Day 4, Sunday 24/06/2012 Mt Ive Station

I went for a walk around the farm with Michael this morning.  There weren’t any puppies this time, but we did find an emu in the chook pen! I took a photo of Michael using his camera, on the old farm cart, using his magic panoramic function.

It was just a partial pack up this morning. We’re camping here tonight, but have to pack up our rooftop tents to go for a drive.

The Flight Path was a 32km 4wd track that takes you touring around the expansive sheep station. I wouldn’t rate it as the moderate to difficult written on the mud map. I would say easy with a few tricky spots that would rate moderate crossing some of the steeper banked creek beds. If you’re up for some real excitement though, drive the multiple creek crossings in the wet! Maybe this would be the difficult rating.

It was fun to head off in a convoy, 4wding in some absolutely amazing scenery. We all let our tyres down a bit to 30psi to reduce the chance of punctures on the rocky track. It was a fun day had by all exploring the 900km2 property. There were sheep, goats and kangaroos galore. The Williams family had a lamb that decided to adopt them. Jess cried when they had to leave it there and drive on with it screaming after them.

Amazing contrast of green shrubs with the orange rocks. Little pillars everywhere, but the most impressive being the Pete’s Pillars. They are rhyolite rock formations formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago.

It is so much more exciting when you have a turn driving and Jordan agrees. She’ll be better at 4wding than most by the time she gets her ‘Ps’.

It took most of the day with lunch at a rocky creek bed near Pete’s Pillars.

Back at camp and out came the nibblies for ‘happy hour’. A bit of exploration and photography around the property. The baby goats were so cute. One was stuck, so Jess convinced Col to go and save it.

Thank goodness Lisa and Stuart stopped for firewood. It was beautiful sitting around a warm fire. Bruce decided to get out the old bottle of Port.

Day 3, Saturday 23/06/2012, Olary Creek to Mt Ive Station

True to form, Olary Creek was a freezing  -2°C last night! Everything had a white coating of ice and poor Jamie was crying with aching, frozen fingers while having brekkie.  Finally I had a decent sleep last night. The first one for 3 nights. Thank goodness I’m on the mend!  It was lovely to enjoy a walk along the creek bed at sunrise with Fiona and the kids.

 

After stopping at Oodla Wirra to throw out our vegetable scraps at the quarantine station, we stopped at Peterborough for morning tea. It is a lovely old railway town from the 19^th century. The kids had fun playing on the old steam engine, the women photographing old buildings. I managed to update my blog, and received a text message off Leah about her photo not winning, but voted popular choice! Well done Leah.

Jordan is now driving us into the Flinders Ranges. We left earlier than the others as her speed limit is lower.

We took our third photo of Jordan and Jack at the Flinders Ranges lookout. The first one being 10 years ago and one 2 years ago.

We had to go grocery shopping at Port Augusta, especially for fruit and vegetables. The park in the town square made a great place to have some lunch while the kids, large and small let loose in the playground.

Fiona and I found some Sturt Desert Peas to practice photographing. Unfortunately we didn’t get away from here until 3pm, making for a late arrival at Mt. Ive Station.

Woohoo, nothing but sightseeing tomorrow, 4WDing and great scenery!

It was a fast 80km/hr drive along the dirt road to the station. It’s an extremely well maintained dirt road. The biggest challenge was avoiding the plethora of animals at dusk. Sheep, goats, kangaroos, emus and a fox. The Gawler Ranges were bathed in an orange glow from the sunset.

There was only one other person in the campsite, in a caravan, but several Asian students were staying in the shearers quarters.

It cost us around $140 for 2 nights plus all sightseeing. It gets you mud maps of the 4WDing and a key to the gate for Lake Gairdner.

We set up around a beautiful group gazebo with light, table, chairs and BBQ. We enjoyed hot showers from the “donkey” heater and found out Peter’s battery was dead again!
Bruce and Col did a bit of a check, and all we can say is “Great Job boys from Tamworth”.  The correct sized cable sudden stopped short and went to ¼ size and wasn’t even soldered, only taped.

A repair job coming on in Ceduna.  How handy to have jumper leads and an electrician on board.