Skip to main content

Birdsville Track

15th April - 18th April 2016
300 odd kilometres on day one.  Very gravelly  and in many places comprised of gibber. Gibber are small polished fragments of the original dura crust that covered the plains around 65 million years ago. Like driving on marbels. 

Not far out of Birdsville we say goodbye to Queensland and hello South Australia.



The gibber plains. Stunning. The red are the gibber stones.





Overnight stop at the Mungerannie Hotel. $20. Brilliant hotel and facilities. Just pull up anywhere along the tree line!  There was a "plunge pool" of sorts behind the trees fed from the artesian bore. Tempting if I could have seen the bottom. Also a bit hot. Temperature like a hot bath. I think not. So we just sat and enjoyed the view and the serenity after a day of bumpy driving.



The day spa!


Birds everywhere.


Dezzi soaking up the serenity!


The sunset was stunning.



Beers and sunset. Loving it.



Got our hopes up driving down the track to the Hotel.  Yeah....coffee and raisin toast thanks......NOT.
Just a crazy sense of humour from the publican!


Waiting, waiting, waiting....


I give up! The trucks in the background have been waiting in the park up area for a while. Victoria Point not so bad after all Rebecca Young ha ha ha!


Dez trying the drive through!


The Mungerannie Hotel




These prickly little shrubs are everywhere.

Next stop at the end of the Birdsville Track - Marree. The home of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Only another 211 klm of gravel and gibber to go.

We came across the Mulka General Store and Homestead ruins. The store was built in the 1920's. Love some good ruins!










Stop to top up on fuel.


Bit scary when one of these comes hurtling towards you kicking up rocks!


This silly grasshopper hung on for miles.


DAMAGE TOLL FROM THE BIRDSVILLE TRACK:

Broken junction piece to one of the water tanks. Of course Dezzi had a spare. So fixed that.



Job one done.


Both the Anderson plug and seven point trailer plug disappeared somewhere along the track! Once again Dez had spares. He brought a bag of Anderson plugs, and happened to throw in the multi plug connector for the trailer, so managed to use that.


On the job.


Job two done.



Next job, fix the hinge on the wardrobe. I actually damaged that!

Also replaced a fuse, and needed two bolts in the bash plate because they had shaken loose and it was barely hanging on! Also lost one of the stone guards from the camper shocky. 

I think the Birdsville Track won that round!

Made camp for a few days behind the Maree Pub. A lovely patch of dirt with a carport type shelter for a communal area. As dodgy as it was we had a great time here and met some terrific people. The evenings were very social!


The Maree Hotel. Beautiful old pub. Much better looking out the front and inside.


Stunning sunset over our deluxe accommodations!

We took a little 150klm round trip out to Farinya Ruins (towards Innaminka). A whole ghost town. Right up my alley. Plenty of ruins. This was a thriving community when the Ghan Railway ended here. Unfortunately when the Ghan was extended to Maree that was pretty much the death knell for Farinya.



All that is left of the general store.



The old post office.



Hospital.






Remnants of yesteryear.


Keeping watch.


Underground bakery.


Love a look at an oldcemetery. So many unmarked graves.
 


This spooky. One hundred years to the day that we were there!


This is just half the list of those buried here. Heart wrenching to see the infant mortality rate.


There are a few decendents of the Afghan cameleers in Maree. The outback would not have survived without them in the late 1800's to early 1900's. They were integral in bringing goods from Adelaide to this area.




Now you can't go to Maree without visiting the infamous Lake Eyre Yacht Club! We were lucky enough to strike a day that Bob was there. He actually lives in Melbourne. What a great bloke. We spent ages chatting about the Lake and the area in general.  I told him I was goi g to have him for false advertising, as the water is nowhere near the Yacht Club!  Anyhoo he gave us a secret map, to a secret spot, that we could get to the edge of the Lake. Albeit just the salt crust. (Pretty sure he gives this map to everyone)! 


Aforementioned secret map!


Nope....no water!

So off to takckle the Oodnatta Track and find the secret location........




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nannup - Manjimup - Pemberton - Walpole

The Southern Forest Region 27th March - 14th April 2017 Stunning forest drives, walks through majestic karri, marri and tingle tree forests. Beautiful coastlines and quaint towns that once thrived on timber cutting. The first stop in this magnificent region, the small town of Nannup and our camp at Barrabup in the Karri forest. It feels so good to be back on the road exploring new areas after our huge stay in Moore River. Nannup (Barrabup Camp - National Park) Welcome to Nannup! Flowers everywhere and autumn trees with their golden leaves. The main street of Nannup. What a change! Camping among the tall trees instead of by the beach. No other campers while we were there. Ahhhhh the serenity. And our first camp fire in months. Not the greatest weather. So this is how you keep the camp fire going during a shower of rain! Lots of cheeky possums. Where we were camped was once a thriving timber mill. So hard to imagine as there is nothing but for
Post a Comment
Read more

Gippsland

Gippsland 23rd April - 4th May 2018 Victoria has so many beautiful little towns. From Bonnie Doon we wound our way down from the highlands through Marysville and Yarra Junction, heading east to Gippsland. Our destination - the little town of Yinnar near Moe, and our fellow travelling friends Kevin and Penny, who we met in Western Australia. Looking forward to some fun times. Kevin and Penny allowed us to park up in their driveway, so plenty of happy hours. Also, we had a number one guide to explore this region. Yinnar 23rd - 27th April 2018 Walhalla An easy day drive from Yinnar, Walhalla is a small town founded as a gold mining community in late 1862 and at its peak home to around 4,000 residents. Today, the town has a population of 20 permanent residents, and a large proportion of holiday houses. The town's name is taken from an early gold mine in the area, named for the German hall of fame, the Walhalla Temple. Walhalla has been restored for tourism and is a beautif
Post a Comment
Read more

Esperance - Cape Le Grand - Norseman

Esperance 12th - 14th May 2017 The weather is starting to get chillier, which is a shame. The ocean is so blue, crystal clear and begging to floated in! A couple of days in Esperance to get the washing done, stock up on groceries and revel in this magnificent coastline before heading out to Cape Le Grand National Park. Great, quiet caravan park. Loving the cooler weather for camp fires. The foreshore in town was perfect for a picnic lunch and stroll along the jetty. Day two and off to explore the coastline. There is a tourist drive/loop called Great Ocean Drive. And it was great! First stop, the Pink Lake. Not very pink anymore, but magnificent on this incredibly calm morning. So many spectacular, magnificent, stunning, beautiful bays. Crystal clear sparkling water. The superlatives go on and on. I'll let the pictures tell the story. Simply taking it all in. A scramble down the stairs and over the rock pools.
Post a Comment
Read more