After crossing the Murray River we followed our instructions and were soon turning off the bitumen onto the dirt road that would take us into Gluepot Reserve. This is 50 kms or so of very rough corrugated road some of which is on private property. There are 5 gates which need to be opened and closed again but at least this gives you a reprieve from the 'bone shaking' drive for a minute or two. While we knew our Jeep would cope with the rough road we were a little worried about the van even though the guys who made it assured us it could go almost anywhere. It is not 4WD but it seemed to do OK. Just a couple of screws shook loose in the cupboards but Bill took care of those once we arrived. The instructions we had advise that it is about 1 1/2 hours drive from Waikerie but at the speed you have to travel it was over 2 hours.
When we saw the 'Welcome' sign it came with a shock, there was still 12 kms to go and the road seemed to get worse not better in some parts. Finally arriving at the Visitor Centre we stopped to register and find out where to go.
There are 3 camping areas at Gluepot all located kms away from where we were. We met one of the rangers here and after helping us with some general information we decided that we would camp at Babbler Campsite and so set off on our last 4 kms of the day. And this bit of road was pretty smooth!
We arrived to find no one else camped there so chose a site and got ourselves set up for the next 5 days. Each campground has about 18 sites with 2 pit toilets located centrally. These have sloping roofs placed over a large water tank to collect any rainwater that falls thus ensuring a small water supply for hand washing only. By now you all probably wondering - Where are they? What is Gluepot? Why are they there? And so the answers!
Gluepot Reserve is a 540 square km nature reserve owned by Birds Australia. In 1997 Gluepot Station, a pastoral lease in the semi-arid mallee region of South Australia was purchased in order to protect its outstanding flora and fauna which was under threat because of an application by the lessee to burn the property to provide grazing for sheep. Gluepot is part of the Riverland Biosphere Reserve which forms part of the 12,200 square km Riverland Mallee Important Bird Area, identified as such by BirdLife International for its importance in the conservation of mallee birds and their habitats.
Nearly 200 species of birds have been recorded at Gluepot. These include the nationally threatened Malleefowl, Regent Parrot, Red-lored Whistler and Black-eared Miner. A further 33 species are considered to be regionally threatened. Scarlet-chested Parrots are known to have bred on Gluepot in the past, and still visit the reserve. And we were there for Bill to photograph as many of these birds as we could find.
To visit Gluepot you have to be totally self sufficient. You need to carry in all your own water and food to last while you are there. You must have sufficient gas and fuel as there is nothing available once on the reserve. As I have said before I was a little concerned about how I would cope with this but before I go on I must let you all know that I loved every moment of it. No I am not mad and I can't wait to do it all again. Of course 5 days without a shower was the one thing I wasn't looking forward too. But Bill even took care of that little issue for me too.
We have 2 60 litre water tanks on the van so arrived with 120 litres of water, we also bought 2 15 litre bottles that we would use for drinking thus leaving the tanks for other things. The shopping was taken care of and we had a full gas bottle and a full tank of fuel so we were set. At just $10 per night in camp fees you really can't complain about anything (except the rough road in).
So here we were after weeks of planning, the van all set up and dinner in the oven. That first night was an amazing experience. We were totally alone in the middle of the Australian bush, it was still very hot and without any clouds in the sky the stars were just brilliant.
After dinner we spent the evening just relaxing under the awning (with the mosquito coils burning) before we took ourselves to bed after our big day on the road. We slept like babies and woke to the sound of Crested Bellbirds the next morning.
We had breakfast and then Bill spent some time setting up the Solar Panels where they could be switched from the van to the Thumper battery in the car. We had turned our car fridge into a freezer and needed to ensure it kept running as we had all our meat and meals for the next week frozen in there. And then to my little surprise. He had bought me a camp shower for our little en suite. Just a bag you fill with water and hang from a tree or something. I decided that I would survive for a couple of days before I needed to try it out and so we half filled it and left it in the sun to heat up.
I did try it out a couple of days later but needed Bill to turn it on and off from the outside, a bit tricky and the little nozzle was next to useless. It was then that Bill decided to have a look at the shower we had bought when we got the camper. He had not tried it because he thought it needed gas to heat the water but on further inspection we found that we could pump warm water straight from the bucket. The solar panels and inverter powered it and a kettle of boiling water added to the bucket gave us the right temperature - Yippee - we both had showers and used less water than the original bag had held.
As the morning wore on we had some visitors to our camp site. Grey Currawongs and cheeky Grey Butcherbirds came to visit to see who we were and what we were doing. Also the hot weather of the last two days seemed to have disappeared and in its place was a very strong wind which blew all day. Not sure how good the solar panels are going to work today!
Just one other thing to say here - I don't like Spiders and Snakes - sounds like a song doesn't it but I did have to come to terms with a few creatures over the next week. Our first encounter was after dinner on our first night when Bill just happened to look down and see this rather large Scorpion heading across the mat towards his foot. Yikes! Because it was still hot and we hadn't started to walk anywhere we were both still in our thongs. Lesson learnt and the boots stayed on for the rest of the time we were there.
The next day we came across a lovely little snake as we walked along one of the tracks. It was very colourful and though it didn't bother us it reminded us again to watch were we put our feet. We saw lots of lizards over the week. Small geckos, slow squat stumpy tailed ones and larger ones that looked like Bearded Dragons and the much larger Sand Goannas.
In fact one of the highlights of our week was when a Bearded Dragon walked across the front of our camp and started to dig a hole. We watched for an hour and a half as it just dug and dug until it was completely covered up inside. We left it then as it seemed that not much was happening and when we got back a couple hours later it was to find that it had come out and covered the hole back in - complete with its little footprints where it had stamped the sand back down - and totally disappeared again. Through research we are sure we watched a female dragon dig her burrow, lay her eggs and leave them to incubate. It was such a shame we didn't stay to watch her come out but we had no idea. Never mind it was still fascinating.
And of course the law of averages says that you can't camp in the bush for a week and not see a spider doesn't it. And so yes, I came face to face with two of them, both in toilets. The first one I got Bill to deal with but the second and bigger one I just had to take a deep breath and managed to open the door and get past it without it doing me any harm. I think the blood pressure was up a bit though! Urgh!
Flies, mosquitoes and bees were the other insects we had to deal with. The first two were dealt with using spray and coils but the bees became a bit of a challenge. They didn't want to hurt us they just wanted the water. There were dozens of them all round the bucket that collected the waste water from the sink. They had to be shooed away from the tap at the tank when you wanted to wash your hands and when we left our door open they discovered the sink, the damp dishcloth and the tap. It was amazing to watch them.
And so I'll leave it here for now and will be back soon to fill you in on our week at Gluepot.
until then……...
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