About 3 or 4 weeks ago I got invited on a group trip to do some of the border track and Big Desert wilderness tracks. Gladly I accepted and rushed to get my spare wheel carrier situation fixed, did it with a week to go (very glad I did it!) The trip was organized by Matt a Brumby owner (he might have been on this forum in the old days I don't know) also along for the trip was Phizinza in his red EJ25 Brum, plus a few other cars and 1 intrepid motorcycle.
Day 1 was Friday evening, we met at Tailem bend and travelled in convoy to Pinarroo for a final fuel up, reaching the pub around 7:30. Surprised to find I had a calculated fuel usage of 7.9L/100K on the freeway! Nice! Had a meal there (waited an hour for the food
) after this I had help to take 10 minutes to re-install my rear tailshaft section (I leave it out for reasons) and then rolled out towards Murrayville where we turned right onto the dirt road. The last we would see of the blacktop until Sunday afternoon. In darkness we find camp, got to Big Billy camp ground around 9 or 9:30. Set up in the dark and then I went straight to bed, tired. In the morning it was quick to rise (6:30) pack up camp, quick breakfast and got this shot of camp in the daylight, my car with its butt sagging due to the slight slope and my air shocks needed pumping up.
We aired down before leaving and headed for the Big Desert tracks by 8:30.
A quick pit stop along the way for one reason or another
We did somewhat of a loop in Big Desert taking in a lookout point and finding ourselves at "Big Dune" at one point towards mid day. There were a big group of dirt bikes, an ATV and a few support vehicles tackling big dune when we got there. They went away which led to some of our group getting ready to tackle it, then the bikes and entourage came back and made it hard for us to get any tries. One of our group did get up it (the Prado) I was tempted to try but there wasn't a clear moment and we were apparently 1.5hrs behind schedule due to some slow going and bogged events earlier. Then aiming for White springs track with a view to reach Border track.
First lookout, it is a beautiful piece of country this mallee scrub.
We stopped for lunch along the way for 20-30 mins.
Drove on through the sand at what seemed like an ever-quickening pace to reach the Border track by some time, I forget when.
A second lookout tower somewhere along the way
Then follwed a good 4 - 5 (more?) hours of almost non-stop driving. Never getting more than 25-30km/h. The Border track offered plenty of small to medium dune climbs that most got over on the first try. One or two large ones also. I did manage to save some dash-cam footage of one that I had botched the first time due to not enough oomph at the start. This clip is of the second time. The video makes it look completely flat and level but it was not, this was probably one of the more medium sized dunes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmMtRGOsbBc
There were so many it's hard to tell them apart, they all look the same after a while. I did hit manual record on the dash cam on multiple occasions but for whatever reason by the end of the day they had been over-written, disappointing. Plus manually downloading them wirelessly one by one was tediously slow during a time I had to be setting up, eating at or packing up camp.
The one that did me in was the very last big one we had to clear before camp. It had a name (Mount little doughboy) The main track looked too difficult so I went for the chicken track which turned out to be no easier, failed on the first go. Had two more solid goes on the main track. 3rd time on the red line all the way in 1st gear high range. Got within meters of the top but I was the last one up and the tracks were too teep, the sand too soft. Dragging belly all the way, my engine bogged down and I was done. Could smell hot plastic and my coolant gauge wouldn't go down even with fans running. Well and truly had had enough by this point. Got a quick tow the last few meters. This was aroud 4:30 and from this point on the drive felt tedious honestly. Just wanted to get to camp but there was another 3 hours after this.
Got into Red Bluff camp around 7:30 in the dark again. There was a good camp fire this night courtesy of Phizinza who carried the wood from home.
My camp in the middle of meal prep:
And the next morning
Red Bluff campground turned out to be pretty nice in the daylight, there were a number of large red earthy formations surrounding the site. Had no idea of them on the drive in during darkness.
On this morning we had a more relaxed start to the day. A hearty breakfast followed by packing up again. Headed out of camp and backtracked towards an exit out of the Border track. Took in the Mount Shaugh walk/lookout on the way. Saw two wedge tailed eagles play fighting in mid-air.
Ultimately we reached the end of the sand and aired back up before heading for Keith to fuel up again.
Phizinza borrowed my compressor (and car electrical
) to air up also. 
I had used 46.5L since Pinarroo, quite happy with that! had 1/4 of the gauge left but that does not mean 1/4 of the capacity. Got a quick bite in Keith and then we parted ways, left there by 1:30 for home. Where the car got un-packed followed by a quick and dirty foam-cannon and pressure-wash including the dusty, dusty engine bay.
I had fun, glad I went. Learned a lot and saw some country I probably wouldn't have considered tackling by myself. Continually surprised at what my little car can do. I threw it through some pretty rough stuff and it never complained or gave trouble. Lost count of the number of times the humps matched the wheelbase which sent all 4 wheels airborne repeatedly (and everything in the back) then being slammed down multiple times in quick succession, my most hated part of sand driving. The fridge slamming down onto the tailgate light bars tore the electrical input socket from the fridge and popped the fuse to the rear. Had to do a quick repair in the dark at Red bluff. The light bars are also now trashed and need replaced but hey, learned that I need tie-down loops before doing this again
Thanks for reading along, if you followed this far!
