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April 11, 2008
Springs Trek
A couple of weeks back, me and a mate, Leon, packed up the ute and headedwest into the ranges for a night of camping and some hiking. We didn't get out of town til around 3pm so we didn't make it to our destination the first night but we stopped before dark and made a proper camp. I've learned the hard way that only disorganization and disaster comes from trying to find and set up a suitable camp after dark. You may be able to do this with a campground you're already familiar with but otherwise give up.... take the next best one that comes along while there's still light for starting fires and cooking, etc.
A good meal of steak and potatoes followed by a few (hmm..) beers and we were pretty satisfied with the progress made considering the late start. A few more beers and we set out our swags by the fire and nodded off under a starfilled sky....at least til the moon rose an hour later.
Next morning, we started the day with a greasy brekky of eggs, cheese, snags and tomatoes and garlic. It's a good thing we had the whole of nature to ourselves cause I'm pretty sure we didn't smell the greatest for the rest of the day.
On the road (well, more like two tyre tracks in the dirt) by 8am with our guts full and leaving only ashes to give away the campground we headed for a few waypoints that I'd plotted in my GPS. These were a few options that we'd checked out on Google Earth and where we were hoping to explore and hike for the day. In the end, the trail dictated the easier one to approach and we arrived with only a few moments of 'lostness', which were soon remedied by a quick jog to find the track and backtracking to an intersection where we'd left at the Y and should have righted.
The trail ended at a nice campground (for future reference if we return) and we began hiking into the ranges looking for a spring. We did finally find it and it was pretty impressive with many waterholes. Unfortunately, being the incredibly dry summer that we've had, there was very little water there and it tended to be murky and quite stagnant. It would have been a very impressive sight with water flowing; it was easy to imagine as there was evidence of water everywhere. Lots of debris washed down from above, water marks on the rocks and even cycads told the story of wetter years.
We looped back to the cruiser and left around 1pm to get back into town by dinner. I also had to ring up another mate by 6 so he wouldn't come out looking for us in case of being lost or broken down. Overall, a great trip that went well with a few lessons learned....ie, there are tracks out there that are overgrown so make sure to remember the fly mesh to fit over the radiator.
Posted by Dr.Unk at April 11, 2008 3:58 AM
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