Buckleboo and Beyond with AJ120

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The basis of this trip was to do Googs Track, it’s been on my list for many years but I haven’t managed to get there until now. I have heard reports ranging from “tougher than the Canning” from a guy who did it on the way home from the Canning, right through to it’s a waste of Diesel and you can drive it at 80kms/hr in a Commodore. I figured the only way to find out for sure was to go myself.

Lots of people do this as a long weekend trip, but they drive past so much other good stuff and even skip parts of the Googs experience. So with the long weekend and Trish having an RDO on the previous Friday it gave us 10 days with only 4 days leave used.
So the plan was to visit, Secret Rocks – Buckleboo Stock Route – Gawler Ranges – Googs Track – Lake Gairdner – Mt Ive and come home through the Southern Flinders depending on time.

So after an early start for me at work and a relatively short (5hr) day I was home showered and we were on the road by 11 O’clock.
Getting away at that time meant that Whyalla was our overnight destination. Having been born and lived the first 15 years of my life there I knew of a spot just out of town that should have been a good free camp for the night. 8 mile Creek was our overnight stop, certainly nothing flash but quiet, secluded and Free ticked all the boxes.




So after a good nights sleep we left Whyalla getting off the blacktop fairly shortly afterwards and taking the backroad to Kimba. Along the way is a spot called Secret Rocks, or Refugee rocks on some maps. I had vague memories of visiting this spot when I was maybe 5 or 6 years old, so it was a trip down (lack of) memory lane for me. It’s a nice little spot, camping for 1 or 2 vehicles would be OK and we arrived around morning tea time so a drink and some nibbles and nice walk up and around the rock formations was good way to spend an hour.




I will never understand why people feel the need to vandalize these things




Some views around the rocks








There were a few Gnamma Holes around the rocks as well, the small one in the photo had water but something had fallen in and died, the smell was rather unpleasant to say the least!






After turning of the main road we didn't see another vehicle until Kimba, so we had it all to ourselves on a long weekend, well of the tourist route just the way I like it!

I’ll continue to add posts as I get pictures sorted and time to upload them over the coming days.

Cheers Andrew

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After leaving secret Rocks we travelled through Kimba and out towards Buckleboo, stopping to visit the Edward John Eyre memorial on the way. I really liked the metal sculptures.






We then headed towards Buckleboo for Lunch and later arrived at the start of the Buckleboo Stock route that travels through Pinkawillinie Conservation Park.
We started the track at our mid 20psi dirt road pressures but at the first sand dune stopped to drop pressures to 18psi, that got us over a few dunes without issue but the sand kept getting softer and the temperature was 37 degrees which didn’t help. After failing to get over one dune tyre pressures were dropped to 15psi, that was low enough to get us through but another pound or 2 out would have made it a breeze. We did need to stop a couple of times as due to the high heat and hard going (towing remember) operating temperatures were starting to go up, so a few stops to keep everything cool and in good order was needed.






One of our stops was at a burned out section, I don’t know when it had burned but it was extremely recent, the smell of freshly burned scrub was very strong and I would think it had burned in the previous day or 2 at the most. Luckily it hadn’t spread very far.




Due to the high temperatures outside volunteers to walk up the soft dunes to take photographs as we went up were impossible to find, so no pics of the real soft stuff, however we did run the gopro for some of it so I might try and upload some snippets of that later on to show how soft it was.
Probably the best thing about this track is that it’s rarely driven judging by its condition, which meant whilst it was soft and hard going it wasn’t torn up like some of the tracks we would encounter in a few days time.

A quick smoko stop in Wudinna and a quick look at the highlights of the town and we were ready to head into the Gawler Ranges to find a camp for the night.






Cheers Andrew

[Razorback81 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Razorback81]

nice trip , been on my list of close ones to start doing

when your towing the camper do you drop the pressures to the same level as the prado ?

cheers James

[Hazza Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hazza]

Great trip report and images so far Andrew. Have to put that on the bucket list although that's overflowing lol

Hazza

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

when your towing the camper do you drop the pressures to the same level as the prado ?

Yeah as a general rule I run the camper tyres at the same pressure, I think that is probably more important in sand than any other surface. Having the track of the trailer and the vehicle the same is also a huge bonus in the soft stuff.

Cheers Andrew

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We headed for the Gawler Ranges NP but didn’t want to go in via either of the main entrances and instead chose a back road to get into the park. We were a bit disappointed to find the track blocked at a farmers gate with the gate well and truly wired shut, we were later to find the opposite end of that track marked as off limits as well which at least meant the farmer wasn’t just making up rules for himself.
Anyway with the day getting long and being a long way from finding a camp spot in the park we just had to keep going until we found a spot, we pretty much decided the first half decent spot we found would be home for the night.
Despite the day getting on we had to stop for a photo op with one of the hundreds of sleepy lizards we saw on the trip.



Anyway we ended up on a back road in the middle of nowhere and were passing a dry salt lake on the left side of the road, just a pretty ordinary dull barren looking dry lake, typical of so many we have seen before. There was a track off to the right which we ignored but after we passed it we all got a glimpse of what was down the track. Reverse gear was quickly selected and we headed into another salt lake and we instantly knew where we would camp for the night.

Now I’ve seen an awful lot of dry and wet salt lakes and claypans around the country, most of them a bit non-descript but I have never seen anything like this one. Every once in a while you stumble onto something totally unexpected and this was one of those occasions, the colour of the lake was unbelievable and the place was just breathtakingly beautiful. The photos below really don’t do justice to how magical this place was, the fact that we knew nothing of it all before hand made it all the better.
I am not much of a colour expert but Trish tells me it was Jade green.
















With not a lot of room to camp we had to set up on the salt itself, which was not ideal and you certainly wouldn’t want to spend too long in such a spot, but the view made it all worthwhile.

I spent most of the rest of the day just walking up and down the shore not believing where I was and the following morning after packing up the trailer we all went for a walk around the lake which probably took us an hour.

At this point I figured we had definitely seen the highlight of the trip, that’s not the first time or I am sure the last time I have been wrong.

Cheers Andrew

[sunchaser Member Find all posts View Profile Close sunchaser]

Jade green? nooooo that's Teal green.......

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

That is stunningly beautiful. It looks timeless......

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

That is stunningly beautiful. It looks timeless......

It looked better in real life! Interestingly the colours in the pictures look best with those taken at sunset and in the morning when it was overcast, yet in person the sunny afternoon we arrived had the best colour. It actually changed colour starting at an aqua colour around the shoreline and then to something like you can see in the pictures and the further away you looked the darker and more intense the green got.

It actually didn't look real, if it was a tourist hot spot you would think they added dye to the water

Pink Salt lakes are not uncommon, like the picture of the "pink Lake" just down the road from us in Sunset National park, we have seen that colour elsewhere but never such a stunning green colour.




Anyway I'll get back to the story!

Cheers Andrew

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So after leaving the green lake we headed for Gawler Ranges NP, we decided to do a lap around the salt lakes at the Southern End before heading into the main area of the park, which turned out to be a good move as Sturt track that runs from the Lakes northwards is a one way track, and the one way is North which is the way we went.

There is a bit of soft sand around the lakes and a few soft dunes on Sturt Track, nothing that correct tyre pressure wont have you getting through with ease.

This salt lake was quite different to the one we had just left with large amounts being bone dry but also quite a large section at one end still full of water. I am not sure how you would go after a big wet as some of the tracks go onto and across the lake bed, I actually had a taste of the water and it is VERY salty, not something you would want to drive through.
















Cheers Andrew

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Arriving at the northern end of the Park around lunchtime we stopped for lunch at the start of Turkey Creek Rd which was marked as 4wd only. I am not sure which part of the track was meant to be 4wd as it was about as easy a drive as you can imagine. In fact in the top section of the park 4wd is not even remotely needed, there are a couple of short sections that a little bit rocky going up some mild hills but any soft roader with half decent ground clearance would get through those spots with ease.

4wdriving aside its a nice area, most of the tracks wind through the valleys with the rolling hills surrounding you. There are a few points of interest including some rock formations and dry water falls to have a look at, along with a bit of history at a couple of the old station buildings. The one below was a 3 bedroom house and at its peak the occupants had eleven children living there













The wind was starting to blow so we headed for a camp spot that we figured should offer the best protection from any wind, which it did quite nicely After setting up camp I headed to the top of the nearest hill to get a few pictures and take in the views of the surrounding area which was well worth the climb.










Cheers Andrew

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Great country, the Gawler Ranges!

Is that the Nine Mile lake in front of the Sturts (the twin peaks in this shot)?

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

I don't know the name of the lake but your description is correct. The picture was taken at the very western end of the salt lake looking North to the Sturts.

Cheers Andrew

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

I don't think I've seen the lake named on a map yet, but I can't put my hand on my yardea map at the moment... I only know it's name because that's what the local farmers I know over there call it.



Sturts from (I think) Pildappa Rock:



and from the southern side of Nine Mile Lake:

[AJ120 Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close AJ120]

During the regular evening HF radio Sched with Adelaide base we were informed that a severe weather warning had been issued for the area for the following day with a front bringing gale force winds due to hit around 8am. As a result we got up and packed up early the next morning as there is no fun to be had packing the camper in gale force winds.

After packing up we continued on a bit of a loop and stopped in to see Pondanna outstation which has been restored by the friends of the Gawler Ranges and is now available for tourist accommodation.




After the outstation we went down one of the few rough sections of track in the park, I changed into low range just to walk down over a few rocks nice and easily but thought nothing of it. We spoke to an older couple not far down the track who had also towed their camper down the hill, they asked us how we had gone heading down the mountain with the trailer as they thought it was a pretty hair raising event and not something that you should really do with a trailer

The Roo's were almost in plague proportion through this section, we tried counting the ones we could see at one point and counted around 40 within our direct field of vision at that point, they were out in the hundreds.





Anyway heading towards the edge of the park we took the detour to go and visit the Organ pipe rock formations which are pretty common in this area.










It was whilst at the end of this gorge that the expected front rolled in bringing pretty strong winds and substantial drop in temperatures. The lower temps were welcome but unfortunately the wind was coming from the direction we were heading, so there goes the fuel economy for the rest of the day

Cheers Andrew