Tuesday, 29 August 2023

Lake Gairdner Road

 


leaving Ceduna, we wanted to head North again. Briefly toying with the idea of driving back up Googs track, we decided to leave a north bound trip up the track to a later date. Instead we would travel the Gawler ranges road, which we had done part of before. This time we would skirt Lake Gairdner and end up at Kingoonya.

Leaving the highway at Wirrulla, the gravel roads beckoned. There had been some rain in the preceding days and the road soon became muddy and slippery. Not until some 50k down did it start to dry out, it was getting late and so we found a roadside camp and mud-soaked Ned, and we, could rest.

Turning off the main road at Hitilba nature reserve, the road grew smaller. Sturts desert pea were flowering by the roadside and other wildflowers were starting to bloom. Thankfully the track was now dry and blue sky greeted us each day. At the toe of lake Gairdner we took a station track thus cutting the corner and some 8k off the journey. Again, the track grew smaller, now just a couple of wheel tracks. These we find, turn up the most treasures, as in spectacular views and unexpected finds, like the old hut and water tank we came across.












Camping just up the road from the hut we woke to a foggy morning, giving the place a mystical feeling.



As the fog cleared, a mob of inquisitive Emus strided up to the truck. Not being put off, they paraded about looking at this strange thing in their back yard. Feeling satisfied we wernt that interesting, they kept on their way.


Also, we had camped beside a cluster of wombat holes, one of many in this country. You could see fresh diggings and some footprints but, as we are usually in bed when they are about, we saw no animals.






Reaching Lake Gairdner, we pulled up at the campground, no one in sight. After a couple of days looking about and generally relaxing, we moved on.





Skull Tanks Camp on the corner as you come back onto the Gawler Ranges Road was our next camp. We found the spot we had camped at some years before and set up again. Another few days spent taking in the beauty of our surroundings and cooking up a roast amongst other things, then it was time to keep going.





Some way down the road, an old wooden wagon lay beside the road, inviting us to look it over and wonder at its past, and what stories it could tell, if only it could talk.





Just before Kingoonya, Kingyoona hill looms from the otherwise flat landscape, on top was a cairn like rock structure. Too tempting to leave, we crawled the rocky track up the hill.

At the top there was a BBQ, complete with a wood supply and table and chairs surrounding the rock pile with a weathervane protruding from the top. A metal box contained a visitor book, which we signed. Another of those unexpected bits we come across.














Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Googs track

 

The morning was crisp, the sky blue and our spirits high. We were camped up behind an old abandon building at Tarcoola, a former railway town on the transcontinental railway line in the west of South Australia. We had been there before a few years ago, but this time we were heading further west along the trans access road to meet up with the start of Googs Track.

Googs Track runs North South from the railway line in the North to Ceduna on the coast. Being no more than two wheel tracks transversing more than 630 sand dunes through mulga scrub dessert country, it was going to be a test for Ned out trusty truck camper.

We had faith in Ned, I had given him a good going over at Debs our friend in the east of the state before we left. He also had a new set of super single wheels which would handle the soft sand and dune climbs better than the dual rear wheels he previously had.

Later that day we reached the turn off to the track. Two 4×4s were at the turn off reinflating their tyres after completing the track from the South. After a chat about the condition of the track and hearing their concerns about the size of Ned we left them to it and started letting air out of our tyres.

With Neds new sand shoes on and adjusted appropriately we headed off down the track. Mount Finke, 35k South is the first official camp ground, we drove for about 20k at about 15kph and found a camp site off the track for the night.






Next day we made it to Mt. Finke, a dome shaped mountain rising above an otherwise flat landscape. The camp ground was deserted, just how we like it. The going had been slow but easy so far as we were not yet in dune country but the track was soft sand and Ned was happy to jog along.








Spent another day at that camp then set off South again. Further south the dunes rose in the distance, we climbed the first few getting used to how Ned reacted to the soft slow climbs. After quite a few more dunes of varying sizes I was working out the way Ned liked to attack the climbs and we were easing into a comfortable amble along the track.

Fifteen ks down the track it was time to find a camp. Doesn't seem far but we were only travelling at a crawl, which allowed both of us to take the time to observe the country we were passing through.




Wildflowers and scrubby trees were starting to spring into bloom, colours spilled over the ground and flashes of red and yellow and white came from the shrubs and mulga. Quandong trees dotted the landscape and were loaded with immature fruit, when ripe the tree looks like a beautiful little Christmas tree with red borballs hanging off it.




 









During the next few days we settled into a routeen and felt at home in the isolation, scouring the ground for tracks from the local inhabitants. Camel tracks appeared regularly and big ones at that, although we were not lucky enough to spot an animal.







Towering sand dunes were proving to be no great obstical to Ned as he crawled up and over, then sauntered down the other side.






Googs Lake is a salt lake on the Southern end of the track, there is a memorial to Goog Denton and his family who were responsible for pushing the track in the 1970s. They owned a farm outside Ceduna and Goog would sit on the verandah overlooking the scrub to the north and say to his wife, I wonder whats out there Mother. So started his dream of pushing his way into the unknown. Finally, after two years of weekend work they had made a track all the way to Mount Finke in the North.




We had come to the end of the track and feeling a bit dissopointed, not with the journey but with the fact we were at the end of it. Most people will do the track in three days, but we took seven and enjoyed every one of them.

When in mobile signal again I posted a post on the Googs track page on Facebook and Jenny, Googs widow contacted me and asked if we would like to come for coffee and chat about the track. Next day we did meet Jenny, a wonderful lady. We are so glad Goog chased his dream and opened up that beautiful country for adventurers like us to enjoy.