Madigan Line

Thanks for the link

Bob, my permit is for between 6th and 14th, but think we'll be leaving Old Andado about the 8th.
Going to be pretty close to your groups dates on the line itself I imagine, hope we might be able to catch up somewhere.

My bad, Les, didn't realise, and couldn't find any advice about permits. You get them from CLC in Alice?

My Desert Parks pass is still current from our trip last year.

Would be great to catch up, even for a few hours, but preferably overnight, eh! We'd be leaving Birdsville about 1st, so planning on about 3 days across. Have an itinerary but nothing in the class of your efforts. :-). Just going to "wing" the Madigan, stopping to smell plenty of roses. Travel times from others appears to vary from 4-5 days up to 10 days?

We'd like to be home by about 15th June, to get ready for daughter's wedding on 2nd July.

Picked up "bare bones" alloy canopy yesterday, so would hope to have a rain & dust proof place for all the gear.



Regards,
Bob

Canopy looks good mate :)
Madigan permits are free and available online here . . . Madigan permit
Joe did mine for me, as I was under the pump in Brissy working at the time and the phone is a PITA for intricate things (home now :)).
You might be ahead of us (3), and the larger group of 5 others (we have asked special permission to go down to Geosurveys Hill, not sure if we'll get that yet).
On your sched, I'd say maybe 2 days ahead ?
Email me and I'll shoot you up the proposed dates.

Hi Guys

Where the hell is all going...not being able to go to Geosurvey Hill.

There are no tracks there and like it has been said, how would they know if people go there. Any tracks out there are covered over in a very short time and it is not the place that soft driver would have the ability to get to any way, as it is 100% pure cross country travel and you you must rely on the ability to read and us a GPS.

And for those that say....I can use paper maps....ha ha...as there are no major land features to get bearing from. We went in from the Colson Track and took us 2 and a half days to do less than 70 kilometres, so you can see it is no walk in the park.

Another example of more land being locked up for what reason??????



Enjoy your trip and make the most of some great country out there. And if you can not see it first had, this is what you will miss.....




Cheers


Stephen

How long for the whole trip Bob?

I wouldn't mind going back but I can only be away from the chemo treatments for four weeks. So all my trips have to be 27 days or less.

Phil

G'day Phil,

Apologies for the slow reply, big day from Hervey Bay to Barcaldine yesterday.

Itinerary says depart Birdsville on 31/05/16, then QAA, WAA, French Line to Mt Dare on 3/06/16, maybe overnight there? Have left Madigan "open" because of the variety of travel times I've read on here. Say about 5-6 days.......not planning on any excursions to Geocentre etc, even before this latest decree.

If dates suited you, we could meet in either Birdsville or at Mt Dare, your choice.

We are working on being back in Winton about 15/06/16, to prepare for a family event, so would make up a day or two here & there, if it suited the rest of party.

Bob

That is real close. I have a hospital IV treatment on Monday the 30th of May. Depending on how I feel after it I would then head to Mt Dare on the Tuesday. Three days to get there arriving on the night of the 2nd is a bit close. Let me think about it. I will not say yes until I am 100% positive, that I will be at Mt Dare on the Thursday evening. Don't change your schedule on my account.

Fair enough?

I just love it out there. And after a cruise on a crowded and noisy cruise ship with very little, if any, privacy (the ensuite gave some), I WANNA GO BACK.

Phil

I can't get to Mt Dare in time Bob. Tried to bring the hospital appointment forward but no luck. Maybe when I was younger I could get the but not these days. Three days heavy driving!

I hope that you enjoy it mate and looking forward to a report.

Don't forget the insert in te North Simpson Desert map by Outback Travellers Guide. It shows how to get past the Matt Clark Arcasia reserve. We lost ours and it took a few tries before we found our way around it.

Phil

That's a bugger, Phil! If we didn't have this wedding on in Darwin, we could've stalled long enough for you to catch up.

Thanks for your good wishes, and note the advice about the insert. Have recently bought that map off the shop here. Madly trying to get our new canopy set up for the crossing, but long work days don't seem to happen anymore..........unless someone's paying me. :-)

Have sent you a MM too,

Bob