After a good nights sleep in the roof top tent, I awoke and went for a walk up Red Bluff to find a cache of course. Back to camp for breakfast and there were some others that wanted to find the cache, so I headed back up again.

We broke camp and headed back into South Australia and continued following the Border Track south. The terrain was a little different now with flat land and clay mud mixed in with the sand and with the rain over the last couple of days made the going fun and changed most of the vehicles into different colours.

Again all the vehicles got through the various challenges with some trying extreme holes and others doing the not so extreme ones. After leaving the Border Track, the group split into three. One group went back in Ngarkat Conservation Park. Most went through to Keith and home but I continued south to Bordertown to meet up with a mate and head back into Victoria to the Little Desert National Park for some more caching. On the way we stopped at Serviceton Station on the disputed SA/Vic Border.

The Little Desert was back to sand tracks and sand dunes but not as high as Ngarkat. At one point we had an emu escort that kept a steady pace of 40kph for quite a while before heading back into the scrub. We visited Mt Moffatt and Broughtons Water Hole before heading north to Kaniva. Gary headed east and I headed west towards home.

Grabbed another couple of caches on the way home before spending 1/2 an hour at the Happy Wash with a high pressure cleaner to get all the mud off the car. What a great weekend. 🙂

Caches found:

GCKP46 – The Crimson Hill of Deceit

GC24EWP – Small Boats only

GC2088P – Serviceton Station

GA1699 – You’ve got to move it move it

GC1YQ92 – Mount Moffatt

TP1318 – Lillimur South Area

GC2541G – Broughtons Water Hole

GC2088A – Poocher Swamp

GC24F6P – Welcome to TIGER Country #1

GCJFQM – Cold and Wet

GCYNGA – Flat Roo

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I had an opportunity to do the Border Track in Ngarkat Conservation Park a couple of years ago but couldn’t make it but when I was asked this year to give it a go, try and hold me back. What a great spot to celebrate my 47th birthday.

The High Range 4WD Club was having a run down from Pinnaroo to Bordertown and I was contacted through a Geocaching buddie “Barramundi”. This 4WD Club is not your normal 4WD Club but caters for the vehicles with All-wheel drive but also allows us with 4WD’s to be involved as well. 🙂

With Bradley away at a Venturer Camp and Rachael with Netball commitments, the only thing stopping me was I was rostered on at Mallala Motorsport Park as part of the fire crew. A few emails and a lot of phone calls and I found a replacement so all systems go.

The plan was to meet at Tailem Bend at 0700 on Saturday morning but as I am not a morning person, I decided to go up Friday night and get a cabin at Tailem Bend. It was a wet drive up there but it didn’t stop me grabbing a few caches on the way.

I arrived at the Tailem Bend Railway Station at 0700 to be the only one there but they soon started to come in all bleary eyed and “ready to go”. Introductions all round and it was time to hit the road to Pinnaroo. We encountered heavy rain at times and arrived early at 0915. Everyone fuelled up and purchased permits for the Park, but it still took us an hour to get mobile due to the Petrol Station staff having all sorts of issues with the computers.

Time to head down to Pine Hut Soak at the northern entrance. With the heavy rain there was a fair bit of drifting going on. Into the Park and time to let down tyres, don sand flags, grab a cache and we were on our way. One thing the rain did in our favour was firm up the sand which made for easier driving. 🙂

The Track kept fairly much to the Border between South Australia and Victoria with a few deviations. There were some challenging sand dunes which were soft at the crests but all got through OK although one 4WD (Toyota Cruiser) had 8 attempts to get over one dune before we made sure that his tyres were down to the right pressure and then he popped over the top.

Some more caches, sunshine, rain, challenging dunes and we headed into Victoria to Red Bluff to set up camp. It was a great campsite with a long drop and plenty of room for all. There was a mixture of tea being had in each vehicle but it all ended with beverages around the campfire, many renditions of “Happy Birthday” and a caramel mud cake as a birthday cake.

Caches found include:

GC28KDD – Maxed Out

GA2079 – Amy Gillet Bikeway Stage 1

GC27DHQ – Mallee Madness

GC27DJ0 – Tailem History

GC24P9C – The Hensley Fountain

GCA834 – Pine Hut Soak

GCM2NZ – A Foot in Both Camps

TP4643 – Upson Downs Homestead Area

GCKP44 – Tops Mug

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