Day 8 Innamincka via Cordillo Downs

Birdsville Hotel

Cordillo Downs wool shed

Stunning sand dunes

What a bike :)

Pete's 3rd off. Thankfully the bike is fine :)

We made it to Innamincka. We were told by a few bikers who had completed the Cordillo Downs track the day before, to be careful due to sand, very tight corners and that the track turns from good to shit as soon as you hit the Queensland Sth Aus border.

The later could not be further from the truth. As soon as you hit the border and venture into Sth Aus, ie signs etc advising you of the change the road conditions turned to shit. Sth Aus gov't doing a very ordinary job!!!! The Cordillo Downs track was ever changing. Stones, to smoth sections to sand. Speeds were down to about an average of 60-70km's for the 420km's. It took us almost 8 hrs of riding in low 40's degrees. We stopped when buggered which was a lot. The last 100 km's was a real challenge on concentration and both Pete and myself were buggered. I drank 4.5 ltrs of water onroute and had a lot more when we arrived at Innamincka.

Innamincka itself is not much. 1 pub, 1 general store, Innamincka Regional office and a few other buildngs around. I suspect the avg population would be 20-30 ppl. We camped along the banks of the Coopper Creek and is walking distance to public showers, loo and pub. In busy season, I suspect there would be 100's of campers here enjoying the scenery.    

The Cordillo Downs track is amazing. The pictures do not give this place any justice. The sand dunes given the right light a blood red and are just so beautiful and the track runs between them. Then you hit open areas where there is nothing and then other sections which are full of stones and rocks. So far, on all of our treks on the motorbike around Aus, this would have to be the best. Probably the most uninhabited area as well.

Oh - almost forgot - Pete dropped it again. The sand got him again. Bike and rider doing well.

Day 7 Birdsville

Last and final dune

It took a lot of effort to turn the bikes around. So we spent some time to relax.

Dune after dune. It would be sooo easy in a 4wd.

Today was a relaxation day for us in Birdsville. However we did get up to some fun. At 10am, yes we slept in :) we headed off to Big Red. Big Red is the biggest sand dune in Aus  and is in the Simpson desert. It's about 30-40 km's from Birdsville.

My last attempt at riding in sand in the Little Desert (sth of Mildura) was a disaster. I hurt myself in my first drop and did not recover after that. (drop means falling off). I lost all my confidence.  So what to do?? I attended an Adventuring Riding course over a weekend a few months ago and had a ball and learnt a lot. So on paper, could I do it  given my last attempt? I was worried. Shitting bricks really.

We headed off with no luggage so the bikes were light and manouvourable (209 kg isn't exactly light tho). Once we hit the red sand I did what was taught and had a ball. The front going right, the back going left and right but with throttle and weight control I managed to traverse 3 dunes. It was scary and a lot of hard work but was AWESOME. The 2nd dune was challenging because when you hit the top, with power on, the dune suddenly drops down the other side. So your body (and mind) is still going up when the bike is going down.  

The down side was it was already mid 30's, Pete had dropped it on the 2nd sand dune and we had no idea how far away Big Red was, so it was time to call it quits.  It was a failure, but speaking to a lot of bikers on the net and here in Birdsville, not many are getting to Big Red. 

I don't care we didn't make it. I can ride on sand and enjoy it :) Big achievement!!!  But I think I'll leave a Simpson Desert crossing to others. 

After coming back we headed to the top spots in Birsville. The famous Birdsville horse race track, Bourke & Wills tree, Diamantina River, Museum (closed), tourism centre (closed) and the famous bakery (closed last Wed and will re-open April 2012). It's the start of the hot season and things are closing down :( 

So in the afternoon, after relaxing in our air con rooms, we tended to our bikes and did some basic maintenance. Once done, we headed off to watch the Rugby World Cup at the Birdsville pub. New Zealand Vs France.  Great game and great result.

I have the runs at the moment and am praying it goes away soon. Early start tomorrow 0 8am as it's a big 

day. Off to Innamincka via Cordillo Downs track. 

No net access in Innamincka so I will update later. 

Richard

Day 6 Birdsville

Mungeranue Pub

Gary giving us a big farewell in the morning

This is where Pete had his off. I took the left handside - ie the good line.

Just before Birsville you hit the border of Queensland.

View behind the caravan park

Finally made it. 

Have I mentioned the heat before?? 44 degrees this arvo in Birdsville. We have added a bit of luxury to the trip for the next 2 nights as we are staying in 2 rooms at the caravan park. The air cons are blowing and it's now pleasant.

What can I say about the trip today.. It all started around 4:30am when the bird life around the small lake came to life and decided to YELL to everyone - hey we are awake - pls join us. I didn't mind and it was great hearing so many different birds given we are in the desert.

We left around 8:30am and traveled a total of 315km's to get to Birdsville. Now that we have slowed down on the dirt, my fuel mileage is great and I will have no problem doing Cordillo Downs track on Monday 430kms with no fuel stops. (no nothing!!) My bike has been faultless so far, but I can't wait to get a 1200cc next year as travelling on bitumen on a single cylinder 660cc for over 500kms for the day is painful.

The Birdsville track is rough compared to the Oodnadatta Track and as a result Pete had a great off. He chose the wrong line into a small dip, let the power drop and it was all over red rover. I was on Pete's left appox 20 mtrs behind him, so I had a great view of the event. Thankfully I didn't plough into him or his bike with my emergency stop and then helped him and the bike up. I am amazed he walked away from this one. The rocks which contributed to Pete's drop, are around the size of your fist and hitting them at 60-70km's with a few scratches and some massive bruising is just luck. I reckon he will be sore tomorrow. After Pete's crash I took some photos but Pete was off. Took me 30km's to catch up :(

Another native addition to animals spotted on this trip and that is the aussie dingo. I just want to see a few more red roos.

This will be a short blog from me. I had a few pints (maybe 5-6) at the B'Ville pub and now relaxing with some sthrn comfort.

Looking fwd to tomorrow when we venture into the Simpson Desert.

Cheers - Richard



Peter's Bit
Well lets just start with an observation !!!  Mr Puffe (aka Buzz Saw) - snores - especially at about 2:30 am in the morning.

Great stay at Mungerannie - we communed with nature for a while and it was fascinating to see the abundant bird life.  The hot pool overflowed into an expansive lake supporting a wide range of birds including waders - Richard's picture of the bird with the green beak and legs was taken while he (she) quietly picked it's way along the lake edge in front of us ... delightful.  I went for a swim in the hot pool and in the words of Phil - the Publican it's "pretty good for a bush pool" .... translation don't expect anything too much  :-)
We spent a few hours watching old outback videos on the pubs TV ... Jack Absolom (Richard counts him as a fav) and Tom Kruse of Birdsville Mail Run fame - I well remember seeing the somewhat famous film featuring Tom in his heyday, as a youngster at school in New Zealand.  A good afternoon was had by all :-)  They laid on a great meal on Friday night as well.

Richard and I are both using Sena Bluetooth Helmet Systems on this trip - these provide a multi-channel capability and mine is set up for mobile phone (including iPod music) and bike-to-bike communication.  Richard also has his configured to work with the Garmin Zumo Bike GPS navigation System.  It an absolute amazing experience to be riding along at 100 kph watching the Oz Outback roll past, listening to music (tasteful of course) and simply be able to tap a dial and speak to Richard .... ain't technology grand.  Well it would be if life was perfect 'cos Richard is having problems with battery life :-(

My play list of 23 albums is a follows:
America America
Leonard Cohen The Best Of
Simon & Garfunkel Bridge Over Troubledf Waters
DireStraits Brothers In Arms
The Moody Blues Days Of Future Passed
Cosby Stills Nash Young Deja Vu
Jennifer Warnes Famous Blue Raincoat
Road Stewart FootLoose & Fancy Free
James Taylor Greatest Hits
Linda Ronstadt Greatest Hits
Beatles A Hard Day's Night
Steely Dan Katy Lied
Van Morrison Moondance
Simply Red A New Flame
Carly Simon No Secrets
Clannad Past present
Fleetwood Mac Rumours
Carole King Tapesty
Cat Stevens Tea For The Tillerman
Police Their Greatest Hits
Michael Jackson Thriller
Enya Watermark
John Farnham Whispering Jack
Hmmm, just reflecting on that list - it probably says something about the writer but I dare say the youngsters reading here may not know some of the albums  :-)  Personal favourite listening varies and gets hard to chose ... Hmmm Simply Red, Beatles or Carole King maybe but Jennifer Warnes doing the songs of Leonard Cohen (with Cohen himselg handling backing vocals) is fairly hard to beat !!!

Ride to up to Birdsville today was fairly straight-forward except that I manged to spoilt the party and have an OFF - yeaph the bike and I had a little 'sleep' along the rode.  Barrelled down an incline into a dip and my side of the road didn't have any vehicle tracks so ended up heading into some relatively deep gravel at speed (yes David I picked the WRONG line) .... as I started to go up the other side the suspension unloaded and the front end developed a mind of it's own resulting in a reasonably serious tank slapper  :-(  Rather than risking a high-side over the top off (somewhat dangerous) I somewhat amazed myself and decided to drop the bike low-side and even managed to do it with some degree of control (yes David more power might have got me across the 5 meter distance to firmer road !!!).  Not something that I really want to do again and I'm very disappointed that Richard didn't video the event (sorry we won't be going back for a repeat either).  End result is no real damage ... bent crash bar and rear brake lever together with minor impact gravel rash on right forearm and right hip.  Have showered to clean body damage and applied Bettadine as a preventative measure ... no pain and should heal up nicely in a couple of days.

Richard rates the off as a 5 with a degree of difficulty rating of 3.7 so fairly low key but never-the-less slightly exciting.  Simply put ... just another adventure experience :-)  Still we rode into Birdsville side by side trying to do our best Ewan and Charlie impression (with the BMW 1200's of course) feeling that we had actually achieved something !!!

Have just come back from experiencing the Birdsville Pub ... yes and what an experience.
Yes it's damn HOT - more later ....  Cheers Peter

Day 6 - Birdsville - quick post

Hi All,

We have been in the middle of nowhere so no mobile / net coverage :( Just posted day 4 and 5 and will add day 6 Birdsville later. Relaxing now and will head to the pub shortly.

It has been an interesting day with a big off by Pete. Thankfully both the bike and Pete are OK.

Great to read the comments - Hi to Holland and glad you are reading the blog.

Moh'd - only carrying one pair of sneakers so I could not contribute to the sneaker / runner tree.
Yogam - I think ppl drink more beer up here than water. When in Rome..... :)
Chris K - Next time - join us!!!!
Wendy - love the comment re bore water. It is totally awesome.... NOT!!!....  having a shower and then smelling the fact the water has sulpher and smells like.......

Loving the trip so far.

Cheers everyone
Richard

Day 5 Mungaerannie

Pete trying to tackle a massive hill. He did not make it

Tenere - Accept no substitute

Cooper Creek Ferry

Cooper Creek

Camp site just behind the lake. 

Great looking bird. Anyone know what it is?

Tree full of wedge tail eagles.

Hot water bore

Petrol is expensive up here.

Day 5 Mungerannie Roadhouse

We had howling wind last night at Marree. Neither of us pegged our tents down, so it was the weight in the tent keeping them on their spot. It is really hot up here. Yesterday in the Mungarieanne area it reached 43 degrees. 

We left Marree at 9am and had a good run up. About half way we detoured off the Birdsville track and headed for the Cooper Creek ferry. It was amazing seeing so much flowing water in the middle of nowhere. We donged on our life jackets (OH&S reg) and took the 2-3 min ride. Apart from last year, the ferry had not been used for about 20 years. 

After getting off the ferry, we had to get back to the main road which was 14km's of sandy rd. I had a ball as the adventure training kicked in but the worst is yet to come. 

Birdsville track is very rough in places. I  thought at one stage all my fillings would come out. We agreed to keep the speed down to between 80-90 and so far so good. (Pete is the one speeding)

We arrived around 1pm and called it a day. I drank 2.2 ltrs of water on the way up, it is just that hot. Chatting with Phil, the publican, and he mentioned that all the cattle stations are mustering at the moment. In a few weeks or so when this is done, most ppl move out and have a caretaker look after the stations for 6 months as nothing happens due to heat. Apparantly during the hot season (ie starting now) the Mungarieanne staff are lucky to see another person in days. The tourist season has lasted a little longer this yr, probably due to the unseasonal water up here and an increase in media. I think some locals are just wanting the tourist season to end. They have had a very busy 6 months 24/7.  

Keith Rasheed - the station owner who turned Wilpena Pound into what it is now is a legend in these parts. Within the Mungarrannie pub is a painting of 7 great outback pioneers and Keith is one if them. He has graced the Mungarrannie Pub for the first time, staying the night with the ex SA Toursism minister. Hopefully get some stories from them.    

Next to the pub is an artisian bore and as a result a medium sized lake. It is just amazing seeing all the wild life. Birds everywhere. Seeing a tree with 10 Wedge Tail eagles and then seeing another +5 big trees with the same number of eagles is just breath taking. Look up and +50 birds doing circle work. 

Add water = life!!