Day 4 - Stonehenge to Birdsville
We fueled up at Jundah after a mud run in the rain - good fun due to the road being very sticky. The local copper breatho'd all of us and suggested we check if the road we wanted to take was still open - unfortunately it had just been closed so we had to do more bitumen than we had intended. My numberplate is starting to look a bit second hand with a couple of cracks starting to move through it from either side - it may or may not be destroyed as quick as my rear tyre.
Had some kms to make up so started to hit some higher speeds - however, it probably wasn't the smartest move in the world when the roads are pretty sketchy at best and the tyre may or may or not make the distance. Oh well, it was a fun trip at least. On the way we found a sand dune and had a bit of a play. I'm happy to report that the big Drug Runner (DR) made it up the first attempt - even if I did drop it just after the top. Gav had a bit more trouble and took 3 go's. Magnus made us all look bad by barely touching the surface on the way up. Good time had by all.
We stopped at Dion's lookout which gave a very impressive view of the country side. At the moment, the view are very green, considering where we are, due to the huge amount of rain the region has had over the past few months.
About half way into Birdsville I was following a road train (3 trailers) of fuel. It was an 'interesting' view from behind whenever it crossed a floodway (of which there are hundreds). The rear trailers seemed to move about 3-4 meters as they moved over the floodway - definitely not a good time to pass one of them! Still haven't seen any on the dirt roads - which I'm pretty happy about.
Once we arrived in Birdsville, the mandatory beer(s) were had at a very obvious pub of the day. The pub is full of character with a tonne of hats of ex-drinkers adoring the walls. There's a few photo's of different vehicles climbing Big Red - including an old 2 wheel drive valiant, a Hilux with an insane amount of air, and also a Porsche 959 (4WD and very rare). Any photo's in the pub, or phone calls made or received in the pub result in a gold coin donation to the RFDS (Royal Flying Doctor Service).
The Simpson is still closed due to the mud that has been left behind after the flooding. Major bummer, but if you can't get through, then you can't get through. A couple of us are going to see about hooking up with Magnus next year to just do the crossing - I'm pretty keen to do that.
More beers and a t-bone were had the pub that night. They really know how to pack 'em in with nearly every table taken.
On top of play dune.
Day 5 - Birdsville to Mungarannie
Played on Big Red today - 160 km round trip. Deep sand tracks and several dunes to cross gave us a taste of what the Simpson would have offered. Bloody hard going and had to learn how to ride in sand again - give it the gas, stand up, let the bike squiggle and squirm as much as it wants, don't use the front brake and have fun! Met 4 blokes coming back the other way - they had tried to cross - even floated their bikes across Eyre Creek on tubes, but the mud on the other side had stopped them. Was impressive to see the way they handled the sand with fully loaded bikes - 3 x DR and 1 x TT - all with big tanks and extra fuel strapped to the rear as well.
Big Red was fun - one big sand dune - the view over the flooding was very impressive - full grown trees half submerged in a giant lake.
Pub of the day, and the place of our campsite, was the Mungarannie Pub - similar in style to the Birdsville with hats and some memorabilia on the walls - this one has a picture of a HQ that cleared big red. There's also a artesian spa with a pool of 40 deg water that Gav reckons is the best thing in the world - I reckon he might also have had a neck rub and a manny-peddie as well - but he denies it.
A couple of pics from Big Red
Day 6 - Mungarannie to creek bed 50 kms past Williams Creek
COLD - bloody hell. Frost on the bike and I reckon any of the guys would gladly knock me off my bike to steal my heated grips. Best $50 I've ever spent and along with the screen, is making these very cold morning so much easier. Some of the guys are doing all sorts of yoga on the bike so as to warm their hands on the muffler as they ride along - I might be laughing in my helmet just a little bit when this happens :)
I'd left my Camelbak on the ground overnight and found that a mouse had nibble the rubber end - luckily I have a stop/start valve on the tube as well. Two other Camelbak's were also lost in the mouse plague as well. Lesson learnt - keep everything off the ground overnight. We're heading down the Birdsville track and then Oodnadatta track to skirt south of Lake Eyre because of the Simpson closure. The trip is not as much 'fun' as what the Simpson would have been, but still worthwhile with different views and countryside around each corner - mind you, there's bugger all corners at times. They definitely know how to make straight roads up this way.
Saw planehenge and various other sculptures in the middle of nowhere which was - erm, unique?. Maree was either before or after this, but they didn't have any fuel - and of course, I didn't fill up in Mungarannie so I was getting pretty close to running out - ok, so I did run out. I copped a bit of flak from the guys for that effort - luckily we have a few jerry cans on the truck.
Called in to the William Creek punb and it was another ripper pub - thousands of business cards, licences, and other photo ID's cover the walls. We only had the one beer, but could easily have stayed here all evening. We still had tracks to make so did another 50 kms in the setting sun until we found a nice camp area near a dried river bed.
Cold start from Mungarannie
Planehenge
Campsite
Day 7 - William Creek to 26 km outside of Finke
Will be updated the next time I have power and internet access - might be a few days.
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