Day 4 - Ceduna to Googs Lake

Sunday 20th March 2016

Today our adventure begins….
We’re up bright and early, itching to go but we have to wait for the Ceduna Visitor Information Centre to open, because it’s Sunday it opens at 9.30am. Off to do some shopping & top up the tank while we wait. Before we left on this trip we received information from the South Australian Parks Department that we required a 2 month pass at a cost of $85.00 ( $40.00 park fee + $45.00 camping fee ) to travel Googs Track. We had our doubts because this contradicted information from other sources but we thought the South Australian Parks Department must know their stuff. We arrived at the Ceduna Information Centre and with $85.00 in hand and headed in to buy our pass. There was good news – our camping permit was only $10.00 per night and no entry fee was required. We had decided to camp at both Googs Lake and Mount Finke so $20.00 later we were on our way. The lady at the Ceduna Information Centre confirmed you don’t need a park entry pass to do Googs Track or to pass through the two reserves; Yumbarra Conservation Park and Yellabinna Regional Reserve, but you do need the camping permit, beaut! She also mentioned they’d had a fair bit of rain out Googs Track/Tarcoola way and there should still be water in Googs Lake. Sweet you don’t get a lot of oportunities to see water in outback salt lakes. This could be a rare occasion.

NB: Our recommendation is if you require a camping permit for Googs Track go to the Ceduna Visitor Information Centre.

Googs Track starts near Lone Oak, about 40km north of Ceduna. It’s 10.45am but before we officially start Googs Track there is a gate to pass through and today there’s a puddle left over from recent rains.
Please shut the gate.

A little further down there is a second gate which is the dog fence and a couple of signs, again please shut the gate. Once we passed through the second gate we were now in the Yumbarra Conservation Park and we stop here to pressure down our Cooper AT3 tyres to 18 psi in the front and 20 psi in the rear.

When traveling Googs Track you are reminded along the way to set your UHF radio to Channel 18, this is for safety as most of the sand dunes are blind. If all travelers along Googs Track are on CH18 and put out frequent radio checks you stand a better chance of knowing when someone is approaching and avoid a potential collision. We put out a few calls seeking other travelers along the track but no one came back. Although the preferred travel direction is south to north the track signage shows it is a two way track, another reason to check on the radio for traffic. It’s odd to see a speed limit sign out here but Googs Track has a speed limit along the track of 40kph.

We encountered a couple of puddles and then the dunes started; they were smallish at first and gradually got taller but not as high as the reports for the second half of the track. Our destination is Googs Lake to camp for the night.

We stopped at the Googs Memorial, added some coins and were lucky enough to spot a Thorny Devil sunbaking.

 

Initially some of the dunes were a bit un-nerving, mainly because on some you can’t see down the other side as you crest the dune – the unknown, but after 3 or 4 like this you get used to it.

A few sand dunes later we pulled in at Googs Lake, it was around 2.30pm. There are three campgrounds that we saw. The first campground – Callitris – was OK but we decided to check out the Googs Lake lookout first and come back. On the way back we came across Triadia campground and decided it was better than the first one so we set up camp. The name of the other campground is Casurina.

Our camp had a lovely view of the lake which as a bonus did had water in it. We had lunch then went for a walk along the lake. The lake is now fenced off so cars can’t go down there in your vehicle, you can still see the scars on the lake of previous travelers.

Googs Lake is a large salt lake and even though it looked full of water, the water was only ankle deep. We were lucky though, because the area had 25mm of rainfall the week prior to us arriving we got to see a wet Googs Lake rather than a normally dry Googs Lake.

Despite the water not being very deep it’s still deep enough for life to spawn. There was an abundance of Fairy Shrimp in Googs Lake. It only takes a small amount of water to activate the Fairy Shrimps eggs which lay dormant between one lot of rain and the next. These little guys will be busy preparing for the next generation of Fairy Shrimp. On the way back from our walk we saw a beautiful iridescent green beetle, later identified as a Green Tiger Beetle. It turns out these guys are pretty fast, they move at a speed of 2.5 metres per second and actually lose their vision when running because their optics can’t keep up. They are carnivores and have huge jaws relative to their overall size.

Back at camp there are more march flies and it’s not long before we look like we’ve got chicken pox. As the evening settles in we enjoy a spectacular sunset and reflect on our days travel. We found the track to be easy so far including the puddles. Tomorrow we’ll make for Mount Finke and camp there.

Total Time : 7.23
Total Distance: 90 kms
Average Speed : 12 KPH

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