So by now you have read the title and thought that I was back in VIC or SA – well I’m not. As out WA brethren would already know, there is a quite substantial river here also called the Murray. Although it isn’t as long as the well established big brother, it is still impressive in its own right.
But anywho we better start this story from the start, even if I have given away where I headed too. Friday afternoon Gom (Rute’s mate) sent me a message asking if I was interested in going for a run. We had a quick chat and decided to turn it into an overnighter, which ended up being a luck call as I had to attend work Saturday morning.
Departing the city and hour late due to the afore mentioned ‘work’ we finally headed south to Dwellingup. Nothing fancy, just a straight run there in time to watch the last 10 overs of the cricket. There may have been some cold beverages consumed at the same time – man really isn’t a camel in 38 degree temps.
On leaving the pub we headed down River Rd enjoying a nice run down until we joined the river in the Lane Poole Reserve. Straight away the increased traffic was noticeable by the corrugations primarily on the outside of the corners.
We continued on the eastern side of the river pulling over at Island Pool for a dip.
After a decent swim we kept heading south on the eastern side. In short we checked out a lot of tracks heading down to the river, and found a lot of great camping spots for future trips.
Turning right onto Howes Drive we followed it for a little while before joining up with the track that runs up the western side of the river. Straight away you can see that this is where the 4WDers come and play, and its obvious that they are tackling in when wet. Whilst I like a good play at the best of times, the result has been quite a bit of damage in the case of numerous bog holes.
We weren’t able to skirt any which wasn’t an issue in these dry conditions, but would certainly be an issue in the wet. The other side is you won’t get through there without a proper 4WD, or be prepared to damage an AWD at best.
Saying all that though, we again found some fantastic areas as we headed north. Even found a few old bridges leading to nowhere…
We again crossed the Murray River, this time at Bob’s Crossing. Following the track we pulled up at Baden Powell and enjoyed a swim.
A spot of dinner was sorted with a tin of potato salad
After dinner it was back to what felt like the start of the day – Island Pool. A few quiet beverages whilst soaking in the water was definitely the way to finish it all off. Only thing missing was someone better looking than Gom to enjoy the star gazing with….. lol
Actually I think Gom was too pissed to even know there was stars in the sky!!!
Next morning I was up and early, and someone was still passed out. Figuring it was late being 5:30 and all, I decided to check the oil/coolant levels and tyre pressures etc. Not that a bonnet or doors shutting are loud!!!
I went down and got some early morning pics of the river.
Wandering back I asked the old fella if he was up yet. Mumbling something about someone banging about, he arose looking a tad better than he finished the night before. 6am is a sleep in when you’re out bush in summer anyway 🙂
I mentioned that I wanted to head to Bobs Crossing for some photos, so we decided to head there before returning to Baden Powell where we were the night before.
Something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. Suddenly it dawned on me – I HADN’T HAD ANY COFEE!!! I can’t remember the last time I woke up and didn’t automatically put the jug on. Anyway I rectified the issue by having a couple (note – real coffee, not the fancy shit!) 🙂
With that crisis averted I turned my attention to the water.
A discussion ensued about how to return back to Perth. We decided on doing the full length of Scarp Rd. So off we went backtracking to Dwellingup before turning onto Scarp Rd. First stop was a lookout just south of Pinjarra Rd.
Travelling to the bottom of the hill, we came across a fantastic little spot on the Murray River named the Scarp Pool. There’s no big info sign up on the main road, so it should be a lot less populated compared to Lane Poole.
Backtracking to the Pinjarra Rd, we crossed over and started climbing up to the top of the Scarp. Finding a couple of other areas of interest (namely a dam) we arrived at Del Park Rd
We turned back onto Scarp Rd and arrived at North Dandalup Dam
I found that the corrugations weren’t altogether that bad, but coupled with the heavy duty springs and lack of a load it had me skittling about a little. I tempered that slightly by engaging the centre diff lock, but its certainly noticeable without the camper trailer.
Eventually we popped out at Jarrahdale thinking we’d stop and have a beer at the pub. Well that was a tad hard as the bloody pub was shut – on a Sunday!
So trusting the maps we cut across to the Wungong Reservoir. The maps & GPS were wrong, but thankfully the topo maps weren’t.
Getting to the other end of the track we came across a gate that had a cut padlock. Around the corner from that was another gate with 2 busted padlocks and the gate itself was all smashed up. Seems weird that one side is (well was) gated, but the other side isn’t. Don’t think I’ll wander through there again.
We went to take a look at the Wungong Reservoir itself, but it’s all locked up now. At 39 degrees I’ve got better things to do than walk my arse up there – that crap really pisses me off over here. The water board have locked bloody everything up!
Next stop was Canning Dam. If you reckon I was already pissed about places locked up you’d be right. But getting here and finding the same thing made my bloody boil. I just turned around and drove out of there…..
We came out the back of the Botanical Park and wound our way up to Ashendon Rd. This was a nice gravel run across to Mundaring Weir, where thankfully you actually CAN drive next to the bloody water. By now though the pub was looking real good, as it was getting bloody hot.
1 cold Bundy later which was possibly the most expensive I’ve ever tasted, I bade goodbye to Gom and dropped down the hill to home. I did one last detour before calling it a weekend.
Cheers
Chris