Ceduna is at the top of the Eyre peninsula and as far as we were going to go west on this trip as we had already done the rest of the coast a few times before when coming back over the Nullarbor. We did a full re-supply here as we were about to go into a remote area with a low chance of seeing anyone for a while. We decided at the last minute to do Goog's Track which heads straight north of there and had read about it a few times and wanted to check it out. We first filled our jerry cans so we had 140 litres in total as we knew there would be around 700 kms ( 430 miles ) without a refuel point on the route we had chosen.

   

Goog's track goes over 300 hundred sand dunes in a 100 miles. Got hit by the storm too.

You have to get camping permits at $5 a night for the time you are staying within the different reserves along the way which you get at the National Parks office in town or the visitors centre where we picked up a map as well. The road to the start of the track is only about 5 kms from town to the north and is unsignposted but is the one that goes straight ahead on gravel while the main tar road to Perth goes to the left. Normally this is a dry area receiving little rain but as luck would have it, even though it was the middle of summer and 100*F, we were hit by a few storms.

   

Storms still rolling in at Sunset but Sunrise gave clear skies and over 100*F!

Goog's track came about as the land owner of Lone Oak, which the track passes through most of the way, thought it would be a good idea to build a track from the Transcontinental Railway at Tarcoola to Ceduna to better service the town. His name was John Denton but friends knew him as Goog which was a nick name he got for his love of egg's when he was a kid. He lobbied the government for a few years but got no where so he thought stuff it one day and got out the trusty Fordson tractor with a blade and later a Bulldozor and started on it himself. He started in June 1973 and just working every weekend and on his holidays with the family he completed it in August 1976. 

   

The long straight track heading to the Transcontinental Railway.

The track is described as a mini Canning Stock Route or Simpson Crossing but I would not take it that far. It is still a place where you have to be careful especially in the heat of summer when we did it with it in the 40's*C ( over 100*F ) both days we did the track. We only met one other the whole way which were in a loaded Patrol as we were letting down our tyres when the dunes got steeper. He said he had already let his down to 39 psi so didn't need to go further and looked at me like I was mad for going down to 15 psi! Well he was only behind us for a couple of dunes before he disappeared from view no doubt not making it over due to the high pressures! He didn't call us over the UHF CB so we left it to him to think about letting his own tyres down.

   

Plenty of water left by the storms even though considered an arid region and this is the middle of Summer!

 

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