Well today did not turn out as planned.
We agree that the best plan is to go to Birdsville, get George’s car checked and then see what options we have.
Up and a regular packup. We do see the Troopy couple come through.
We’re on the road just after 9, and a few minutes later George’s engine warning come back on. We’ll that makes the decision easy.
The first few dunes are pretty simple. We come across some more amazing salt lakes, some so big we can’t see how far south they actually go.
About 8km later we reach the turn off to Poeppels corner. Up 1km and we park up and visit the place where SA, QLD and NT meet. The original post was in the wrong location, due to a faulty chain, I thought it was only a few metres out, but apparently it was 275m and it was in the middle of the lake. The Troopy couple are here and we find out they’re from the central coast.
We head back to the French Line, they’re going to follow some track their HEMA maps is showing them. Back on the French line, and we only travel a K or two, we reach the end of this track and the start of the K1 line on this huge salt lake. There is a rough track on the edge of the salt lake, obviously in the wet. But we’re able to drive on the lake. We drive 15 or so Ks up and the road changes name to the QAA line. At some random point the track does a hard right and we cross the lake and start heading east again.
Surprisingly, the dunes are a little easier than I expected.
I should have mention in an earlier post. A lot of these tracks are very undulating, this is even worse on the approaches to the dune crests where scallops (larger divots where spinning tyres have dug out a hole) are present. These undulations seem to evenly match the wheel base of the MUX, so as the front wheels dive into a hole the back wheels are rising a mound. Makes the damn car buck like a bronco….
While doing some blog houskeeping, here are a couple of videos. Certainly not the worst of the dunes or track.
We come across a tall dune, I can hear noise from the roof. So I go to check it. I had checked it earlier, and it seemed ok. Before attempting this dune, I figure I’ll empty out the last jerry can from the boot, then put the empty on the roof and move the wood from the roof in the back of the car to redistribute weight.
We pull over and I notice the roof racks are not quite right, I can lift the rack and find the bolt has sheard off…..then I’m horrified to discover that in fact all 4 bolts have broken!. The whole rack can just lift off. How it’s still staying on is beyond me. Shit….. While the situation is horrible, there is also the realisation of how much worse it could have been. What if the rack had slid off the car?
We pull everything off the rack, I can see all the bolts have sheared. We can’t see a way to fit a new bolt, maybe if we took the roof rails off???. We entertain the idea of just strapping the rack through the doors, but in the end we think we can use screws to hold it onto the roof rails. My toolkit is at the bottom of everything so we pull just about everything out of the car and go to work. 4 screws later, it seems secure enough to hold its own load.
We load the tyre and a couple of very light items and repack the car. That’s burnt over an hour
A few more tricky dunes later but we’re making good progress. Then we reach a dune, there are 2 clear ways up with a cross over track between them, you know when there are two options it’s probably not good. George has a go, and doesn’t quite make it. Several more attempts and nope. He just doesn’t have the engine power. Several more run ups, but no joy.
I have a go, and as I had more time to pick a line, I go far left to avoid the worst of the scallops and keep feathering the accelerator to keep the engine revs up, and I make it first go. I thought a few times we’d bog down, so it such a relief to make it over. I park up just over the crest in case he needs tow or anchor point.
George lowers his tyre pressures some more and after a coupe of attempts gets nearly to the top. Close enough to try the traxs and eventually he makes it over. Another 45 odd minutes burnt. Any thought of getting to Birdsville now has gone.
We make it to the end of the national park, it’s meant to be about 15ks to Eyre Creek, and there should be a diversion to the bypass track just before, this diversion adds about 70k’s. We’re less than 1km along and we see a detour sign. OK, unexpected. We drive along and none of the GPSs have this track marked, but like the Knolls, the track is pretty obvious and we’re not here by accident so we keep following. About 30 k’s later we start heading west, that’s positive, and we crest a few dunes, in this late afternoon light the sky and dunes are so impressive.
We enter some valleys between the dunes and it’s obvious this is part of the Eyre creek system. The floor of the dune is this super green grasses like we’ve not see on the track before. A couple of dunes later and we dogleg south and then see a “road closed” sign as we divert west again. Checking our GPSs we can see this should have been the bypass road, so it seems we’ve bypassed the bypass.
Over the next dune and there is Eyre Creek, wow. So amazing to see a flowing river out here. It’s late, and there are heaps of campers here so we try and look for a spot somewhere near the water. We find 1 spot, but it is literally metres from the track. We cross the creek and try the other side. We see Troopy couple again, but there are no free spots. Back to the other side and maybe past some motorcyclist, but there’s no room to get by. I’m backing up and BANG! I’ve reversed into a tree branch. Crap. One taillight busted and a big dent in the rear door. I’m so pissed of with myself. I guess it could have been worse 5-10cm higher and it would have broken the rear window. I gaffer tape the light back into place and we find a camp 20 or so metres, not ideal, but we’re all buggered. Just a stupid mistake.
George cooks us all some yummy souvlakis off the BBQ and we have a fire by the side of the Eyre creek. So amazing to think we get to see this normally dry waterway in flood. Hearing it babble along is such a pleasant way to go to sleep.