OMG! Yes , bravery is not my forte but love a good risk! Monday was a great day. We disappeared early in the morning off to take water samples at different water sources around Arkaroola... went with Shannon ( biologist USA), Jane ( teacher Tas) Luther(teacher USA) and moi!
The waterholes have been tested regarding life , situation , levels and various qualities of the water therein. First part of the adventure was fairly tame but decidedly beautiful..... found a few kangaroos and a yellow legged rock wallaby. Got some great pics of this.... 4WD was minimal!
Back to base at Arkaroola at around 9.30. The others were heading off to Lyndhurst and Marree but we decided to stay and do Echo Camp and maybe a couple of others .... we were told that should we stay and go to Echo Camp there would some serious roads to contend with.............
All of us are seriously committed!
The road is kept locked as it is classified as the highest level of 4WD road..... Level 4. It is sooooooooooo steep and the road is easily washed away. Recent rain has caused some damage. It is a total distance of around 10 km( at most) and we are allowed 4-6 hours!!! The travel through the deep gullies through gums and towering red cliffs was phenomenal.... our goal at Echo Camp was to collect two small samples of water that would be later tested at the lab. Took images all the way. Luther is a great photographer and ended up relying on him.
Then came the real stuff..............
We came to a screeching halt at Bananina... actually just before. The road suddenly disappeared in to a cliff...... hello????? a cliff????? Yes it did but it was an enormous rock. We had no back up vehicles as the others had gone and only knew that we would be a few hours behind. They were expecting us! Unfortunately the halt was halfway down the hill...............
The heroine was Shannon .. who leant heavily on the accelorator... revved it... and the smoke blew!!!!! Forgot the handbrake! We did it.... that was interesting. After that life beacme a little tame and our return to the last three waterholes and onto the road to Arkaroola was without problems.
Then off to Marree..... 2ookm or so away... left Arkaroola at about 4 or 5.... and we finally got to Marree at 7.30............ all food had been eaten( second time this had happened to us cos it was the second night we were late) Damn! We , in true stalwart spirit, coped admirably and after a few beers didnt really notice the hunger! No , what happened was that I had an urgent thought.... I need to have a look at the area from the air and there were helicopter rides from the hotel............
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment