Balladonia to Cape Arid/Alexander Bay via the Balladonia Track

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One of the most Adventurous Days of Our Big Lap

Started hour day at the Balladonia Road House Camp and Museum.
Balladonia telegraph repeater station was built at Balladonia rocks in 1896.
We visited the Museum with newspaper clippings which occupies part of the road house
In 1979 a NASA Sky Lab fell to earth and some of the space rubbish landed around Balledonia. The Western Australian Government charged NASA $400 for dumping their rubbish.
Supplies on board we set out on the Balledonia Track for Cape Arid at 8.30am, odometer 78510kms
The Balladonia track is a 171km short cut from Balladonia to the coast, little did we know when we set out that it would take us 11hours to complete.
The signs in the entrance state that it is
4 Wheel Drive only, surface conditions hazardous, if unprepared turn back.
Not suitable for caravans. (Which we were towing)
Travelling was a little treacherous at times, bad corrugations, large rocks in the road, trees across the road, sand and even water in big road holes from previous rains.
The going was slow, often stopping to remove branches and small trees from the edge of the road to prevent the caravan being damaged. We drove in 4x4 high range mode most of the way, going over large rocky areas and through sand.

1056hrs and we stopped for a 20minute break, lunch of salad sandwiches. at 1255hrs we reached the Esperance Rd intersection, odometer on 78581kms

In the Cape Arid park we noted there had been a bush fire through sometime during summer and a large area was heavily scorched.

At 1430hrs we came to a stop as a large tree had fallen across the road, uncertain how to get pass we were lucky a fellow traveller came along with a very hand saw.

The Adventure continued as we broke away dense tree bushes from the 'goat track' which was the road.
At 1730hrs as the sun was going down and a130km from Balladonia on the Balladonia Track we viewed Mt Ragged. The intersection to Israelite Bay and the last 40kms of sandy road which had just been graded

We passed these graders and work men who could not believe we had come that far with a caravan.
For the next 35km we drove (slid around in sand).
Only once did we think that we were bogged, lucky for us our Land Drover Discovery proved it's value.



At 2000hrs we reached Fishers Rd and reviewed our plans, ate our slow thermal cooked dinner on the side of the road and had a short break.

We headed for Alexander Bay Camp Ground not wanting to push our luck in the dark of night. Between Cape Le Grande (which was booked out???) and Cape Arid.
Arrived at the camp at 9.45pm, an 11 hour day of hard yakka.

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