Cairns Road Trip woo hoooo day 1 ;-)

It was an easy drive up the Newell, bringing back many pleasant memories of previous trips in younger days. I arrived at the Warrumbungles late afternoon, with the afternoon sun lighting the volcanic cores with a warm orange glow. Cheers to magic hour.


Driving into the park towards the campground, I saw a snake on the road catching the last of the sun's warmth.


There were lots of small kangaroos in the park, and they were quite tame too. I saw lots of young joeys, which were very cute as they looked back at me quite inquisitively. I set up my camp quickly, and it was a most nice place to camp. There was a good large toilet and shower block, as well as a covered BBQ area. After the tent was up in about 15 minutes I cooked myself some simple Satay Me Goreng which is very delicious and finished dinner off with a sandwich. Then it was off for an early sleep, in preparation for my walk tomorrow.

Mallee and the Border Track

We packed up camp early and were in the car driving across the island by 8:00am. I had wanted to visit Kulkurna Cliffs, but according to the map it was about a 20km trip and we would have to come back the same 20km, so we left them for another time. We passed a few kangaroos along the track, including one with a very cute joey.

We started off our trip down the border at Border Fence Road, which we missed to start with as the border to South Australia was unmarked. Curses not having my laptop! Next time we travel along here we'll start right from the top near Border Cliffs, and do the full border navigation, as we had to divert from the Border Track further along, as detailed below.

The track surface had changed from the slate grey of Lindsay Island to a desert red/orange as we headed south along the border. We pulled off near a tree to cook up some breakfast; the kids were starting to get sick of bacon and eggs. Well, James doesn't even like eggs, but I guess a few days of bacon sandwiches does get boring, though we did have porridge with honey one morning.

As we continued south, the track surface changed from the dark orange, almost red to soft yellow sands.

You could really appreciate the powers of irrigation and how much the farmers had changed the land with the native vegetation and desert on the east of the track, and the cleared green pastures on the west of the track.

We diverted from the Border Track near Berrook, and headed east along Sunset Track to visit the Underbool Green Opal Mine site. We had a little trouble finding it at first; damn that laptop again, but after 20 minutes exploring the desert in the heat and flies we returned to the car and headed back along the track, this time spotting the correct turnoff.

With shovel in hand we set off for the walk across the desert to the mine site, battling the flies which were swarming in their thousands. After a couple of kilometres, the mullock heap was visible across the dunes, and it wasn't long before we arrived at the mine site, the shaft collapsed but visible. We spent some time here looking around for opals, finding some interesting rocks with the green colouration, but no real opals to speak of. Still, it was interesting and worth at least one visit.

We continued down Underbool Track and Sunset Road to the highway, which we followed into Murrayville, to stock up on ice and drinks. The kids had earlier asked about seeing camels in the desert, so I explained to them they may spot them in the Simpson, but not around this area, only to see a camel in a paddock on the edge of town!

We rewarded our hot desert walk with an icecream each, and picked up a 24 pack of Pepsi Max for $23, normally $10 at Safeway in the City! and joined up with the Border Track again. The track was getting really sandy and soft as we joined the Border Track proper.

We visited Scorpion Springs where the kids dug down through the sand looking for water. They wanted to stay here for ages, but we had to think about getting to the campsite at Pine Hut Soak, which we did at about 5:00PM. There was another car setting up camp here at the campgropund, and after chatting found out it was the same car we had passed on the banks of the Murray at Ned's Corner. Peter was travelling through the Big Desert area with his daughter Melissa, and they had planned to travel the entire Border Track, but had heard in Murrayville that the section near Scorpion Springs was impassable after rains, which we had experienced a little of.

We had a simple dinner tonight of Hot Dogs and bread, followed by pancakes for desert, then shared the campfire with Peter and Melissa.

Eildon MVO Range Rover Club Trip

A group 4WD trip around Eildon

Trip Leaders
Peter & Mollie McGregor	Discovery Series 2	Landrover Owners Club
Participants
Roger & Brenton Stewart	Landrover Series 3	Landrover Owners Club
Gerald Wolmer	Landcrusier MWB	Landrover Owners Club
Rod, Christine, Rachael, Hanna,
Miriam & Naomi White	Defender	Landrover Owners Club
Phil & Helen Rubinstein	Landcruiser Series 80
David & Caitlin Danks	Discovery	Landrover Owners Club
Ian & Daniel Matthews	Range Rover	Landrover Owners Club
Michael Smith	Landrover Series 3	Landrover Owners Club
Rob & Barbara Hillman	GU Patrol	Pajero Club
Mark Fitzgerald & Mark Linkin	GU Patrol	Range Rover Club

Report: Mark Fitzgerald

Photos: Mark Linkin, Mark Fitzgerald

This trip was so popular, that it what was broken into two groups.  This report is specifically for Group 2, with Group 1 being led by John Hassler and Jim Parker.

Saturday, 19th May.

We met at the Ranger Station across from The Orchard campground, on Walshes Road Goughs Bay, and departed pretty close to the agreed time of 10:00.  We headed off Walshes Road into the Delatite Plantation State Forest along a well graded road following the high voltage power transmission lines. 

This took us up to our morning tea location on Highett Point Track.

We continued along Highett Point Track, which offered many spectacular views across the Delatite Arm of Eildon until we reached Harrops Hills, where a wallaby, many kangaroos and even a wombat were spotted before our descent down to Delatite Plantation Road.

We stopped for lunch at one of the many camping grounds (possibly Dumbells Campsite) along Delatite Plantation Road, where Mollie and Mark Linkin spotted a White Bellied Sea Eagle.  After lunch, we continued along to the end of Plantation Road and then climbed up a 4WD drive track, with one very short quite steep section before coming down and around Maintongoon Inlet.

We made it to Middle Camping Ground on Maintongoon Inlet very early, around 2:30pm.   After setting up tents, we, gathered enough firewood to last the night, threw the Aerobie around for a while, then settled down around a glorious campfire for dinner, where many interesting stories and some kindly treats from Gerald of stewed persimmons in Muscat, and chocolate were all shared.

The night was perfectly clear and the number of stars and the view of the Milky Way was absolutely breathtaking.  A number of shooting stars were also spotted.

Sunday, 20th May

We awoke to a cool morning, with the whole campground shrouded in mist.  It was quickly acknowledged that the planned departure time would require revising.  We all ate our breakfast and then packed up our tents.   We mingled around the warmth of the fire as long as possible before drowning it with water.  We were all packed and ready to go around 10:00, and headed up the spur.

We drove around Woolshed Inlet heading towards Stillmans Point, driving through foggy conifer forest, before doubling back towards Stillman Track.  The track climb appeared steep, and I was volunteered to ascend first as my Patrol was fitted with difflocks.  I didn't get far, hanging my truck on the cross cut drain but the difflocks did get me over.  I was able to make the climb without locking assistance, and called the rest up.  Roger, Michael and Gerald decided that they would head back to Goughs Bay on the 2WD track, the rest of the convoy made it up the climb with no problems.  The climb up towards Mount Enterprise was the first real 4WDing we had done on the trip, but was not too difficult.  The track was reasonably steep in some sections, and had some loose rock.

The views all around were fantastic, being above the fog which was sitting in all of the arms of Eildon as far as we could see.  By the time the last truck climbed up, all of the fog had burned away and we had some morning tea before continuing along across the top of Mount Enterprise towards Stillman Plateau.  We were able to see across to the Mariner at Anderson Harbour on the other side of Lake Eildon, and also the dam wall before arriving at some old concrete footings and wire guy ropes, which were the supports for some long gone pylons of past transmission lines.  We stopped for lunch on Stillman Plateau, amongst some very "Middle Earth" tall tress and bracken.  Stillman Track through this area was recently graded, and easily 2WD.

After lunch, we continued along Stillman Track, arriving back on Highett Point Track heading East and then turning South towards the 2.25km power transmission line spanning across Lake Eildon.  Much debate was held over the means in which the transmission lines were hung across the lake.

We then back tracked, to Highett Point Track, and headed East along Allan Peak Track, which had many reasonably steep ascents and descents on rocky slightly rutted tracks before reaching Allans Peak.  At this point radio contact was made with Group 1, which was surveying around the Jerusalem Creek area.  We then all headed down the steep descent from Allans Peak into the Pine Plantations around Goughs Bay.  The descent was quite steep and rocky,and we were rewarded at the bottom by watching some trail bike riders try unsuccessfully to climb the track.  We made our way through the maze of tracks in the pine forest, having to remove a pine tree that had fallen across the track with the drag chain before arriving in Goughs bay and heading off home our various ways.

Track Summary (All tracks were dry):

Walshes Road

2WD gravel road

Walshes Rd to Highett Point Link Track

2WD gravel road

Highett Point Track

Easy 4WD track with some moderate ascents and descents.

Delatite Plantation Road

2WD gravel Road

Stillman Point Track

Easy to medium, with some moderately steep ascents in Stillmans Point/Mount Enterprise area, becoming easy 2WD graded road in Stillmans Plateau area.

Allan Peak Track

Medium, tending to hard in some places though no recoveries were required.  Steep ascents and descents on uneven rocky tracks.  Long steep descent from Allans Peak to Goughs Bay.