Thanks for your indulgence :)
here is the final part.
Now, some of you may recall that I was trying to find out about the tracks on the bight between the highway and the cliffs. I had found these on google maps but could find no info about them except that SA Parks told me I could use them. I had plotted two bearings, one to enter the scrub, and one to exit. We came across the entry point at 3 decimal point accuracy, very encouraging. We spent the next 45 or 50km driving tracks which I have never experienced before and with a feeling I had never experienced before. At times were only about 6 metres from the edge. I did not take any stupid risks though. These tracks are used by Parks regularly and we found several large cages along the way, used as part of a starling management project. The little buggers are trapped inside and probably draw others to them. These
pests foul grain storage, feedlots and
water storage, not to mention their severe impact on native bird populations. The fight to keep them out of WA is a serious one.
The bull-dust on these tracks seemed to surpass any on the trip so far. The track itself being suitable for high clearance 2wd in the dry but a lick of rain and slurpy slurpy she goes, as was evidenced by some dried ruts here and there. The undercarriage and sills will get a scrubbing as the flora needs to be quite tough to survive out there. We came across a few rabbits, plenty of bobtail goannas, and I almost ran over what I believe was a Lialis Burtonis, a Burton's Legless Lizard. Stopped the car and poked my head out to see it take off into the cover of a bush. Glad I did not land my tyre on that beautiful creature. Also found was a very old (presumably) sheep fence, with the last post only centimetres from the edge. Are sheep that stupid or was the fence so old erosion had caught up with it? I found another of those drill holes, eight metres from the edge of the
cliff. I dropped a little rock into it, only seven seconds this time before I heard it land on other rocks, no splash. We eventually came to my exit point and found it to be an entrance to a public
lookout, which was closed off at the highway. Amusing. I took a photo of us on the wrong side of it, then put it in low range to climb out to the tar. Passing motorists must have though “bloody four wheel driver” but I was on a track I had been told I could use. I was so pleased that I had been able to explore (just some of) these tracks with my family, an amazing part of Australia.
Our destination for
camp was
Pildappa Rock, just south of the
Gawler Ranges, so we had a tar bash to do if we wanted to get there in light. We visited the head of the bight however and turned off at
Ceduna for
Minnipa. Made
camp just after sundown but it was a beaut spot, no one else around and a still balmy night. But the wind cut loose like all hell early morning. Atop
Pildappa Rock I was worried the kids might get picked up by a gust and face plant into the
granite. Anyway,
well worth a visit and
camp if you are in the area. We drove back to
Minnipa for a look around and out to Tcharkulda
Hill. Our destination for the day was
Yardea Station, which is owned by some relatives. First however, we explored the
Gawler Ranges National Park. I felt this place
bore a striking resemblance to the
Pilbara, some of my favourite country. All the tracks were dry and open so we meandered our way through the ruts to the Organ Pipes. A warm day with plenty of flies. I remember someone commented near
Kata Tjuta that we looked like a Michael Jackson family, as all our kids had black veils on! Ye Gods don't know how to take that one, but it was amusing. We visited the Old Paney
homestead and surrounds and picked the Turkey Flat track to make our way to
Conical Hill and then down to
Yardea Station.
This is still stony country so not really suitable for cattle but you can still make a living out of sheep these days we learnt.
Yardea being 2500 sq km. The Wife enjoyed a hot shower and we all yarned about this and that at the
homestead over a West End beer. The next day I checked out
Yardea's
solar power installation. Quite large at around 10 kW I think, with gas cylinders used to track the sun. We learnt of restoration work that
Yardea did a few years ago at
Lake Gairdner. They restored the
old well there and set up the Waltumba
camp site. We paid a visit there the next day after pottering about on some of the station tracks. What a striking contrast it was to have the gleaming
salt lake in the background of the red dirt! We had lunch and then with a bunch of press- seal bags, we all went out onto the lake to gather salt. I was surprised at how much fun the kids thought this was!
I had talked about about doing
the loop past Lake Acraman up to the neighbours at Everard and back down to
Lake Gairdner, but thought I would leave that until next time and make our way towards
Peterborough to visit Willem, Judith and Jedda. The trip out to the tar at
Iron Knob was uneventful but very scenic. I don't handle arriving back in civilization too
well, so when we reached
Port Augusta, with all the traffic, traffic lights etc. my skin started to crawl again. I bought a slab and some food but managed to get out of town without fuelling up. Oh
well. We got to Mambray
Creek but I was not keen on paying to
camp so we ended up at Telowie Gorge. Another windy night but an adequate
camp for us as the sun had already gone down. It was a lovely drive out of there in the morning, passing several good
camping sites before winding up
the gorge via the tar as we made our way to Murray Town, which had the healthiest crops I had seen for a while. Then onto Boolero Centre and
Tarcowie, taking dirt when we could, into the back of
Peterborough.
We walked around town, visited some shops and let the kids climb on the trains, before lunch in the
park From there we drove about the area a bit more and then paid a visit to Jedda's mob. We were warmly received by them and as the yarning began, were very kindly invited to stay the night. The kids were lost in wonderland in the wonderful garden the Kempens have created. A bbq dinner by the girls and the comfort zone got stretched to the limit almost. I even had a hot shower that night and found myself under the sea amongst another Kempen Creation in art.
The next day, we had no destination, only a direction. Our intention was to visit Terowrie, as we had only skirted it on the way over, then again cross the border at
Loch Lilly, but picking a more southern route through NSW than
Menindee, keeping to the dirt of course if we could. Terowrie is a fascinating little town. More “dwellings” than people there now it seems. Run down in
places but proud and grand in others, largely untouched 19th century buildings. We visited some restoration work at the railway that Willem had mentioned to us. Railway, being fundamental to the existence of Terowrie. Here we found the (marked) location where
MacArthur gave his famous “I shall return” speech in WW2. In 1969 the broad gauge came about, Terowrie dropped off the radar.
As we approached the border, I commented that I recalled the last 30km or so being a bit hazardous with washouts and holes. At about 30km from
Loch Lilly, I noticed a single tyre on the side of the road. I was only travelling about 65 kph. I slowed down a bit, looking at the tyre, for some reason, forgetting that it could be a marker. It was then we hit a significant washout. No immediate indication of anything wrong, until about 30m on when I heard a gravel grinding noise. I pulled over and found that the treg had thrown both securing and hitch pins out of the poly block and the trailer was skimming along being held by the chain. One link higher would have been better but the wiring was intact and everything else appeared okay. Lovely Wife walked back to locate the pins (found both) while I was righting everything. She held out her hand and asked “are these ours too?” She was holding four, 15 mm thick wheel studs. I told her what they were and that this is what can happen if you are travelling too fast, yikes.
After fuelling up and grabbing a Farmers' Union at Coombah Roadhouse (nice, fast SAFF pumps) we decided to make our way to the Pooncarrie area and
camp on the Darling. We found a beaut spot on a bend, with a little white sand for the kids and some magnificently huge gums. No one else about, a very pleasant night. I got up before sunrise and went for a walk. A goat came down a very steep slope to have a drink. Then another, another and then there were about fifty of them. Hmmmm (farmed?) Yep, back in NSW. After brekky we took the track to Lake Garnpung. What a strange experience, dropping into this huge, dry bowl, then climbing out again half an hour later. We did not go to the Mungo Visitor's centre, next time. We were heading for Willandra Station, so picked up the nicely dry Mossgiel Road and had lunch at the wool shed. There have been four there, the current one built after a fire in 1959. It would have been grand to see the original 64 stand one, but that was replaced in 1911. A drive around the
homestead (with the five star rams' shed next door) and
creek “route” as it was bone dry (except for the watered lawns) all around and quite a feeling of forlorn.
Now, I did have something I had to do that day, renew my rego. I had planned to get a pink slip (annual vehicle inspection) done in
Hillston and then RTA in
Griffith. My rego has just expired that day. No one in
Hillston could “fit me in.” What did I have something hideous about me or did they just get a “strange feeling?” Perhaps they were just flat out as they said but there was not doubt the predicament I was in. Anyway, so much for county hospitality. I (oh so carefully) drove to
Griffith and sorted it all out the next morning. Phew.
After the mandatory lap around Mt Panorama, with trailer in tow, we got home around 1800 hrs, via the back roads of course. We did not recognise the inside of our house, fair dinkum. This
camp had stairs!
Ha ha thanks for listening.....
btw.
This was our first large trip with the Oztent, which replaced an Oztrail Tourer 10 Plus. I will say that the tent was a pleasure to set up and pack away, no bull. I am very pleased we managed to afford it as it helped make the trip so enjoyable. I did not use the bag, just strapped it and put it on its shelf in the trailer each morning. Optional side panels used where needed for privacy or weather protection. The kids had the tent while lovely Wife and I made use of the privacy of the double bed I had built in the trailer.
Another win was the 16W, twin tube fluorescent light from Jaycar. Two other portable lights, with poorer light bit the dust along the way but this was a great
camp light. Very good output for very low consumption. A good buy indeed at $50.
We had no car or trailer breakdowns and the only puncture was a nail I picked up somewhere around
Port Augusta.
All dinners were cooked on fires in the
camp ovens except for a small percentage where the dual fuel stove was necessary.