July 30^th

The warmest morning we have yet had. Breaking camp is much easier without cold toes and fingers. Now that we have completed the Hann Track we will make our own way in an easterly direction. The track through the Mulga to the Connie Sue was only 3.6km in length.

The main word for today has been Corrugations. The Connie Sue Road as well as the Ann Beadell  were dominated by Corrugations. This made travelling very tiring especially for our drivers.

We crossed many sand dunes and travelled along the swales. The bush was rather plain and grey with only a few flowers. The Connie Sue did improve somewhat as we came further south. However we may choose never to come this way again because of the road quality which had deteriorated in the 4 years since we travelled along it from Warburton with our friends Eileen and Geoff Dinning.

We arrived at Neal Junction for an early lunch and rest stopover. It was interesting to read that The Great Fergie Tractor Trek had been this way.

This afternoon we have come east along the Ann Beadell Highway and camped among a thicket of Mulgas which provided quite good shade on a hot afternoon.

 Now for a little history.. During the 1950s and 60s Len Beadell was employed to develop some roads across the Great Victorian Desert. He had a truck, a grader, a bulldozer and a team of men. Connie Sue was Len’s daughter. Her mother was  Ann, after whom the Ann Beadell Highway was named. When Connie Sue was a baby she was brought out here with her parents and slept in a butter box. Today we drove along the road which was named after her.

Travelling the Connie Sue Highway

Eucalyptus Glomerosa at Neale Junction

July 29^th

There are many Gnamma Holes marked on the map, but some are difficult to locate. They vary in size, shape and depth as well as water quality. Today we were unable to locate Dinner Gnamma Hole as well as any of the holes above the Wallaby Rocks Site. This afternoon, in 30 deg heat, we went looking for Lillian Rock Hole. I think we have all lost enthusiasm for walking around the very rough rocks.

Several times during the last few weeks John has spotted large birds flying in the distance. Up until today I have been unable to isolate them in my bird book. Today I have researched again and we think the bird is a Mallee Fowl which is found right across the western area of Australia.

The track conditions have been varied today as we travelled the last leg of Hanns trip to camp here at Lillian point and turn onto the Connie Sue Highway in the morning. Driving today has been tedious for the guys. It has been very slow, mostly under 20 km per hour, as they have negotiated Mulga thickets  and the dry creek crossing of Waulfe Creek. It is so very easy to catch high branches on our rig as well. There will be scratches and I expect some other damage when we inspect its condition on our arrival home. We have actually completed 2 sections of the trip today..so maybe a rest day?

Flowers have not been so plentiful. Spinifex looks healthy in some parts and in others very stressed from lack of rain. Even some trees appear stressed from the dry conditions. Overall we have seen very few animals and birds. Maybe this is lack of water or maybe they are being caught by wild cats or dogs..not that we have seen any of the latter in the bush we have travelled.

John Harrison has a flat tyre this evening which is not surprising with all the spiky mulga sticks on the edge of the track we have travelled.

Morning cuppa at Wallaby Rocks

Point Lillian

July 28^th

Another great day which began with a bright and clear sunrise. The clouds disappeared over night. Strangely they are in the sky again this evening.

Even though we only travelled 38 km today there was lots to see. The wild flowers were lovely with many varieties in bloom. Thryptomene in dark pink, light pink, white and even yellow. Upside down plants showed their bright red flowers at a couple of places along the track. We were lucky to see a number of Desert Grevillias in bloom as well. The golden orange flowers are quite ornate.

The spectacular Saunders Range was a special interest as we explored it looking for rock holes and Rock artwork. The directions were difficult to follow but eventually John Harrison came on them both. 

We even enjoyed our lunch as we admired the rocks of this red and craggy Range.  While we were climbing around the rocks two other vehicles arrived. The first we had seen for several days.

After coming down the very steep ‘jump-up’ track we headed south along the Range inspecting a couple of gorges along the way. We drove further east to find a campsite near some lovely Marble Gums.

Early morning camp fire at Millar Range

Desert Grevillia

July 27^th

 Another interesting day as we travelled through flat areas and over rocky ridges The sun still shines but this evening stratus clouds threaten as a fore runner to rain. It is difficult to forecast out here because the weather signs are different from NE Victoria. We have now had 4 days on the Hann Track.

Prior to leaving the camp area we drove back to inspect rock holes and to collect some water which in itself is a challenge because you never know when the little pump will suck mud from the bottom..which it did, so muddy water went all through my smalls, when all I needed was a rinse. 

We walked a little further back along the track to see the old tree, in which Hanns had carved a 30 cm high ‘H’. The tree is well weathered. On leaving the rocky jump up we saw a solo kangaroo, in fact I thought he was unwell and moving slowly.

We moved from one swale to another going through spinifex, clay pans, and many burnt areas. At last we came to an area which had not been burnt. The mulgas and Marble gums had leaves and did not display burn scars. Admittedly the green regrowth and juvenile marble gums are attractive  but unburnt stretches appear  to be much cleaner.

At last, we came upon a herd of camels. There were 20 or 30 of them, calmly feeding among the trees. Some ambled off into the scrub. They are very ungainly animals.

We have walked quite a bit today, looking for Gnamma holes and water. It is amazing how many are dotted across the desert. Our guide book gives us specific details of where to stop for rock holes or points of interest. 

We climbed up to a rock formation called ‘London Bridge Cave’ It would be a good place to be on  a hot day or a wet night.

There have been a few new plants including a very pretty pink and white Eremophila and a reed like plant, up on a dune, which was exhibiting and unusual flower. The hop bushes have been really strong in colour. They seem to grow around rock holes so probably have their roots down into a water source. Some acacia trees form a dry ‘basket’ shape when they die. These have been showing up in the burnt areas. Some years ago I made a small wallhanging inspired by this extraordinary shape.

A helping hand 'thankyou'

Pink and white eremophila 

We did have a disastrous highlight just prior to our lunch break. On a sharp turn going over Attack Break Away our front left tyre was spiked by a very sharp, low stump as we drove around the corner. I heard the ghastly ‘spike’ puncture the tyre..it was about 3 cm across so the hole is considerable. John was pleased to have a helping hand to give assistance as our tyres are quite heavy to handle.

July 26^th

Oh, What a beautiful morning at 1.5 deg with a clear blue sky. We left early at 8.15 am.

 Mature and juvenile Marble Gums were with us for most of the day. The juvenile trees are really pretty with round glaucous leaves. They often lined our track. We stopped quite early for a walk up to the top of a dune to see the view and to see the plants which like to grow on sand dunes. Some dunes were quite sandy but mostly they were quite stable with trees and bushes well established on them. The area between dunes is called a swale. The swales were quite wide and the track wandered back and forth through the bush. Many areas had been burnt by lightening wildfire. Thankfully regrowth was taking place. The mallees especially were regrowing from their lignotuber.  Hakeas and grevilleas do regrow quite well too. Some trees and plants will never sprout again but only regrow  from seeds.

 We could see camel tracks along in front of us but no camels to be seen. There have only been a few birds but no kangaroos or emus or even a lizard sunning itself on this warm winter day.

Our first point of interest were the Sunday Surprise Rock Holes, Frank Hann named this on Sunday, July 26th 1903 exactly 113 years before our visit which was a Sunday, July 26th as well. This is such a coincidence. We found 7 of the 9 rockholes which have been recorded here. Some have clean water in them but others have green or muddy water.

We enjoyed our lunch at Winterbottom Rocks after which we found one rockhole up on the ridge. Really it was liked ‘jump-up’ with a flat rocky top. The rocks were bright with daisies and hop bushes. Instead of camping early here we decided to travel the next 15km to Amy Rockhole. The track across the top of the rocky flat topped area was very rough and challenging for the drivers. Luckily the track was marked by simple stone cairns.

Our camp was set up on the other side of the rocky ridge near a mulga thicket. John returned to the ridge and located a rock hole with clean clear water in it. We will drive back there in the morning to pump some water into our containers for use along the way. It will be clean enough for showering, washing clothes and dishes.

We are privileged to drive this remote track across the Great Victoria Desert. It is said that less than 200 vehicles have ever driven through this country. We are driving a winding, simple 2 wheel track with the occasional branch over it which we drive around. It is a slow trip but that gives us the opportunity to stop for a closer look at plants or to take photographs. Today’s speed was between 10 kph and 30 kph.

Early morning track

Juvenile Marble Gums

Red Hop Bush

We have not seen another vehicle for 2 days so there are no traffic or parking problems!

July 25^th

We visited many points of interest along the way beginning with the abandoned Yeo Homestead. It is really quite well cared for as everything seems to be in a similar condition to when we first visited it in 1998. The pump on the well is working and the outside shower looks as it was and still operates. The birds were quite noisy as they moved about the nearby trees. The guys pumped some water for our showers this evening.

Abandoned Yeo Homestead

Both Pulpit Rock and Bishop Reilly’s Pulpit Rock are spectacular points of interest. John climbed both of them. I find the slippery shale rock too dangerous for me to walk down once I get to the top. I did walk around the amongst the rocks and beautifully coloured stones.

Early in the afternoon we arrived at Lily Rockpool. It is situated at the top of a small but attractive gorge. It had water lilies growing in it as well as white daisies in the surrounding rocks. Aboriginal art work in a large cave.

The flowers along the road have been great with a huge display of everlasting daisies which ‘looked like snow’. There were quite a few different flowers today including some blue Pincushions, and  Clustered Everlastings. Here at our camp we are surrounded by flowers which are mainly yellow everlastings and a low growing purple pea.

Beth & June in the everlasting snow!

The garden where we camped

Some parts of the road were corrugated and other parts rather over grown with mulga. It is difficult driving EC through these sections. We have now branched north of the Ann Beadell Highway and the track leads us across country. We may travel across sand dunes so that will give us a different view of this very flat and wide country we are crossing.

July 24^th

At 9.00am we departed from Laverton. EC was packed very full for this big step of our Safari. During the next 10 days or so we have planned to follow the track of Explorer Frank Hanns. There has been a small book written to guide travellers along the route that Hanns took. It was written by Ian Elliot. I have inserted several pages from this book for general reading. I am sorry the placement and order of these pages is not perfect but this program does not always do as I wish it to! Hopefully you can read it all. Let me know please.

  Hanns lived for 15 years near Laverton with his faithful aboriginal companion Talbot. They lived in a tent, with little to shelter them, under a black oak tree. This was the first and very important ‘point of interest’ that we visited. They carved their initials in the tree. Sometime later a metal sign was nailed to the tree. Nearby Frank’s little dog Scamp was buried.

We followed the Ann Beadell Road all day. Some sections of it were better than others which were badly corrugated. The bushland trees and flowers made driving interesting  and attractive. A large proportion was low arid bush but their were sections of beautiful trees and bushes in bloom. These included  native oak trees, blue bush, mallee trees, cassia and wattle. The cassia made a very attractive display of yellow amongst the green.

John, Beth & John at Kidman's Cairn

We followed the route and visited several gnamma holes and climbed a break away where there had been a cairn built in honour of Sir Sydney Kidman who was a friend of Frank Hann. We did pass the grader late in the day. He has a lot of work to do to make this road more attractive for general use.

Sunday Point where we camped

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