Vic Desert Trip Cup Weekend 2004
Our trip started off at 5.30am, stopping at Maccas on the Calder for breakfast. A few wee stops on the way and we arrived at Casuarina Campground in Wyperfeld National Park around 12.30pm. Jasons Dad had arrived the night before. We said our hellos, shared our lunch with the thousands of flies and set up camp.
Later that afternoon, we went for a drive around the top end of the park. The landscape was amazing. It’s very flat, dry with a few trees, and then all of a sudden you come across this
huge sand hill, called a snow drift.
The sand hill climbs at a 60 degree angle. Jas and I had a race up the first one. What a mistake. Our lungs were burning when we got to the top.
There was a fair amount of wildlife in the area – emus, kangaroos, lizards and rabbits. It became a game to see who could find the emus or kangaroos first. These things are very exciting when you have a three year old in the car!!!
Next day we headed over to the lookout and other historic points around the top end of the park. We stopped at another snow drift for lunch, where Lachlan had a ball running up and down.
It really showed us how unfit we parents are!!! We found some sandy 4wd tracks and Jas had a bit of fun trying to climb these. John just crawled up them. It was a very hot day, so we headed back to camp to set up water play for the children.
This was a lot of fun until the ‘feral bees’ in the park found our water and Lachlan stood on one. Five minutes later, Lachlan was screaming again. He came running back to the camp with a bee sting on the end of the nose! Not too sure how that one happened.
Next morning, being Monday, we packed up and headed south in the park. It was a bit cooler today. Stopped at Wonga Campground for lunch, which is the main campground in the park, and went for a walk. There are plenty of walks to do if that’s what you are interested in.
We then headed west through the park heading towards the Big Desert National Park. A detour into Rainbow was needed to top up some supplies. Back into the park and we followed Milmed Rock Track. It was starting to get late and I wanted to set up camp. Jas got on the radio to let John know that we were heading off the track looking for a camp site. We thought he heard. Obviously not!!! We got back on the track and John was nowhere to be seen. We tried to call him on the radio but no luck. We found a camp further up and asked them if they had seen a car go past. They had, about five minutes ago. We then had to try and catch him, and with hot shockers and a bumpy track, we couldn’t go very fast as we kept bottoming out.
On every hill, I tried to call John, with no luck. It was getting later and later. This was a very very long track. Poor kids had bread and water for tea. Finally, the track ended and there was John waiting for us. By this time, it was around 7pm. We had gotten Shane and Acacia on the radio before we started this track and knew that they were not far behind us.
Roughly fifteen kilometres up the road, now in the Big Desert National Park, we stopped at Big Billy Campground. A quick unpack and tinned food for dinner, we got to sit around the fire for a little bit before retiring to bed.
The morning saw signs of another warm day. One hour later and it was raining. Later in the morning, Shane hit a mallee root and burst a tyre. Use of the air bag to jack up the car proved fruitless, as his car is too high for it.
The Big Desert is a beautiful place. Of course it is a desert, but it has stunning flowers which were blooming. We came across a big sand dune that the boys decided could be climbed. Was not to be, even though a few attempts were had.
Arrived at the Pink Lakes, which is in the Murray Sunset National Park after a slight detour. There are many more tracks out there that aren’t marked on maps and we ended up not on the track we were supposed to be on. Being Cup Day, the town was closed and Shane needed fuel to keep going. Our plan was to stay at Mopoke Hut for the night, but it was too far away to come back in the morning for fuel, so we set up camp at the Pink Lakes. Very pretty, even though there was no water in them. Apparently, it is even more spectacular with water in it.
Wednesday morning, we headed to Mopoke hut, which we stopped at for lunch. Murray Sunset National Park had more beautiful scenery. We continued driving through the park stopping at all the points of interest and ended up at the Border Track. We stopped here to let the kids have a run around before starting the track.
At 5pm, we said goodbye to Shane and Acacia as they had to be home by Thursday night and still had a long way to go. We set up camp in an open area and got the shower going as we hadn’t had a proper clean since Sunday. It was lovely. That night, Bethany woke up crying. Before I had a chance to pick her up, she started vomiting. It went everywhere. What a nightmare! Both her and Lachlan had picked up a cold on Monday and I think this had upset her tummy.
Woke up the next morning, being Thursday, to rain and it continued to rain all day. We had to pack everything up wet and try to keep the kids dry and happy. In a way, it was lucky for us that it was raining, as it made the sandy hills easier to climb. Shane climbed these hills the day before and it took him a few attempts at some of them. We came across a clay boggy patch of the track half way through the day and had some fun trying to get through. There were very deep holes that could get you stuck and being there were no solid trees around, could prove to be an interesting winching exercise.
The last 30 or so kilometres of the border track we did was like a walkers track. Very overgrown and hard to see where the track went. We finally reached the end at the Western Highway and seeing as though it was still raining, we headed for Bordertown in SA and stayed in a cabin in a caravan park.
Friday morning was still overcast and we headed into Little Desert National Park. There was quite a bit of water in the waterholes around the park, but very similar terrain. Saw more emus and was on the lookout for a mallee fowl nest. The rain stopped around lunch and Lachlan had a ball winching his cars out of the boggy puddles.
There were water points all along Mallee Track Hut, so we pulled into camp nice and early tonight, as we were doing good time, and set up camp ready for the rain. The rain held off and we had a nice relaxing night by the fire.
Next morning, we checked out McCabes Hut Ruins and said goodbye to John (Jason’s Dad) who had a long trip back to Orange. Today turned out to be a nice day weather wise and we stopped at Ellis Crossing for lunch and a little play before heading off home. We hit ran the other side of Horsham and stayed in it all the way home.
We all had a great time, but it was very tiring setting up a tent every day with two little children. Especially one that’s only 13 months and doesn’t understand the dangers around. However, they travelled extremely well, so I can’t complain. Next trip planned will ensure we stay in a spot for more than just overnight.
Kate Jones