Day 15, Thursday 5/07/2012, Lone Gum to Poeppel Corner

We were up in time for the sunrise over the Lone Gum (Box Eucalyptus Tree) and dunny. It wasn’t quite as cold last night. No frozen pipes. We fell asleep to the squeaking of little marsupials. Poor Peter and Anthea though, they can’t catch a break. The little marsupials had a party on their rubber ground mat, leaving droppings everywhere and they must like the taste of rubber as there were holes the size of coins in the mat.

Lisa was lovely enough to lend me some coffee this morning. The 4yr olds were a bit crazy so I sent them up the track in a running race to burn off some energy. Fiona had some to burn as well and set off for a big hike, to be picked up later as we leave.

I was able to entertain Chelsea with the Lone Gum, but particularly the kites in the tree. She’s good at saying “bird”! Another solo couple came up from the south and stopped to chat for a bit then Jack and Jess drove along the swale back to the Rig Road.

Anthea’s having a turn driving today which is awesome. She’ll get so much more out of the trip having a go. You should see the grin, and she’s a natural!

Heading east on Rig Rd there were a couple of camel carcasses. We were lucky enough in our car to be entertained by Aspire practice singing again.

Everyone got out to stretch their legs on a beautiful salt pan that 2 years ago was a lake. This is the southern end of the lake that cuts off the eastern end of WAA track after rain. We enjoyed a bit of a play here and then Jordan drove the 30km up the Knolls Track. Cool! There were salt pans, sand dunes, gidgee forests and gypsum rock outcrops. She did brilliantly. She even managed to do a hill start in high diff lock on a steep sand dune! Go girl!

We had a very dusty lunch at the base of the Approdinna Attora Knoll, an old gypsum encrusted dune. The gypsum hardens to rock and protects the dune. The views from the top are fantastic, surrounded by salt pans, gidgee forests, white glittery gypsum and orange sand dunes. We ran into the other couple again here, Matt and Heidi. They made it across the WAA Line to the Knolls, but still had to divert north around the lake as it was wet, with signs of recent boggings. They only did a really quick hike up to see the view as they decided to stick with us to Poeppel Corner.

Wow, so much fun heading east on the eastern end of the French Line! There are some fun dunes here. The bushes are also a bit more sparse so you get to see that orange dune look.

 

There was the occasional dune that needed a second attempt by some, then quite a steep one where the track veered to the left near the top and an unused old track straight over. A challenge that was calling to us! Lisa gave it 2 mighty attempts, almost making it. Col gave it a try, bottoming out on the amazingly soft sand on the crest, unable to go forward or back. He used a shovel, reversed back down, gave it another go and made it over with lots of cheers.

Williams’ turn. Not quite to the top, reversed back down. Second go bottomed out in the same place Col did with wheels spinning and sand flying. Bruce’s window was down and Jess got a lapful!

Col attempted to winch him over the top but it sounded as if the front end was ripping off Casper. A few people went to give him a push back down only to get a face full of sand. Matt couldn’t jump in his car fast enough. He was pretty excited to be able to use his recovery gear. He pulled Casper back using a snatchem strap. Left hand track for Casper. One for the Defender, yeah!

A bit further east we passed a group of about 10 cars, then we got a call from Matt to say he was bogged. Col and I went back to pull them out. We had to drive back through the 10 other vehicles. They were pulled off to the side as the track was blocked by Matt. I couldn’t believe they were just sitting there rather than pulling Matt over. I think they had already had “happy hour”. We only had to give Matt a little nudge over the crest of the dune with a snatchem.

There were several salt pans to cross before arriving at Poeppel Corner, setting up camp in a huge sandpit. After cooking tea we socialized around the lovely fire made by the teenagers. Matt and Heidi came and joined us, bringing their cask of wine to share and plenty of yarns were spun! The moon was late to rise tonight so it was a great opportunity to grab the tripod and get a few night shots.