Little Desert Trip Report

Little Desert National Park, another experience of the outback in Victoria’s Mallee region, with sand dunes, dry lakes, woodlands, scrub and wildflowers. It was the season for the wildflowers to be out but with the lack of rain they weren’t out in their abundance this weekend. Our trip leader Ernie has traveled and explored the area for many years, so his knowledge of the was fantastic and we were in good hands.

Day 1 – Bendigo to Kiata Campground

Friday 12th October 2018

We had a very large group of 15 vehicles and Ernie admitted he had never taken a group this big through the Little Desert before.

Some members went over on the Thursday and the rest of us headed over on the Friday, all leaving Bendigo and surrounds at different times, we meet at the Kiata Campground which is about 26 km past Dimboola then a left turn at Kiata on the Kiata south rd for 7 km and another left turn into the campground. It was great having a nice fire to sit around under the starry skies, talking about a day of exploring and what scenic highlights we were to encounter, since many of us have never traveled to the Little Desert before. After a few drinks we were off to bed by about 12am.

Day 2 – Tracks in Little Desert, and Horseshoe Bend Campground

Saturday 13th October 2018

Saturday morning we were up early for coffee and the smell of bacon and eggs was amazing. We aired down to about 20 psi, had a quick briefing on the days travels and pulled out of camp before 9am. Finding our spots in the convoy we turned left up Salt lake trk, heading along it started to rain a little making the sand a bit more solid and easy travelling, we started to get into a bit more sand driving, some of us were in High Range 4wd and some vehicles with Automatic Transmissions were in Low Range 4wd to make it easier on their transmissions from over heating.

We traveled along a few more tracks before getting to Horseshoe Bend Campground were we had lunch. After lunch we moved off again taking tracks like Northern Break trk, Warriors trk then onto Pump Jack trk driving through a fair bit of sand, we came back onto Salt Lake trk and arrived back into camp by 3pm. The fire was lit and we had an afternoon around the fire and a few drinks, and after a few more drinks the night was full of laughter and conversation until we went to bed at 12am again.

Day 3 – Tracks in Little Desert, returning to Bendigo

Sunday 14th October 2018

Sunday morning when people woke we gathered around the fire talking about the night before, we had breakfast and got ready for a mornings drive.

We headed out of camp changing the order of the convoy and heading back down Salt Lake trk down to Dahlenburgs Mill Track taking a right onto Matures trk and around past the dog and cat fence up Southern Break trk having a tiny sand dune to conquer (where Phar Lap got a giddy up) then this track just winds its way around following the boundary fence to the bomb shelters where back in the day it was a bomb testing site and the shelters still remain.

We then turned around heading along Dahlenburgs Mill Track which actually had a fair bit of sand, winding its way back to Salt Lake trk and we headed back for camp. We got into camp about 11.30am and people packed up slowly and headed for home at their own pace, some of us decided on a pub meal so we stopped at the pub in Horsham before heading home.

Thanks to Ernie for organising and being Trip Leader.

Participants