green as 15 years ago. There was less water and the river crossings were all dry. Nonetheless the last 6km to the valley from the camp ground were as difficult as back then.
This was the first time on the whole trip that we stayed in one place for two nights in a row and it felt good to just sit back and relax.

The end of the trip was like the start, many kilometres and long days of driving but we arrived back in Sydney on the morning of the 14th September – a bit over six weeks, since we left.

In total we had driven 11497km and we wished we could just keep going.

A selection of pictures from the trip can be found as always in the gallery.