Hi all,
Well I finally got to do a
Madigan Line Crossing after living/working in the area for a number of years.
Left Poochera on the 10th for a quick run up to
Kingoonya for a long "lunch", met up with three others from the group at Glendambo for another "lunch" then up to Cadney HS for the night, meeting up with two more group vehicles for six in total, these consisted of 1 x 200 series Landcruiser, 2 x 79 series dual cabs (including
mine), 1 x HZJ79 series Landcruiser, 1 x GQ Patrol wagon & 1 x Nissan Pathfinder with a lady driver.
Left Cadney on the 11th for a run through to
the Painted Desert & on to Oodna' for lunch then to Mt Dare via
Dalhousie Springs for a swim, spent an enjoyable night at Mt Dare catching up with the new owners.
Left Mt Dare on the 11th & on up the Old
Andado, Mac Clarke Reserve & on to
the twins, from
the Twins across to
camp 5 for the night.
Left
Camp 5 on the 12th across to
Camp 6 where I managed to snag my ExOz sand flag pole on a low tree, snapping it off at the base, a quick fix with a few cable ties had it back up again.
On to
Camp 8 then down to Geo-Surveyors
hill for the night, this is a very rough track where we had our only
puncture of the trip & a blown air bag on the other 79 Dual cab.
Left Geo-Surveyors
hill on the 13th, back up to
Camp 8 then across to Madigans Claypan for the night where it was discovered that the HZJ79 series had a cracked diff housing, due I suspect due to the way that the airbags were fitted & a couple of big bounces...
The boys got to work, unbolted the diff housing rolled it over & welded it up using three batteries & a bush welding kit, this repair lasted the rest of the trip after moving most of the heavy gear & liquids to the other vehicles.
Left Madigans Claypan on the 14th travelling slowly across to the
Hay river Track & camping south of
Camp 16, we were going to travel across to Adria Downs but due to the damaged vehicle we decided to head down to Poeppels Corner &
camp on the QAA line where we camped on the 15th.
On the 16th we headed across the QAA line to Big Red where we all had a bit of a play & the GQ Patrol ran out of fuel, luckily the "Tanker truck" my 79 dual cab with a 200 liter pod tank in the back still had plenty of fuel, it was also discovered that the GQ Patrol had a crack in its long rang fuel tank.
On to
Birdsville for a restock, clean up & a feed at the pub, where we stayed for the night.
On the 17th after a coffee & breakie at Dusty's
Bakery & a catch up with Barnsy & Bronwin at the Roadhouse we headed off to the
Walkers Crossing track & Innaminka where we had a bit of a night at the Innaminka Hotel, rolled into the swag at the town common at late O'clock...
The 18th saw us off down the Strez' to
Lyndhurst where I left the group for a quick run down to
Port Augusta for the night, then
home on Sunday the 20th.
It was a very good trip with few issues apart from the cracked diff housing, the only car that needed some assistance was the Pathfinder which had to be snatched over a couple of dunes at the bottom end of the
Hay river track, but that was due to an inexperienced driver more than anything.