Friday, Jan 06, 2012 at 09:37
April will be interesting. I have done an early crossing. We started from Mt Dare. Eyre Creek was closed so we travelled to the Corner and back. What we found was that everyone before us was doing small loops and coming back on the
Rig road. That part was as normal. The closer we got to the corner the less traffic there had been. For the last 15km we had someone scouting out the track on foot because there was no indication of where it went. Cuttings the track usually went through were full of extremely soft sand. By soft I mean that if you stood on it you sank until the sand was over your runners. If you drove on it the vehicle sank straight to the body. There were no wheel tracks at all, it was all virgin sand with the odd sign here and there. The only way you knew you were still on track was if you found one of the markers. The sand was VERY soft and we met quite a few people who had turned around. When we got to the corner eventually (the last 20 km took 8 hours) the book only had four entries and two of those had come down
Hay River. If you are going early, be patient and
well prepared. You will likely do quite a few recoveries and the shovel will get a workout. We have splits on the ute and they were down to 12psi a few times. The crossing may take quite a bit longer that early. We went back on the
Rig road and it still took five long days.
We did meet a group of 10 motor cycles coming the other way near the corner. Not sure how they got there in the first place! They were happy because they had some tracks to follow. They were all knackered when we saw them and had been navigating by GPS.
Steve
FollowupID:
749128