Beadell, Bombs and Other blasts - An Edjits Tour

[Bushie]

Well after being back for a few days I suppose it's time to make a start on the trip report.

Firstly a round up of the injury toll.

Between us we sustained some damage to the vehicles but mostly it was superficial or cosmetic.

Myself

Somewhere on the centreline of fire lies my precleaner from the snorkel.

On the Anne Beadell are the remains of my drivers mirror (glass).

A few shock absorber rubbers.

No punctures (3rd trip the BFG M/Ts have really impressed me).

Damage to HF multitap aerial.

Numpty

One stuffed tyre and a couple of other punctures.

A disk backing plate decided it no longer wanted to be associated with the vehicle.

Roof rack leg dragged off by a tree on the centreline of fire.

Loose/replaced shock absorber bushes.

ShortyNSW

O/S highbeam refuses to work, despite globe being OK and having 12V available (had us baffled).

Broken shock absorber pin O/S front (although this was self inflicted).

A number of punctures.

Chenz

UHF rattled off the dash on Anne Beadell.

A number of punctures + one caused by poor workmanship in Port Augusta.

Broken O/S front axle.

I haven't checked them out yet but I suspect one of my rear billies may have let the gas go, and no doubt a fresh set of shock bushes and maybe 'A' frame bushes will be needed (only ones not replaced before the trip)

Everybody has a significant amount of bush pinstriping as well as large amount of dust inside - after all they are land rovers

Probably other undiscovered minor ailments

Martyn

[Bushie]

This trip didn't really have any itinerary just a few dates that were markers (as such). It was going to be a few days before we were all together due to coming from different locations and other work pressures, it was to

be the same at the end of the trip as well with one member having to be back at work earlier than the rest.

This is how it panned out.

Day 1 - Home to Taralga via Wombeyan caves (house camp)

Day 2 - Taralga to Weddin Mtns NP - bush camp

Day 3 - Weddin Mtns to Hay - bush camp joined by Numpty and Wash

Day 4 - Hay to Rocket Lake (Murray Sunset NP) - bush camp

Day 5 - Rocket Lake to Berrock (SA/Vic border) - bush camp joined by Chenz and Jan

Day 6 - Berrock to Adelaide Hills - house camp

Day 7-8 Adelaide Hills - house camp

Day 9 - Adelaide Hills to Peterborough - Caravan Park cabin

Day 10 - Peterborough to Port Augusta - bush camp

Day 11 - Port Augusta to Roxby Downs - bush camp

Day 12 - Roxby Downs to Coober Pedy - Caravan Park

Day 13 - Coober Pedy to Tallaringa - Bush Camp

Day 14 - Tallaringa to 250 mile peg - bush camp

Day 15 - 250 mile peg tonear the 280 mile downrange - bush camp

Day 16 - 280 mile to just south of Emu claypan - bush camp

Day 17 - Emu to west of Emu on Anne Beadell Hwy - bush camp

Day 18 - Anne Beadell to South of Vokes Hill on Vokes Hill to Cook track - bush camp

Day 19 - Near Wyola Lake off Voke Hill track - bush camp

Day 20 - On the edge of Nullarbor NW of Cook - bush camp

Day 21 - Nullarbor Plain NW of Nullarbor Motel - bush camp

Day 22 - Cactus Beach - bush camp

Day 23 - Ceduna - Ceduna Caravan park cabin

Day 24 - North of Googs Lake on Googs Track - bush camp

Day 25 - Near Warburton Mine, east of Tarcoola - bush camp

Day 26 - Lake Gairdner - bush camp

Day 27 - Port Augusta - bush camp

Day 28 - Pandappa Conservation Park - bush camp

Day 29 - Lake Mindona - Cuthero Stn - bush camp

Day 30 - Pooncarie - bush camp

Day 31 - North of Garnpung Lake - bush camp - Numpty departed for home

Day 32 - Lake Wetherell - Menindee - bush camp

Day 33 - Lake Wetherell - Menindee - bush camp

Day 34 - Lake Wetherell - Menindee - bush camp

Day 35 - Murtee Stn? - bush camp

Day 36 - North of Peery Lake - bush camp

Day 37 - Tilpa - bush camp

Day 38 - Tilpa - bush camp

Day 39 - Louth - Tent

Day 40 - Louth - Tent

Day 41 - Louth - Tent

Day 42 - Louth - Tent

Day 43 - Louth - Tent

Day 44 - Dubbo - Motel

Day 45 - Home

Most of the nights were spent in the swag although there were quite a few days of very heavy dews and frosts meaning packing up damp swags was the norm. Peterborough was a particularly cold and wet afternoon when we arrived, convincing us to stay in an onsite cabin. The same was done on the return through Port Augusta for the same reason. Ceduna was just a luxury stop in the onsite cabin, although not everyone chose this option.

Martyn

[Bushie]

I suppose a short explanation of Beadell Bombs and other blasts would probably be in order.

Len Beadell is often referred to as the last Australian explorer, he was an army surveyor who was tasked with setting the area for the Woomera Rocket range (a joint Australian / British venture) and later determined the sites for the test detonation of British atomic weapons in the South Australian Deserts

This trip follows a couple of his roads through the South Australian deserts to Emu where Totem 1 and Totem 2 were exploded, and then south to the transcontinental railway.

Len Beadell

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 1

Day 1 for us started with us heading to Pheasants nest to meet up with Shorty at the servo, whilst we got away on time a few km down the road I realised I had left a bag of ropes and pegs behind. Whilsy I have no

doubt we could have got by without them I made a quick call to our daughter and she made the run down the freeway to drop then to us, this delayed us maybe 40 min. When we met up with Shorty at Pheasants

Nest it was decided to head to Mittagong for a cuppa and morning tea. From Mittagong we headed across the Wombeyan caves road towards Taralga. So far the day was cold with occasional showers.

Bullio Tunnel

Further along the track the mandatory stop was made at the Wollondilly lookout across the Burragorang Valley

As we climbed out of the Wollondilly valley to the west the weather deteriorated further with more rain and the occasional sleet showers.

We arrived at Steves place to a warm fire and a late lunch of spag bol. Later in the asfternoon we left Amanda in the warm and went out with Steve neighbour and cut up a load of firewood in the snow.

As Steve had to return to Sydney we were left to ourselves before retiring for the night after another feed of spag bol.

Trip distance 215km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 2

From the start we had decided that the bitumen should be avoided as much as possible on this trip, and I think we pretty well succeeded.

Leaving Taralga under a heavy cloud blanket but with no snow on the ground we were heading towards Grenfell and Weddin Mountains NP.

This would take us via Abbeyvale, Rye Park, Boorowa, for morning tea at the bakery, Murringo, Monteagle, Thuddungra and Bimbi before heading into the Weddin Mtns NP at Seatons Farm. We decided to camp in the NP camping area only having to share with a couple of grey gonads that were at the other end of the camping area. As far as camping went this was a graduated introduction this trip. Night 1 in a house with a roof and walls, night 2 in a shelter with a roof but no walls .

Later in the day we were joined by 'Dave' a disco driver making his way from Nowra to his fathers place at West Wyalong. (or vice versa).

Seatons farm is an example of how tough some people did things on the land, the farm was occupied until 1979 before passing to NPWS

The Old Homestead

Some of the structures on the farm were damaged during a bushfire in Jan 2006 but have been restored from photos and using as much original material as possible, mostly it's a very good job.

The chookshed restored after the fires

Hand dug dam

Abandoned machinery

Handmade fencing

Apparently Jim Seaton hand made 1.5km of this wire net fencing to keep the roos from the vege garden.

Trip distance 261km

Martyn

http://www.environme...sMountainNP.pdf

http://www.rfs.nsw.g....cfm?cat_id=757

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 3

After a cold night and with temps around 0deg we had a breakfast of bacon and eggs before packing up. Before leaving though we headed up the valley to "Ben Halls cave" from here the bush ranger could look out over the countryside for approaching troopers. With a foggy morning he wouldn't have been able to see much !!

From Ben Halls Cave

The camping ground is about the centre of the pic just in the fog line.

Interestingly there is a marked discrepancy between the cave identified by NPWS and the location of the cave on the 1:25k maps, would be interesting to know which is the right cave.

As we were planning to do as much of this trip 'off' bitumen as possible this was to lead us down the occasional dead end. one was this morning where a short cut on the map deteriorated to a muddy track before

ending at a deep creek in black soil, something told us this would not be wise to continue. During the morning we stopped at Barmedman to investigate a noise from Shortys front wheel, after jacking it up we couldn't see anything amiss and continued on the noise was still there but disappeared a while later maybe a rock or dirt caught somewhere, but whatever we never had any problems from that wheel. We topped up with fuel at Ariah Park after finally working out how to operate the credit card bowser.

Numpty and Wash met up with us on the northern bank of the Murrumbidgee just out of Hay, the river was still flowing very strongly, there was a great heap of firewood deposited by the floods and camp was made under a near full moon.

Murrumbidgee Moonlight

Trip distance 392km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 4

After rolling up the swags and having breakfast we headed into hay to refuel, the servo was offering 2cpl discount for cash so we availed ourselves of this, although in hindsight it maybe wasn't such a good idea. I saved approx $3 but removed $200+ from our cash reserves. This would be our only refuel before getting to Murray Bridge via the Victorian desert parks. We again hit the back roads heading out towards Maude and stopping for a morning cuppa from the eco-billies a short way down the road. This set the pattern for most of the trip - underway somewhere around 8:30/9am, stop for morning tea of a cuppa and fruit cake around 10am, lunch where ever we were around 1pm and then set up camp around 4:00pm or earlier. Just out of Maude our backroads plan came adrift as the road through Nap Nap and Tory Plain was still closed from the floods, so we hit the Sturt highway and headed for Balranald for lunch, where I had a curry pie at the bakery. River crossings were one determining factor on the trip and would be again later when we came back into NSW. From Balranald we headed to Robinvale to cross the Murray into Victoria. We headed across to Hattah and north again to Nowingi before following the Nowingi line track to the old talc loader.

Talc loader

Continuing on along the old railway we headed off towards Rocket Lake which was to be our camp for the night.

Rocket Lake

Trip distance 381km

Martyn

[Bushie]

11pm here time to hit the sack

Martyn

[fozsug]

Looks like its going to be an epic trip, very jealous!

[Edlen]

Looks like its going to be an epic trip, very jealous!

Very, very jealous

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 5

Rocket lake was another rather cool night with temps getting to -3deg meaning we awoke to another ice covered swag. Heading off from Rocket lake we were on our way to Pink Lakes dalong the Underbool track via Mt Crozier. On Mt Crozier I received an SMS from Vince and Jan telling us they had left home at 3am and were on their way to meet us, somewhere !! After a couple of poor reception calls we sent a message saying we were hoping to camp near Berrock on the SA/Vic border at the end of Sunset track, and how to get there.

Landies hiding in the bush

Arriving at Pink Lakes at lunchtime we ate before looking around the old salt museum

Pink Lake

Old salt scraper

Salt Conveyor

Salt Museum

After wandering around the old salt works we headed out across Sunset track towards the SA border. When we arrived around Berrock we ralised there were two different roads that Vince & Jan could arrive by so signs and arrows were placed at each indicating where we would be camped. As is Edjit tradition a book was run for the times that Vince & Jan would arrive.

At around 6pm they arrived after a very long days drive from Sydney.

Trip Distance 167km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 6

The Friday morning at Berrock turned into the coldest of the trip with the mercury dipping to -7deg. Getting stuff out of the fridge was actually pleasurable as it was 10deg warmer than the outside air. This did however present some problems, the milk was OK when removed from the Waeco but rapidly turned to ice whilst sitting on the ground while we had our mandatory 2 or 3 cups of tea. Not long after the water in the hoses from our water tank froze and we were unable to get more out. The morning was delayed with one of the group succumbing to a bad migraine.

tiddle off I'm warm in here

It ain't warm out here

Here comes the sun

We reached Murray Bridge by lunch and stopped in Theile reserve by the water with a quite cold wind keeping us chilled and being amused by a couple of EPA guys trying to retreive their boat, it was very close to them having to swim out as it started to float away.

We arrived at the house of the sister of one of our group to some fresh chocolate cake and a fresh pot of tea, attentively watched over by 2 beagles. After a quick tour of the home and land we moved onto the vineyard where we were staying the next couple of days. For dinner we headed up to the local pub for a couple of beers and a feed of schnitzel, before the designated drivers took us back to "camp".

Trip distance 440km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 7

Today the group split up with some heading out on a fishing charter in Spencer Gulf, I'd declined this as in the past I've not handled fishing outside very well, tending to empty my stomach many times over. Things may have changed but this was not the time to test it. So Vince Perry and Shorty headed off fishing I stayed with the girls and did the Hahndorf/Adelaide whistlestop tour. Coffee at Udder Delights, Lunch at a small restaurant overall an enjoyable day.

Around Hahndorf

Perry Vince and Shorty arrived back not long after dark and brought a mass of squid and King George Whiting with them. A sizeable amount was cooked up on the BBQ for dinner the rest was vacuum packed for later in the trip.

Seafood on the BBQ

Cold night but - hey who cares

Trip distance - not much

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 8

Today was a bit of a lay day, the washing was done and dried, we gave a hand to count grapevines and check all the supporting posts/wires before a quick trip back to Hahndorf to buy a few bits and pieces (mainly the wives). I did a bit of work on the HF to fix up a crook earth that had developed on the aerial.

Dinner was a sausage bbq with Apple and apricot strudel, a few beers, some local fudges and a suitable quantity of 'bum burners'

Tomorrow we head north

Trip distance - very little

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 9

Leaving the Adelaide are we headed north towards Port Augusta stopping along the way for morning tea at Angaston before reaching Burra for lunch. After lunch we headed off to have a look around the old Burra mine

area. To say the weather wasn't the best would be a bit of an understatement, but at least it didn't pour on us while we were out of the vehicles. As the tours had closed before we got there some of the exhibits were

'out of reach'

Morphetts Engine House

The Crusher Stack

There's a mine here somewhere

The Edjits

The mine tour would have been a very interesting place to spend a bit of time looking around had the weather been better.

After Burra we headed to Peterborough opting for a cabin in the caravan park due to the lousy weather, dinner at the pub, and then a cosy night with 6 of us in the cabin.

Trip distance around 440km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 10

Leaving Peterborough and heading north again with a heavy overcast sky, we headed towards Wilmington where we would leave the disco with Wash jumping aboard with Shorty. Wilmington meant a visit to the toy museum, but not before kangaroo pies, sausage rolls and bacon and egg pie with tea or coffee at the local cafe. It was also a place to fill up with fuel as it was cheaper than Port Augusta. The toy museum is owned by a dedicated landy fan so struck a chord with us.

One of the locos in the park - Peterborough

The giant gum tree near Orroroo

It's a river red gum some 13-15m girth at the base and 6m before the first branches reportedly 400+ years old

Wilmington Toy Museum

Heading out of Wilmingtomn we stopped for lunch at Horricks pass, this may not have been such a smart idea as there was a brisk cold wind from the SW with the odd shower that made lunch quick and a bit uncomfortable. We made it into Port Augusta at around 1pm, and hunted down a new cable for Vinces fridge as it was playing up, Numpty and myself bought a tube for our tyres as a precaution. Heading north along the Stuart highway we camped off to the west near Scrub dam. Whilst having a look around I managed to trip over an old fence and land heavily on my elbows, jarring my left shoulder which was to annoy me for the rest of the trip (maybe a sign that I'm not quite as young as I was)

For dinner Vince cooked up a good feed of the King George whiting on the BBQ over a bed of gidgee coals.

Although we were a few km away we managed to get a good feel for how much freight heads in/out of Port Augusta along the transcontinental line overnight.

Trip Distance 194km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 11

Breakfast was toast so as a payback I cut a few metres of old fence and fashioned a toaster.

Scrub dam camp

From camp we headed north to Woomera for a look around the Woomera range museum, and it's well worth the visit. Oddly we all got seniors discount here (must be our rugged looks, or maybe ragged ) The museum however was certainly an interesting place and showed some of the ingenuity and skills that we had during the early 50s and 60s as well as some of the plain bad ideas.

Range Museum

Rocket Park

Before leaving Woomera we paid a visit to the grave of Len Beadell - Lennys Rest

From Woomera we headed out to Andamooka for a quick look around, the pub where we had hoped to have a quick drink was closed and only functioned as a restaurant. The dugouts however showed how the early miners at Andamooka lived.

Heading out we made camp a few km out of Roxby downs and settled in for the night. Over the next few hours we were treated to one of natures best light shows with storms all around us for a few hours. The Woomera radar was showing bright red all around us and we figured we were in for a soaking. Luckily the rain never eventuated skirting us to the east and west, but it was another night with an exceptionally heavy dew.

Natures light show

Trip distance 189km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 12

We refuelled at Roxby downs, talked to the local police (plenty of them) and found out there was a protest organised about the new mine (copper/uranium) expansion plans – police apparently have a new weapon to use on the protesters – crop dusters loaded with water and soap!!, according to the truckies travelling the highway.

From the bitumen we headed west via Purple Downs, Parakylia, Billa Kalina, Mt Eba, and The Twins. Selecting this route made us very grateful that we had missed the rain the previous night, the track passed along and through a number of claypans that had only just dried out, any rain would likely have rendered it impassable.

Morning Tea at Bullers Dam

Old home at Bullers dam

Old construction methods

Isolation

What a bunch

Between where we emptied out onto the Stuart Hwy and Coober Pedy we were stopped by police for random alcohol and drug testing one of the officers had previously worked at Solihull on the Landy assembly line and was also a bit of a Landy fan.

After booking into Coober Pedy caravan park and hammering pegs into the concrete like ground getting the washing machines working we headed out for dinner at the Italian miners Club for a $10 roast. The after dinner entertainment was different to say the least - it's not often you hear "the hairs on her dicki di do" (The Mayor of Bayswaters Daughter) sung as an after dinner request.

Trip distance 438km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 13

After filling our water tanks, and taking on a full load of fuel (220litres) we took a quick tour of Coober Pedy and picked up some last minute supplies (unfortunately not able to buy any port as it was too early). The tour consisted of one of the underground galleries for coffee, the big winch, (complete with spelling mistakes) then down to the old timers mine for the self guided tour.

Coober Pedy

One for Ron

From here the business part of the trip began. With our permits from the Maralinga Tjarutja people and permits from the Woomera range Officer we were on our way.

Heading out through Mabel Creek onto the Anne Beadell Highway we were on our way towards Tallaringa well. As we only had a short distance to cover we were leaving at lunch time and only intending to travel a short distance before camping near the Tallaringa and Mabel Creek boundary fence. We were to see one other group of travellers over the next 9 days.

Well let's get going

Heed the warnings

Desert Sunset

Heralding another brilliant night under the stars

Trip distance 127km

Martyn

[Sirocco]

LIKE

G

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 14

After breaking camp we followed the Anne Beadel to Tallaringa well, across some of the worse corrugations ever experienced (that was to change). Various tyre pressures were experimented with generally dropping some 20psi down from highway pressures. At Tallaringa well we hunted around for a track across to the centre line of fire but couldn't find anything heading off where the maps showed, after boiling the billy for a cuppa and fruit cake we headed back to the junction of the centre line track and the Anne Beadell - back along the corrugations .

Replica of Len Beadell sign at Tallaringa Well

Wind Patterns

Turning NW at the centre line we were following two old wheel tracks just barely visible through the grass and mulga. Travel today was not difficult terrain but the track was severely overgrown, and we were continually having to dodge mulga stumps, and thickets to navigate the track. Stopping at a track marker indicating 40 gallon rockhole we spent around an hour trying to locate the waterhole without success before resuming our travels towards the 250 mile marker.

You have to be in awe of the early explorers traversing this country

A centre line post

This post was placed by G Borg in 1954 - he had been the boss of one of our group.

(The centre line of fire originates at the Woomera base and was laid in by Len Beadell between Woomera and 80 mile beach in the NW to allow the placement of observation instruments down range for the rocket tests. We were going to find the 250 and 300 mile markers as well as other survey marks placed by Len).

The way ahead

We arrived at the 250 mile post which was very easily spotted in the early afternoon, from this we attempted to find Lens astronomical station that he used to lay in the 250 mile marker. It was a mulga peg and lockspits at 894ft 6inches bearing 83deg 31min true set in 1951. We hunted around for a couple of hours before giving up and deciding to make camp and have another attempt to find them in the morning.

At the 250 mile post the original mulga pegs that were used to peg the canvas cross for aerial identification were still in the ground surrounding the post, Amanda even managed to find some of the brass eyelets that would have tied the canvas to the pegs as well as the bases from flare cartridges laying around. Of course these all became 'Lens flares' etc.

250 mile centreline post and plate

Trip distance - 112km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 15

Waking to another cold morning with a heavy frost we had a lazy breakfast before fixing the clunking from Perrys landy, a new set of shocks had been fitted prior to leaving home and one of the rubbers was loose another quickly fitted and the annoying clunk was gone.

Watching from afar

We had a good think about the locationof the astro station we hadn't found the previous afternoon and using readings from the 250 mile post, as well as a waypoint set from the bearing and distance from the 250 post, compared to the notes from Lens field notes (reproduced in the book 'A Lifetime in the Bush - Mark Shephard) we made some adjustments and headed off again. After searching and homing in on the 'suspected' GPS location from diffferent directions we were convinced that the peg was again going to elude us.

Heading off again and after about 1 1/2 hours literally stumbled across a group of mulga trunks that didn't look natural in the way they were laying, looking around I found all 4 lockspits and I realised that the rock with some white paint and the 'stump' were infact the mulga peg and lockspits described in the field notes from June 1951.

Len Beadells 250 mile 'astro stn' - mulga peg

and mulga trunk lockspits

Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves we set about making our own post to be placed nearby, making it maybe a bit easier for others to locate the astro station. Suitably inscribed with Edjits 15-7-12 we placed it about 10m to the NE of the peg.

Edjits post placed to the NE of the astro station

Edjits at the astro station

The last entry in the visitor book at the 250 mile peg was from 2005, however we believe the astro station may not have been visited since Lens own relocation in 1991?

Heading back to the centre line post for a group photo before heading towards the 300mile post we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Feeling pleased

Trip distance - 58km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 17

Leaving our camp at Dingo we decided it was time for the passengers to have a drive, so Amanda, Jan and Wash took the respective drivers seats and we headed off towards Emu. A couple of the dunes presented a little bit of a challenge for them but nothing that a bit of coaching couldn't overcome. It wasn't long before the call of Wedgie camer over the uhf, but it was only referring to a nest.

Eagles nest

We weren't 100% sure but believed there were chicks high above us. Not long after getting under way again we met a small party coming towards us, they were heading for the 300 mile post after having to camp near Emu while parts for a camper trailer were bought into them, it was decided that this would be as good a place as any to stop for our morning tea. We didn't see anyone else until we reached Cook on the trans australian railway 4 days later.

Morning tea - always a relaxed affair

There is a significant amout of old 'stuff' lying around as you approach Emu, whether it all dates from the times of the tests we couldn't determine, and most of it is probably there due to difficulties taking it out.

Some tyre of mast/tripod arrangement maybe carried instuments/sensors or maybe just radio

Relics and reminders of the bomb tests

Looking towards Totom I and Totem II

Ground Zero

Hopefully we don't glow in the dark.

Sand to glass - at ground zero

At the bomb sites there is still plenty of old bits and 'junk' lying around parts from military vehicles and aircraft to the remains of the towers that were mostly vapourised in the blast, I refrained from bringing any potentially radioactive 'junk' home.

From the observation area looking towards the detonation site some 4 miles (6.5km) away

The countdown apparently went "one - zero - plus one - you can turn around now" - just in time to get hit with the shockwave.

Heading from the bomb sites to Emu the 'Anne Beadell' further deteriorated to corrugations that would shake your fillings out. We spent some time looking around the Emu airfield, control tower location and general area before heading further west to camp for the night

Corrugations

Trip distance 114km

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 18

Waking up it appeared we were in for a cloudy day, the swag had dew starting to form on it, and then I became aware of an odd red glow from the fire. It soon became apparent that the day was rapidly fogging in. Within a few minutes there was a decent fog rolling across the camp and everybody scrambled to get swags etc rolled before they became soaked.

Fogged in

As we drove off towards the west it was a weird sensation driving in the desert but not being able to see much due to fog.

After a short time we came across a Jayco Dove camper abandoned on the side of the road. It has probably been here for quite some time but it makes you wonder why someone would bring a light weight camper along this track, it did well to get this far I would think.

End of the road

At Annes corner we stopped for another look around and to lament the fact that we had been unable to obtain the required permits to head up the Mt Davies road and attempt to locate the 400 mile post. A couple of guys in the group had done the Mt Davies track some years ago (2003 ?) after years of negotiating and were accompanied by Pitjantjatjara elders, but we just gazed up the road before moving on.

Sign at Annes Corner

One of the estimated million camels that roam the outback

As we headed further west the road varied from sandy through to hard fast sections but at least for a while the corrugations were less.

Desert gum

The rest of the drive through to Vokes Hill Corner was uneventful and we reached the corner around mid afternoon.

Vokes Hill Corner

At Vokes Hill the Anne Beadell continues west towards Laverton, we however turned south and headed towards Cook and the Great Australian Bight, stopping to camp about 20km south of the corner.

You just have to love desert camping

Trip distance - Don't know forgot to write it down.

Martyn

[Bushie]

Beadell, Bombs and other Blasts - Day 19

As we awoke in the morning the underside of the tarp was covered in ice, another night with the temp around -2deg. heading off we passed from the very imaginative "Unnamed Conservation park" to Maralinga Tjarutja

lands, heading south west.

Imaginative

Our first stop was at another Len Beadell marker at Waldana well. We had a quick look around and decided that the foul smelling water would not be suitable for a shower.

Waldana Well marker

We headed off to Churina well which was dry (unless we dug). The marker placed here by Len Beadell is missing, and if a replica had been placed it had gone also.

Heading off I became aware the gear changes on the Landy were becoming less precise and harder to find with each gearchange.

Our final stop for the morning was at Bringyna well about 800m east of the main track. When I pulled up I selected neutral and promptly stalled the vehicle. Attempting to move off again I couldn't work out which gear I

was in or select any other gears, with the gear lever moving about like the proverbial cock in a sock. Hmm this is not good.

Bringyna Well

Removing all the floor mats and the gear stick covers the book of armaments was consulted - to no avail, so it was now a case of delving deeper. The gearbox top cover and gearstick were removed and I had an

immediate feeling of relief, the grub screw that located and held the gear stick to the remote selector had come loose, obviously after 14 years and many thousands of corrugations it had vibrated out. A quick clean of

all components and the application of some locktite and reassembly, we were soon on our way again feeling that given our location I had really dodged a bullet.

It wasn't long before the Vokes Hill track turned into an outback super highway, there's obviously some significant mining exploration going on around here.

The Vokes Hill track turns into BMR5

A few km down the road we decided to stop for an early camp and have one of our black jacket dinners. We pulled off the road near Wyola Lake and tried to locate a 'native dam' but to no avail. Before dinner though we

decided to attack Shortys front shock absorber, a bad move as the bottom pin was broken off in the effort, still we removed the shock filed what was left of the pin and refitted with a new nut cutting a thread and

tightened it up as best we could.

Early Camp

Dinner was prepared a combination of roast pork and beef with plenty of veges, washed down with a few beers and champagne for the girls.

Looking forward to dinner

An Edjits Black Jacket dinner party

Trip distance - 240km (including day 18)

Martyn