Had a great time at Warraeena, although one of cars with us got a double star
fracture on a goodyear ATR on the way in despite doing everthing right.
Its great to put names to faces to those you have only "typed at" before.
There was a bit of a mix up with track keys and we missed out on the Mt Gill drive
, however keys became available on the morning we were to depart.
Despite a free offer to stay longer we had to be back in Melb at a fixed time.
The weather had cleared up and was perfect so after a quick round discussion with
the 2 other vehicles with us we decided to take the opportunity do a quick
Mt Gill trip. Without a big convoy we completed this great drive
in under 4 hrs, got back to
camp, packed up and headed off to Melb at 2pm the
same day.
Had planned to follow our usual pattern of fitting in 4wd tracks into the
long commuter drive home, but it was looking tricky this time.
However we took the back road out of
Hawker down to
Burra via Orroo
where we arrived about 8pm and got into only available accommodation
(The interesting -but cold - Paxton stone cottages ).
Next morning we headed off to
Pinnaroo via Loxton in an attempt to set ourselves
up to do the Vic/Sa
border track south from
Pinnaroo if it was open.
Left
Pinnaroo at 2pm which was a bit late but recent rain meant the
Border track sand wouldn't be to difficult and so we headed down the track, realizing it would
be sunset by the time we reached the end.
There are signs at top of track now staying if its open, it was,
and we dropped tyres down to a 20-22psi and kept rolling.
We found the north end of track to be in great condition and easy to drive.
Around the middle there are three large dunes and the Navara with us
had a couple of goes before dropped pressures to 15 where apon he got to the
top ok, but not after some embrassing pictures were taken.
Amidst all the stirring we stopped on the top and made some cappicino's and proceeded on.
Now 5 o'clock with the sun getting low we had to make some "on the run" decisions
and elected that it was shorter to drive down the track rather than break out
and do the 40km drive across the bottom of Big Dessert to the
Murrayville track.
Despite the failing light all was going
well until we came apon the
"Bogholes ahead, 1.6m deep"
sign.
These are usually dry, but not this time. They were full of muddy
water and so we began the process of trying to bypass them as much as possible.
Even bypass sections were slippery and hard to find and guage with the headlights.
This section went for several kilometers and after a fair bit of slipping, several
wrong turns and strategic withdrawals we got through to the end at Blue Hole
road, pretty
well covered in mud.
Incredibly 2 of the 3 compressors with us suffered failures at the track end
and we drove about 50 km to Kaniva at 80kmh where apon we re-inflated tyres
and got some lovely cappicinos at the
Mobil servo there, which set us up for
the remaining 6 hours drive to
Melbourne via Horsham where we arrived soon
after 1am and 16 hours in the saddle.
Robin Miller