Day 5 - Googs Lake to Mt Finke

Monday 21st March 2016

We woke up on WA time, for some reason SA time just hasn’t kicked in, well its actually more the daylight saving extra hour that we’re missing. Anyway we missed the sunrise but our morning view of the lake was still impressive. Googs Lake was as smooth as glass and offered mirror reflections ( Sunrise would have been good ).

It’s 10.00am and we’re packed and ready to tackle the next 72 kms of dunes which were shaping up to be taller than those we traveled yesterday. We’d seen an article on Googs Track which suggested some people were concerned about over heating their engine going over all the dunes. Even though there are over 300 dunes ( we stopped counting after 5 or 6 ) it isn’t all up-down-up-down-up-down, one after the other, they are interspersed with flat spots which allows the engine to cool down. Our Pajero showed no signs of overheating. Big or small each dune was different to the one before it, some are long and tall others are short and low. Some dunes were corrugated along with the flat sections in between.

We were expecting to have more difficulty climbing the sand dunes as some have been up to 25 meters high although this hasn’t been the case. We’ve just been traveling slowly up to the crest and pretty much idling over the sand dunes and letting momentum take us down. We’ve been impressed with the Pajero and the Cooper AT3 tyres which together with our choice of 18/20 psi goes to show that reducing your tyre pressures does make a big difference in conquering these sand dunes.

By 11.30 we’d only traveled 15kms with photo stops including another Thorny Devil and lots of animal tracks from the last night’s and this morning’s activities of our nocturnal desert friends who are now likely sheltering from the days increasing warmth. Going by the tracks there is a thriving community of dingoes, field mice, goannas, snakes, birds, insects and marsupials. It’s interesting that some tracks of different animals intersect. Were they catching up for a yarn, swap info on where the food is at, who knows, but if you say there’s no life out here you’d be wrong.

The dunes are vegetated and the landscape is dominated by three colors – Blue, Red and Green. We made a couple more radio calls on channel 18 but again it seemed no one was traveling the track today. The track is reasonably well sign posted and has several signs reminding you that it’s a 4WD track and the traffic is two way. Although the dunes are growing in height we are now used to the feeling of “OMG!” as you approach the crest and for a split second you lose sight of where the track goes on the other side. Another second or two and all becomes clear. This was a new experience for us and it was interesting, exciting and enjoyable all in one. 

At the base of one dune we saw tracks where a previous traveler had come down too fast, braked and slid forward toward a bush and luckily it seems they corrected in time. No matter how good you think you are you have to approach these dunes slowly and with caution. If the dune peters out on the other side then it’s all good and if not then you have time to adjust. What we also found interesting was that the track over some dunes didn’t go over the dune on the same line as going up. Some dunes had a corner to be negotiated as soon as you crested, again come over the top too fast and you’re going to end up in the bushes. We’ll continue using our technique.

About 40kms south of Mt Finke you start to see it on the horizon, we’re half way there.

We arrived at Mt Finke about 2.30pm a mere 4 ½ hrs after leaving Googs Lake. Mt Finke is home to the Mt Finke Spider Flower. This plant is a type of grevillea and considered very rare with only 500 known to be in the Mt Finke region. It hasn’t been found any where else. We weren’t fortunate enough to see one on this trip. The campground has a set of table/chairs which are in the sun and a set in another section we think is a day use area a bit closer to the base of Mount Finke. Just a thought, it would have been a nice consideration if when clearing the area for the camp ground they put the table/chairs under some shade.  Before setting up camp we relaxed with a cuppa while a Southern Whiteface flew into a nearby tree chirping away to warn others in the area of our arrival. It got to 31C today our warmest day so far but with the gentle breeze blowing it was quite pleasant.  As the evening  unfolded the moon took it’s rightful place in the night sky still glowing from the recent sunset. Another enjoyable day over

Total Time : 5.49
Total Distance: 83 kms
Average Speed : 14 KPH

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