There's not a lot surrounding Mt Ive,
except itself.
Weighing in at around 93000 hectares, it's pretty easy to 'get away from it all' there.
It's been a working sheep station since 1864, and our accommodation was in the shearers' quarters. This is no mini shampoo and sewing kit affair. With it's spartan rooms and communal facilities, it's as close to camping as I prefer to get. That's not to say I wasn't comfortable, I was, and my reason for being there – the surroundings – made it so worth it. Mt Ive offers a range of accommodation options from campsites, to the lovely stone room with it's own fireplace, but as I was a party of 5 it was wall to wall bedding in a shearer's room for us.
The station is very popular with 4WDrivers, and maps are available of private access tracks that take you to some spectacular scenery. And for one week each year the tourist population swells as the Dry Lake Racing Association take to Lake Gairdner for their speed trials – make sure you are not booking your accommodation then because there is no room at the inn.
The bathroom. I love the light, the wire enforced frosted glass, and the mirrors stuck on.
There is a shop with basic supplies, but you do need to bring your own food in, and cook it. The rec room/dining room has table tennis, chess, darts, all the usual suspects.
But it's outside where the action is, even at night under a million stars (though it can be pretty cold!)
How amazing is this scenery!
Incredible, exposed rhyolite columns
The Embankment, built in the late 1800's
There were lots of goats hanging around. At first I couldn't place the smell, then I laughed, because the water smelled like fetta!
How cute is this little guy! He was only about two inches long.
One of the locals getting some shade…
Visitors are welcome to involve themselves in the farm side of the station (like mustering sheep, or fixing fences) and I would have loved to, but we just weren't there for long enough.
There were too many stunning landscapes!
I'm obsessed with the red earth
It was out here, on the station, with the vastness, that blue sky, the red dirt, and the salt lake, that I finally appreciated what a extraordinarily beautiful, awe inspiring country we live in. I always knew it was good, I just never realised how much it could make me smile.
Travellin' boots…
Five boots in frame, five cameras out of frame – love it.
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