I thought that I should give a bit of a run down of our four week
Corner Country and
Flinders Ranges trip after reading Roachie’s report. I am a man of few words though….
Our first night after leaving
Melbourne was at Hattah Kulkyne National
Park and we had nice
camping there under beautiful trees. We then went to
Mungo National park and spent a couple of nights there and did a loop looking at the Great Wall of China and ‘lake’ that dried thousands of years ago.
We the travelled to
Menindee and stayed at
Copi Hollow caravan
park which was lovely – always nice to
camp overlooking
water. Then stayed at
Broken Hill and promised to go back and have a better look. Loved the art and
the rock sculptures in
the desert park. Had a night in
White Cliffs and look down and opal
mine and tour of the underground bed and breakfast place.
Loved going to
Depot Glen and
Mount Poole and seeing the Cairn build by Sturt when they were holed up there for six months over summer
We drove onto
Tibooburra and camped at Dead Horse Gully. Had a good meal at the pub and were lucky enough to find that they had fireworks that night and walked over with all the kids to find a nice fire and story telling with the locals at the
Show grounds – Blue Light thingy for the kids and
Ross the local copper was most welcoming. Got to sit around the fire and toast marshmallows with the local kids – wicked!
Drove through
Sturt National park and to
Cameron Corner, few snaps and moved on and camped half way up the
Bore Track. Was nice easy driving. On to
Innamincka and camped at
Cullyamurra waterhole. Top
camping, fun for the kids, pub food great, people at the store were lovely – got my “Had a cooper at the
Cooper Creek” T-shirt!! History of the place is fantastic – I read all about
the Dig Tree and so did my 11 year old Luke before we went there – it is a super special place!
Drove down the Strzelecki ‘Freeway’ to
Arkaroola. Fair
camping. Awesome scenery. Loved the Yudnamutana
mine ruins. Camped at
Copley and then met up with Gerke from EO and camped near
Blinman. He showed us heaps of super stuff around that area. Met up with Willem who took us for a trip at Warraweena.
Now Willem is a man of surprises and he certainly turned it on… I was wanting to see some
water in the Gorges and called to heavens for some rain. Thunderstorm came through and we (four cars) had to sleep in our cars the night on a little island between two forks of a stream. We were not really prepared and my shorts and T-shirt (kids had my jacket) and towel did not keep us warm. We walked down 100 metres from where we were stranded and the
Sliding Rock creek was a raging torrent….thanks Willie for getting us out of the
creek when you did.
We then camped at
Brachina Gorge and did Sky Trek from there – forgot our EO card and missed out on a $5 discount - #@$%. Previous day drove up behind a Delica with an EO badge – flashed lights – pulled over - asked the driver – “You Tracie?” Was Wolfie and Tracie of EO fame and did Sky Trek with them the following day.
Problems – four flat tyres – thought that my Cooper S/T’s that were chipped up a bit would be OK but ….. Car developed a leak in the transfer case – slow leak and still not fixed…. 60 litre Engel died after Sky Trek- bracket holding the compressor broke and the compressor fell down and fractured a copper pipe underneath. Still in warranty and Engel gave me a brand spanking new one to replace it. Laptop screen died – could see enough to download my photos but no DVD’s for the kids ….
Hmmmmm – did I write more that Roachie???
Huge thanks to Gerke for his time with us – fantastic country, thanks to my sister Jennie who reads EO but has not posted yet …(needs encouragement); Willie, Pesty, Wolfie, Des Lexic and Rick for his advice. Too much for me to proof read so sorry for the typos.
Andrew