Voakes Hill August 9 - 11 2025
 
  We have a deadline. Peter and Margaret will join Friends of the Great Victoria Desert for a field trip somewhere south of Voakes Hill Corner on the 12th.
     
  We reluctantly leave the lake.

There is a short rise returning us to the plain and sandhills.
     
  A cloudy start to the day. Forecast is it will clear. There will be sufficient sunshine to fill our batteries.
     
  My only childhood artistic success was painting by numbers.

Number 7 is "Mulga Woodland".
     
  Number 6 is Honeysuckle Spider Flower.

Perhaps the wrong time of year?
     
  Number 5 is Desert Heath Myrtle.

Our vocabulary of plants has been expanded.
     
  There is a 50km stretch of the track where camping is not permitted.

Sensitive area for Aboriginals.
     
  A small lake.
     
  With some rock arrangements.
     
  A native well.

No water. We imagine digging.

The well is below a dune that encircles a depression.
     
  We imagine a camel arriving expecting water and becoming angry that there is none ...
     
  50km sounds not far. But with corrugations our progress is about 80km/day before we tire.
     
  Number 4 is a Desert Kurrajong.

Very distinctive as we look at it. But we know our memories fade fast. The best we usually do is "there's another of those trees that ....".

We camp shortly after this, having travelled past the end of the 50km no camping.
     
  Number 2 is Mallee Cyprus Pine Woodland.

We missed number 3. Grass Leaved Hakea. It seems we were lucky seeing it in flower near Neales Junction. We haven't seen flowers for a few days.
     
  Not so lucky. A broken spring. Abandoned recently.
     
  Number 1. Black Oak Woodlands ..... we knew that!
     
  The Voakes Hill Turnoff.

We carry on to the junction.
     
  Past more black oaks.
     
  And Mallee.
     
  A brown falcon to greet us.
     
  We stop for the night. A day early.

 
     
  A walk around reveals what may be an Aboriginal Scarred Tree. Bark removed for one of any number of uses.
     
  A crested bellbird.

There were male and female foraging around the campground.
     
  We leave Peter and Margaret at the corner. A day and a half of rest for them. Meeting the field group will be a few km to the south. A bit of uncertainty but there's only one track.
     
  The clouds slowly clear.

The corrugations continue.

The stretch to Emu is reputedly the worst of the track.

But so far so good.
     
  We've seen lots of these crosses.

Len Beadell's track markers.
     
  We leave the conservation park.

But still in Aboriginal land.
     
  The dunes have been interesting for quite a few days.

We have an impression of them being lower, and wider.
     
  We also feel the vegetation thinning.
     
  All very confusing for this bear of little brain.

We are still in Aboriginal land so need a permit from Maralinga-Tjarutja. We are entering Woomera Prohibited Area so need a permit from the Ministry of Defence.

The penalties for not having a Woomera Permit vary from 9 years imprisonment to 6 months and/or $2,200 fine. Depends on the apparent age of the sign.

We have permits.
     
  A random trackside camp about 88km east of Voakes Hill Corner.

We've noticed the lack of, or at least not so prevalent, grasses for a while.

     
  The customary walk up the nearest dune.

They are more like rolling hills than dunes and swales.

The vegetation changes with the sand (soil), topography, and rainfall.
     
  A few black oaks to improve campsite ambience.
     
Emu Field August 12 - 13 2025
     
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