Greeting Folks , we're back from our pilgrimage.....3000 kilometers or 1800 miles and quite a few of those were on the dirt and all of them were hot. From Melbourne it's about 13 hours drive to Lake Gairdner , we stopped in the wine making area of the Barossa Valley near Adelaide on Monday night where we had a "counter "meal with Dirty Dave and talked about the state of the nation , we had a great old laugh ....we jumped back in the Land Cruiser and headed off north towards Port Pirie where we stayed for the night , two hundred miles short of the Lake. An hour the next morning and we were at "the Gutter" or better known as Port Augusta where we stocked up on ice , beer , some food......and filled the tank . The drive in was smoother than recent years the corrugations in the road not being continuous....and it wasn't in the low forties celcius which was a relief . We drove straight to the salt after a brief chat with the Newtons who own the pastoral lease which covers the access to the lake . When we got there it was immediately apparent that the ramp where the usual on/off point is was unusable for vehicles as it was slushy . We got our push-bikes out and set off towards the track.it was heavy going and the tyres were flicking up a rooster tail of wet salt and water...but after about 100-150 meters the salt was hard and as we went out the sound the tyres were making became crisper and brighter . The surface had walnut sized salt growths on it which I hadn't seen before....here's a shot to give you some idea of the coarse nature of the ungraded surface ,this shot was taken about where the track would normally be.
We sat around on the salt out there and had our little spiritual moment and lamented the fact that although where we were was probably fine for racing the track further down wasn't and besides there was no way to get a vehicle onto the lake...... sad but true....
In the back of the Toyota we had some FZR wheels that my good mate Tiny ( Generator shovel on landracing.com) had bought from free-bay and seeings how we were going the long way home we thought we could take them to him in Silverton way up near Broken Hill.....and seeings how we had them we figured we'd better take a few snaps of them....kind of like a "gnomes holiday shot"...
we stayed at the members camp that night ..it was a raucous affair...lets just say when some people say they like to get away from civilization they have their own check-list.....leave the social mores behind but take a TV and a BBQ , some people seem to have a constant obsession with conquering the environment.....I copped an earful for mentioning various preferences with regard to where I stay when at Gairdner ( for the record that is next to the lake , on the sandy soil with the cold showers within walking distance of the canteen and earshot of the lake.....not at the members camp five dusty , rutted miles away with bore water showers )....... I can argue with drunk nutbags either in my line of work in the welfare sector or in my side line as a rock and roll musician so I just nodded and pretended that I was agreeing.That said it was good to see all the blokes I liked at the camp ....
The next day we headed west and north from the lake toward Woomera . Another 160 miles of blazing hot sand road....we made a few stops like this one at the only road sign we saw...
We spotted a sturt Desert Pea the state floral emblem of South Australia a rare and beautiful little thing that grows in an environment that only salt bush seems to like....
Woomera has a history as a testing range which has also included variious tracking stations including Island Lagoon and Nurungar...there's a rocket park where we saw some genuinely wierd home made looking stuff, well it looked home made ....turns out the air-force and the Army made it .....this is called a sea slug
We stayed that night on the Northern edge of Island Lagoon...it was beautiful , the stars of course were incredible...the food, well.., the beer was cold but about two of those and it was nighty night after the hot and arduous days driving....this is a shot of Conical Hill in the north eastern arm of Island Lagoon. There are a lot of tributaries at this part of the lake and the salt as a result is just a thin crust.
I spoke to the owners of Oakden station who run the pastoral lease on the eastern edge of Island Lagoon and was told that access was very limited and the boss was too busy to guide us out there...that was the part of the lake we thought may have the kind of surface that would be suitable for a track......We drove into the homestead anyway...it was murderously hot and red sand everywhere.......I'm glad i'm not a sheep!!
We decided we'd head up to Broken Hill, another 340 miles ...lots more salt bush...it was kind of manky in the truck , could have done with a razor and a mediator at times...
At the "Hill" we headed up to Silverton and the famous Silverton Hotel ,the area where Mad MAx 2 or as you guys know it " The Road Warrior" was filmed. Apart from being treated to a great feed of freshly caught fish we had a great nat with Chris Fraser the publican and his mate Trevor Clare who built and ran the stretched blown V8 bike at the lake ....of course Tiny showed up to collect his wheels and crap on with us , we had a great time I wish we could have stayed until Sunday when the recovery party for the Broken Hill St Patricks day races was to be held at the Pub....however while were there Chris had to exterminate some mosquitoes...he had just the thing....an 8/71 blown methanol big-block on a trolley...
the next day we drove the 560 miles to Melbourne ...once again it wasn't freezing
gee we had a time
