Bendleby Ranges Easter 2010

Updated 17 April 2010

The same group who will be doing our Simpson Trip in July are getting together over easter at Bendleby Ranges.





My second trip there, but their first and will test some driving skills.





Lucky to have secured Crotta Homestead/Cottage which will provide us with comfortable accomodation in rain or shine for the weekend.




Bit of camp oven cooking etc will be done.













Last time we camped in the Easter camping ground and we did not drink much, but sprouted a lot of words of wisdom!!



There are certainly some exciting drives here.














Easter 2010

We left Adelaide am Thursday and met up with the rest of the group at Tarlee then off to The Springs arriving there early afternoon. Others arrived on Friday afternoon.

On arrival we were greeted by Jane and provided with the appropriate instruction for the weekend. We were also given a copy of the news letter which was very informative and includes a challenge to locate Bill & Betsy the gnomes. Poor old Bill is missing in action and has not been seen for some time. Betsy was obviously located over the weekend and re located to a camp in the Bendleby Ranges and WE found her and relocated her as per the instructions in the news letter.





Our accommodation this time was to be at Crotta Cottage which had sleeping for 8 and was a great place to relax and take in some history of this property. Just fantastic. Old machinery, horse drawn drays and the old black smith's workshop.








Crotta turned out to be a great venue for our group with the typical verandas around the house being the place where we spent most of our time after the days driving.






Warren drops in as he heard that we were having tooo much fun.






A couple of ruins near the Gumdale Homestead.


BBQ s, camp oven roast lamb and other meals easily prepared. Wood supplied for fires in our provided little fire which I reckon Warren will be knocking up for others to enjoy ?.



We last attended here in about 2003 with a few drives to do. This time there were drives galore divided between Bendleby and the Hungry Ranges. The maps provided were excellent and set out the varying degrees of difficulty. We drove every day, (Thursday to Monday) and still did not cover some short bits of tracks.






































































Due to rains in recent times, some washouts were a bit deeper than usual and with our vehicles all of us bottomed out at times.






Warren’s new “Lookout” also was bit of a heart stopper but not to be missed. I think it should be named “Warren’s View Lookout”.I believe it gave him some heart palpitations as he ploughed to the top on the dozer.







Our biggest day out was a 7 hour drive through the Hungry Ranges, covering the Quarry Gorge, Back Track, Ridge Top East Fence Track and Bill Goat Ridge. A great day, lots of views, experiences and heart stoppers. Not quite like it was last time we did it. (Pics). For those who have been there, you might say how the hell did it take you so lone, well we always take longer on these runs than suggested, we enjoy bird watching, the opportunity to take photo or video clip and just enjoy the environment.

On the Monday toward the end of the day, it began to rain with enough to convince us to eat inside (first time) and no fire, just a few bottles of red. Bit of a dust storm but nothing too bad. Some rain over night, but when we arrived home Jane informed us that Crotta had received 50 mm or rain. No doubt very welcome too.



A great time had by all.

Oh, and drivers did a great job, especially a couple who were not experienced at all.








Bendleby Ranges - serveral accommodation options and good 4x4 driving.