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Day's 1 to 6 12/8/2014 to 17/8/2014
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- Day 1 - Wangaratta to Renmark
- Day 2 - Renmark to 30km's out of Port Augusta
- Day 3 - 37kms North of Port Augusta to Mabel Creek
- Day 4 - Mabel Creek- 60kms in to Anne B to Anne Beadell 25kms short of Emu 15-8-2014
- Day 5 -Anne Beadell near Emu to The Unamed Conservation Park 16-8-2014
- Day 6 - UCP to 25kms south of Vokes Corner 17-8-2014
- Day's 7 to 12 - 18/8/2014 to 23/8/2014 >
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Day 11 - Mt Fanny to TTT Red Rock on SA-NT border - Thur 22 Oct 2015.
On this trek the goon fairy has been employed on a casual basis, with someone filling the spot as or when required. Last night we think that there were a couple of people doing the job as in the morning a few of us were dusty. As the sun rose so did a couple of fuzzy heads. This did not however dampen our enthusiasm or keenness to share breakfast and get underway. Today we would cross through a couple of time zones and set foot in two states and one territory; it would be a big day. Rob McNally was awarded the Anything But Average award, for his usual high standard of commitment to the team on the road and in the camp and his social skills. He is an important part of the team and we appreciate having him with us. A couple of fines were handed out to people were dusty.
The track remained in good nick as we headed southeast. We located and stopped at the short 5 km track that goes to the Surveyor General’s Corner, the corner of WA, SA and NT. A large sign suggested that if we didn’t have the right permits and permissions to go down this private road we would be in trouble. Our mapbook suggested that we needed a local guide and had to pay a fair sum of money. We rang two numbers that we had for local people but only got answering machines. We then rang the number for the Ngaanyatjarra who promptly started asking for our permit information. Carl had the permits so he got on the phone. After a long and difficult conversation the upshot of it was that we didn’t have a permit to go to the corner and we didn’t have a permit that the locals would recognise for the road that we were on. The previous day Carl had spoken to people at the Central Lands Council who had assured us that we would be ok to drive down this road to get to the APY lands in SA, which we did have a permit for. Wrong according to the locals. With frustration but respect we headed to the WA/SA border, also five kms away, and into land where we had been welcomed.
The road was a bit rougher but the scenery started building and got better through the day. The appeal of this area is that instead of being flat as a poo carter’s hat or having low sand dunes, there are many ranges, jutting and protruding above the valley road. Tomkinson Range, Peterman Range, Mann Range and the Musgrove Ranges all provide a fantastic sight in this remote desert area. After a bit of dicking around we went into the Pipalyatjara community for fuel. This area is infrequently visited, is a dry area and serves opal petrol which formulated to be ineffective if sniffed. Big Shagger from Regional Anangu Services helped us out with the fuel and then was happy to give us a donation for the Flying Doctors. We moved along the Giles – Mulga Park Road, taking in the scenery and stopping for lunch (wraps) along the way.
Our permit was for one day only and to stay on the main road to transfer through the APY lands. Our aim was Mulga Park, a station on the NT border that the Giles – Mulga Park Road runs to. We stopped later in the day at the main APY town, Amata, for a quick chat to the locals and an ice-cream. The town had a surprisingly well-stocked store with big variety of supermarket items, fresh meat and food and other kit like car repair and cleaning stuff, kid’s bikes, gardening stuff. It was also busy with many locals present buying stuff. The locals that were about were interested in what we were doing and the bikes and we chatted for a while. A police officer also dropped by, checking that we had a permit and that we were not flaunting the strict regulations banning alcohol. As we left the APY land we felt satisfied that we had visited. In the evening campfire discussion Carl expressed that he felt that his expectations had been exceeded, and that as he rode along he didn’t know which way to look. Some of felt curious and interested in more, as this had in some ways been a teaser with the frustration of not getting to the Surveyor General’s Corner. Oh well, next time.
We had a general area in mind to find a camp site but we went some way away from this, dropping back down to the SA/NT border and edging in to a spot adjacent to a very large red rock. It was not Uluru but a little resemblance was found. We did our usual thing of sorting out a fire, laying out our swags and cooking tea. Tonight we had Cynthia’s chili con carne, which was at exactly the right ‘strength’ for us, and cam complete with warnings of the results of eating the beans. A couple of scouts had climbed the rock and a plan was determined to start our next day climbing it and sitting on the top to watch the sun rise over the Northern Territory flat landscape to the left or north, and more of the stunning APY lands to the right or south.
On this trek the goon fairy has been employed on a casual basis, with someone filling the spot as or when required. Last night we think that there were a couple of people doing the job as in the morning a few of us were dusty. As the sun rose so did a couple of fuzzy heads. This did not however dampen our enthusiasm or keenness to share breakfast and get underway. Today we would cross through a couple of time zones and set foot in two states and one territory; it would be a big day. Rob McNally was awarded the Anything But Average award, for his usual high standard of commitment to the team on the road and in the camp and his social skills. He is an important part of the team and we appreciate having him with us. A couple of fines were handed out to people were dusty.
The track remained in good nick as we headed southeast. We located and stopped at the short 5 km track that goes to the Surveyor General’s Corner, the corner of WA, SA and NT. A large sign suggested that if we didn’t have the right permits and permissions to go down this private road we would be in trouble. Our mapbook suggested that we needed a local guide and had to pay a fair sum of money. We rang two numbers that we had for local people but only got answering machines. We then rang the number for the Ngaanyatjarra who promptly started asking for our permit information. Carl had the permits so he got on the phone. After a long and difficult conversation the upshot of it was that we didn’t have a permit to go to the corner and we didn’t have a permit that the locals would recognise for the road that we were on. The previous day Carl had spoken to people at the Central Lands Council who had assured us that we would be ok to drive down this road to get to the APY lands in SA, which we did have a permit for. Wrong according to the locals. With frustration but respect we headed to the WA/SA border, also five kms away, and into land where we had been welcomed.
The road was a bit rougher but the scenery started building and got better through the day. The appeal of this area is that instead of being flat as a poo carter’s hat or having low sand dunes, there are many ranges, jutting and protruding above the valley road. Tomkinson Range, Peterman Range, Mann Range and the Musgrove Ranges all provide a fantastic sight in this remote desert area. After a bit of dicking around we went into the Pipalyatjara community for fuel. This area is infrequently visited, is a dry area and serves opal petrol which formulated to be ineffective if sniffed. Big Shagger from Regional Anangu Services helped us out with the fuel and then was happy to give us a donation for the Flying Doctors. We moved along the Giles – Mulga Park Road, taking in the scenery and stopping for lunch (wraps) along the way.
Our permit was for one day only and to stay on the main road to transfer through the APY lands. Our aim was Mulga Park, a station on the NT border that the Giles – Mulga Park Road runs to. We stopped later in the day at the main APY town, Amata, for a quick chat to the locals and an ice-cream. The town had a surprisingly well-stocked store with big variety of supermarket items, fresh meat and food and other kit like car repair and cleaning stuff, kid’s bikes, gardening stuff. It was also busy with many locals present buying stuff. The locals that were about were interested in what we were doing and the bikes and we chatted for a while. A police officer also dropped by, checking that we had a permit and that we were not flaunting the strict regulations banning alcohol. As we left the APY land we felt satisfied that we had visited. In the evening campfire discussion Carl expressed that he felt that his expectations had been exceeded, and that as he rode along he didn’t know which way to look. Some of felt curious and interested in more, as this had in some ways been a teaser with the frustration of not getting to the Surveyor General’s Corner. Oh well, next time.
We had a general area in mind to find a camp site but we went some way away from this, dropping back down to the SA/NT border and edging in to a spot adjacent to a very large red rock. It was not Uluru but a little resemblance was found. We did our usual thing of sorting out a fire, laying out our swags and cooking tea. Tonight we had Cynthia’s chili con carne, which was at exactly the right ‘strength’ for us, and cam complete with warnings of the results of eating the beans. A couple of scouts had climbed the rock and a plan was determined to start our next day climbing it and sitting on the top to watch the sun rise over the Northern Territory flat landscape to the left or north, and more of the stunning APY lands to the right or south.