TRIP REPORTS
Out for dinner at the Courthouse Hotel, all 16 of us to
celebrate a memorable hot Australia Day 2019.
“Glen Dart”
“Court House Hotel”
Jan & Mike Loton. 1151.
Day trip notes for Sunday 27th January.
Day 3.
Sunday was cooler than the previous two days but still
quite warm.
For this day Laurie had planned a trip to Mt Benambra.
There were 5 vehicles with 8 couples - three couples
doubled up as passengers. We left camp at 8:30 am, as
planned, because everyone was ready for the pre-trip
briefing at 8:20am.
After morning tea (or play lunch as Laurie called it) we
drove up, up, up to Gibb Range Road, easy 2WD Road,
that a very pleasant forest drive. Following along we saw
the leaves on the track stand up and ‘dance’ in the wake
of the vehicle ahead. There were some sightings of deer
too.
This year there were no major logs across the road to
slow us down or force a turnaround. We did have one
small log to drive over, that some said had rearranged
things in the back.
We drove along the highway to Nariel Road and turned
onto this which was bitumen for the first 30 kilometres,
through farmland. There were two lots of cattle on the
roadside grazing on the long grass. Each with a farmer in
attendance. As we drove slowly past we noticed the
cattle seemed very lean, with ribs and hip bones
protruding.
We turned onto gravel and then Sipthorpes Track,
stopping to let the air out of tyres. Here we had a very
steep descent to the Dart River. We saw the remains of
the Glen Dart township (a gold mining town in 1880s and
1890s) with a maximum population of 100 people. The
information board told us that there had been a pub, and
police station and school for 20 children.
“Mt Benambra Track”