Hi all,
Have just returned from doing the telegraph track from
Eucla to
Israelite Bay. Does it ever stop raining out there? Geez, we encountered some mud! And the heaviest rain and hail I've seen in a long while.
Anyway, did the track from east to west coz of the steep dunes at Pt Culver where one goes from above the cliffs down Wylie Scarp onto
the beach; ie, easier this way. But some kind people have installed rubber belting down the sandy slope, and it's a dream going either way now. There's a bit of a drop at the bottom of the belting were runoff has eroded the sand away, but nothing a 4wd can't handle.
But our run on the 90km beach was thwarted by lots of seaweed. Normally, the seaweed is prevalent from
Israelite Bay for about 20km eastwards. This year, the seaweed started about 25km from the Pt Culver end and by the time we got to Wattle
Camp (half way) we were stopped by deep seaweed right up to the base of the low dunes. Our plan-B was to drive inland at Wattle
Camp and pick up the telegraph track there thru to
Israelite Bay, but the rain had left the normally-dry salt lakes inundated with half a kilometre of
water, so we were thwarted again. And we weren't going to blast a new track thru the dunes. So it was back to Pt Culver, up to the highway and round the long way. Bummer!
But looking back at our situation at the time, it was a neap tide, and it is possible that with a high/low tide cycle, one could probably drive below the seaweed with the tide right out. We certainly weren't going to push our luck at the time with the current tide cycle.
Interestingly, while driving
the beach, we spotted a large roo in the
water, looking very wet and bedraggled. Strange, we thought, then we saw a
dingo running away from the scene. So either the
dingo had cornered the roo into the
water, and was waiting for it to weaken with cold, or the roo was cleverly getting the upper hand of the
dingo by doing this. On our return run, the roo was at the base of the dunes, drying out, and the
dingo had gone.
While out there, a guy on HF asked me if the ladder at
Toolinna Cove had been removed. I had to admit that we didn't check, as a violent storm was brewing as we looked over the edge, and we had to get out and pitch
camp before it hit. I had heard that after CALM removed all access, someone had reinstalled some gear, but I can't confirm it.
The
campsite at the scarp near Pt Culver amongst the banksias is still nice and we caught a few nice whiting and a magnificent flathead there.
cheers,
Gerry