Crossing Lake Torrens

Definitely not an expert in this area, but what about these type of tyres?



Have seen them being used on the beach in very soft sand - perhaps they will have Weymouth of a footprint to spread the load - like your boots!

Cheers

Anthony

quite a few years ago a solo man trekked into the heart of lake eyre with a cart type setup
'it was documented by Australian Geographic - surprisingly he found lots of not much ........... but then thats probabally the point?
Ive walked into salt lakes and accross small ones and it doesnt take long before the sense of nothing at all really kicks in
maybe not for everyone but I do see the point

Hi Laurie

The surface of Lake Torrens is so very different to other major inland salt lakes. From your photo, the northern section looks so typical of the major salt lakes, while further south is a very different story.

I have only ever ventured onto the very lowest section of the Lake on Yadlamulka Station and near the middle section of Nilpena Station.

The very lowest point is soft and reminds you of just wet red sand. There is a very strange marker placed there, as a measuring point, around 200 metres from the shoreline. At this point it looked like it was going to get very soft the further out we walked, so gave it a miss.

The next longest stretch of the Lake that we have ventured out onto was from Nilpena. We were crazy enough to walk out over three and a half kilometres from the shore line in a quest to record a Degree Confluence that lies out there. Once again the surface was very soft and at this point, is around 80 kilometres from the eastern side to the western side.

To our surprise, the surface was covered in very low samphire plants that continued out the the far horizon. Most times we were leaving foot prints of around 25mm deep, and then every now and then would go down to almost ankle deep. We did make a very important discovery out on the eastern side of the Lake, of sighting and photographing the Lake Eyre Dragon Lizard. The only confirmed sighting were on the western side of the Lake in the 1960's, and over nearly 50 years had made their way across to the eastern side, as confirmed by the Museum in Adeaide.

A very good friend of mine, who has now past away, was manager of Moralana Station for over 50 years and has told me many great stories about the Lake. John told me that there were a number of time that stock from the western side had walked across the Lake to his Station, and like he said, they must have survived on the vegetation on the lake surface. He did take the long and treacherous task a couple of times of driving out there on motor bikes to get his stock, bit said it was always very soft, even in years of drought.

Judging by our experiences, I would only trust walking out there and never attempts vehicle crossing. One thing that you will need, is lots of water, as the reflection out there is very vivid and you will be surprised how much water you will consume on a large walk that you are planning.

I would be interested to here how you go.


All the Best.



Stephen

I walked across Gairdner, just the neck at the Speed Week clubhouse. And been well out on it at dawn and dusk. It was dry, so firm. You get these small salt ridges zig zagging around the place, plus big crystal clusters forming on a branch or the like that's been blown onto the surface.

Helluva experience.

The dingos trot round the edge, on the flat, to cover distance. Easier than on the dirt and rock.

I've read that the salt in places is over a metre deep.