Dunns Track (Sort Of)

Day 3 Norseman to Camp along Dunns Track

Friday, 3rd April 2015

After filling up we make tracks for Peak Charles where we deflate our tyres again ready for our journey along Dunns Track. Peak Charles was name after Governor Charles Fitzgerald (1848 ? 1855) while nearby Peak Eleanora was named after his second wife.

: Peak Charles

Not long after setting off the fun began ? slip, sliding away ….. more puddles, more mud, more max trax and more winching.

: Pulled up nicely…

: Max Trax – easy out

: Made it, Doh! stopped too soon – stuck, no traction

The track changed into sand and we thought the puddles were behind us but alas this was not the case. The puddles came thick and fast and this continued for most of the way making our progress slow. Ahh! Dunns Track didn?t disappoint.

: Sand, maybe the puddles are behind us

: No, it was not to be, another puddle to check before driving through

: Stuck!! – Dunns Track 2015

: The winch – don’t leave home without it

: Car wash

By mid afternoon we started thinking about a place to camp but the landscape didn?t offer any good spots. We continued on and Dunns Track dried out a little and became sandy for a while but the roadside vegetation was still dense. Up ahead we saw some movement that looked like a bird and as we got closer we saw that it was an emu. Now we know these guys are ?stupid? to say the least and a bit scatty and erratic so we slowed to allow him time to run off into the bush. Nothing doing, he kept jogging down the road looking back every so often as if to say ?you can?t catch me I?m the gingerbread man?. After a couple of hundred meters more we decide to stop and have a cuppa to give emu time to head bush.

: Emu – out for a jog

Cuppa over we head off again and after 5 or 6 kms remark that he must have gone. Not so… around the next bend there he is still jogging along the middle of the track still looking back with an ?I?m winning? grin on his beak. The track widened and we eventually got past him and a check in the rear view mirror showed him still jogging off into the bush.

We continue looking for a spot to camp and come across a possible site but a closer look reveals the ground as a rock so we push on. The track changes from something resembling a crack after an earthquake to an overgrown track narrower than the car.

: Earthquake?

The decision to continue on was worth it. We see an opening and drive in. Wow!! It opens out into a perfect camping spot.

: Perfect camp spot, Dunns Track

We set up camp, have tea, watch the sun set, the moon rise and spiders scurry about. We take a photo of one of the nocturnal ground spiders. As we sit enjoying the silence of the bush we get buzzed by a bird then we hear shrieking, gee what a sound, you?d swear someone was being choked. We think the sound is that of nightjars and they must be what are flying around but they?re too quick for us to get any photos.