Easter Camping Trip--Day 5--Homeward Bound

This is a bit of a mistake on my part.  The first two pictures here are of the shearing shed at White Cliffs and should have been on my day 4 blog.  This first photo shows the mechanism that ran the power shears.  I'm not too sure about how it works and mechanics is not my forte but I think a motor runs a belt that turns the central rod.  I think a series of differentials turns that movement into the back and forth motion of the blades of the shears.

The sheep holding pens are still intact.  This is a pretty big shed.  Sad that the days of its use are past.

We headed back to Laverton to get fuel and water.  As we drove through town we looked for Sylvia and Desmond but didn't see them.  Unfortunately we found ourselves heading south of town on the road to Mt Weld and Sunrise Dam Mine late in the day when we needed to find a camping spot.  Just north of Mount Weld Station we found a track off the main road that took us off the road and a reasonable camping spot.  It was rocky and we were within sight of the haul road to Granny Smith mine and we were near their landing strip.  Not very inspiring spot for our last night out bush.

We awoke to the sound of crows.  I suspect they were looking for our lamb chop bones leftover from dinner the night before.  The flies were unreal and we were glad to get packed up and on the move.  We stopped at what is left of Mt Weld station homestead.  Rona got a picture of it but I didn't.  Getting past Sunrise Damn was a bit of a twist and turn past their minesite village and looked like we were going to drive right through their air stip but the road turned right and then left past a huge tailing damn.  South of the minesite the road took off straight south through low country that crossed a series of ponds.  I thought we wouldn't be able to get through but their were conveniently placed detours around each of these bodies of water that had submerged the road.  At one we stopped to look at the Shovelers and their ducklings.  Also saw a diamond backed pigeon for the first time.

After crossing the causeway across Lake Carey we came across this rock outcrop.  We pulled over to wait for the others to catch up and I went for a bit of an exploration and took lots of pictures.

Salt Lake in the distance

After everyone caught up and had a walk around and drank morning tea we continued south and stopped in at Mount Celia Station Homestead.  The place is abandoned now.  We found only a slab of concrete where the homestead once stood.  The bunk houses were still standing and you can see them peaking through the trees in the creekling in the photo below.

Carpet Remnant

Someone had left a remembrance wreath made from Bougainvillea flowers under a big old mulga tree

We had a lunch break at the base of these funny little rock hills.

We continued on south through Edjudina Station which is one of the few stations still stocked and being worked profitably in the area.  And then on home.  Phil drove with a heavy foot as he was ready to get back home and sleep in his own bed.  We had a nice break from our usual routine but then it is always good to get back home to a clean house and no flies!!!!

Easter Camping Trip--Day 4--White Cliffs Station

The next morning I woke up to the twittering of small finches.  After breakfast, I went for a bit of a walk and found these cool flowering plants growing along along the dry creek amongst the frankenias.  I thought perhaps they were a frankenia or an unusual maireana.  The buff red flowers are like a double flower joined at the back side of the tube.  The flowers are attached to the side of the stem and on the opposite side of the stem is another double flower.  It is called Didymanthus roei and is in the Chenopodiaceae family which is the same family that the Maireanas are in.  I was kind of close.

Didymanthus roei

After breakfast, we packed up and buried the remnants of our fire.  Then we cruised up the valley at the base of the rocks, just exploring before going back out to the main track.  The thing that amazed me is that there were no vehicle tracks.  No one had driven into the east end of this valley.  We poked around and checked out the rocks and took lots of pictures.

Buried Fire

The tar like midden of the lesser stick nest rat.

In a small hole in the rock we found the old midden of the now extinct stick nest rat.  We found this stuff in caves at Point Sandercott last Easter and after much research found out what it was.

It usually has kangaroo poo and grass, sticks and stones stuck in it.

Kangaroo track between the rock outcrops

Upside down spider on Ptilotus obovatus

Wagon Train

One lonely HooDoo

Wierd chunk of conglomerate that fell out of rocks above

Cobbled ground

Ptilotus helichrisoides

Flower bud just forming

Frankenia

Bush tomatoe

Nardoo Gnamma Hole

Interesting plants growing in sand after a fire

A Goodenia

Spider on Dicrastylis brunnea

We continued east of the Shay Carts along a track that would intersect the White Cliffs Road.  The track was pretty good until we started to descend down and then it became an eroded creek.  It was bumpy and a few time Phil had to get out with the saw to clear away broken tree branches.

Once we hit White Cliffs Road, we turned north towards the homestead and passed a few old wells along the way.

South Well

Deeply rutted creek crossing

We made use of one of these deeply cut channels as a mechanics pit.  Hugh discovered his brake line had been severed.  Terry got underneath and was able to crimp it off before we continued on to Sandy Well before we got to White Cliffs Station.  Later we found out that Noel calls this creek crossing, Breakback creek.  Brakeback in more ways than one.

Pieces of wood used to form a bit of a bridge

Late

Old tank

The Shearing Shed

The grinding stone for sharpening the shears