The road from Tibooburra west to the corner is generally pretty good. This 140km drive west 'normally' takes about 3-4 hours. When we hit the dirt just out of Tibb, the road had seen better days. I mean it wasn't rough but the previous weeks the road was shut due to water on the road and after it opened it was obvious that there had been a bit of traffic due to the hollows in the road. It was dry too, not dusty just dry. We could see for miles across the plains, saw the odd roo and emu poking about but that was it. There are a few sand risers ( not quite dunes ) along the way, but the first major landmark is the Waka clay pan. A massive hollow between the dunes this is a great place to stop and take the surrounding area in. Dry as a bone too - very dry. Ive seen this when it has been near full and this has been the driest i have seen it- but thats the cycle l suppose.
As you wander along the risers- dunes- do become a little more visible, and it seems funny as on this trip that is where the yellow daisy type flowers were in bloom. Not the lower sections where water may gather, but on the higher sections in the red sand. Bizarre..
Our camp for the night was going to be the Fort Grey campground but we decided to head to the Corner store for a feed, then come back to camp. I like the corner store- always great to friendly faces out here in these harsh elements and today was no different. So after a few pics and a feed we headed up to the corner marker post the standard selfie post pic and to touch the infamous marker. Today had been another cold and bloody windy day so we were keen to get going. Looking at the GPS we worked out that we could stay on the QLD ( the northern side of the fence ) and then head through another gate called Fortville Gate. This was great, absolutely no traffic, and in fact no wheel marks in the sand for about 20km. Eventually we found the track to head back through the gate. It was a def an isolated track that ran with the dunes instead of over them, we were surprised that there were quite a few stands of mulga trees along the way, probably sitting in areas of damp soil from when the water flows. Soon the gate came into view and we were back into NSW. A quick dash of about 10km saw us turn into the Fort Grey camping area.
l was really hoping that the trees around the campground would give us some protection- but how wrong was l !!.....the decision was made to huddle around one of the shelters the NPWS had provided - and we def had to peg everything down.
Tomorrow we explore the Lake Pinaroo lake and its history.
DRIVING THE GIBBER ROAD TOWARDS THE CORNER
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