Trip Leaders – Ed Spencer and Jules Best
Participants – Steve and Joke, John and Denise, John T, Graeme, Steely and Hash
The trip started on Thursday night with all participants finding the correct Green Lake Camping ground near Sea Lake. A busy site but thanks to John and Graeme for securing a spot 3 metres from the water. This site was also to be our last opportunity to have a hot water shower, eeck! With a departure time of 9am we travelled past the silo artwork in Sea Lake, Nullawil and Patchewollock. Lunch stop at Snowdrift then explored the lookouts around the lake. The stunning Pink Lake in the Murray sunset national park was our next rest stop. Our first introduction to a little sand driving took us to Rocket Lake where we had our club BBQ.
On to Pheneys campground via Shearers quarters a 16-berth shack which can be hired out by the public. I personally would prefer my clean tent!! A change in weather brought cooler weather and gusting winds. We crossed the Mallee highway to Pinnaroo for a restock of food and drink then the real sand driving started as we headed for Blue Gums. A few false starts up some of the dunes but with plenty of experienced drivers giving advice and plenty of people giving loads of support we all managed to make it to Blue Gums with no breakages. (Eggs included) Sand flags were attached for the next few days as the sand was getting deeper and the dunes were getting higher. Someone……… ‘Steely’ requested to drive to Big Billy bore camp via The Big Dune. A dune that only some had experienced before. Two and a half hours of fun, enthusiastic cheering and some frustration and persistence was spent attempting to conquer this big beast. A very very good lesson on the importance and impact of tyre pressure.
Each failed attempt generated greater determination with finally four cars reaching the top. Benno’s tyres were reduced to 6 and 4 and survived. The determination award was won by Hash…… he created the ‘Hash hole’ that grew deeper and deeper with each attempt.’ Steely was laughing so much he fell off a 6-foot-high dune which was caught on car cam. Luckily he didn’t break any bones. A walk up to the lookout at Big Billy Bore to watch a beautiful sunset was a serine way the finish the day.
We stopped at the memorable Milmed Rock on the Milmed Rock track onto our last camp site at Lake Albacutya. This was a fun sand track which would be even more challenging if it was driven east to west. A few people braved the cold water showers but appreciated flushing toilets. Graeme and Steely left the trip before sunset and the rest enjoyed a lovely last camp fire and lots of laughs and time to reminisce on the fun we had.
On the Thursday morning we visited the beautiful town of Rainbow, visited the bakery and did some local shopping before we all dispersed to our next adventures. We deeply thank those who attended our trip and hope you all gained some valuable knowledge, had new experiences, appreciated the beautiful landscape of the desert and most importantly enjoyed yourselves and had fun.
Anonymous trip quotes:
“I think this is the first time I’ve hit my head on the roof”
“I think Benno likes cooking as much as driving” ???????????
“Is that a tree on fire?” Disclaimer: No person, animal or tree was injured
during the trip.