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Oodnadatta to Halls Ck via Dalhousie Springs, Mt Dare, Finke, Maryvale Stn

Submitted: Thursday, Jul 04, 2002 at 00:00

Ken Beggs

I will be riding a BMW 1100 GS AD motor bike (on-road off-road) to Broome from Adelaide via the Flinders Ranges and Alice Springs. I am curious to know what the road conditions for a motor bike are like from Oodnadatta to Dalhousie Springs, Finke and along the old Ghan rail line past Maryvale Stn to Alice Springs. How long should it take to cover this leg. Also what is the track like beyond Tanami to Halls Creek and what time should it take.
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AnswerID: 4699   Submitted: Friday, Jul 05, 2002 at 00:00

Axel +Karen replied:

Ken,fraid cannot give you any relevant information on your intended trip,,,just a bit of semi useless trivia,,the record for a round Australia trip,shortest time wise, all 26000klms of highway 1 , anti clockwise ,was set in the 70,s on a stock standard kawasaki 1300,, if my memory is not failing to badly it was done in just under 14 days Sydney to Sydney.
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FollowupID: 2008   Submitted: Sunday, Jul 07, 2002 at 00:00

Ken Beggs posted:

Thanks Axel and Karen for taking the time to respond. I rode my BMW K1200LT, complete with trailer hooked up behind, around Australia last year, clockwise in 24 days. I followed Highway 1 all the way as well. I did a couple of detours along the way and clocked up 17,350 km so am not real sure where the 26,000km came from. It was a great trip. As you can tell from my query, I am now going to tackle some of our inland roads. What I didn't mention in my query was that I am joining three other people at Broome and we are going to ride through the North West Kimberley's for ten days. Then I come back home via Port Hedland, Newman, Meekathara, Kalgoorlie and across the Nullabor. All this in 3 weeks.

All the best and thanks again for your concern.

Regards
Ken
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AnswerID: 4718   Submitted: Saturday, Jul 06, 2002 at 00:00

Member - Jim replied:

Ken
The Tanami takes 2 good days in a 4WD, breaking the trip at Rabbit Flat overnight. The Roadhouse is only open a few days a week and someone else may be able to help there, bush camp, dunny etc. and a cold drink at the bar.
I guess it would be still 2 days on a bike, it would be a good ride in 1, there are sections badly rutted and bulldust, but the main thing that slows you down is a road train, as you generally have to follow it (a couple of k's behind) until it stops to do a tyre check.
Jim
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AnswerID: 4746   Submitted: Monday, Jul 08, 2002 at 00:00

Glenn replied:

Hi Ken
I came back the other way from Ayers Rock a couple of weeks ago. The road from Kulgera to Finke to New Town was very good ( 100km/h), from New Town onto Mt Dare the road became quite sandy in patches with the odd bit of corrugation which slows things up a bit. Mt Dare to Dalhousie Springs road is very rocky in the most part with the occassional sandy areas with a lot more corrugations to contend with.
On reaching Dalhousie and having a magnificently refreshing swim I think you will agree that the trip is worth while!. The road out from Dalhousie to Pedirka saw extremely rocky, rough and corrugated, very slow going in places. The road from Pedirka to the Oodnadatta track improves the nearer you get to the Track. i guess these road condition are very dependent on when the road was last graded. But I would say that once you hit the water at Dalhousie all those corrugations will be forgotten.
Cheers
Glenn
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