graham_wa
Mogumber
(If you like this photo, you'll probably also like this and this, but you'll hate this.)
I had a good adventure last night.
It was Saturday, I had nothing planned for the evening, and I hadn't done any country night photography for a while. So what could be better than a trip to Mogumber? I'd never been to Mogumber, I only knew vaguely where it was, and I had it on good authority that there was a CBH terminal there.
As I left Perth, I dropped something off to a mate in Quinns Rocks. His advice for getting out of Perth was to double back about 5km and take a main road to the highway. But I decided to save myself about 15km by heading further north and finding a "back way" into Muchea. I soon learnt that there were plenty of roads between Quinns and Muchea. However, the roads were in woeful condition (the good ones were limestone, the bad ones were soft sand - virtually firebreaks), and it seemed none of them lead all the way to Muchea.
After about half an hour of driving around and being generally lost (if that's possible when you have a GPS), I found a way that would lead me to the road I would have been on if I'd doubled back. I was sticking to the limestone and avoiding sand tracks because my car is not suitable for off-roading on soft surfaces, and it had been raining a few hours earlier. Eventually I realised I was about 500m from the road *if* I took a sand track. I decided to go for it. All went well for most of the way, but I made a bad choice of path when I was only 150m from the bitumen. In she went, and I couldn't back out. The front wheels span at turbo speed whenever I tried to move. I got out to investigate. I could hear cars on the bitumen and the light was fading (I was more worried about the photo opportunities I was losing, rather than seeing my way around the bogged car).
There was no convenient plant material lying around to stuff under the wheels, so I tried a blanket from the car but it gave no traction. I then realised that the problem was a bank of sand that the chassis was resting on, and had just started digging it away by hand when four young blokes showed up in two 4WDs. I explained my predicament and they kindly towed me out without laughing as much as they should have. Once I was out, the rest of the trip was easy. I bet they had a good chuckle afterwards though - a moron in a tiny front wheel drive, bogged on a sand track in the forest. My thanks once more to those guys - they saved my night.
The rest of the journey was easy. A stop at Muchea for fuel and food, then on to Mogumber (40km directly north of Bindoon). There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the moon had gone down just before I arrived, and the Milky Way was on full show. The CBH bins were illuminated by the nearby pub and the occasional car going past. Apart from being a bit chilly (4 degrees), it was an absolute joy once I was there.
Mogumber
(If you like this photo, you'll probably also like this and this, but you'll hate this.)
I had a good adventure last night.
It was Saturday, I had nothing planned for the evening, and I hadn't done any country night photography for a while. So what could be better than a trip to Mogumber? I'd never been to Mogumber, I only knew vaguely where it was, and I had it on good authority that there was a CBH terminal there.
As I left Perth, I dropped something off to a mate in Quinns Rocks. His advice for getting out of Perth was to double back about 5km and take a main road to the highway. But I decided to save myself about 15km by heading further north and finding a "back way" into Muchea. I soon learnt that there were plenty of roads between Quinns and Muchea. However, the roads were in woeful condition (the good ones were limestone, the bad ones were soft sand - virtually firebreaks), and it seemed none of them lead all the way to Muchea.
After about half an hour of driving around and being generally lost (if that's possible when you have a GPS), I found a way that would lead me to the road I would have been on if I'd doubled back. I was sticking to the limestone and avoiding sand tracks because my car is not suitable for off-roading on soft surfaces, and it had been raining a few hours earlier. Eventually I realised I was about 500m from the road *if* I took a sand track. I decided to go for it. All went well for most of the way, but I made a bad choice of path when I was only 150m from the bitumen. In she went, and I couldn't back out. The front wheels span at turbo speed whenever I tried to move. I got out to investigate. I could hear cars on the bitumen and the light was fading (I was more worried about the photo opportunities I was losing, rather than seeing my way around the bogged car).
There was no convenient plant material lying around to stuff under the wheels, so I tried a blanket from the car but it gave no traction. I then realised that the problem was a bank of sand that the chassis was resting on, and had just started digging it away by hand when four young blokes showed up in two 4WDs. I explained my predicament and they kindly towed me out without laughing as much as they should have. Once I was out, the rest of the trip was easy. I bet they had a good chuckle afterwards though - a moron in a tiny front wheel drive, bogged on a sand track in the forest. My thanks once more to those guys - they saved my night.
The rest of the journey was easy. A stop at Muchea for fuel and food, then on to Mogumber (40km directly north of Bindoon). There wasn't a cloud in the sky, the moon had gone down just before I arrived, and the Milky Way was on full show. The CBH bins were illuminated by the nearby pub and the occasional car going past. Apart from being a bit chilly (4 degrees), it was an absolute joy once I was there.