Border Track Maintenance Weekend ....

Twice a year the association has a trip to the Ngarkat Conservation Park to do maintenance on the Border Track. This famous 4WD destination is almost at the point of closure due to irresponsible people not showing due care to the environment. This year during the October long weekend I finally organised myself to join the group.

This Park & track for those who do not know its location, is to be found halfway between Pinnaroo & Bordertown. I arrived at Comet Bore camping ground about midday on the Saturday, as I was setting up my campsite a half-dozen vehicles from the Nissan club arrived.

I left the camp in search of the vehicles that had left earlier that morning to work on the track thinking they had gone down to the southern end near Mount Schaugh as mentioned in the Pre trip information, however I did not find them as they had gone to the northern end to do another job for with the Ranger. Nevertheless I had a very enjoyable trip around what I describe as the southern loop.

Cocktail hour happened at the usual time around a number of the camp fires, it looked like we might get a bit of rain but instead it was just cold with a heavy due.

Next morning 14 vehicles & 29 people from five different four-wheel-drive clubs set off in convoy onto the main road to meet the Ranger at the roadside rubble dump, the trailer muster had begun. The part of the track we were to repair was 20 km away due east towards the border track, so each trailer load required a 40 km round-trip. There were 5 or 6 trailers & the Park Rangers dump truck, as I recall the dump truck did about three round trips & the trailers up to 6 each. Fortunately the Ranger had a front end loader to fill the trailers but at the other end it was just a matter of shoveling it off. We worked all day on that particular part of the track until darkness set in. It was along day but it was a very rewarding day particularly as you looked back along the track to see the work that had been done.

The next morning myself & a guy called Andrew decided to go up the centre track to Pinnaroo for a pub lunch & fuel, however at the top of the centre track we came across three people in a 4WD that had a broken front mag wheel caused by hitting a hole too fast, the main problem was that their jack was too short for their car so we did the good Samaritan bit & help them change the wheel over. This however meant that we were behind our planned schedule & Andrew had to leave & head back to Adelaide. Also the pubs in Pinnaroo do not sell counter lunches on the weekend anyway.

As I had no such commitment to get back to Adelaide early I decided to complete our planned trip to go down the Border Track by myself, & am very glad that I did. After travelling about two-thirds down the track I was wondering why this track had such a reputation, it was about here that the sandhills became tough & the holes in the swailes were huge, you can drive around the holes but you definitely need second gear low ratio & 20 P. S. I. for the sandhills. It was also nice to be one of the first to reap the benefit of the hard work that we had done on the track on the way out.

There are some great camping spots in the Park either just off the bitumen or the along the track itself, although you can't camp at Scorpion Springs it is an amazing oasis amongst the dry Malley country.

I did enjoy my long weekend & can recommend other members getting involved in combined club events as it gives you a great opportunity to meet new people, get new ideas & expand your own horizons, not to mention the good work you can do & the sense of achievement that you get from making a contribution to our National Parks for the future.

Good traveling,

Rob

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