The Adventure Googs Track Trip 2004.
by Paul Tabone.

So with the Simpson trip completed it was time to finalise the trip details for the Googs track North from Ceduna that was mentioned in last years newsletter. In all we ended up with a small group consisting of 5 cars all with camper trailers, Unfortunately no Tray Top owners could make it on this particular trip.

We met up on the Saturday afternoon in the Ceduna caravan park and got to know each other over a few refreshing ales as it rained lightly all night. Already I could tell we were in for a lot of fun and were going to have plenty of laughs.

After a steady start to the morning and topping up on all of our fuel we headed for the start of the Googs track and collected some firewood along the way. Lucky for the roof rack basket on Trevor’s Pilbara we managed to store some railway sleepers on his camper that we had found. The first days driving was reasonably easy going after as per usual just getting tyre pressures down low enough. Our first night was on the Googs Lake which had some magnificent views and yes we had a great camp fire even though the intermittent rain seemed to be persisting.

We even managed to cook up a couple of nice dampers that certainly went down well. We won’t say who’s was best but we all know who’s was eaten first! Hey Frank.

Day Two and there was a fair amount of water around leaving the Googs lake area which made for some good fun. But once we were back on the track the dunes began getting slightly larger and longer with some interesting turns required at the top of them. Just quietly we sent Frank up front with his F250 so that he would clear any stray branches out of the way and by the looks of his tray he was certainly doing that.

There was one dune in particular that took a bit of time conquering as Frank had not made the top Dean took an existing side track to assist him all to no avail Dean also then was stuck taking a bit of time to get back on track. Hey after all this is what it’s all about having fun in the sand.

Another fun day was had by all and the next camp site was at Mount Finke with yes another great camp fire and plenty of camp oven cooking.

Day Three and we headed on to Tarcoola following the dog fence for a while which was quite a corrugated stretch. We continued on camping just out of Kingoonya and near the Trans continental railway line which for the kids was great fun having these huge trains go past and the drivers giving us a blast on their air horns. It was actually quite amazing as to how many trains use this railway with a cargo train going by roughly every 3 hours even throughout the night. There were plenty of Sturt Desert Peas out also which made for some great photos.

Well it was agreed by all and quite obvious that everyone had totally enjoyed themselves and we had managed yet another track that camper trailers are frowned upon going on.

Personally from Frank, Connie, Paul and Annette thank you to those of you who came along and for making the trip so enjoyable.

Paul Tabone.