Thread: We're Back

G'day all.

Pat and I have just returned from what was a fabulous 5 weeks away. More detail will be offered once Pat sorts out photos and story for the trip report section.

I thought I would offer some of my thoughts on the trip.

For those who don't know, the primary objective was to complete the Madigan Line. Various members of our party chose different routes to join up at Kulgera for the start. We met with Bushie and wife at Cunnamulla and went via an east/west crossing of the Simpson to Alice and then back to Kulgera.

We chose to go by the WAA Line, which was great. We met a few travelling the other way who advised we might have trouble on a few of the dunes, which we didn't. This crossing is relatively unspoiled and also far less rough than the usual crossings with some quite steep dunes from the east side.

The Madigan Line, though not technically difficult is unrelenting in roughness. We took 12 days from Kulgera to Birdsville (and didn't see another soul for the first ten of those) and the constant sideways and fore and aft pitching and yawing takes a toll on both driver and passengers. Again, for those who are interested, Pat did around 50 percent of the driving and was the only female who did. A highlight of this crossing was a side visit to Geosurveys Hill, which consisted of 45k's each way cross country making our own track, basically one day out and one back. I don't believe I will ever get to a more remote place in Australia taking into consideration where the nearest made road or civilisation is.

No rubbish on the track either.........how good and amazing is that? Disappointing though that it would seem most people ignore the restriction on access to Camps 3, 4 and 5 (permits are not issued, therefore it is a no go zone). Mind you, the bypass from The Twins to Camp 6 is a trial on it's own. Same thing at the other end from Camp 16 through to Camp 22 requires permission from Queensland National Parks (access to Camps 18 and 19),and permission from Adria Downs for Camps 20 to 22. We had permission to travel this section and even met the Head Ranger while in the Park (how lucky or unlucky is that), but it's obvious by the defined wheel tracks, that many travel this way without permission. Disappointing as well that out in the middle of somewhere you would think only the caring few would venture we found a pristine claypan that some yob had to do doughnuts on. I find things like this difficult to understand.

I will leave the rest for Pat to fill in soon.

We saw 2 unexpected things near Geosurveys Hill.

We headed for some clay pans a few km west of the hill to find the aboriginal sites. To the north of the large claypan in a forest (no better word to describe it) we spotted an emu.

In the southern part of the same clay pan there was a large pool of water - see pic.

There was a lot of evidence of aboriginal presence at several clay pans. And on Geosurveys Hill they must have spent years gathering chipping the rock there to make tools.

I wish I had sought permission to go through the national park. We went as far as camp 17, then turned south and south west to pick up the Hay River track near the shotline from Sundowner oil well. This section was by far the roughest traveling we encountered. Big dunes and spinifex moguls.