I’d thought I‘d better put a bit of a trip report up following a trip to
Esperance on the weekend. As mentioned in a post last week I was keen on getting there via the eastern side of the wheatbelt on some rarely used tracks.
Leaving
Perth after work at 5pm on Friday I headed east on Great Eastern Highway and topped up at
Tammin. I headed south east from Walgoolan along Burracoppin South Road, Hackling Road and Meranda North Road and camped at the Vultee Vengeance Plane
Crash Site. I arrived late at about 10:30pm and slept in the back of the ute.
After looking around the site in the morning I headed easterly along King Ingram Road until I reached Forrestonia
Southern Cross Road. I then noticed some signs saying that King Ingram Road was a Fire Track and was not for public use. I certainly failed to see any signs at the other
end of track last night.
I went south, past
Mount Holland until the
Hyden Norseman Road. 28 kilometres to the east was a track marked on the map heading south, which seemed to allow a way past
Lake Hope to the
Lake King Norseman Road. I found this track, which was very overgrown and managed 2.5 kilometres down it before I gave up. My new rear number plate was hanging on by one screw so I took it off for safe keeping. I bent my electric aerial. I wanted to listen to the cricket and I thought it would be Ok just to have the aerial up a little bit. :( I could see the track continuing for many kilometers and could probably have made it through if I had more time.
Therefore I continued east until the
Lake Johnston Road. This track goes all the way to the
Lake King Norseman Road. The quarters and
airstrip for the nearby Emily Ann
mine are down this road and it is for this reason the first section of the track is very good.
Lake Johnston Road Plot File
Past the large tyre near the
airstrip the track is not maintained but is still a pretty good track. There were some branches across the road, not too big but I have moved them. There are nice
views of salt lakes and the area is generally quite wooded.
At
Lake King Norseman Road I headed east for about 14 kilometres to find a track heading south which went past the eastern side of Lake Sharpe. I found the track which of course was overgrown. I only lasted about 300 metres this time and I lost the track so back to the main road again. There were many of that tall thin type of gum tree around and a lot of it was new growth so it was difficult to find the track.
East again until about 17 kilometres from the
Peak Charles Road and there is another track marked on the map heading south to pass to the west of
Peak Charles then further on.
Track west of Peak Charles and beyond Plot File
This track was easily found and the scrub was fairly low so I headed in. I had been to (on the normal road), and climbed
Peak Charles about 10 years ago so that wasn’t on the agenda this time. This first 20 kilometres or so was slow driving but enjoyable as the track was fairly clear.
Here’s a couple of very amateur videos of the track:
Amateur Video with Crappy Camera No Sound 1Amateur Video with Crappy Camera No Sound 2
Arriving at the main back road of
Peak Charles and
Peak Eleanora I headed west past Dog
Rock to then south where I crossed
Dunns Track.
Dunns Track here looked no better than a motocross bush track. ( I have a picture of this and 4 other pictures of this trip in my members gallery)
Now I headed south still on a track that would eventually take me to Neds Corner Road which is the start of the farming areas around
Esperance. This track would rate very high on my list of worst tracks ever driven on. There were overgrown trees hanging over the track, old fallen trees on the track and it was in this area that what was left of my aerial completely got ripped off and my
snorkel head also has disappeared into the bush somewhere.
I come upon Neds Corner Road, the track not visible from this road. I travelled normal tracks and roads into
Esperance to arrive around 4:00pm. I met up with some family members at the caravan park and caught a fish off the
jetty that night.
The next morning, Sunday, after breakfast I left
Esperance at about 9:00am.
I headed up the
Coolgardie Esperance Highway until
Norseman, from where I headed west along the
Hyden Norseman Road. There was an increased use of this road as the Great Eastern Highway was closed between
Coolgardie and
Southern Cross due to fires though the official detour is through
Esperance. A few little sedans past me and I thought they looked a bit out of place on this road zooming past me at 110 kilometres an hour.
I was almost at the
Lake Johnston Road again but stopped short at the
Mount Day Road a couple of kilometers short. At first this track looked like a typical goldfields track winding its way through three bush. It did get a bit tricky keeping sight of the track north of
Mount Day across a dry creek, but the tricky section would be no more than 150 metres long.
Banker Mount Day Road Plot File
Soon the track joined the Banker
Mount Day Road which continued in a straight line to Banker
mine for 87 kilometres. The first section was very flat with other tracks joining the main one and was pleasant driving. These tracks must head somewhere and would be interesting to find out some time. At the crossing of the
Holland Track I signed the visitors book.
Further along was the Jilbadji
Nature Reserve and the
Vermin Proof Fence. The entire track (Banker
Mount Day Road) is in great condition though there is a couple of small lakes that may pose a problem in the wet, though all have bypasses.
Soon the mining areas of
Marvel Loch was reached and then the bitchumen road to
Southern Cross. With the road to the east closed there were maybe 20 cars passed going the other way and I only saw 3 heading in the
Perth direction. I arrived back in
Perth at 9:00pm Sunday night ready (just) for work the next day.
Casulties:
Electric Aerial ($200 quote from Toyota)
Snorkle Head ($220 quote from Toyota)
2 x Punctures
The Banker
Mount Day Road is my new favorite track and I've seen a bit more of the country, which is always a good thing.
Cheers
Alan