15/5/2022 – Sunday – 145km

A sleep-in this morning as our group departed at 9.15am on the Bridle Track & Bluff Lookout drive. We turned out of Melrose along the Surveyor’s Road on a little stretch of bitumen until it turned into a good dirt road. We followed this fairly good road along for a while with wheat & sheep properties on either side, it is very dry. We then turned onto the Bridle Track, a less well maintained track with five gates along its length. The Bridle Track is a little less well maintained as it traverses private land & we were advised to engage low range. The track got a lot steeper & eventually we reached the highest point of the track with great views over the Spencer Gulf & Port Germain, with Port Pirie to the south & Whyalla over the gulf. The next section of the track was a rough & steep downhill section with some big washouts. We engaged downhill descent control & let the car do all the work of braking each wheel & engaging a low gear, I only did the steering. Each car came down the steep descent by itself in case anything went wrong with a descent. All cars made it safely through & the rest of the track was steep, but the road was generally in better condition.

We drove into Port Germain, once the busiest port in Australia in the 1800s with wheat exports, however, the wharf & goods shed are the only reminders of that era. We have morning tea in what was an old sandstone hotel near the wharf, but do not have time to walk the 1.2km out the wharf. There are a few relics of the shipping days on display & we have a walk around looking at these, including a unique clock faced tide gauge. The displays were very interesting & informative.  Next we drive up the Port Germain Gorge from a different perspective than a couple of days ago, just as beautiful as the narrow road twisted up the narrow gorge, some of the trees have beautiful shapes as time & fires have added character to them.

At the site of the old Gorge Hotel, built in 1888, though now a ruin with trees growing through what is left of the structure, we stop for a look & rest. Next we turn off to the Bluff Lookout, another steep road, however this is in far better condition with bitumen on the steepest part to the top. The views from the Bluff lookout are sensational, though now we are halfway between Port Germain & Port Pirie. The native vegetation at the top shows good fresh growth after the bushfires from a few years ago. At the base of the mountain we stop at the old nursery that was used to raise seedlings for planting into the depleted forest areas. The nursery is another derelict reminder of a past age.

Next we are back to Wirrabara for a late lunch at the bakery & another look at the silo art, this time we are shown where to find a head hidden amongst the art. We drive from here across to Appila, stopping for a mob of sheep to come onto the road, they get frightened back into the paddock unfortunately for the farmers. We drive through the township of Boolaroo Centre before getting back to camp in Melrose around 4pm, 145 Km mostly rough road driving.  We only stay a short time at happy hour by the fire.  A big day, but a good one.