Mystery Meander : Day 11 October 1– Mungerannie to a campsite off the road, up a creek in the Gammon Ranges.

A very late start, after getting up to rain in the middle of the night, I slept soundly till 7.00am. (Vic time)

Showers were nice, even if the water rather smells of sulphur. On one trip to the loos I saw little Kingfisher, managed to grab the camera for a shot. Not sure if it is a Common or Azure kingfisher.

Off and out of Mungerannie by 9.15, stopped a little way down the track to look at Mulka Ruins, quite an interesting story. This bloke was a cop, based at Mungerannie, when it was time to be transferred, he resigned in order to stay in the country he loved. He and his wife, opened a store, which did really well, supplying locals with goods. The couple, George and Mabel Aiston, worked there for many years, and George wrote a lot of letters, which were donated to SA museum after hs death of cancer. Mabel kept the store running for a further 10 years. Unfortunatley due to a 7 year drought, many of the neighbouring landholders, left and the store struggled from then on. When camels were replaced by ‘lorries’ he sold fuel in the hope to keep things going.

There was also a grave up on a rise behind the store ruins, under a tree. Sadly it was a 14 year old girl, not related to the Aistons as far as we could tell. A lovely but sad inscription “Here lies embalmed in careful parent’s tears…”Edith Madeline Scobie.

Then off again, shortly later we passed the ‘loop track’ which is used in time of flood, this is the track that leads to the Coopers Creek Ferry Crossing. The Birdsville Track is cut by floodwaters on the rare occasion the area experiences floods. This was the route we took last time, we were very lucky to have the experience of crossing the creek in flood. Crossing the creek this time, there was no sign of water at all.

We stopped again to have a look at the MV Brennan, a barge which was once used to ferry supplies across the Cooper.

Continuing along the Birdsville track we arrived at Clayton Wells, here the good folk of Clayton Station have established a camping area, complete with flushing loos, showers and the jewel in the crown a stocktrough (large one) that is connected to the artesian waters, you turn on a tap and the tank fills with hot artesian water, quite warm and sulphury again, but lovely, seemed to be good for the joints etc. We stopped for lunch and I quickly changed into togs and sat for a while, luckily for us another couple had arrived earlier and had the tank half full when we arrived. After lunch Rod and Greg decided to depart and travel home separately, so we said our goodbyes and Greg made a final donation to the “F” word fund for the RFDS. Before they reached the main road, they had stopped and Greg was out walking beside the car as Rod drove slowly…they had something wrong. We schemed and plotted and determined, that we would drive past slowly and wave, given they were no longer part of the group. Very funny as Rod, waved to each of us, as they were taking the tyre off. We did a U turn and returned, it was a stone in the brakes, so easily fixed and they took off once again.

Somewhere along the route we also stopped at some other ruins, that had many, many corellas in the trees and in the ruins, some more photos there, before heading on. We also came across a large stone man, that has been erected to commemorate the explorations of John Mc Douall Stuart (Dad’s namesake perhaps?)

We were heading for Lyndhurst, where the couple in the Clayton Wells tank, had indicated there was reduced price diesel, opposite the pub. So we did all that filling, had some icecreams and drinks. Just prior to Lyndhurst we had a tiny bit of phone service, Dad got a text from the neighbours to alert him to the fact that winds had blown tiles off the roof at home, so we tried to call Jason, only to get the machine.

Our ‘sort of’ plan for today was heading down into the Flinders Ranges, with Arkaroola as a possible option. As usual time was running short so a campsite needed to be found, just into the Gammon Ranges. Mary and Phil scoped a great spot, off road, through a creek bed and up a hill with great views all around. While stony, we managed to dig the loo hole and the fire pit with little trouble. We all cooked tea, Meg cooked for Steve and Sarah, after Steve offered cream and mushrooms for the stroganoff, Ro and Kerri cooked some amazing steaks and pasta sauce for us and the Willshire, Morgan, Viney camp had the same. After tea Mary and I each mixed up a damper, which cooked beautifully on the coals, for two very big dampers, we only had two pieces left at the end.

Mary also tried another star trail shot, out behind us and the fire looking towards a hill across a valley, OMG, it looks brilliant in the screen on the back of the camera. I’m annoyed I was too lazy to try one myself.