Finally
home and back to work on Monday Damn it all. 9,500 km of great holiday of which more than 7K was on dirt, tracks and raw desert. 25 punctures between the two vehicles with 5 tyres destroyed (trailers gragged the numbers up somewhat). Quads were magnificent. Great for access into the remote and difficult country. Have posted the report to the blog area for a month or two as it'll only be current till the rains arrive.
Any specific questions, please mm me.
Cheers. Mick.
Track condition Report
Hunt Oil Road (North from Great Central)
First 17 km are magnificent. Deteriorates somewhat to a track with sections where the flora is overgrowing in many
places. Generally a great outback track in good condition with few corrugations. Great camping around Mt Worsnop with several large waterholes present before
Alexander Spring. Water in these holes has been fouled by the hundreds of camels using it.
Alexander spring further along is in pristine condition. Hundreds of camels in the area as
well as the odd roo and
dingo. Climb Mt Worsnop for the sunset and take your binoculars. You’ll soon get tired of counting all the camels you’ll see!
Cut Line (
Hunt Oil Road – Gunbarrel – Eagle (
Mungilli outstation – 50km length)
Commencing at the “ON 1” survey mark, the track is very overgrown on the 20 odd km from Hunt to Gunbarrel. Line hard to discern in the Spinifex country and often forced to meander around larger shrubs and trees. Good condition from the Gunbarrel to the
Eagle Hwy at
Mungilli Outstation. Some water in one of the tanks at Mungilli but don’t count on it.
Eagle Highway. (50 km north from Mungilli to the Eagle Hussar
Bore)
Generally good condition with some minor corrugations in spots. Some areas of the track have been overgrown by acacia but generally good condition.
Cleared Line running at 228 Deg from the Eagle Hussar
Bore (53 km)
Soft in
places and often hard to pick up having had little use. Some stretches are in excellent condition whilst other areas are washed out or deceptively soft. Plenty of good camping areas in the occasional stretches of Mulga. Turnoff to Walgoobaloo
Rockhole is easily found.
Track north to Walgoobaloo and Mt Madley.
Starts
well enough but deteriorates rapidly after the first 12 km. Didn’t find Walgoobaloo (but didn’t look to hard). Track to Madley is largely a “make your own” type situation although some stretches of it are detectable in areas where recent fires have passed. Very rough and sandy coming through Babool
Rockhole (found but dry as expected) and Kata Kata Hills area but easily traceable once a km or two south of Madley. Track appeared fairly easy to follow to the north towards Warri, undetectable to the west towards Birrell
Rockhole.
Canning to the Calverts.
Very corrugated as expected. Plenty of lose, soft sand and right hand turn approaches to dunes. Trip heading east is the hardest with the most dune approaches. West is a cruisy 3 hour run to the Canning.
Puntawarri Track.
Good condition and getting a lot of use. The section west from the Canning to
Puntawarri section has a few sand
hill crossings but is easily navigable. A few corrugations but nothing of note. The section along the Savoury Creek is rough with it’s rocky jump ups and some tight squeezes through the river bed. Plenty of plant life to scratch the vehicle. Once clear the last 5 km to
Puntawarri and then on are comfortable. Road still seeing a fair bit of use. If camping, before
Jigalong, I would recommend you do it once over the jump down of the Robertson Range about 25km shy of
Jigalong. Nothing much after that and didn’t find access into Robertson Range
ruins. Fuel at Jig $2.40 per litre.
Talawana from Jig to
Rudall River
Recently graded but copping a heap of use from trucks just north of Jig so heavily corrugated around there.
Billinooka Road is in fair condition through to the Talawana again and the T track is then good to Rudall Turnoff
Back Road into Rudall From the Talawana (30 km short of the main turn)
Bloody great drive. 3.5 hours for the 28 km and some tough going but
well worth it. The track climbs a rocky range and then plunges into a large rocky
gorge down a steep, rocky track. The exit track has become a creek so it’s slow and sandy going with many sections overgrown. Get’s better the last 7 km through the sand and Spinifex before meeting the main roads again north of the
hand pump.
Rudall River.
Main track is heavy sand and corrugated from the 2 wheel drive use by locals. Jarra Pool is very low this year but there is still a good stretch of water at
Watrara Pool (although no access for vehicles). Desert Queen Baths area has suffered the ravages of a bush fire but is still a magnificent spot to rest a while. Plenty of water in 3 Goannas Pool. Road north to
Christmas Pool and Telfor, Sandy and corrugated but not difficult. The top
hand pump has been hijacked by a survey
camp who have set up nearby and dropped poly pipe into the
bore. See them for water.
Telfer
mine Road to Punmu and
Wapet Track to
Kunawarritji.
MAGNIFICENT!
Grader was on it and we passed him 60 km west of
Kunawarritji.
For
Gary Junction Road,
Sandy Blight Junction Road conditions See post 60230
Alice to
Chambers Pillar
As you’d expect from the amount of traffic it gets. Very corrugated. Some works being carried out on a few stretches.
Ghan
Heritage Trail – Very Corrugated with patches of
rock. Generally poor condition. Slow going.
To Mount Dare – Corrugated
Mount Dare to Dalhousie – Very corrugated with good patches of exposed
rock. Getting late in the season so road has seen a hell of a lot of traffic. Fuel at Mt Dare $2.389 per litre.
Dalhousie to Purnie
Bore. Good run although corrugated and a few patches of bull dust as you would expect.
French line. - West to East. A good run. Most difficult section remains the 50 odd km from Knolls Track turnoff to Poepples Corner. Desert is a sea of wild flowers at the moment.
K1 – Great run down to the
Warburton Track although some areas of the track are becoming covered in drifting sand.
Warburton Track is still in very good condition with a few holes around
Warburton Crossing.
Walkers Crossing Track
Good condition and a sea of
wildflowers at present. The odd bit of water in dams and some creeks but otherwise very dry.
Adventure Way around
Innamincka.
Copping a fare hiding from trucks and holiday tracffic so very rocky and rough. Working on it around the
Bourke and Wills
Bridge near
the Dig Tree. Road south through Orientos and Santos in good condition across the gibber but some sandy patches in cattle country