The Adventure is Complete -- 7288km travelled

The ride was brilliant and everything we hoped for.

 

It had its highlight of great people and magnificent natural sights and wonderful animals and birds. We had a couple of low points when the bike had a flat battery which ended up with a high because we over-came it without any mechanics. We also had great country courtesy in the country towns and country service when we needed to get bad fuel out of the bike.

 

The following images are just a snap shot of what we encountered.

 

 Birdsville Hotel approximately 1500km from Home

 

 

 Simpson Desert sand dune

 

 

 Early morning riding in the Sturt Stoney Desert

 

 

 Mungerannie Station-- Bore water fed oasis where Brolga nest.

 

 

 A failed property about half way down the Birdsville Track.

 

 

 Changing plugs due to poor fuel with The Olgas in the back-ground.

 

 

 Uluru

 

 

 Uluru area Dingo.

 

 

 Ellery Creek approximately 100km from Alice Springs.

 

 

QANTAS Museum-- Longreach.

One week until we leave.

One week to go to the big day. We're loaded and ready to go.



It looks like the weather is going to play nice for the start of the trip at least. If there are any big storms we could find roads impassable, but it looks good so far.

The bike is handling the weight quite well, at least at speed it does. At less than about 20kmh it is a real struggle to manoeuvre, lucky for me I can reduce the weight by 50kg by asking Donna to get off when doing those slow awkward manoeuvres in the camp grounds etc.



So the plan is to leave early next Saturday morning and be in Birdsville by Monday. Donna will be flying home from Alice Springs and I will come home via Tennant Creek and Mt Isa over the following week. I will be seeing Winton and Longreach on the way home which I am very much looking forward to as there are some very interesting things to see in both towns.



The temperatures are looking like being nice and balmy at 22-37c being the current average over the last couple of weeks that I've been keeping an eye on them for central Australia.

We've loaded about two weeks worth of evening meals and enough muesli bars to last two months, I reckon, as snacks.

Tyres

Just a quick update.

About two weeks ago we purchased a new front tyre, a Metzeler Tourance EXP which is the current equivalent of the tyre that was on the bike already and I was happy with. The EXP is a 80/20 highway/dirt tyre.
Last week I gained my first rear tyre puncture which I managed to repair with my kit, which was good practice for the long trip I reckon.

Yesterday we went for a dirt road ride of about 20 odd kilometres. The bike felt really loose and bad in the rear end and it wasn't due to Donna being on the back. We pulled up on the dirt road and I got my tyre pressure gauge out to see if the rear tyre pressure was the issue/cause of the bad handling and looseness in the rear -- 16psi in the rear tyre! I wanted 36psi! Wow that puncture repair I had done really lost some pressure over a week or so. Problem of the handling solved we turned around and went to the nearest place to pump it back up.
From the dirt road we headed straight to our favourite bike tyre shop and got a new Tourance EXP tyre for the rear. We were going to get a new rear tyre for the trip anyway, this just brought things forward a month or so. The old tyre had already been repaired once before and was down to about 40% tread so it was never going to last for the 7000km trip.

The trip has been altered a little as I will be riding by myself from Alice Springs on, which means Boulia and the Plenty Highway are out and the highway alternate route vita Tennant Creek and Mt Isa and in. I am also cutting out a couple of site seeing days, by-passing Carnarvon Gouge and heading home to get back to work a week earlier. Without Donna there is really not much point in dawdling back as I can ride quicker by myself.

The other bloke that was going to come -- haven't heard from the pom git for over a month so we've gathered he's definitely not coming as we've thought for quite a while anyway.
No problem -- we go ahead with our plan, even slightly altered it will still be fantastic!

Camping in Toowoomba foothills

We've just had another quick over-night camp to try more gear and get used to this camping idea before the big trip.
I made sure we had as much of our big trip gear loaded on the bike even though we definitely wouldn't need it, such as the 9 litres of desert emergency water was in the panniers. And yes the bike was very heavy, but not as heavy as its going to be when we load the 15 odd litres of extra fuel on the sides of the fuel tank (somehow).

The bike is still an absolute pleasure to ride above 40km but under that it is very heavy and awkward. But the more time I spend on the bike the more comfortable I'm getting with the weight (the bike minus the extra gear now actually feels light and fun).

 

Itinerary

 

An Adventure Tour of Central Australia

and Outback Queensland

 

6000km

Over 2500KM of desert roads.

Including; The Birdsville Track, The Oodnadatta Track, and The Plenty Highway

 26 days

 18 March TO April

 

Adventure Tour Route

The tour will begin from Brisbane and will proceed at a leisurely pace.  Stops will be made at the following places for a night, or longer.

 

Queensland – Birdsville Track

Day

1      Roma

2      Quilpie

3      Windorah

4      Birdsville / “Big Red”

 

South Australia – Oodnadatta Track

Day

5         Mungerannie

6         Marree

7        William Creek / Lake Eyre

8        Coober Pedy

 

Northern Territory – Plenty Highway

Day

9 /10/11          Yulara / Uluru / The Olgas

12/13/14         Alice Springs / Ormiston Gorge

15                     Bonya aboriginal settlement for fuel   ( Option B is Alice to Tenant Creek)

16                     Tobermoney

 

Queensland –  (option B is via Tenant Creek and Mt Isa to Winton)

Day

17               Boulia

18 & 19      Winton / Bladensburg NP- dinosaurs

20 & 21      Longreach / Stockman’s hall of fame

22               Emerald

23 & 24      Carnarvon Gorge

25                Miles

26                Brisbane

 

# Weather – All Tracks are impassable after heavy rain either locally or draining from the north (channel country). Therefore, different routes will need to be taken and places visited may change considerably.

 

Autumn Temperatures in central Australia can reach into the 40’s Celsius so a minimum of 3 litres per person per day will be carried on ALL days of the tour, random checks will be conducted..

 

## Accommodation; camping is available at all destinations.  Hotel or caravan accommodation is unknown and is the responsibility of the soft who may want to use their services to enquire as to their availability during this adventure.

 _______________________________________________________________________________

Just had the BMW checked over thoroughly by a super good mechanic and he found nothing wrong with the bike so we got the bike serviced good and proper while it was with him.

All good and going to plan!

 

Queen Mary Falls

 

 

We've had our first proper camping trip with the bike and it was quite good. We only forgot to take a box of matches to light our little cooker and the bike only fell over once!

We don't need anything too much more, the tent was excellent, we had room to spare in the tank bag and rear bag so all good in that department.



 

 

Donna putting up the tent.

Brown Falls in the Queen Mary Falls National Park

I booked my holidays from work for next year for the big trip -- 18th March is the date Donna and I will be leaving, heading for Alice Springs. Donna can only get two weeks off work at that time so she will be coming with me to Alice and then flying home while I keep going.

 

I will be continuing on, most likely, via the Plenty Highway -- 900km of absolute isolation and nasty corrigated, bulldust and more. The other option is to go home via Tenant Creek and Mt Isa, the money is on the dust at this point.

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________

 

Jeff????? currently out of the country in New Zealand--

dunno, still hasn't got a license or bike so we will see.

 



Proposed Route

The proposed route has been tinkered with quite a lot since the first discussions and lot of ideas have been looked at and taken on or tossed in the bin.

The current route, to be discussed further with Jeff later as he's currently out of the country, is as follows.

QUEEENSLAND
Brisbane
Roma
Quilpie
Windorah
Birdsville

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Mungeranie
Marree
William Creek
Coober Pedy

NORTHERN TERRITORY
Yulara (Uluru)
Alice Springs
Bonya
Tobermoney

QUEENSLAND
Tobermoney
Boulia
Winton
Longreach
Bacaldine
Blackall
Roma
Brisbane

6000km plus

2500km of dirt roads

28days to do it.

The current route is looking something like this!

Some of the highlights of the journey as I see them are;

Birdsville QLD- "Big Red", a sand dune that is very large and is the 'entry' point to the Simpson desert proper.
Birdsville Track - desert and ruins of stone buildings. 1000 odd km of dirt / desert highway. Stoney Desert area.

William Creek SA- "Lake Eyre" salt lake.
Oonadatta Track - to Lake Eyre. - 500 odd km of dirt / desert highway

Coober Pedy SA - Underground living and Opal Mining.

The Olgas and Uluru NT. - If I need to explain?

Plenty Highway NT to QLD. - 1000km of corrugated shitty dirt road back into QLD across very flat channel country that is interesting for its lack of features.

Winton QLD - A quiet town with a lot of dinosaur evidence. A dinosaur site is $30 entry 20km from Winton.

Longreach QLD - Stockman Hall of Fame and the Qantas birthplace.

Roma QLD - Cattle country, Oil and Gas Museum and Winery