An Australian Outback adventure

[David47]

Fabulous photos Ross. They give a very good perspective of this great country of ours.

I remember driving along the Oodnadatta track beside Lake Eyre South in 2011 when it was "full". It was like driving along the shoreline of parts of Eastern Australia. Awesome sight. And yep, fly nets. Essential kit for parts of Outback Aus at certain times of the year.

[chrisag]

Hey Jim, good to here from you! only thinking about coming over for another Wilsons prom trip with our Super Cub Buddy when we get a nice patch of weather.

Hey Ross, Sounds a great move. Enough beds here for a few and if time permits Flinders Is. is not far either. Cheers..JC

[rosslr]

Leaving Cooper Ck we headed due east for Cameron's Corner which the place where the borders of New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia meet. There are fences that designed to constrain vermin (Dingos and rabbits particularly). We landed on the sand airstrip and then taxied down the road to the gate which we opened and entered in Queensland where the Pub is Nothing else here but it is a great little place that offers basic rooms, fuel, food and beer as well as Tri State Golf! The owners have made a rough 9 hoe golf course with three holes in each state - I mean rough as its all sand and the emus and kangaroos are all over the sand scrapped 'greens'.

Not many photos at this stop but thoroughly recommend it as a stop over.

On the way to Camerons Corner we crossed the Strezleki and Birdsville tracks and found an nice clay pan to stop boil the billy - this is what its all about out here!
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The border fence - we had to open the gate and taxi through to the pub.
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We made ourselves at home in the pub after achieving a brilliant score on the tri state golf course - The hazzards were roos and emus!
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The pub has bowsers for diesel and unleaded - just taxi up an full up!
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[efwd]

That looks like an incredibly good trip with friends.
OK, nobody else asked so I will. I can assume but "Boil the Billy"?
Eddie

[Esser]

Great trip Ross, good motivator

[jiott]

Just curious Ross, do those unleaded fuel pumps in the outback have 91 octane with no alcohol?

[rosslr]

Hey Eddie - forgot abut the none aussie readers for a minute! The billy is a pot that is used to cook/boil water in. You will often here people say its 'time to boil the billy' suggesting they want to take a break and have a cuppa.

JIm, mostly 95 unleaded but that one was 91 unleaded - last fill was with Avgas and I mixed it so as to achieve about 95 rating. If these remote places do stock unleaded it is ussually 95 as many modern vehicles need higher octane - the majority of vehicles in the vehicles in the outback are diesel. Interestingly, they also use old mechanical pumps so they can fix them themselves - one place installed the new electronic ones and when it broke down they had to wait 2 months for someone to come and fix it! As for the ethanal - it is usual but we test for it each time before filling.

Glad it motivates you Josh - looks like your time is coming soon!

r

[David47]

Eddie, "boil the billy" is Australian slang for put the kettle on and have a cup of tea. A "Billy" in this sense is literally, a tin can with a lid and a wire handle you fill with water, put on an open fire till it boils then pour into yet another tin container, a tin cup with tea leaves inside ... and a tin handle .... and then drink away. Some also like to put a gum leaf into the "billy" so that the water takes on a more "bushy" taste. We do stuff like this in Aus !

[rosslr]

You'll be sorry you asked Eddie! Go Dave! (dont like those gum leaves though!)

[rosslr]

Well, like the first two days, the last two days were primarily about travelling. We left Camerons Corner and flew down the dingo fence for 165nm - straight into a 15 kt headwind! But having already had a 15kt tailwind on the way up we couldn't complain.

Flying down the very straight boarder between NSW and SA - very easy navigation!
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We turned east and tracked to Broken Hill for Fuel and to work out how much further we would go for the day. Our first choice, Pooncarie Pub on the Darling was booked out! So we decided on Lake Mungo resort for the last night.

We headed our from broken hill on on to the scrubby country that characterises this area - we saw big mobs of Roos and goats out here.
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We tracked the Darling river down to Pooncarie where we wanted to stay.
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Finally the Lake Mungo Strip came into sight - we were late in the afternoon so a low pass was needed to scare the roos off the strip before landing.
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Although we stayed in the basic shearers quarters accomodation, the dining room was luxury and Gayle and Anna enjoyed the open fire and a few drinks (so did the col and myself!).
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An early morning start saw us heading home via Hay for fuel - it was nice to see the fertile irrigated country again around Hay after the red desert - such a contrast.
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Then as we approached Col's farm we could really appreciate the fertile soil of the area around where we live.
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Then it was just a short 40nm trip home to Mt Beauty and the Mountains - funny how different they are after flying around in dead flat country for a week.
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Anyway, hope you have enjoyed out little trip as much as we did. We are already planning the next one!!
Cheers

Ross and Gayle