All of these were off-the-asphalt drives I’ve done over the years. Longish dirt roads and tracks. At least two were before I had a 4WD!
Buchan to Corryong in a 1973 Cortina
About ’83 or ’84. I think this was the route. It was up and over the Snowy Mountains on unmade roads. This route uses the Barry Way and the Great Alpine Way; either or both were not made then. The car was manual, so I could do the old truckie’s ‘gear breaking’ to slow down and try and stop the real brakes from overheating on the steep roads.
Mildura to Lake Mungo (day trip) in a Ford Fairmont
This spontaneous one was probably the maddest – and yet most moving and memorable – drive I’ve ever done. The Fairmont was a company car. From memory it was late 80s or early 90s. I was staying at Mildura and had only vaguely heard of this Lake Mungo (that should really be “Lake” Mungo – it hasn’t held serious water for, umm, thousands of years)
I’d seen a sign pointing to it, so popped in to talk to a parks ranger about the trip/roads. This was in the afternoon. He said I could do in a 2WD, but to take it easy and watch out for kangaroos on the way back. He said the sunsets there are spectacular. No Google maps and I took a gulp when I saw the sign: 118km. Most of which was unmade…. (which he’d told me)
It took at least 1 and a half hours to get there. But I was gobsmacked at this stunning, beautiful place. I stayed to watch the sun setting and it was breathtaking. I only found out later that human remains had been found here; dating back at least 40,000 years.
I then had to drive back. In the dark. On dusty, unmade roads. With kangaroos around. 90 minutes later, I arrived back – safely – at Mildura. Miraculously zero roo interactions but still buzzing with excitement.
From that day onward, Lake Mungo has never let me go. I just love it and want to go back, for the 4th time.
Menindee to Mildura (Nissan X-Trail)
Yes a 4WD, but it made me over-confident, which nearly brought me undone.
Pause…I had an idea and spent 90+ minutes looking for one (1) specific photo of this trip. First problem: I had no idea what year this trip was. I thought it was not long after I’d got the X-Trail. But what year was that and would they be digital shots or old photo/prints…most of which are not really catalogued. An old email implied it was 2003. Off I went to the boxes of Decade-2000s photos
And I’m back. I FOUND THE PHOTO!
Okay, so in Easter 2003, I’d driven the new X-Trail to Broken Hill (850km from Williamstown), then 110km over to Menindee to see it’s Lakes. That was great fun, but time to get home, via Mildura.
The locals said I could drive south to Mildura, rather than back NW to Broken Hill then all the way back to Mildura. But it was un-made roads.
From memory about 150 km of them…
All was going well. In fact too well. I was belting along on these isolated, dirt roads, hitting the cattle grids at 80 or so km/h. How easy is this? – I thought.
Until the thump, thump, thump sound came from the rear passenger’s side.
That tyre was flat to the rim. Caused by Mr Naïve-Overconfident hitting cattle grids at…you know the rest.
I put the one (1) spare on, then had to face about 100km of this unmade road with no spare.
I was rather nervous and obviously driving very slowly over the remaining cattle grids. I remember seeing asphalt at Pooncarie and knew I’m made it. After stopping for a coffee, it was only another 125 km (*cough*) back to Mildura – on the made road – and the tyre place there.
Here’s the photo. Just after I’d changed the tyre.
I now remember the guide book had the wrong instructions; trying to get you to take the silver ‘mag wheel’ bit off. That just added to the slight 🙂 tension in the air.