Googs Track info from anyone who has been there recently

Thanks Graham. We are deciding whether the trip is worth it having done the Simpson twice. We love the outback but it is a long way to go if not that different from what we have already done. On the other hand any outback trip is worth doing. It's good to hear positive. How long did you take from Ceduna to Glendambo?
Cheers, Chris.

Chris,
We went from North to South staying the first night at Kingoonya (nice meal at the pub) second night near Mt Finke (we spent a while at Tarcoola if you go past a school in Tarcoola with a mural on it and head north about 1 km you will come to a huge lovely old house, a gold battery and the town race course, have seen the course covered with sturt peas but not last year depends on the rain), third and fourth night at Goog's lake with a day trip to Lois rock about 120 kms return.
The actual Goog's track could probably be driven in about 10 hours but there is probably another 4 hours to Glendambo,we have also done the Simpson the Sand hills on goog's track are not as large but it is different country mainly mallee and black oak and as you said any out back trip is worth doing.
I think we started to enjoy it more when we stopped comparing it with the Simpson.

Cheers

Graham

We appreciate the info and take your point about not comparing. Chris.

Thanks for the info. I read somewhere that you are supposed to go south to north?

Anyone who suggests you take the south to north route, and I know it is suggested, is pointing you in the direction of the roughest way to do it.
It's only suggested and not mandatory and why it is recommended I don't know because coming north to south is far easier on vehicle, driver etc.

We specifically chose that direction because we then wanted to flow onto the Eyre Peninsula after it, so it suited us to do it that way.

Stephen from Clare also suggested we take in the Gawler Ranges/Buckleboo stock route just north of Kimba so our route took us north through this area and then down south on Goog's. It worked for us and was a fantastic suggestion from Stephen who knows the area intimately.

We did it last October and it was an absolute delight.

There were wild flowers in abundance, including the sturt desert pea and there were many, many areas in which you could comfortably camp.

The Goog's lake overnight camp was great until we had this massive storm, but we survived.

If you do take the north to south and indeed whichever way you do decide to take monitor very carefully your UHF. We constantly made a call on the suggested channell (18, I think from memory) requesting contact on any traffic on the track.

We took 2 days to do it but you could easily take longer. In all that time we saw only 2 other vehicles and they were travelling together.

Strongly recommend the track, we (8 adults in 4 vehicles) all loved it.

cheers and happy travels,
Wayne

What map/s would you recommend to plan the same route you did? Hard copy preferably

I'm not too sure whether your asking me in reference to my reply but your question regarding map/s for the area, we purchased the following map:


HEMA "Australia's Great Desert Tracks - SOUTH EAST SHEET"

This map covers approx 1/3rd of S.A. and in particular shows the Goog's Track region in fine detail. We found this map perfect for Goog's but it did not cover the Eyre Peninsula, we had another map for that.

More than likely you can order through the shop on this site. we actually purchased ours at the Melbourne Map Centre and the only reason we purchased it there was so that we could satisfy ourselves that the map contained the detail that we were looking for.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
True Blue (Wayne)

Thanks. Was there a lot of water around to produce mozzies ?

Hi again
There was no water around, but it had been a good season and the vegetation was lush. We were a bit mystified about the quandong nuts on the ground because we couldn't see quandong trees (maybe we had the wrong idea about the appearance of quandongs) and assumed that the nuts had been washed into the area over the previous few months.
Megan

Hi Megan and Kevin,
Can assure you there is plenty of Quandong trees out there and most probably the seeds you saw would have been below the Quandong trees.

Regards
Graham

Fantastic photos. Sorry about your car trouble. Are you planning another trip or did you see enough? Chris

There are no immediate plans for a follow up trip. I would like to see the rest of the track, but there are so many places to see, and so little time to see them. It is also a trip I would probably not attempt solo, not with my luck anyway. So seeing the rest of the track would depend on friends being interested in seeing it as well.

Thanks for your input. Chris.

We have the Westprint map. Thanks for the info. Chris

We should be fine as we don't tow anything. Thanks, Chris.