Wilkinson Wanderings: Mt Ive Station Camper Trailer Group Meet May 2-7

We finally arrived at Mt Ive , starting out in convoy with Craig and Phil, but our UHF radio has been very contrary and intermittent all week. Not at all convenient when you are doing 4WD tracks each day. Thanks to others we have been able to borrow one that works consistently.

Mt Ive is a working sheep station but for many years it has attracted camping and 4WD enthusiasts. There are several tracks and over the week we completed 4 of them. Our intrepid leader Phil Selman with Craig Quinn as the faithful navigator managed to get our group through them all without getting lost – the only group to achieve this. The tracks vary in difficulty from moderate to challenging. All are extremely rocky, rhyolite being the dominant rock. They have interesting names such as Billy Cans (cans on trees indicate the track) and Flight Path (named after a person named Flight, not an airstrip, although there is one). More normal names are Mt Scott and Mt Ive, neither of which really count as mountains as they are only about 300 metres high.

There were excellent views of the countryside from the lookouts, a number of organ pipe formations, a massive eagle nest and quite varied scenery. Mt Ive has an old fridge on the top. When we were on the summit of Mt Scott I had mobile coverage for a the first time, and the first text I received was to tell me that Noni B had 30% off!

The highlight of the week for us was the trip to Lake Gairdner, Australia’s 4^th largest salt lake, rock hard and a stunning glistening white. Quite spectacular! This was followed closely by the twice monthly visit of the Flying Doctor. The team on site consisted of the pilot, a doctor and a nurse. All consultations were held in the plane. Co-incidentally this pilot also came to Mungerannie Hotel when we were there in 2012. On that occasion it was to treat the barman who collapsed during the afternoon.

Our week ended with a shared dinner and thank you presentation to Mike Fretwell who had organised the event.