Just a bit of a report on our main trip. We left
Adelaide with 6 vehicles - two TD traytops, a 105series petrol, a 90series TD Prado, a troopie, and a traytop Patrol. All of us had done a few Simpson trips and for two of us it was our second time on the
Madigan Line. We knew it was a bit of a rough trip, so kept the vehicles as light as possible, shared the spares etc etc
The aim was to follow as many of the camps as possible - the route being that followed by Cecil Madigan in 1939 during his crossing of the north
Simpson Desert - all
well described in his book "Crossing the Dead Heart".
First night at
Lake Hart, an unexpected medical problem forced two vehicles to go back to
Adelaide, but fortunately about 5 days later they were to rejoin the main group at
camp 13 after coming up the
Hay.
The remaining group of 4 went ahead, via
Coober Pedy,
Oodnadatta, topped up fuel at Mt Dare, then up to
Andado station where we had been kindly given permission to traverse the station tracks to camps 1, 2 and
the Twins.
The Twins are
two hills that can be seen many kms away - a cairn at the top has many messages from travellers from many years ago.
As we were unsuccessful in getting permission to do camps 3,4 and 5, we went cross country, to avoid traversing the North-West Simspon Desert Aboriginal Land. The track thru camps 3,4 and 5 would have been a lot easier though. Cross country travel here was very rough - firstly thru the thick scrub where the Hale and Todd Rivers fade out. But the dune country between here and the Colson track had some of the tallest dunes of the whole trip. Every dune had to be checked on foot to find a suitable way across. There were many hidden stakes - 3 tyres were staked on this day, which was described by everyone as the hardest day of the trip. There was some consideration to pulling out at this stage, but after some reassurances that it would be more routine after
camp 6, the group stuck together for the rest of the trip. After crossing the Colson track, more very soft, tall dunes made the crossing difficult. The mogul-like spinifex makes any run-up impossible - the vehicles just need to crawl across in low range 2 and 3. 40kms in a day is a full day's travel.
Once
camp 6 was reached, the going was easier as there was a track to follow! Even so, the rough, slow going was hard on vehicle suspensions as they lurched from side to side. One vehicle damaged a panhard rod bush, which was doctored up at
camp that night. The track was also pretty hard on the passengers, who spent most of the time holding on to the J**** bar. Occasionally they would have a break by taking a walk up the track and letting the vehicles catch up!
Our group's camps were usually in a reasonable
clearing with the odd tree and good firewood, so were good to rejuvinate the spirits for the next day. The next couple of days travel was good, with a rest day being slipped in at the Gidgee Claypan beyond
camp 11. Madigan's oval is rarely visited - its a unique formation - looks like a footy field out in the desert, and according to the visitors book, had not been visited since the group I was with in 2004. Unfortunately, the footy and cricket stumps had gone back to
Adelaide!
The grind continued to
camp 12 - again the dunes get bigger and the going gets a bit tougher, but all the vehicles managed without recovery. But a very loud knocking noise troubled the rear end of the 90series Prado. It was hard to find the cause but after running it up on a spinifex clump, it was found that the LH rear upper control arm had snapped. The vehicle was still mobile, and a sat phone call to a mechanic friend reassured us that the vehicle could continue and the noise stopped after the arm was removed.
While this was going on, the other two vehicles had made good time up from
Adelaide, up the K1 Line,
Hay River track and then coming along the
Madigan Line from the east. The original group of 6 vehicles were reunited near
camp 13, which was fantastic. We set up a bush welding outfit with 3 batteries and simply welded the control arm back together and reinstalled it. Worked like a charm for about 10 kilometers, and broke again. So it was again removed and we set about having a more serious attempt at bush welding it when we camped for the night. This time we braced the broken section with some pieces of mild steel, so it was now much stronger than the original piece. We had to be very careful to not damage the rubber bush with the heat. But never heard another noise from it again!!
After
camp 16,we left the nice Coolabahs on the
Hay River, and it was on to the Qld side - where the owner of Adria Downs Station had kindly given permission for us to visit some of the other Madigan Camps as
well as Kudaree
waterhole and the
ruins at
Annandale station, which were in
ruins in 1939 when Madigan passed thru. This area has not had rain for almost a year and was looking very dry. None of the waterholes along Eyre Creek had water.
But on the station tracks, it was pretty quick travelling, and we followed the rest of the QAA Line into
Birdsville. It was really nice to catch up with Ruth and Ian at the Caravan park, and Karsten at the cafe - we had some of the best coffees at both and also were very spoilt by the Big Breakfast. Had the pleasure of meeting BigKidz (Andrew and Jen) on their way north as
well. Our group split up with some having to get mack to work while others did the liesurely run back via
Innamincka.
Just some other details - fuel consumption from Mt Dare to
Birdsville (780km) was as low as 153litres for the PradoTD, 193 litres for the Troopie and I wasn't sure about the others. The two LandCruiser TD traytops used 134 and 140 litres from Mungarannie to
Birdsville via the desert (over 800k) at 15.8 l/100km.
Lots of feral wildlife - especially cats, and as usual plenty of camels were spotted.
Hema maps have the camps marked. Mark Shephard's book on The
Simpson Desert is great reading too. The Satphones were good for the groups to keep in touch while we were split. The
HF radio (VKS) was as reassuring as always.
Another nice desert trip!! But only consider it if you are very
well prepared and totally self-sufficient.
Cheers
Phil