Part 1/3 - Aurora/Helena Ranges, Mt Manning, Mt Jackson, Mt Elvire

Spent easter a just under 300kms north of southern Cross, exploring and camping in the bush. All self contained and solo (except the first day when a mate tagged along in his Forrester.) Its a great spot and some of the best camping you will get in the southern part of WA. Well worth taking a look. I recorded all my tracks and waypoints. Started at Southern Cross, then drove to Koolyanobbing, then the track up to the Aurora/Helena range, Drove as far around the range as possible, drove the ridge track, its pretty rough after a heap of rain, and then pulled up at the bottom to set up camp. The storms came and made everything damp but I missed out on all the damage I saw at Merredin. From Aurora I drove a bush track due west around a mine until I come to the Bullfinch road. I come across old out stations, mines, diggings, all sorts of old stuff. From here I explored some old mines and then headed to Jackson Station, calling into some more old mine ruins to look around. Had a look at the old house that is on Jackson station. In its day 2000 people lived at the location. The station owner come along and chatted to him for a while. From Mt Jackson I headed further north the Manning range, this is where I set up camp. I went looking for a meteor strike site, but I never found it, thats for another day. The next morning I headed for Mt Elvire Homestead, but instead of taking the road I took the wagon track across and around Lake Giles, eventually getting to the station, This was the only time I thought I might get stuck. I had a heap of recovery gear, and sat phones etc, but didn't need any of it luckily. Looked around Mt Elvire for a while, made some lunch. From here I headed out to the old Diemals station. This had been burned down, and it looked like a dozer had been in there trying to clean up. But there was stuff everywhere, around 200 years of junk. From here I headed to Bullfinch. This was the official end to the trip.