SATURDAY 23 JULY     PUNGALINA

We took our day off today, because tomorrow I had to do a meal for camping guests.

They were a party of six, again  known somehow to O, from his childhood home area in northern Victoria. He had put them in a site not often used – beside the Safari Camp Creek, but on the opposite side. We hadn’t noticed when they came in and hadn’t been told at the time, but I thought it must have been about last Sunday. They had been doing their own exploring about the place, although O had taken them out and about a couple of times.

We decided to try to find Ringo’s Song, out to the east. This spot was marked on the mud map of the place, and O had talked about it. He had indicated that the track out there should be dry enough, now, to travel on, but he had not had time, this year, to clear it of any debris.

I was intrigued by the name for the place. Apparently, it derived from when there was a mustering group camped out there – when the feral cattle were mustered, after the purchase of the place. The mustering crew were from the neighbouring Seven Emu Station. One of the stockmen – Ringo – had a guitar, and did some singing around the evening campfires. Quite a poetic name, I thought, and I was keen to go see if the place lived up to it.

Took the driveway track, then the one towards the wetlands, for a little way, then branched off this to the north.

We had to proceed even more carefully than was usual on the property tracks, because the track was hard to discern.

In some places, we had to clear light fallen timber from the track.

It was worth the effort – there were a couple of really pretty water hole/creek areas. I thought the first one of these was what was marked as Shadforth’s Camp on the map. This had a lot of water lilies growing on the water hole.

The track went sort of round that and across a gutter like creek, then further on we came to what seemed to be more of a flowing creek, and presumed this was Ringo’s Song. But we were guessing, really. Could not discern a track going further on, though the mud map indicated it did.

We walked around for a while, exploring.

Admired the excellent stands of pandanus growing here, particularly a fan shaped one.

It definitely was worth the effort to get out there.