Mallee Country Touring Trip Report – 21Sept – 29Sept 2012.

[El_Freddo]

Before this trip started there were four up for it. Then there were three with Pezimm out with the Flu; then there were two after I got a call from Dulagarl who reported that his foz was out of action due to an impact with a washout that ripped a part of the rear suspension from the body. Glad he's ok.

I was keen to get out there on the friday night, really it was the wee hours of Saturday morning by the time we arrived at the southern end of Lake Albacutya – we pulled up here instead of Lake Hindmarsh so we were closer to the servo in Rainbow. 4Am was our arrival time!

Saturday we met up with Venom in Rainbow after fuelling up – we both made it before the closing time of 1pm (reopening at 5pm), after a quick grab of those last supplies we headed off to the start of outlet creek where our offroading began. But I took us on a detour – a lap of Lake Hindmarsh past our original meet point to outlet creek.

Once at outlet creek we aired down and started on the track – the sand areas on this track were all “whooped” out – loads of up and down action at slow speed. Not really fun. But we continued and the soil type changed to that loam-clay type typically found around creeks. We had a bit of fun along the way with a few detours, we found out there's a smaller lake before Albacutya called “Ross Lake”. After going on another detour from here we ended up again (for me) at the southern end of Lake Albacutya where we headed for Wemblin Track though a section of very soft sand – it didn't disappoint either!

We camped at one of our favourite Albacutya campgrounds and didn't bother with a fire – it was an early night for us.

The next day we were off on our point and shoot adventures, here's a pic of us pre-pack up from our first camp together:



We were going to do a cut across the lake bed then a half lap around the northern end then back again to western beach – doubling up on the northern end to see what it's like in the other direction. But the gate across the lake bed was closed and we decided it best not to cross. On our way up Wemblin track we passed this old wagon the night before, I'd never seen it here previously so we stopped an compared modes of transport and how far we've come in 150 odd years:



Further up the track we decided against the wet weather only track as it hadn't really been wet here for some time, plus we passed a ranger earlier that might have had another interpretation of “wet weather only”... We had another detour to check out an area only to hit a private property – pretty frustrating!

So Purra track it was:



I must admit that I love driving on all sand – I discovered this later in the trip where I'll add more to that



We did a section of this track along the edge of the dry lake and decided to turn around for a little hill climb – it was good fun but not greatly challenging as the sand was firm compared to other times here. Above was Venom on a section just before the climb. Below is Ruby Scoo in the same area, these flat sections near the lake's edge are wide and generally very soft especially when it's hot. These areas pop up every so often on this track too:



We got to western beach where we saw a few people camping – a bunch of moto nuts, a family that looked like they were about to start black saturday 2012 and a mob with a goose neck/5th wheeler that had a living quarters as well as a horse float in it! After a rubbish drop (small) we headed out to the milmed rock track along some fire break tracks – basically skirting the edge of the NP and the cropped areas. We collected the odd mallee root along the way (firewood that burns very hot). We eventually popped out at a familiar area:



From here we headed along Milmed Rock track to Herme's Garden, it turned out to be an open area in the mallee scrub; after this we continued on to Round Swamp camp ground where we had some lunch. After this we cruised on to Milmed Rock enjoying what the sand track had to offer – and some familiar challenges along the way too. Again the sand wasn't as soft as it was in October last year when we were first out here. Milmed Rock:





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[El_Freddo]

And a couple of pics of the track on the way out to Big Billy camp ground near the Murrayville Nhill Road:





^ This section was really flat compared to last time – no whoopies to bore us!

We setup camp in Big Billy Campground, this place had a self starting fire and a bit of wood ready to go – the occupants of the place the previous night had put the hot plate over the remains of their fire, retaining enough heat to get our fire going quickly without a match



Monday we headed into the Big Desert area, starting on Brushcutters track, then kind of zigzagging our way around to get a taste of what this area had to offer. It was pretty good with plenty more to check out next time! We headed for a particular track that caught our attention - “Big Dune Track”. We saw the big dune before we even got to the track and knew we had to have a go at it even though it was in the wrong direction of where we intended to go. It really was a big dune! Ruby Scoo was spared in the end, after seeing (videoing) Venom's efforts it would be too much I thought with the week's gear loaded up! Here's how far Venom got after a number of attempts – carving his own wheel tracks as no one had been up there in some time:



I was filming/photographing from the top of the camper about 300m away to get the best shot of the action. At one stage half the car disappeared in a cloud of sand. Very spectacular to watch!

Later on white springs track the vegetation changed dramatically – one moment we were on a sand dune, the next on a clay bed flat, then a variation with a different sand softness – it kept us guessing!



We lunched at White Springs after being prompted, I seem to forget about eating when 4wd'n until after I'm hungry!

After lunch we headed for a track called Twelve Mile Patch track, this was a slow winding track with whoops that varied from small to large. The northern end of the track was good fun with dunes becoming frequent with some small but decent climbs. We then hit another firebreak track at the end of the Twelve Mile Track – and the line of difference between the cropped areas and the scrub really hit us after a few days in the bush:



This track was a load of fun – soft sand, dunes, fast soft sections and a part of the track that had no recent wheel tracks, it was all fresh and awesome too. Eventually we had to find our way out and it turned out that the only way to do it was to cut down the side of some fella's crop. Good times. We made it to Underbool before the servo closed, little did we know we would be stopping here again later:



^ Interesting history in this place too. We found that the H6 was averaging the same fuel consumption to Ruby Scoo – a comparison that rang true for the rest of the trip! I found this pretty interesting considering how loaded up RS was for this trip.


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[El_Freddo]

For that night's camp we headed into the Murray Sunset NP to a campground called “Mt Crozier”. We found a great little area, got the fire going, had to use a match but it went well. After settling in and the sun going down a convoy of about 8 suburbanites changed our peaceful surroundings for the rest of our stay. Bummer. Here we were before their arrival:



Venom had discovered an issue on the way out to the campground – there was a clicking/grinding sound from the front end and it was thought that his front drive shafts were on their way out. So we ordered a set from Melbs and had them express posted to Underbool. On our way to doing this I snapped this pic before we dropped back on to Pioneer Track:



After sorting a set of drive shafts, we sat around for a bit, had an awesome shower then decided to camp out near Pink Lakes. On arrival Lake Crosbie was a suburban setup – too crowded for our liking but just up the road in the two spaces Lake Becking Campground we got a spot and setup, we watched some footage and checked out the pics so far – I was even able to upload those above! That night we had a pretty good sunset even though there were no clouds to show it off:



Camp for the night:



We got neighbours later that were pretty good, apart from their chainsaw! Glad they read the signs about sensitive habitat etc.

Wednesday we eagerly headed for Underbool to pick up these drive shafts – they arrived a bit after 9 and we were into it. We found out that the passenger's side had torn a boot which would explain the noise:





After swapping the passenger's side we thought that was it. We headed off to fuel up to get back out there only to find the noise was still there. Venom spoke to the servo guy and this is how we did this drive shaft in about 15 minutes:



They were very generous! It was then that we worked out pretty quickly that it wasn't the driveshafts and we both got that sick feeling in our guts – until Venom thought about the uni joints where we discovered the front one had a fair bit of play in it, a very easy diagnosis for a uni joint! After ringing around to find the replacement part number we got a common early holden part number – none in stock at the garage but the mob in Murrayville had one so we high tailed it there before closing to pick it up. I said “it'll be easy, we just hammer some stuff and it's done with some fiddling around”... famous last words. This is how it went working in a park:




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[El_Freddo]

^ All good up to the point where we tried to fit the new item – we hammered, knocked the needle bearings out etc etc. To cut a long story short for the rest of this day, we ended up at the pub for a couple of drinks, service was average at best – we got a room for the night out the back, no details of when check out was or where to leave the key!

So the next day we went back to Peer's motors where we got the part from to use their press/bench vice. Still no go! So we compared the old part to the new one and found that the new uni joint's cup diametre was .4mm larger. After Christie went through every joint they had on the shelf we were flat out of options from here until he remembered that one of the boys was headed some place south and they might have the part we needed (after Venom rang the same bloke from the day before that this time gave Venom another part number; Venom had also express posted 2 units while in Underbool to arrive in Murrayville – only to find they were wrong too!). Luck had it that this place had a part in stock – only thing was that the fella was going to arrive back in town at 5ish.

To kill some time we dropped back into the Big Desert in Ruby Scoo – was having a great time until she stopped halfway down a dune. We thought the fuel pump had died – wouldn't have been the first time for me (WA 2007!). So I pulled the pump thinking the mesh filter before the pump was blocked. Turns out I don't have one! After playing around with this she fired up ok – I hadn't achieved anything really but we were more than glad to be moving again! Later while talking to Christie he reckoned it was fuel vapourisation due to excessive under bonnet heat. Bingo, that's what it must have been – a good thing to remember! While out there we were also scouting potential camp sites in the marked camp grounds, a couple out there worth staying at. We met this little fella at one of them:



Ah yeah, we also swapped out the new driver's side drive shaft – split boot in only 60km! Actually, not split, pinched by a rock or something, two tiny holes were letting the grease out! Park action once again:



Anyway, the part finally arrived, the workshop was still open just for us and 5 minutes later (no kidding!) we had the new uni joint in the shaft and ready to go! After a relatively quick install in the park we were off on another adventure. We were going to do the boarder track, but decided to head deeper into the Murray Sunset NP. So I set the GPS and off we went – I wanted to avoid Underbool and the Pink Lakes Track, plus I was super keen on a night 4wd sesh and some tracks we hadn't done yet. We got it all this night!

The GPS did really well, but there was a fence in the way on a section of track, turn left and there's a well worn track along the fence line that we decided to follow. At this point we had no idea where we were going, my theory was that this track went around the fence to where we needed to be... Yeah, nah it didn't. We just got taken for a ride, got lost and then had to work out where the bloody hell we were so we could make it right. I wasn't keen to camp out for the night and work it out the next day! We were in the NP, the signs said so, but every track we came across was unsigned (all signed in the NP). Very frustrating! Eventually with google maps and our paper maps we pinpointed where we were – and ended up pretty much where we started after 2 hours! NOT HAPPY JAN!! But glad to be headed out to Pink Lakes after a small back track.

We decided that it was best not to check out the suburban camp site and to avoid the two space camp area of Lake Becking. We pointed to our original destination and went there, even though we were pretty buggered by this point! The tracks were a variation of clay then dune then more clay. It was good driving and the destination was well worth the effort! A good experience in the end. This was the next morning at Mopoke Hut where we ended our day:



And I had a chuckle at this, the old yards – read the sign



Today we were going to head out to rocket lake then to Hattah for fuel and camp in the Hattah-Kulkyne NP. We took a long way round to Rocket Lake as the driving was very easy on the fuel usage. I found this disappointing as my preconception of the place was it was remote desert with hard sand tracks similar to Milmed Rock track in the middle of summer. But it wasn't the case, small sand sections with clay mud beds in between small dune rises was the typical terrain found out here. This is why we took the long way to Rocket Lake where we stopped for lunch in the super chilly wind!



The vegetation changes were interesting though – still in the Mallee country the soil colour was red like the Pindan found up north, some spinifex grasses in areas, open salty areas, many dry lakes, small dunes, some sandy areas – all in a smallish area. Here's couple of pics on the way to Last Hope Track:




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[El_Freddo]

On a dry lake we found this little one:



Around a corner further up we found it's dad, he stunk too – buck's piss on themselves to attract the females, one move I didn't have to resort to with Mrs El Freddo (thank goodness!!).

As we moved closer to the edge of the NP the landscape looked more barren and salt ridden. Still there were plenty of roos surviving out there! We found this dune to climb which gave a good view of the area:



All salt lakes and salt tolerant plants. It wasn't a very nice place to be – it had one of those vibes about it! Leaving the national park we entered the Glencoe Station. Crazy that someone was making a living off this land!



At least they had a sense of humour!



We fuelled up in Hattah and headed to the Hattah-kulkyne NP only then to high tail it out of there – too “groomed” for us – smooth wide roads (for those that can't drive on dirt properly), caravans in the camp ground, wheelie bins etc etc. Our choice was to head an hour and a half-ish in the gusty wind back down to the Wyperfeld NP to Snowdrift picnic area (campground). We got there right on as Venom's GPS had said – 5.30pm.

Scattered heavy showers were around, Mrs El Freddo got this beauty on the way to Snowdrift:



We got the fire going – another self starter It was a real ripper too!




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[El_Freddo]

The El Freddo's headed up the dune to watch the sunset, but the view to the east was much better than the west:



We enjoyed our fire, dropped all the mallee roots we had left in for a good fire – can't take them home! It was great until the heavens opened up on us With that gone I shot up the dune to see what was coming on the horizon – only able to do this due to the bright moon. Clear sky until a dark set of clouds on the horizon, with the wind as gusty as it was I gave us 30-40 mins of clear weather until it'd rain again, I was pretty much right, only this time it didn't rain as hard – plus we were prepared for it this time. The tent and the camper were set up ready for the weather, the camper sported a tarp to ensure we didn't get wet during the night (rained again in the wee hours). Ruby Scoo was my dining venue of choice during the rain then it was bed. Our awesome fire was unfortunately wasted and our debriefing time around the fire was not to happen which I found very disappointing – but we made up for it over breakfast!

Saturday started like this:



Blue bird day that became cloudy But it was still good weather even though it was bitterly cold! I was looking for warm weather on this trip but only got two good days of it! Venom headed off after we packed to go. Mrs El Freddo and I headed off to Wonga Camp ground solo. It was a pretty good experience and the driving was easy after the rain too.

We found a whole bunch of emus out and about, the poor buggers nail themselves going through the fences though:





I find this frustrating personally, reasons I don't know, but this area was rather “civil” in how people travel along the tracks – this pic should explain it perfectly:



Even though the whole trip was during school holidays we didn't encounter the number of vehicles on the tracks that we thought we might see – the only real feeling of the holidays was with that convoy of 8 vehicles at Mt Crozier's camp. It was great!


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[El_Freddo]

On our travels solo we noted some blue flowers – this was a great time of year to be touring in these areas as all the flowers were out on display – many colours and different plants to look at as you meander your way along the tracks. I also noted that there wasn't as much sand as I remembered from when we were here in July – sections of the eagle and the north south track were clay bed, I remember the north south track being all sand – but this could just be my memory too!

Here's those flowers with Ruby Scoo and a section of the Eagle track:



Overall, even with the two and half days of down time it was a great trip. Venom and I have planned/outlined our next tour of the area that we hope to do after the Coffin Bay meet in January – depending on the dates for this (have to check etc).


Generally the weather was very windy and cold, not as hot as I was hoping it would be...

I'd like to thank Venom for coming, without him there it would have been a very different trip and I'd probably have more “natural highlights” than what I have now! I hope that the next trip will see Dulagarl back on the road and Pezimm with good health

I hope you've all enjoyed the novel!

Cheers

Bennie

[taza]

Bloody fantastic mate!! Some great times to be had, thanks for sharing
The pics really make it a good report
Too bad about the repairs on Venom's Lib but at least they weren't major

[steptoe]

Well, thanks Bennie, i've just had my annual holiday out in the scrub - thanks to your story and pics

What sort of distance total did you do ?

[Venom]

This was a fantastic trip and i really enjoyed the driving and camping. The repairs were a bit of a downer but the rest of the trip made up for it. Thanks to Bennie and Kez for great company and a great trip report.

I really want to get back to Big Desert for atleast 2 or 3 days, awesome soft sand driving, beautifull country and quiet secluded camp grounds.

Next trip will include 3 spare universal joints (the right size this time), and a spare driveshaft.

[pezimm]

Well, I can only say that I'm kicking myself for missing out... Looks like great times had, even with all the mishaps.

I'm itching!!

Pedro.

[El_Freddo]

This was a fantastic trip and i really enjoyed the driving and camping. The repairs were a bit of a downer but the rest of the trip made up for it. Thanks to Bennie and Kez for great company and a great trip report.

Nothing we could do about the repairs other than what we did - I'm sure we made up for the "lost time"!

Always a pleasure too mate, I hate the end of trips - there's always a tiny bit of depression there at the end

I really want to get back to Big Desert for atleast 2 or 3 days, awesome soft sand driving, beautifull country and quiet secluded camp grounds.

Next trip will include 3 spare universal joints (the right size this time), and a spare driveshaft.

Yes and Yes, but don't you think 3 is a bit of overkill? I guess they're not that heavy or bulky.

Well, thanks Bennie, i've just had my annual holiday out in the scrub - thanks to your story and pics

What sort of distance total did you do ?

No worries Jonno, but you should really get out there yourself mate! Total distance, dunno, I didn't think to record that but it would have been at least 1800km I would think

Well, I can only say that I'm kicking myself for missing out... Looks like great times had, even with all the mishaps.

No mishaps Pezimm! Everyone was safe - and that's all that mattered. We learnt about some towns on our down time, that was interesting in itself!

Cheers

Bennie

[thunder039]

great stuff, just got back that area (a little further north) yesterday for uni which is why i was unable to come, great part of australia and plenty to see