“Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across our head” in case you didn’t know, that’s a line from one of the Beatles songs off Sergeant Peppers and that’s exactly what we did before going to the Naracoorte Show Grounds for breakfast and the mornings muster. Route notes explained and schools allocated.
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| Course coordinator Ben giving his morning talk. |
Due to changes in the program we were not required to go to a school today.
Ok, so of we go on the highway out of town towards the next stop.
At the briefing cars were given the choice of dirt or sand. We agreed to go dirt. Great we thought, lets see what’s in store for us today.
Several kilometres of dust and then several more kilometres of more dust and moderately boring scenery made the journey somewhat ho-humish. Darren was driving and that in itself was cause for concern. Apparently loose surface on roads requires constant awareness.
At a point along the dirt road we realised that we had crossed into South Australia. What; no signs, no border gate, no nothing only a broken down rabbit fence.!
As per route notes on the rally sheet, at one point we travelled into private property. The farmer kept his kids home this morning just so they could see the parade of Escarpade cars come through.
As were drove into the farm/station, we stopped and gave them some special Blue Light stuff (teddy,lollies,chips,etc.). It looked to us like all the other cars just went past, made a lot of noise, waved and drove by. We had already agreed that we would stop and give the kids a few treats and give-aways etc. I am sure that we were the fist car that actually stopped and gave them anything. The kids were happy, their smiles and gleeful faces made it just like it was Christmas come early. Great stuff, the genuine look of apprehension made it all just right.
Some distance further on, we were supposed to look for a road or track to the right, but the navigator missed it. Oh-ho I think we just drove past the dirt road turn off, looks like we are doing sand. Let’s see how it goes, more of the same as yesterday. This may be fun or it could be bloody terrible.
In reality not all that long past the farmer”s gate we hit our first taste of sand. This was not too bad, but no that was not to be, the sand got deeper and deeper and the track got harder and harder. For the Snot Rocket all it will take is a snappy quick stop, whack on the 4WD locking hubs and put her in high ratio 4WD. The old Snot Rocket had no problem at all.
The furrows on the track/road were at times so deep it felt like we were driving a roller coaster.
As we suspected, over the radio comes the call “cars stopped” obviously someone had gotten bogged in the sand.
After a brief stop one of the Escapade Mechanics 4WD that was about 5 cars behind us came along side and towed them out. Off we go again for about 500mtrs only to hear the call to stop due to bogging again.
This time a push and a shove by other drivers managed to sort the situation.
At one of the turns, at a rather sharp ugly, soft and sneaky right hand bend one of the cars overshot the corner, and due to the sloppy sand that had been flicked or spun to the left and had become lodged on the high side where all sand had been thrown from many cars over a long period, got stuck. Thankfully the Camp Quality 4WD was there waiting for a problem and again came to the rescue.
After this we waited until about 6 other cars came past and on learning how and where to travel on that section all issues regarding the bog had ended.
At that point the shifting deep and boggy sand had become much more user-friendly.
We went along this sand track/road for 45 kilometres. All along this road the old rabbit fence was there.
I am sure that it is of no longer any use as in many parts the fence was in a bad state of disrepair and non existent. The road was almost gun barrel straight, it seemed to go on forever.
The only interlude was the occasional dip, bump and softer sand.
We stopped at the end of this road/track (45 kilometres) to rest and review where we had just travelled.
This was a perfect opportunity to unlock the 4WD hubs, have a comfort stop and a well deserved cool bottle of water or coke (no alcohol)
The sign at the end of this track advised that it was called Red Bluff Alley—45 kms – 4WD ONLY. Well that was wrong as over 35 family sedans, wagons and assorted non 4WD had already been along it.
We continued on for another 60 km along a fair to good road through desert country. The tallest trees were shrubs and they all were no more that 1 metre high.
No hills, no valleys except for a few minor elevated sections. Along this section of travel it was interesting to see the regrowth of the Saltbush
All along this road we were travelling through a National Park (name unknown)
It was noted that all along the sandy road and the man made dirt road almost no Native Wildlife was seen except for a few small birds and the occasional lizard.
At various points along this road that offered intermittent sealed and unsealed section, we activated the rotating flashing lights and rear light.
Suddenly the interior of the car was starting to fill with smoke from the control box
(same problem as we had encountered at the time of the vehicle examination at Bendigo). Urgently all lights and electrical equipment was turned off.
We were compelled to continue on our way without any rear warning light. Thankfully no one was following.
We then hit the bitumen and highway and onto Pinnaroo, a very small local town that was a grain and sheep growing area.
With the knowledge that we needed to fix the electrics, we had a quick lunch and went about fixing the problem
We could not actually fix it but did manage to isolate what we think is the problem. We had lights, but they were not the best and may potentially break-down again.
We were advised that from Pinnaroo we had the option of taking the 258 kilometre trip on highway etc or take the 238k dirt road.
After all the hassles of yesterday and this morning along with the fact that our lights may cause a problem and further that we were tired of getting to our destination point late every day, we agreed to go via the highway.
A short distance out of Pinnaroo we crossed back into Victoria, but due to vandalism or whatever the "Welcome to South Australia" sign had been smashed. Ross was disappointed as he missed out on perfect photo opportunity; perhaps another time.
We continued through typical Australian outback type country, lush farmland, cattle and sheep grazing paddocks, assorted mallee and gum tree growths. Through several rural farming towns and at about 6.15 pm (Vic time) we arrived at the check-in point at Mildura.
Went to the motel, booked in and prepared ourselves for dinner.
The theme for today was Beach Party. We had all our outfits prepared, dressed in board shorts, team Afro printed T-shirt and a Hawaiian shirt.
Went to dinner and sat at a table with 3 other Queensland cars.
During dinner there was heaps of discussion regarding the trip to Mildura.
At end of dinner karaoke was available to those who thought they could sing.
Ross went up on stage and after coercing and edging the gathering got them to join him in singing “House of the Rising Sun”. All the “oldies” knew the song and many joined in.
Later he convinced Team Afro and other Queensland cars to sing the1960’s hit by Del Shannon “Runaway”.
Some of the would-be singers knew the song and some didn’t. Ross had all the gathering (well some) singing along also.
Some time later we all went home for a well earned sleep with the knowledge that tomorrow being a lay day, no alarms and a sleep-in was very much on the agenda.
Wednesday is “day off” at Mildura, so not much info about the may be offered—lets see what tomorrow brings.
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