Madigan Line

rare, Dalhousie is pretty overrated, great for a stop and swim, but no fires permitted, and we've been told by many lotsa mossies.
Cold showers too.
I would shoot up to Mt Dare as this is perfect with none of those issues.

That or go up via Eringa Waterhile and camp there, go from there to Dal it Mt D via Bloods Ck as the shorter route is a boulder nightmare.

Also agree about Mt Dare makes it easier on fuel as well as you can fill up later than anywhere else before entering the Simpson.

Then continue north and enter the Madigan via Old Andando and the Acacia Spruce reserve. You may get a hot scone, jam and cream at the homestead. (gold coin donation).

I would give Dalhousie Springs a miss and have your last "pre-desert" night at either Mt Dare or Old Andando. We found the springs quite over rated and just like any other hot springs. Or go to them first before Mt Dare.

There are plenty of places to camp. Most are shown on the maps in the North Simpson Desert booklet that is part of the Outback Travellers Track Guide series. I think you will find it in the ExplorOz shop. Best guide that we took with us apart from the map in the navigator.

The guide also had a note about how to get past the new fences at the Acacia Spruce reserve. I didn't read it (typical male - instructions) and we chased out tail for a little while.

Buy it and take it with you.

Five days and didn't see another soul. Top drive.

Phil

I agree with the others about Dalhousie Springs. The road from Eringa Waterhole is better, even though you are going the longer route to Mt Dare.
We did The Madigan last year towing our TVan with fellow TVanners and had a great time. Beautiful country.
Keep your tyre pressures low...we were as low as 12lb on the front and 20lb on the back of the car (light truck tyres) and 12lb in the TVan. We didn't get bogged once!
We did a bit of sand dune grooming as the dunes were "excavated" by some vehicles which had travelled before us (we have suspicions, Pat Callinan's crew did this damage to one of the salt pans you will come across). Much more than was shown on their DVD

https://cloud.hemaexplorer.com.au/public/ixombE8LxOtiI5GwAP6bdGXh/#?layer=hema1m,hema250&alpha=hema1m:1,hema250:1

Coober Pedy to Old Andado and Madigan Line Camps 1 to 25 and Birdsville to Isisford 12/7/2015


I have put a track report on Hema Cloud. (above) If this link works, it will show you the full trip ....

If not.

here's what I wrote for The Madigan part of our trip

The Madigan Line:
From Mt Dare to Birdsville..758 kms
We used 174 litres of diesel in our 100 series turbo auto , towing our awesome TVan all the way....L/100 kms: 22L
We shared our Adventures with new found friends. Who were in a Nissan 4.2L Manual diesel ute with canopy and also were towing a TVan..They averaged 21L/100kms.
.The whole trip was spent in low range and we averaged 40ks a day.
We stopped at approx. 3-4o'clock in the arvo and often didn't leave to 9.30(on a good day), each day.

A very leisurely trip.

From Mt Dare, our last refuelling stop, we headed toward Old Andado Homestead. There was a large section of bulldust not far north of Mt Dare, which coated our car, drowned our Tvan and filled the car with lovelly fine dust..unfortunately our fan was on. We didn't expect such a large plume/ hole, so before we could close our vents, our car was powdered with superfine bulldust. mostly outside thank goodness.
The TVan was following us and remained dust free inside.

At old Andado, we enjoyed a bit of history and some fresh scones from the homestead caretakers.

Our first night out was not far out of Old Andado, still south of Mac Clarke Reserve.

Day 1 on the Madigan, as many have said, was interesting. The actual starting point to get to Camp 1 was on the western side of the fencline, which begins at the entrance gate to Mac Clarke reserve.
Following that fenceline, we reached the bore and had a look around...
There were lots of tracks going in all directions, but after eventually having to cross over a broken fence, we discovered the next way forward was actually north,now along the Eastern side of a fence...virtually doubling back on our track, but on the other side of another fence!


The scenery to camps 1 & 1A weren't that remarkable, until we got past camp 2

Camp 2 was near the old "fossil"..Case tractor which was very interesting. Why it was there at all is a mystery!

Camps 3&4 were not visited as they are on native title land, so we headed to the Colson, camp 5 and then camp 6. A bit longer day travelling

Camp 7 was really where the dunes started to get a little serious.. Deflated tyres even more, repair/ landscape a few dunes and move on peacefully..only one camp that day.

Camp 8-10 a continuation of the previous days terrain, with some beautiful colours of the sand changing throughout the day.
We were blessed with prolific wildflowers and flowering stands of Gidgee trees.

Camp 11 has quite a collection of logbooks, "I've been here" tags and mementos from many visitors.
We ended up camping there the night, then discovered some nice trees and wood just over the next few dunes :(

Camps 12-16 took us 2 days.
At Camp 16 we placed our plaque next to everyone else's and turned off the Hay River Track, towards camp 17.
Camped fo the night between 17 and 18..then it was off on a big day to Birdsville.
Not visiting camps 23 & 24 as they are on private land.

The clouds were starting to gather and we needed showers, so It was off to Birdsville for a bit of luxury.

As usual..the QAA was in bad condition, with side tracks veering off the track and around the badly eroded/ damaged sections.
No problems for our TVans.
We got to Big Red, just on dark, but we didn't want to miss out on another big dune...The tyres were still down, so we took it on in the dark. After carefully picking our lines, we made it up without banging, spinning or getting bogged...Love the TVans..they travelled so well behind us...in fact...we forgot they were there, as you never feel any tugging and jumping from our "passenger"

Whilst now a very defined track, The Madigan is a great trip.

Some dunes show signs of "abuse", but no where near as bad as those on the QAA.
The colours and scenery were spectacular. The desert benefitted from rain in the recent months and bloomed beautifully.

Our total trip was over 5000ks, however only my waypoints for the Madigan are all intact!

Take it slow and you will enjoy the trip.

Allow at least 10 days from Mt Dare to Birdsville...taking it easy and making it fun.

My husband & I will be doing the Geocentre of the Simpson and Geosurveyor Hill this year. That will then be.. that area ticked off the bucket list!


Here's a couple of links.

This one is from our travelling companions:



One of the bull dust between Mt Dare and Old Andado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byYUh-o1YUc


Here's a link to a Youtube video I put on:

10 Days across the Madigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1F0DKPOxyk

Apologies for the long winded, and maybe slightly off track reply, but I think you will be interested.
Cheers
Robyn