A trip out to Marree Camel races

[Guy s]

Here's a few photos from a recent trip from Lismore to Marree camel races back in July, hope you enjoy.

 

The trip involved 2 Savannah S, Martin Jackson and his wife Anne Maree and myself and my wife Sandra.

 

The trip consisted of approximately 2,300 miles and 30 hours flying time over 12 days.

 

We weren't interested in busting our gut in getting from A to B and normally did around 3-4 hours per day depending on our destination with a break every 2 hours where possible. The first night stay was at Lighting Ridge and a soak in the hot springs. The next morning a thunderstorm hit the Ridge but by mid morning it had move east.

 

Our Track

 

Lismore viaTenterfield to Moree (fuel stop)

 

Lighting Ridge-1 Night via Brewarrina to Bourke (fuel)

 

Louth-Lunch at the pub then onto White Cliffs-1 Night via Tilpa

 

Wilcannia and Menindee Lakes to Broken Hill-2 nights

 

Curnamona sheep station for a break then onto Arkaroola-1 night

 

Leigh crk (fuel) to Marree-3 Nights with included a day trip out to William crk for lunch

 

Innaminka- 1 night

 

The Dig tree(rest stop) onto Noccundra for lunch and fuel then onto Cunnamulla-1 night via Thargomindah

 

Bollon-lunch at the pub to St'George - 1 night

 

Rankamatuer catch up for a cuppa with Steve

 

Tenterfield

 

Home.

 

The photo of our Luggage also consisted of lightweight camping gear as a back-up in case we couldn't get accomodation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guy s]

A few more photos off the Samsung

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guy s]

I'm on a roll The only places we booked in advance was 3 nights at Marree and White cliffs and even thought we had camping gear in case we got stuck, we never found accommodation a problem. I was looking forward to camping out at least once (me trying to be tough I guess) but the girls weren't overly keen on that idea, I guess it does get a little cool out there. Fuel was never a problem and we mainly ran Avgas but we also carried a collapsible 20ltrs fuel container and at times we made use of them when we came across a town with PULP. Apart from the storm front moving through Lighting Ridge we had fantastic weather and normally had a 10kt headwind following us around for some reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bexrbetter]

Oh Mr Hart!!

 

 

[Guy s]

There seem to be plenty of Art galleries in Broken Hill Bex and Martin also met Jack Abslom at his Gallery and was pretty stoked at meeting one of his idols.and getting a photo with him.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

[Doug McCullough]

Here's a few photos from a recent trip from Lismore to Marree camel races back in July, hope you enjoy.The trip involved 2 Savannah S, Martin Jackson and his wife Anne Maree and myself and my wife Sandra.

 

The trip consisted of approximately 2,300 miles and 30 hours flying time over 12 days.

 

We weren't interested in busting our gut in getting from A to B and normally did around 3-4 hours per day depending on our destination with a break every 2 hours where possible. The first night stay was at Lighting Ridge and a soak in the hot springs. The next morning a thunderstorm hit the Ridge but by mid morning it had move east.

 

Our Track

 

Lismore viaTenterfield to Moree (fuel stop)

 

Lighting Ridge-1 Night via Brewarrina to Bourke (fuel)

 

Louth-Lunch at the pub then onto White Cliffs-1 Night via Tilpa

 

Wilcannia and Menindee Lakes to Broken Hill-2 nights

 

Curnamona sheep station for a break then onto Arkaroola-1 night

 

Leigh crk (fuel) to Marree-3 Nights with included a day trip out to William crk for lunch

 

Innaminka- 1 night

 

The Dig tree(rest stop) onto Noccundra for lunch and fuel then onto Cunnamulla-1 night via Thargomindah

 

Bollon-lunch at the pub to St'George - 1 night

 

Rankamatuer catch up for a cuppa with Steve

 

Tenterfield

 

Home.

 

The photo of our Luggage also consisted of lightweight camping gear as a back-up in case we couldn't get accomodation.

Great photos, thanks for sharing, I did a similar trip a few years ago and while tracking from Arkaroola to Willaim Creek tried to find Maree Man but didn't.

 

Is that a photo of Maree Man in this group of photos?

 

If it is it must have been recently restored as I wouldn't think that we could miss something that big.

 

You would't happen to have the GPS coordinates of him would you, please? so I can compare them to where I had it marked on Google Earth.

 

Cheers Doug

 

 

[Guy s]

Hi Doug, Luckily we met the charter pilot who works out of Marree at the local drinking hole and we were able to pick his brains and he was quite helpful, can't remember his name tho.

 

He told us when leaving Marree for William crk which is about 290 heading he said head 270 from Marree and exactly 30 miles you'll fly over the Marree man and he was right on the money. This is also a better track as you basically follow the rd from marree to william crk with the Marree man only being a couple of miles north of the road.

 

Marree man 29 35's 137 29'e

 

The publican from Marree and William crk pubs got together and got permission off the Traditional owners to revamp the Marree man and the Traditional owners were all for it. Guessing they got a grader or dozer in but he certainly stands out now. They didn't bother going though Council as they new that would be a big headache in itself and the council eventually did get wind of it afterwards and weren't happy Lol

 

 

[bobcharl]

Great trip Guy. Enjoyed the photos. One query, how did you carry sufficient luggage as well as camping gear, fuel drum and presumably tools etc within weight limits? Especially as it appeared to be winter. My VG XL has a 20kg limit in the luggage compartment and we find that ok for a couple of nights but 12 would be a challenge.

 

Bob.

 

 

[Vlad]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing. Would you be so kind to post a route map of your trip please? If able of course. I was trying to pin points on your track but failed miserably

 

 

[Doug McCullough]

Hi Doug, Luckily we met the charter pilot who works out of Marree at the local drinking hole and we were able to pick his brains and he was quite helpful, can't remember his name tho.He told us when leaving Marree for William crk which is about 290 heading he said head 270 from Marree and exactly 30 miles you'll fly over the Marree man and he was right on the money. This is also a better track as you basically follow the rd from marree to william crk with the Marree man only being a couple of miles north of the road.

 

Marree man 29 35's 137 29'e

 

The publican from Marree and William crk pubs got together and got permission off the Traditional owners to revamp the Marree man and the Traditional owners were all for it. Guessing they got a grader or dozer in but he certainly stands out now. They didn't bother going though Council as they new that would be a big headache in itself and the council eventually did get wind of it afterwards and weren't happy Lol

Thanks for your reply Guy, I had the following GPS coordinates 29°31′48″S 137°27′56″E that is is a clay pan about 5 nm north of the road. Close enough. I ended up googling Maree Man and there are some stories on its resurrection.

 

Thanks again for your post, it has reiginighted my interest in the area.

 

Cheers Doug

 

 

[Guy s]

Great trip Guy. Enjoyed the photos. One query, how did you carry sufficient luggage as well as camping gear, fuel drum and presumably tools etc within weight limits? Especially as it appeared to be winter. My VG XL has a 20kg limit in the luggage compartment and we find that ok for a couple of nights but 12 would be a challenge.Bob.

Hi Bob,

 

The 20kgs is definitely a challenge for sure. I've done some backpacking out in the bush over the years so I've had a bit of insight on how to travel light.

 

The Tent is a lightweight backpacking setup that comfortably sleeps 2 people weighting 2.5kgs and the sleeping bags are about -10 rating weighting about a kilo each, I also carried 2 inflatable Thermarest mattress that u can hold in one hand and areabout the weight of a matchbox but when inflated it gives u a 6 cm cushion from the cold ground so there's the 5 star rating 5kgs accommodation covered if needed. Basically the lighter the backpacking set-up the dearer it cost to buy.

 

The overnight bags we got were fairly lightweight and with wheels and a extendable handle to wheel around if needed or it also had backpack straps as well so you could wear it as a backpack for that walk into town for the night.. Bags weight about 7kgs each full. Also had a lightweight Canopy, bonnet cover made by Punkin for the Savannah which worked a treat which is the silver bag in the photo.

 

The fuel container as u can see in this photo is collapsible and flat so was on the bottom in the luggage department. The tie down pegs, straps, wooden handled hammer and,tools had a bit of weight which sat on the floor between my wife's feet and the water container also had it's own spot on the floor.

 

With our set-up we could comfortably travel for many weeks with no drama and maybe along the way we could swap our clothes at a local op shop for a different look

 

Our total Luggage plus my collapsible fishing rod which never got used but I'm sure it enjoyed the trip tho.

 

 

 

[Guy s]

Amazing! Thanks for sharing. Would you be so kind to post a route map of your trip please? If able of course. I was trying to pin points on your track but failed miserably

Hi Vlad, I tried downloading the map (Ozrunways) with our track and even though I kept cropping the photo I couldn't get it loaded on here, maybe to many mega pixel and I'm not savvy enough to know how to get around it. Sorry mate.

 

 

[red750]

Guy, I'll assume you are using windows, If not let me know and I will send alternate instructions.

 

Open the image in Paint. In the top toolbar, select Resize.In the dialog box, select Pixels and set the numbers to 1024x768. Click OK and Save. This should give you a file size of less than 500Kb. This is small enough to upload. You could also try 800x600. Check it out and see what you think.

 

 

[Guy s]

 

 

 

[Guy s]

Thanks Red and I still had trouble sorting it out but my wife worked it out for me, she had to change the photos from something to jpeg if that makes sense.