Thanks to Stephen's advanced planning & arrangements with Robin, we had permission to use closed BMR tracks south of the
Anne Beadell Highway. Unfortunately, due to Robin's wife's illness he was unable to join us, & this meant we could not travel the planned route that we'd expected so it remains a "mystery". If they were in the convoy we would also have been able to visit many rare sites. Despite this major setback, Robin supplied us with a unique map of tracks to follow that do not appear on the Geoscience topo maps, so we had a great adventure.
At one point we all stood over the map as shown in this
pic (insert later).
Our first deviation off the Annw Beadell was at
Anne's Corner on the first of the many BMR tracks. This is definitely closed to those without permission of the
Maralinga Tjurutja but the track was a lovely sandy straight line across the ridge top of red dunes fringed in
places by
wildflowers, spinifex & marble trees. The track later crossed the lower end of
Voakes Hill Rd & then joined a graded & gravel topped road that looked purpose-built to carry large equipment. We passed many gravel pits & man-made storage dams. This road was built for seismic testing but apparently their contract with the
Maralinga Tjurutja is to keep it serviceable. Robin had planned a route deviation off this track to take us into country where a rare firm of eucalypt had recently been discovered & documented & a few of our budding botanists were keen to find it, despite significant distances to travel in very remote country. The highlights were seeing the regeneration after fires had wiped out a large area (1-2 years ago) & the glowing afternoon skies as we found
our camp in a desert oasis.
Most of us agreed it was one of the most spectacular sunsets we'd ever seen. (pics to be loaded later).
Our camp oven dinner was a beef casserole with rice.