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Published: August 1st 2023
Mike
Keeping to the smooth line
Day 8
Out of Arkaroola we had 150kms on some great gravel roads. We ignored some of my plotted diversions off the main route as we had 450kms to cover today, & some of the diversions looked a little dicey.
We reached the small settlement of Copley aka Leigh Creek for breakfast & gas. Leaving here we were on long straight sealed roads through serious GFA to the outback town of Maree.
Maree is the famous starting point for the Birdsville Track. Back in the day it was a sandy track through the desert. Watch “Back of Beyond” movie on YouTube for a historic perspective. Now it’s a fast hardpacked gravel road…until it rains. Rained yesterday so the reports said North of Mungeranie, todays destination, the track was closed except for 4wds & Heavy vehicles . We’ll worry about that tomorrow!
Onwards we rode, avoiding muddy patches and sandy floodways until just 10kms before our destination of Mungeranie the dreaded firebug struck again. Feeling heat on my right leg I looked down to see flames emanating from my gear bag. Stopping quickly (aka screeching to a halt) I leapt off the bike & started attacking the flames with my glove
while David who had also stopped abruptly, assisted. Fortunately 2 utes coming towards us had seen all the action, stopped & assisted with water & an extinguisher. Load significantly lightened & remaining gear repacked & secured well away from the exhaust, we rode the last 10kms feeling in my case somewhat disenchanted with my packing abilities after 2 fires ìn 2 days! Once is an accident, twice could be regarded as carelessness. It's an adventure we're on but that was not the sort I was planning on!
Good accommodation at Mungeranie Hotel helped make up for a traumatic day of 450kms.
Day 9 Breakfast and gassed up at the Mungerannie Hotel. Back onto the Birdsville track (with a borrowed gear bag) by 9am heading North in beautiful clear conditions. The reasons for the closure on this part of the track yesterday, for two wheel drive vehicles, soon became evident and it had probably dried considerably overnight. Much of the road was carved up mud except for two-wheel tracks which in general were firm packed dirt. Flood Ways were now Mud Ways and many were water logged as well. We only had one incident where we had to drag
Keith
On the Track Keith’s bike through some deep mud – not a major issue compared to yesterday.
On & on we went kilometre after kilometre all the same and more of the same, but of course caution was the by-word of the day. The landscape was desert with some water ponding from the previous few days rain. Scrubby low bushes broke the surface and as we progressed there were some long sand dunes that I guess had been wind created, some as high as 10m and stretched for kms. The track wound round these which broke up the boredom a bit but generally it was long straight after long straight.
Regular stops broke the journey up and we rode into Birdsville after crossing the Queensland border and losing 30 minutes in time difference. Stopped to take a photo at the Birdsville Sign and met 2 riders (one on a Yamaha Super Tenere and another on a KTM 790). They had been out 100km into the Simpson desert and were now heading south on the track we had just ridden. We were into the Birdsville Hotel around 2pm for an early finish. Lunch in the bar before checking into our very comfortable
well set up rooms. 315kms today. Tomorrow is our only rest day so we may ride out to Big Red an iconic sand dune in the Simpson Desert.
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Graeme
non-member comment
Good to see you all are travelling reasonably well. I was thinking maybe there is a market for a self extinguishing gear bag! Perhaps you know someone in the accessory business who could help!!!! Enjoy the rest of your trip.