turns to dirt and at the time of writing
was in pristine condition. A few sand-
holes did challenge however, overall
progress was around 70 kilometres
per hour. Beware of the animals, this
is cattle country, so the occasional
cow will be present, but it is the more
erratic native animals that will cause
the problems, especially the plentiful
emus.
The track in from Pooncarie, to the
north west, is perhaps the least used
and therefore least maintained. It’ll
provide a challenge, sandy and rough,
yet is the shortest of the dirt tracks.
Toss it up; short and challenging, long
and relatively easy. Your call.
The two other routes are the most
commonly used and perhaps there-
fore often the routes in the worst con-
dition. The 4x4, trucks, buses and car-
avans will destroy the roads.
One route, from Robinvale, approx-
imately 129km (100km of dirt) took
almost 4 hours to complete. The road
was heavily damaged, sand-holes cov-
TRAVERSE 62
ered almost the entire length. The
sand, in itself, is tricky enough how-
ever, the holes are hard to determine
and hitting them at speed could be
catastrophic. Slow and steady, the or-
der of the day, tough going yet beauti-
ful Australian outback.
The road to Mildura, is a similar sto-
ry and often said to be the worst of all
the tracks. This track definitely sees
the most traffic, the road is corrugat-
ed and rough, if you want an easy ride,
give it a miss.