Tag:dirt roads
It was the last morning of our outback road trip as a group. From here, some (like my sister and myself) would start the journey back towards home. Others planned to head further afield and keep travelling for a couple more weeks. A sunrise shoot had been tossed around the night before, but all the days had caught up with us, so the sister and I elected for a bit of a lie-in. Up at 7 am instead of 5.30 am. Naturally, the sunrise we elected to skip was the best one since the trip started. Fortunately, Julie Powell got up early 😉
We packed up our room, loaded the car, then headed over to the dining room for our last breakfast and group photo. Two people are missing as they got the meet time wrong – but otherwise, it’s our happy group.
We headed out of Mungo NP around 9 am and made our way to Balranald. Another 60 kms of dirt road or so. This was made a bit longer by the GPS sending up straight ahead instead of right. We drove 20kms down the dirt road before realising that the GPS had steered us wrong. Another U-turn sent us back the way we came and onto the right road. We would have eventually got to Balranald going that way, but it would have meant an extra 30kms of dirt road. We weren’t the only ones, though – the GPS from two other cars in our group also sent them that way before they turned back also.
Balranald
Reaching Balranald, we headed for the Visitor Information Centre. In search of morning tea, not information. They have an excellent complex with a cafe, visitor centre, toilets and museum grouped around a grassy lawn and kids play area. There are even showers in the toilets for those coming through with RVs or caravans. The cafe is excellent with fine coffee, teas and cakes. We had peppermint tea with apple and rhubarb crumble. Absolutely delicious!
After a quick fuel stop we headed to Hay via the Sturt Hwy.
Hay
Matt Adnate painted the two water towers in Pine Street Hay in December 2020. The art commemorates Lorna Whyte, George Murray, Clifford Farlow, George Cannon and Norman Flack, all local people who joined up to serve in WWII. All endured terrible hardships at the hands of the Japanese in prison camps. You can learn more of their story HERE.
From the water towers, we visited Shear Outback, a sheep shearing museum on the Sturt Hwy. I am always ‘wary’ of country town museums, but Shear Outback was excellent. Museum, shearing shed, cafe, gift shop, toilets – the museum entry is $15, but it’s def worth a stop.
The cafe featured a lot of lamb on the menu, lamb burger, lamb wrap, lamb pie.. but I couldn’t come at it…. after reading what the sheep go through for shearing and then to see there no light at the end of their tunnel (or is there? LOL) I couldn’t eat lamb that week.
Deniliquin
Our days’ destination was Deniquilan, and we were booked into the Settlement Motor Inn. The room was large, carpeted and came with a standard kettle, toaster and microwave. The shower was fantastic – loads of water pressure. After booking into the motel, we went in search of the water tower. Located in Scotts Park, Whitelock st; and painted by Cam Scale, it features two kookaburras resting on gum tree branches in front of a night sky.
We did try for sunset, but while it started out promising – it turned into a fizzler. We called it a day, picked up Chinese takeaway and headed back to our motel room. Tomorrow would be the last leg of our journey home.
Day three of our trip was time for the big run from Sea Lake to Mungo. We started in foggy Sea Lake and ended our day with sunset in Mungo, NP.
The previous evening
Last night, most of our group met our guide, Julie Pringle, at the visitor centre. We sorted out the gumboots for hire (the lake was supposed to be muddy) and headed off convoy style to Lake Tyrell. The plan was to shoot the lake at sunset. Which meant the plan went to hell in a handbasket very quickly. There was almost total cloud cover, barely any water in the lake— and no colour in the sky. So I didn’t even get the camera out of the bag. Fortunately, a couple of our group members had more optimism than me and shared their images, as seen below. Thank you, Julie Powell and Pio Marceline. By now, grumpy and disappointed, the sister and I had given up and retreated to the bar of the Royal Hotel, followed by a delicious dinner and off to bed.
The next morning
Having had no luck with sunset last night, we thought we would try our hand for some early morning shots of the lake before breakfast. But, unfortunately, I opened the door to our motel room, and it was pea soup fog out. So we went back to bed.
An hour later, we braved the fog, deciding to venture out to Lake Tyrell. Our thinking was a shot of the new Tyrell sign in fog would be nice. The closer we got to the lake, the thicker it got, and after a few U-turns, we gave up trying to find the road in. Hungry and defeated, we returned to Sea Lake for breakfast at the Bottom Cafe. We had to make do with sitting outside again, as the new dining room isn’t finished yet. However, the owners were lovely, brought out a patio heater, and set it up to warm us while eating. We both had the delicious brekky wraps, and the coffee was excellent and hot 🙂
With breakfast over and the fog starting to thin, we headed out of Sea Lake towards Mildura via Robinvale. At Robinvale, we called into an old homestead. Unfortunately, that was also a bust, nothing to see, but by now, we were 3 for 3 (sunset, sunrise, homestead), and hopefully, with our jinx behind us, we would have photographic luck hereon.
Mildura
As the morning wore on, and the further north we went, the fog cleared, and we had blue skies and sunshine as we drove to Mildura, arriving around lunchtime. We met up with our group at “Bobby and Me”, a cafe alongside the river, for lunch. It’s a ‘diner-type cafe in a shipping container, but they have tables and chairs on the lawn, and the service was good. We had the New York hot dogs and coffee. Delicious.
After fueling up all cars, (there is no fuel at Mungo), we headed to Wentworth and called in at the visitor information centre for last-minute info on roads. Our planned route would take us up Wentworth Road for 88kms before turning off onto Top Hut Road for the last 55kms. Top Hut is a dry weather road only, and while it’s dirt, it’s certainly in much better condition than Arumpo Road. Although due to being told, there is a rollover weekly on Arumpo Road, we had no intention of going that way. Also to be considered is it’s around 80 kms of dirt road compared to 55 kms on Top Hut.
Mildura to Wentworth
In convoy style, our group headed off from Wentworth. We made good time as we had sealed roads before turning onto Top Hut Road. From here, it was dirt all the way to Mungo Lodge. While the road was soft, sandy in parts and corrugated, it wasn’t too bad, and thankfully, we arrived in time for our sunset tour to the walls of china. The entire area is part of the Willandra Lakes, a UNESCO World Heritage region since 1981. However, there has been no water in the lake for around 15,000 years. What is left behind is a surreal landscape not unlike what you would imagine the surface of the moon to be.
The Willandra Lakes Region is an extensive area that contains a system of ancient lakes formed over the last two million years, most of which are fringed by a crescent shaped dune or lunette. Aborigines lived on the shores of the lakes for at least 50,000 years, and the remains of a 40,000 year old female found in the dunes of Lake Mungo are believed to be the oldest ritual cremation site in the world.
enviroment.gov.au
Walls of China
The Walls of China are open to public access. However, unless supervised, you must remain on the boardwalk. We opted for a guide as we wanted to get up on the lunette and shoot the sunset. The guide supervised us as our group of sixteen scattered across the dunes, looking for the perfect composition, setting up our tripods, and shooting the sunset. Not a great sunset, but still a lovely way to end the day before we all piled back in the bus and returned to the lodge for dinner.
next week – our second day at mungo – We get a fabulous sunrise and visit the old homestead
We were taking the visiting Scottish cousins away for three days to the Grampians and chose the Northern Grampians. Why the Northern Grampians and not southern, western, eastern, because not only for the abundance of wildlife, but they have most of, the iconic natural attractions found in the Grampians. Boroka Lookout, Reids Lookout, The Balconies, Mackenzie Falls and The Pinnacle can all be found a short drive from Halls Gap, a comfortable 3 hr drive from Melbourne.
We had visited the Northern Grampians in 2016 again basing ourselves in Halls gap. This time around we booked into Halls Gap Log Cabins, nice two bedroom cabin, and very comfy and handy to everything.
Wildlife at Northern Grampians
Every day as the sun went down the ‘roo’s came into the grounds. The owners, as a result, never need to mow their lawn here 😉
Another frequent visitor in the late afternoon were the emu’s. They turned up like clockwork every afternoon around 5pm in the large open paddock behind the cabins, wandering around foraging, only slightly interested in mad tourists.
We made the mistake, on the the first day of feeding a magpie…. I know, I know, I can hear you shaking your head. Within minutes we had a host of cockies joining the maggies.. and they ended up getting the lions share of the twisties!
Due to seeing a sign next morning, ‘please dont feed the birds’ we hung our heads and shame and refused to feed them next afternoon when they came calling.
Country Roads
We headed out next morning with plans to visit Boroka Lookout, Mackenzie Falls and Reids Lookout… unfortunately Google Maps on my phone directed us down a poorly signposted dirt road for about 30kms, then told us in the middle of nowhere “you have arrived”. By now, we also had no phone service so we kept following the road for about another 20kms. We came to a sign saying Halls Gap, and took it. Continued on the dirt road, for a few more kms, then came to a fork in the road, with no idea which way to head. Asses Ears Road or Rosebrook-Glenisla Road? Neither sounded a good idea.
Wondering which road to take, and with visions of search and rescue finding our bleached bones in 30 yrs time, I suddenly realised that right at this spot, I had four bars of service! Plugged in Halls Gap and off went again. Back the way we had come. Just a few yards down the road service dropped to one bar then none, but by now, I had the maps loaded. We eventually came back out at Northern Grampians road with a signpost to the lookouts and falls. Cue the applause in the car. We had just done a needless, 50km plus dirt road detour.
On the upside, we saw loads of wildlife, and while they moved way too fast to photograph, or get near, we did spots lots ‘in the wild’. From Kangaroo’s, Wallaby, Emu’s even a deer or two on these rarely travelled (by smart people) tracks.
Back on solid, man made roads we hot footed straight to Mackenzie Falls. Having absolutely no intention of going to the bottom of the falls, we took a couple of walks to view Broken Falls and Mackenzie Falls from the top.
Mackenzie Falls
Boroka Lookout
Leaving Mackenzie Falls behind we drove to Boroka Lookout.
Where both the MOTH and a visiting Scottish cousin ducked through the railing for a photo op
The rest of the day was taken up with non photographic but enjoyable stuff like eating, drinking, watching clouds go by….
Next Morning……..
Waking up next morning, we found the sun had gone.. .light misty rain was coming across the hills. We decided instead to visit Dunkeld in the Northern Grampians sector. Not the best idea. Rain pelted down as we were leaving the and the mountains had heavy cloud hanging over them
Arriving in Dunkeld we headed to the Arboretum. Maintenance was being done on the pier I wanted to shoot and it was completely blocked by fences and workmen. Plan B, we’ll go to the museum in the old railway station. Closed. Only open sundays and public holidays. After 1pm. **heavy sigh** Plan C – lets go to the bakery.
Set back off the main road in a suburban street the bakery is obviously well known as on a wet tuesday it was still busy. The carrot cake and coffee were delicious. No photo. Ate it too quick 😉
The Balconies
Leaving the town that was almost awake we drove back towards Halls Gap. By now the weather was improving so we decided to go to The Balconies on the way back. They are at the same carpark as Reids Lookout, but it had been too warm to do the uphill walk the day before.
The walk is supposed to be ‘easy’ as its only 1km each way. “Suitable for all ages and fitness”. According the to brochures its a ‘slight incline’. We, however, made use of the chairs on the way up and arrived sounding like asthmatic steam trains. Obviously our level of fitness is considered extinct and not worth mentioning.
This time I didn’t need to encourage the MOTH to climb the barrier and go out on the balcony. Not that I would have suggested it this time – it was blowing a gale up there. But an unknown man who “has done it heaps of times its quite safe” went out there for a friend and we snapped his pic as well.
Next day we headed back home to Melbourne…. had a lovely three nights there with Scottish girls. I thoroughly recommend the Halls Gap Log Cabins. Comfy stay and wildlife at your door, (and the shower was awesome)