the weather had been terrible leading up to the grandfinal weekend and i wouldnt of minded pulling the pin before we went away but steve rang me and was still keen and we had planned to meet up with thurstain who was finishing another trip on the thursday. so off we went.

steve an i drove up thursday afternoon , rain all the way. camped at western beach,lake albycutya and met up with thurstain and anastasia set up camp in the drizzle and glenn arrived later in the evening.

had a good fire going and all met up

friday dawned sunny and we headed out along pella track and then into milmed rock track. the rain had packed down the sand and it was pretty easy going except for the car length humps that seemed to develop on all the track we went on

we stopped at milmed rock , and after an exhausting climb reached the top. if the big desert is victorias answer to the simpson the milmed rock is our ayres rock! theres a visitors book there and the box contains 4wdtrip stickers. i had been warned about all the claypans and the rain but we managed them ok. in summer with soft loose sand there may have been a few interestin bits but it was all pretty easy.

out on to murrayville road for the twenty odd ks to big billy bore. now this was interesting. wet sloppy clay the whole way had us all sliding sideways trying to stay on the road

set up a quick camp at big billy and headed of to have a look at big k dune

. steve decided he didnt have enough lpg and headed into murrayville and after not finding any ended up heading home. weve had a chat since and sorted things out but we were a bit worried for a while

i think we bumped into the border track group who were coming back from big k with a broken car

big k dune is a huge sand dune with 4 or 5 tracks leading over it but all the recent tracks in the sand only reached half way up. the sand at the top was wet and very soft.  we gave it a good shot but never got past where all the previous attempts had got . we did have one bit of excitement when someone who i wont name , but has the initials glen went a bit far of to the side and sunk into some very soft sand . our initial snatches didnt work and we had to dig out the wheels , get the sand tracks down and eventualy got him out.

it was cold and windy as we headed back to camp for a few drinks and to tell lies

more to come and some pics

saturday morning was a little slow for some that drank to much wine and bourbon.

after a late start we headed out brushcutters track , another nice sand track except for those bloody humps. the drizzle kept up most of the morning. at the intersection with delisio track all the previous tyre tracks headed left, we went straight on along brushcutters track which didnt look like anyone had been along it for quite a while. a few claypans and mud holes and an enjoyable drive.

we followed brushcutters all the way to white springs , what a pretty little oasis in the middle of mallee scrub. murray valley pines and and lots of big gums . i believe the water here is semi permanent.

but the best part was the huge dune at the end with one track up which branched into a y at the end. all the previous tyre marks went abou 3/4 of the way up

thurstain was keen but got stuck as he got a bit further up in the soft sand. 

while he was posing for photos glenn and i found anther track that wound around an up to the stop. good low range crawl with some great views across the whole area. then a narrow track across the top of the dune to where thurstain had stopped. after a photo stop thurstain rolled down , then i drove down right from the top packing the soft sand down a bit . then glen came down and packed it a bit harder.

when we all got to the bottom i jumped in and said my go to try and climb up, knowing that packed sand would make it a bit easier.

bugger me, i got stopped a few feet from the top.

thurstain anglenn then tried and we all ended up about the same, which caused a lot af argument about who actual went further. of cause i think it was me.

we left by following white springs track out towards murrayville road , more sandy humps , we did have views across the plains to big k where we were yesterday.

being an old fella i called it quits here and headed back to camp to listen to footscray win the footy, glenn and thurstain went out to cactus bore and beyond. the found another dune to try and ended back in camp as footscray won the grand final

another big fire and more lies, the skies cleared up and the wind stopped . roast in the camp oven, life was good

more to come

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all my pics are on the work computer, they will have to wait

sunday dawned cold and windy again and we headed of towards chinamans well track.

this was probably the softest track of the lot and while we never had a problem it would of had a few interesting spots if it was dry and loose. lots of muddy claypans in between rolling sand hills with quite a bit of corrogations in the sand  . the track is only 30 to 40 ks long and we joined up with pella track . the loop into the actual chinamans well was very muddy with water laying everwhere so we gave it a miss and headed on

now being trip leader i said pella track down out of the park was the way to go. boy was that a mistake. the worst humps of the trip. deep and abit less than a car length long we were doing about 10 to 20kph for the last 20 odd ks.

what was originaly 7 cars before we left finished up with 3 of us ,but i had a great time. glenn ,thurstain and anistasia and i all said our goodbyes.

great country ,great company

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Excellent trip. I uploaded some pictures I have on my phone. Will have a go at the dash cam footage and will ask Anastasia to take the pictures off her camera but she's busy with work and uni (exams coming up) so might take a couple days.

I am glad the trip didn't get cancelled, but was I glad to see FLAT bitumen after the last track. I did say we should turn left :)

Either way, lots of challenging sand dunes which wa sgreat fun and fantastic lookouts. I will be back there for sure.

http://www.4wdtrip.com.au/offroad/trip/photos.aspx?tripid=498 - some pics.

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Lake Albycutya 

A

milmed rock

Bit of clay along milmed Rock track

Milmed rock

Big k dune

Thurstain on big k

Bruschcutters track

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White springs

At the top

Chinamans well track

Motley crew at the end

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