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:
GA2079 – Amy Gillet Bikeway Stage 1
GC24P9C – The Hensley Fountain
TP4643 – Upson Downs Homestead Area
