Day 9, Friday 29/06/2012, Mt Finke to Coober Pedy

This is one of Col's thunderbox shots. A spectacular sunrise at Mt Finke!

Happy Birthday Fiona!!

It was the most amazing fireball sunrise. Awesome welcome for Fiona to her birthday. From Mount Finke we took the northern branch back to the Googs Track which takes you along the edge of a small clay pan.
 

There were a couple more suggestions for a group name. Everyone likes “In a Rut” more now that they’ve experienced the driving out here, but even more popular was “Red Dirt” by Stuart.
Bruce then came up with a song for this section “Googs Vibration”! Good one. Enjoy those ruts!

The dunes were pretty small north of Mount Finke, with the largest being between the lake and mountain. It wasn’t long before we crossed the Trans Australian Railway and came across the dog proof fence again. It's amazing to think that this is the same fence that is on the border of NSW and Queensland!

From here it is an easy graded dirt road to the Stuart Highway. We planned to stop at Tarcoola pub to meet some locals, but all the people had disappeared!  There was this whole town, but no people. Pub, hospital, police station, school, church and post office. The houses had BBQs and chairs on the verandah, as if the people vanished instantly leaving everything behind. Peter was funny. He knocked on one of the doors. There was no answer, he then proceeded to tidy up their verandah, righting chairs. There seemed to be only one occupied house at the east end of town near the railway track, but we didn’t meet anyone. It was such a fun, spooky ghost town, that was most likely abandoned when the mine closed down.

Travelling east again, crossing the railway several times we come upon another mostly abandoned town at Kingoonya. We were hoping to visit these outback pubs. We had lunch at a rest stop just west of the town that had a pit toilet, table and bins.

There was one house only with a sign of life and a couple of dogs. The fuel bowsers looked disused and the general store had no floor left on the joists. This town has died on and off since the Stuart highway was moved east of here to Glendambo. There is fuel and supplies available at Glendambo. They have a population of 33 people and 22 500 sheep.

Then we were heading north on the Stuart highway (where Stuart needed to get a photo), to Coober Pedy where we checked in to our underground motel. Cool! Fun sleeping in a cave.

After a quick shower we headed into town as there was no laundry here. Col stayed at the Laundromat with Jordan while Jack and I did the grocery shopping. Most in the group did a similar thing, hoping to have more sightseeing time the following morning. It was quite a late dinner but so delicious and happy, fun company and a little bit of wine at John’s Pizza. I hope Fiona enjoyed her birthday. Messages sent back and forth with our Friday night dinner crew. It’s a shame they’re not all here.

Day 8, Thursday 28/06/2012, Googs Lake to Mt Finke

First we visited the memorials of Googs and his son Dinger who made the tracks. After putting money in the money tree we hit the Googs propper. Much bigger dunes. We quickly came upon another group that were having trouble with most dunes. They seemed to be having trouble with their trailer. The T-Van in our group had no problems at all.

In the middle of nowhere, up pops Mount Finke, our camping site for tonight.

Part of the group did the 1.5hr return hike to the top of the mountain. I definitely need a lung transplant! Top of the world!! Circled by 5 wedgetailed eagles. Madison put the rock on the cairn.

Back down and time for ‘happy hour’.

Day 7, Wednesday 27/06/2012, Googs Lake

Wow! Finally a full rest day. Badly needed by some. Salt pan walks, photography and the best part, damper class with the kids. They each made an M&M damper, wrapped in foil and placed separately into the coals. They were perfect and the kids felt so proud. I made a fetta and semidried tomato damper for my lunch. Yum!

Wonderful entertainment around the campfire. Jordan sang her African song while the older kids did an African dance they had choreographed earlier.

Jordan then sang Zombie for us. She certainly has become braver.

Day 6, Tuesday 26/06/2012, Loche Claypan to Googs Lake

Another amazing sunrise across the claypan. We had to pack up fairly early as we had a car to be (hopefully fixed) today while at Ceduna.

My computer just came up with the black screen of death!! Says it’s attempting to recover the C drive!!  Aaahhhh!

Seems to have worked OK. Lucky my photos are safe. Computer, flashdrive and camera card.

It was quite a long day at Ceduna. The boys went with Peter  to the Auto electrician. He wouldn’t have been able to do it except that Col and Bruce worked as his labourers. He only charged $30 for labour as the boys did most of it. It only cost Peter $360 for a new battery, a new red arc dual battery system, cabling and Anderson plug! Wow bargain.

A few from the group hit the Laundromat, groceries were bought and a visit to the cafe. Once all of the jobs were done we hiked out to the end of the jetty,  where we had a whole pod of dolphins swim under us.

The seafood market was a disappointment as they only had frozen prawns for our risotto tonight. Finally, real 4WDing and new ground for us. We hit Goog’s Track fairly late, but it wasn’t too far to Goog’s Lake. After deflating our tyres to 25 PSI and chatting to a couple of blokes, we headed along the combination of corrugations and sand dunes through trees. I loved my turn driving. Make sure you take turns with the driving as experiencing the 4WDing is a big part of the adventure!

 

There was a quick stop at the rockpools that were old faithfuls, used by Aboriginal nomads for thousands of years in the past.

Then we found a gorgeous camping site in an orange sand hill, under the trees, overlooking a sat lake. Great for the kids to run wild on again. Beautiful rocks and crystals. Chelsea had fun crawling on the lake bed. We were trying to get her to walk with no luck.

Such a relaxing evening around the campfire. I’m glad I’ve finished my antibiotics so I can enjoy a glass of wine.

Day 5, Monday 25/06/2012, Mt Ive Station to Loche Claypan

We got up too early today because Col’s iPhone had reverted back to Newcastle time. This was a bonus as I saw a lovely sunrise. Michael and Jamie had another melt down this morning. They can’t handle cold, early mornings.  Col took Jamie to see the baby goats, but I had to go and save her because Col can be a bit ‘scary’.

It is a lovely hike up a creek bed to see Cath’s Castle. Kangaroos were watching us from rocks just above. Passed several waterholes and if you look backwards an amazing view down the valley. Peter didn’t do this trek as he couldn’t manage with his broken foot, although most of the time you wouldn’t even realize he had it.

Poor Jess! Not a happy Williams family. Jess accidentally deleted all of their trip photos so far.

Lake Gairdner was as spectacular as ever! Wow. Amazing white glow with perfect reflections. This time we walked out which was an experience we missed last time. I was amazed by the thick, rock hard salt crystal floor. The white had a real glow to it, and the water was crystal clear and freezing. Just step out and your foot instantly dries white with a coating of salt

As soon as we left here I downloaded my photos and backed them up on a flash-drive.

Williams volunteered to run the keys and mud maps back to the property once we were back through the locked gate, and Jordan had another hour long drive from Mt Ive Station.

We found our amazing bush camp site at Loche Claypan (Salt Lake). The T-Van managed the sandy bush drive without a problem. It is perfect. Isolated with amazing views across the claypan, where the kids were instantly running wild. There were emu, kangaroo and wombat prints everywhere and 3 huge wombat holes. The adults hiked out into the middle trying to get to the water. It gets muddier as you go. Clay feet. Great sunset shots here, and then the best bonfire. Bruce went for a walk to check the wombat holes, but all still asleep.

Sadly the rain chased us to bed prematurely.