We are travelling north back to the sunshine and warmth, our journey will take us along the Googs Track, a 4WD track through the Yumbarra Conservation Park and Yellabinna Wilderness Protection Area. This is a landscape comprised of mallee covered dune systems, recent rain has brought out the wildflowers and there are just too many different species to photograph.
The drive over sand dunes is slow but not difficult. We stop at the Denton Family memorial and then onto Googs Lake for camp. The clouds are clearing and it’s a good night for night sky photography. We heated pies in the Travel Buddy for dinner, an excellent Australian made 12 volt oven. The sunset is glorious. Dinner is warm, night cool and the stars are blazing, recent rain has cleared any dust away and there is not a cloud or moon. Check out the photos. It’s getting cool so we rug up in the items given to us by friends and family before departing, neck warmers, chair blankets and alptrek blankets, they have served us well.
We wake to the birds calling and a heavy fog rising over the lake and mallee. Sun and fog create an unusual rainbow, we call it a fogbow, not much colour but beautiful the same. It’s a slow start, and a walk down onto the lake, we find some interesting rocks, it will take some later research to work out what they were. As we travel we frequently stop to photograph the abundant and varied wildflowers. Some of the mallee trees are in flower, I took a photo of one with a large bulborous trunk, usually a feature found underground and typifies the mallee. We even find plenty of trees in fruit, yet to be identified by us. The landscape views from the top of the sand dunes gives us a view of an endless sea of mallee country, thank you to Googs for creating the opportunity to explore this wilderness.
In the mid afternoon we arrive at the second campground, Mt Finke. In this area there is an abundance of a small bush with tiny yellow flowers, and a very beautiful perfume. The perfume is so strong it can be smelt from inside the car as we are driving. We are camped near Mt Finke an area of significance to female indigenous people. We are in an area dominated by desert oaks and what seems to be Gidgee.
Our only disappointment from the two days on the Googs track would be finding camp fires not extinguished appropriately, one in each campground. This is such a dangerous practice, please folks do the right thing and ensure your campfires are cold before you leave them.
