Pezimm's Easter Touring 2014

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pezimm
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Pezimm's Easter Touring 2014

Post by pezimm » Sun May 18, 2014 9:48 pm

Alright, a little overdue, but here's my Easter trip report!

This year, the better half and I wanted to go further into Outback NSW as well as SA, as far north as we could.

We agreed on a basic itinerary including Mungo NP, Kinchega NP and Flinders Ranges NP. After a couple weeks of getting the car ready (oil change, filter changes, etc) and packing, we left Melbourne on Saturday 12/Apr.

Day one saw us arriving in Mildura and fuelling up before setting of to Mungo NP via Arumpo Road, a dirt road we had already been through the previous year. The first hurdle came straight after the turn-off from the Silver City Hwy: Arumpo Road was closed! It had rained for 3 days straight up to Thursday and I knew this was a possibility. We gave the council's office a call to check what was the situation and while I was on the phone to a not so helpful lady, this council ute parks next to the Forester. The guy comes next to my window and asks if I was willing to go to Mungo, when I said yes, he told me "ah, you'll be fine in a Subaru, I'm about to open the road again".

So with big grins on our faces, off we went on our merry way!

We got to the main campground at Mungo without trouble. There was a little bit of mud and water around, but nothing too concerning. What was really nice was to fns the campground pretty much empty. We were sharing the entire place with only another party - some grey nomads with their ute and caravan.

We set-up camp and went out to the East side of Lake Mungo to take some photos of the sun setting:

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The following day we spent just cruising around Mungo and re-visiting some of the areas we saw on Easter 2013. Thaise took some nice shots of the woolshed, but she's still working on them (I'll share later). We were waiting for my mate Will to arrive and join us for the rest of our trip. When he got there - in his rental Toyota - we once again set off to the same spot on the East side to take some more sunsetting shots, my favourite is this one:

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Day three was starting and the photographers were up early to register the sun rise. This trip was fast becoming about sunsets and sunrises!! I slept in for another 30 minutes and started brekkie by the time they came back. This is what they saw:

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We finished our bacon and egg muffins and coffees and packed up to leave - once again - this magnificent place. I cannot recommend this destination enough to anyone interested in Australian past history, from aboriginal times to the more recent european pastoral days. It really is a magical place!

We set off to Menindee, via Garnpung Road, Ivanhoe Road and Pooncarie-Menindee Road. Pretty much all dirt, some good, some bad, but all enjoyable! Not a lot of people on the road around here, so be prepared if you want to come!
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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by pezimm » Sun May 18, 2014 10:21 pm

We arrived in Menindee mid afternoon and went straight to Kinchega NP. I wanted to camp there close to one of the lakes, but it wasn't to be... We tried to reach Cawndilla Lake campground, but were greeted by a sign about 8km down the track saying the road beyond that point was closed due to some aboriginal significant findings around the camping area. Fair enough.

We back-tracked and checked out Emu Lake camping area, but didn't like it (there is no actual lake here). We settled for back-tracking a little more and finding a spot along the Darling River boundary of the park. This was quite nice, as the River Drive track has 30-odd sites all river front! Now, going down this track, I was happy we hadn't seen any rain. This was a muddy, clay track that would become impassible with a few millimetres of the wet stuff.

This is where we settled for the next 2 nights:

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And we had a nice camp fire going in no time (nice fire-places provided in most sites). Don't forget your firewood - you cannot collect firewood in the NPs.

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Day four saw us waking up for a lazy late morning breakfast. We then got in the cars to re-supply in Menindee (I needed ice by then...) and have a look around the lakes here. We had lunch at the lovely Maidens Hotel as we quietly waited for the hours to pass for yet another sunset. We didn't know it at the time, but this was going to be an epic one by Pamamaroo Lake. This was also the night of the Blood Moon, so we were excited to check what was ahead.

We took the advice from the guy at the information centre and went the long way, first visiting the Lake Menindee look-out, next to the railway and then crossing the road taking the track to Copi Hollow caravan park, but then following it along Pamamaroo Lake all the way to Main Weir Road. Here we saw a herd of Camels! Yes, Camels! The wife took photos (again, waiting for them to be released). I am not sure if they were wild or belonged to someone, like a tour operator.

There are quite a few little tracks to reach the beach by the lake, we went down one of them and this is what we found:

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Now, the photographers were saying this was not the right spot to see the sunset as we were actually facing north here, so it was back on the road and around the lake to reach its Eastern shore and be able to place the tripods facing west.

We knew we were in the right place when we started spotting a lot of caravans. One every 100-150 metres along the coast. Didn't take me long to figure out we were camping in the wrong spot. This was the place! And all the grey nomads knew about it, I suppose age brings wisdom!

Anyways, we found a nice spot by the lake and parked the cars to wait for the sun to come down. We were here for about 3-4 hours and it was magnificent. Will set-up his GoPro on the Esky and put it on top of a tree stump to make a time-lapse movie which I will share later:

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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by pezimm » Sun May 18, 2014 10:23 pm

And the sun started to put on its show:

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Closely followed by the moon and the blood eclipse, which was more than we could ask for. I felt very lucky to be in such a beautiful place, with fantastic weather and nice company for such a show from Mother Nature:

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Day five started with us packing up camp and driving to Broken Hill, a quick 120kms on bitumen, where we had a motel booking to have a break from blow-up mattress sleeping. We arrived mid-morning and went straight to Silverton, had the mandatory meal at the Silverton Hotel and wandered around town a bit:

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Later in the afternoon we checked in at the Motel and by the end of the day we made our way to the Living Desert Reserve to see the sun come down from this vantage point. Once again, we were in for a show:

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We had a nice night's sleep and the following day were off to the Flinders Ranges, about 450kms away. We arrived there in the late afternoon and stayed at the campgrounds in Wilpena Pound Resort.
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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by pezimm » Sun May 18, 2014 11:29 pm

We woke up to day seven of our trip in a half empty campground in Wilpena Pound. This was not going to last as this was Easter Friday and everyone was now in long-weekend mode.

We started our day on the Sacred Canyon Heritage Site. This is what we saw when we got to the local carpark - no surprises with all the Subarus around!

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The canyon itself was beautiful and had a bit of water in it. Up-stream, we found some gorgeous River Red-Gums (that seem to be everywhere around here) that would have been easily 300 years old...

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One of these fine old examples is the Cazneaux tree, made famous by the photographer that toured the area in 1937 and took photos of this tree under the very appropriate title "The Spirit of Endurance". The tree is not far from the Sacred Canyon turn-off and is actually by the main road. A well worth stop-over. I will share some photos later.

From here we wanted to do the Bunyeroo Valley Scenic Drive. We were told that if we could only do one track, this had to be the one! And oh boy did it deliver! Breath taking views in spades. This is the view from the Bunyeroo Valley Lookout:

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And this is the teaser I shared before, taken from the Razorback Lookout:

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From here, we got to the Geological Trail (Brachina Gorge Road). There was no water on the road, but one could see this would be a water-crossing paradise when the gorge is flowing. We visited the Aroona ruins and returned to camp via the main road (Flinders Ranges Way).

Day 8 (Easter Saturday) we woke up to an army of little kids running around making a big racket. Nothing wrong with that, but not really what we were looking for... We left camp early and checked out Arkaroo Rock, on the southern part of the park. A little hike took us to the rock itself, which is an aboriginal site with extensive and very interesting rock art:

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From here we went to the Rawnsley Park estate, where you can park your car and hike your way up the southern part of the ranges to Rawnsley Bluff and Rawnsley Lookout - approximately a 5 hour return journey.

We decided to leave this one for the next time and carried on to Moralana Scenic Drive, which was a nice and easy drive that took us to Barndioota Road, the bitumen road that will take you to Lyndhurst and beyond. We only drove it to the start of the Geological Trail, to do the complete track we only did half the day before.

This was quite a good move, because we could really appreciate what the "Geological" part of the name was all about. We went through millions of years of geological evolution and could really see the remains of each period. A well worth experience! Another highlight along this way is an area called "Rock Falls", where you can see the Yellow-footed Rock-wallaby in action. This is a very active little wallaby and we saw them in large numbers 2 days in a row.

We returned to camp after that and once again, it was mayhem. The grounds were now completely full and it kind of spoiled the mood. After debating our next move, we all agreed we were getting tired and wanted to head back a day early, to recover before going back to the grind. So Easter Sunday (day 9) saw us take the long 1200km drive back to Melbourne, where we arrived late at night.

It was good to have the monday to recover and get everything in order before going to work on Tuesday. It was a wonderful trip altogether. We were extremely lucky with the weather and saw some awesome country! I will share the remaining photos as Thaise finishes the editing off, so watch this space!

Cheers,
Pedro.
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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by outback » Mon May 19, 2014 9:04 am

Sounds like you had a top trip.
More photos please.

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Post by pezimm » Mon May 19, 2014 6:12 pm

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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by pezimm » Thu Jun 19, 2014 7:13 pm

Some more photos:

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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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pezimm
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Post by pezimm » Thu Jun 19, 2014 7:21 pm

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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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pezimm
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Post by pezimm » Thu Jun 19, 2014 7:25 pm

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The Cazneaux Tree!
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GONE :( - Forester XT Auto - MY07 with all the goodies
Now occasionally driving a Ford barge...

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Post by El_Freddo » Thu Jun 19, 2014 9:32 pm

Awesome pics mate! Looks like you've had an awesome time, I'm jelly I couldn't be there if there was an invite ;)

Keep up the good times!

Cheers

Bennie
"The lounge room is not a workshop..."
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Post by RSR 555 » Thu Jun 26, 2014 2:53 am

Awesome pics Pedro :cool: good to see a few Fozzies out and about :)
You know you are getting old when the candles on your birthday cake start to cost more than the cake itself.

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