A Knob, a Geocache and some Soaks.

The Fair Maid doesn't get out much at the moment. The poor thing just sits in the garage with a cold heart. I did sense that she was ready for an outing, so at my suggestion she jumped at the opportunity, and I knew she wouldn't let me down.

She took me from Perth, past Laverton, to Nichols Knob and Mt. Feldtmann on a 6 night, 6 day outing. The pressure was on her to perform properly and flawlessly, as I had left no margin for error and I had to start back at work last Thursday. This is the story, which was also reproduced in thread 72740.

I left Perth 24th September 2009 after work and headed east along the main highway, before having tea at Tammin and stayed at a motel in Merredin. Good old 70 year old mother dear took the passenger seat, she hadn't really been right out in the sticks before - she was about to find out all about it.

The next day had breaky at Southern Cross before stopping at Karalee Rock to have a look at the dam and the dam supply.






It was quite impressive with walls on the rocks diverting the water to the dam.









Stopped at Kalgoorlie briefly and went up to Mt. Charlotte the end of the Golfields Pipeline.









We stopped at Menzies for lunch. I notice that the Roadhouse is still for sale but has had a bit of a facelift.







Kept going to Leonora and bought a loaf of bread before continuing to Laverton. Fueled up there and kept going for a few Kilometres until the Checkpoint. There was supposed to be a geocache there but I couldn't find it. We decided to set up camp there and I set Mum's tent up whilst she cooked tea :)) .



Now it was Saturday 26th September 2009 and we headed up the Great Central Road. We pulled off shortly to have a look for Deeba Rockhole but couldn't find it. Anyone else found it? Then looked around for Bubbles Rockhole which we think we found covered by an old metal hinged door.






Then we visited the nearby Giles Breakaway. The was a geocache there which we found easily. Nice views from there and worthy of another look sometime when I and the Fair Maid had more time.




Just up the road we had a look for Bullrush Rockhole. We found a couple of small dry rockholes but were not convinced they were the one. We left up the road again but did notice a track leading in that could possibly lead to the rockhole, but continued on.

At 9:25am turned up the Lake Wells Road a gravel road in very good condition. We got in the vicinity of Point Pater Rockhole and had a look around for it. We could find no water and this small rocky depression in a creek was the best we could come up with.




Had some morning tea nearby before heading up the road again. We saw a Wild Dog and two older puppies running down the side of the road. We stopped for a look. The puppies ran away into the bush and the father dog stay nearby us, I guess to keep an eye on us whilst his kids got away.




Now we kept going until we reached a suitable northing to go in a try and reach Nichols Knob. I had been to Nichols Knob in 2003 on the quad bike and in someways I wish I had it now as it was considerably more difficult to traverse the landscape in the 4WD. No harm in trying though :) The terrain was a mixture of Mulga belts along with Spinifex clearings and this type of traveling was about to kill the paint job.





The were a number of animal tracks around and we followed one track until we came to a depression in the ground quite dry at 27 39 7.9S 122 56 8.0E.





There was a significant point in the distance so we headed over (through the bush etc.etc.) for a look. In hindsight I think this may have been Gibson Hill, though I wasn't to sure at the time.







I climbed it and admired the view over the surrounding landscape. After lunch we keep going onto Nichols Knob but headed first to have a look at the continuation of the breakaways of which Gibson Hill? is a part of. By following animal tracks we again came to a depression, also dry located at 27 35 54.25E 122 59 37.3E .






We headed on towards Nichols Knob now which we arrived at around 3:00pm. I had left a geocache here in 2003 which has for the last 3 and a half years been Australia's officially oldest unfound Geocache. Nichols Knob Geocache Page






We found the Geocache, in a slight state of disrepair and replaced the container and put a few items in it which may make the Geocache attractive for the more Adventurous geocacher.










Nichols Knob is one of two small hills in there area and was named by Frank Hann after his camel Nichol who died there in 1908. David Carnegie passed by the other hill in 1896 on his Epic expedition. It was here, at the Red Rock of Carnegies that we camped for the night.



Walking around at night here with the torch make you realise just how many spiders there are around as their eyes reflect the torch light. After breakfast in the morning we checked the minimum overnight temperature 1.9 degrees, and left the area around 8:45am and headed to the east north east for a few kilometres.

Here we would try and find Carnegies camp 11 of August 2 1896. There is a belt of Gum trees here that he would more than likely would have camped at and we search around the area with not much luck. I had predicted prior that the chances of finding anything here was about 2-3% and I was right.

We then started to head for Mt. Feldtmann. This was a hill about 15 kilometres away. The terrain seemed just a little bit easier than the trip to Nichols Knob from the west.



Mt. Feldtmann was actually a poor excuse for a mount. It seems to be just a series of wide ridges sticking out of the ground. The kangaroos were numerous, and I wondered where they drank from.






We parked the 4wd on the southern side and proceed to explore the area. It had about 3 or 4 peaks and we climbed them all. We found an old cairn on one of them that looked like it had been placed there quite some time ago. By whom I wonder?



After we had explored the mount we had lunch where we had parked the Ute. We heard some birds chirping above us. We looked up and saw a small bird attacking a hawk. Upon closer inspection the hawk had a 2 foot snake hanging from its beak. The smaller bird was trying to grab it. The hawk flew so high that the smaller bird could not reach it and then flew off into the distance with the snake. I have never seen anything like this before; an amazing thing to witness.

We started to make our way to the Uhr Soak area. It was difficult to get away from the Mt. Feldtmann area as there were low long lines of ridges in our path. A few kilometres away we came to a track. Excellent!!! The track was heading east / west so we could try either way at this time as we were heading south.



We headed east and the track was Ok and started to head in a northern direction into the middle of nowhere. I remember in 2003 on the quad bike coming across a track south of the Ernest Giles Range and I wonder if it is the same track?? This was certainly the wrong way at this time so we went the other way and soon we were heading in a direction that was almost spot on to where we wanted to go.



Halfway on the track between Mt. Feldtmann and Uhr Soak we came across a bridge type formation carved out of rock which was similar to London Bridge near Sandstone. We headed in for a closer look.



Here I noticed that there where numerous dead Kangaroos in the shade of rocks. I had noticed this elsewhere as well. I wonder whether they come to these shaded areas to die or whether they just die anywhere and as we are more likely to see them at these places just see them here dead. Not sure on that one.

We kept heading down the track and passed Mt. Warren and Mt. Cornell before coming to the Uhr Soak road, which is the track heading north from Jutson Soak.

We arrived at Uhr Soak at around 3:00pm and set up camp. This place was most interesting. We found the tree blazed by D'arcy Uhr in 1901. It had fallen over but the blazed was still visible.






The actual soak at the head of a small valley nearby appeared dry but would probably yield some water if one dug deep enough.









There are some interesting rock placements around the area. Here are some pictures:











Uhr Soak was supposed to have been discovered by D'arcy Uhr in 1901. I am therefore a little confused by this inscription on a nearby rock presumably put there by prospector Billy Frost:







On Monday morning, 28 September 2009 I decided to do a more thorough walk around the area starting with a climb to the top of Mt. Cumming.






After admiring the view I did a long walk around the southern base toward the valley that contains the soak. I saw a shadow cast by a small leaning rock and it caught my eye. This is what I found there (on right).

I'm not sure what it means but it surely is of some significance. I then wandered back to our camped and then we departed to the south.

Our destination was Jutson Soak for now which we reached (we think) after passing a dead camel on the track.



After searching for a geocache near the soak and finding it we then headed back onto the Great Central Road and then started to head for Lang Rock to the south of the road. We then came across a family of Aboriginals who were out having a family kangaroo hunting day. We spoke for about 5 minutes then we headed in different directions. We arrive at Lang Rock shortly after and had some lunch there. We admired the inscriptions at the rock for a while, and there were many of them some pictured here:



















This one gave me a laugh - I can just imagine his rescuers waiting whilst he finishes his inscription.









After Lang Rock I headed west to have a look at a waterhole marked on the map near Mt. Shenton. I heard Exploroz visitor Watery (Peter) on the radio directing some of his party toward Rutter's Grave. I spoke to him and agreed to meet him there, a few kilometres from where I was.

He was with a group of about 6 or 7 vehicles on a father son trip which would hopefully take them up the Hunt Oil Road and back into Wiluna. We chatted for a while and then headed off again, back down the Great Central Road towards Laverton.






When we passed the track that was near Bullrush Rockhole we drove in a found the rockhole at the end of the short track.







After that we headed into Laverton and checked into a motel there and had a decent dinner at the pub.

In the morning we decided to go and visit Hanns camp but made a couple of incorrect assumptions. The first was that the camp would be signposted. As the camp was pictured in the brochures I would have thought it would be. It wasn't. Second assumption was that the co-ords that I got from the Exploroz site would be correct. They were not. We spent hours trying to get into a place that wasn't even there. There was a new haul road being put in the area and almost got ourselves into trouble using the road. What a waste of time I thought as we headed off to the tourist centre. They gave us the correct co-ords (I think). They are 28 34 21S 122 29 41E. They knew of the new haul road and said access would probably be now restricted and that a new road would probably have to be put into the site. I didn't spend any more time in the area and left town.

We headed out on the old road and stopped in at John Aspinall grave and had some lunch.

After that we stopped in at Kookynie for a quick beer, as the only customers. Then we had a look a Niagara Dam before heading into Kalgoorlie for the night.

After leaving Kalgoorlie on Wednesday just before 7:00am in the morning we arrived back in Perth a couple of hours after lunch where the Fair Maid was once again garaged, much to her disappointment.

The Fair Maid's consumption was 6.95 km per litre or 14.39 litres per 100 km onroad. Offroad consumption was 4.01 km per litre or 24.91 litres per 100 km.

The Fair Maid managed to complete the entire six day trip without getting a single puncture, arriving back in Perth with the same air in the tyres that it left with.

A very enjoyable six day trip though I was pretty tired as usual at the end of it. My mum really enjoyed it to and that now gives her an indication of what I like to do in my spare time.

Cheers
Alan

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Here is a video of the section of the trip from Lake Wells Road to around Mt. Feldtmann. No Oscars available here but it will give an indication of the landscapes.




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Postscript 31/10/09

Post Script:

The Geocache has now been found, by Hugo from the Netherlands..well done Hugo.

See following details from geocaching.com:

Location: Western Australia, Australia
Hugo&Sarah found Nichols Knob (Traditional Cache) at 10/25/2009

Log Date: 10/25/2009
Yes! we are the proud FTF of this remote cache.

I am a geocacher from The Netherlands and when I first came to Australia a few years ago I was hooked on the outback and 4wd.

I already have been several times been back in Australia with my family and enjoyed every minute of it and when back in Holland I was searching for remote caches which where hard to get.

A year ago I found this one on the map from Geocaching.com.au and was very excited to do this one since it was so remote and there where no tracks to it as you are about 20Km from GZ.

Now it finally was the time, I came to Australia without my family to go on a boys trip with fellow cacher Barrabup sanctuary.As I still had to do some other things before we went on our trip I kept an eye on the cache and saw that the Equinox the placer of the cache had a look to see all was still there and placed some very attractive items in the cache for us, know knowing that it still was there and some nice goodies on top of it I was super excited and couldn't wait to go there.In Kalgoorlie I put new tires on my defender and 2 new spares on rims together with a big puncture repair kit to minimize to get stranded over there.I did watch the video and story from Equinox that he had placed on exploroz to get an idea to what was facing us as did I had a close look on google earth to find a way in.
When we finally arrived on lakes well road after fueling up in Cosmo I thought I had found the best way in from lake wells road, after 300m we crossed a dry creek and where struggling through thick mulga for at least 3km and then we where so happy when we came out and saw just spinefex for a while then faceing more mulga but not so think and just for a Km or so then a rocky ground for a few hundred meters when we passed Gibson Hill then again spinefex until we reached GZ! It took us 4,5 hours from lake wells road to do the last 18Km! We camped for the night and I saw why the rock formation just east of Nichols know is called red rocks when the sun rose.In the morning we took of again we doubted for a second to follow the faint tracks that Equinox left hoping it was a better way to get in. But we decided to backtrack our own which was much harder the we thought we lost it many times except in the spinefex where we left a pretty clear track but we had the track on our gps also to assist us.When I cam out of the first mulga on the way in I noticed that it was more clearer south east of where we entered.We decided to try heading south west from the point where we where facing 2-3 km of thick mulga which we had on the first 3km to come in from lake wells road.It was a very good choice no Mulga at all just spinefex and we did the 18Km from nichols knob to lake wells road in under 3 hours! I marked the coords where we came out and I am happy to give them to anyone that wants to give it a try also.Overall it was an adventure that exceeded my expectations and I thank Equinox Alan for his efforts to place this cache and I am sorry that it is not the oldest virgin in WA anymore ;-) The defender did do very well also and with no punctures we headed for De La pour Range NP which turned out to be a must see with beautiful breakaways and it must be a paradise for 4wd when wet, we headed for Sandstone, Mt Magnet and geocached our way back to Nannup through the wheat belt.

Took: 2x 50 AUD notes, the book which I was very keen to get, exploreoz sticker.
Left: 1x 50 EUR note, a LED lenser flashlight.
I will upload some pics when I am back in Holland.

Hugo

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