Eringa to Finke

Thanks , Darian

The second pic is actually between Abminga and Oodnadatta (north of the claypan).

Cheers,
Peter

Peter,

So are you suggesting people follow station tracks in preference to the actual road?

That's fine as long as they are aware that the "Station tracks" are not the recommended way to go, being "Unmaintained" they aren't travelled as much as the actual road & if they do have a problem then not to expect the station owners to come to the rescue!

A lot of these tracks are being closed for this reason, station owners are getting sick of tourists driving on tracks that they have to maintain at their own expense, especially after rain when they are easily damaged.

Yes they are a great way to see country that the "normal" tourist doesn't see, but be responsible, leave gates as you find them, & don't drive on closed roads.

Gday Jeff,
Im a bit confused after reading your reply. Its probably just the way Im reading it, so could you clarify a couple of things for me.
Are you saying the Abminga track is private property and shouldnt be used?
Is it no longer in good condition and not maintained?
They would be doing the wrong thing by using this road without permission from the station owner?
Who recomends its not the way to go and why?

Cheers

You also can't get a nice cold drink and heads up on any conditions or maybe a top up with fuel.

Every time we are in the neighborhood we top up whether we need to or not, grab a coldie and ask questions.

Unless we visitors frequent places like Mt Dare then they close and travel gets a bit harder for some, besides they are a great bunch of people who do a terrific job.

I towed a caravan from Eringa to Fink a couple of years ago with no trouble, just took it easy.

Made the same trip last year and the road was quite a bit better than the first trip with the track recently graded.

Great camping at Eringa waterhole and interesting scenery along the way.

Cheers Nick

Hairy,

Sorry if my reply wasn't clear enough, & I don't really want to start a bun fight, the original poster asked for a distance between two places, I was trying to point out that the shortest distance isn't necessarily the only option.

As far as station tracks go the track between Eringa waterhole & Charlotte Waters used to be part of the Old South Road, as you would know & is a great drive in itself, but the only maintenance that is carried out on it is by the station owners & any damage done by travellers has to be fixed by them if they need to use it, the NT roads actually do grade the road as far as the NT/SA border, but south of that it is the station owners responsibility.

When I said about driving on closed roads I meant in general terms, not that the road was actually closed.

Because these roads/tracks are not frequently used if someone does come to grief out there then help my take quit a while to get there, we had an incident last year when a family of tourists had a flat tyre around Finke & decided to continue on to Oodnadatta via Abminga with no spare tyre rather than come here & have it fixed, they were lucky & got picked up by some Finke locals & were taken to a phone & tried to get their road service provider to come & get them!, who do you think the road service provider called? Yep, us, that didn't cost them a lot in terms of recovery costs apart from having to buy a couple of second hand tyres, & a dressing down by Dave, but it could have been a lot different if the Fellows from Finke hadn't been passing through.

Jeff, I have been told that this track is in fact a gazetted road and as such is available to any travellers who need to access it.

Well, that was our advice from a friend at Finke, just before we took that route a couple of years ago. We found it reasonably good condition, although admittedly it is an unmaintained goat track in places.

(By the way my mate Peter Roper sends his regards).
Chris

Chris,
Thats true, but as I said NT roads only grade as far as the SA/NT border, it is a great drive in itself.

Say G'day to Peter Roper from all at Mt Dare.