THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES ( the DJ's in Ozzi)

**ducatijim** · 6th October 2009, 20:26

I have always been conscious of just what one can pick up while travelling( It helps to take ones own 'sleeping bag' thou......), but careful as I have been, I have found that I have succombed to 1 of the stranger ailments out here.
Its called THf.
Fortunately it is mostly like a cold, easy to get and not too hard to shake off.
It is all about surroundings, places like Broome are really bad, so is Alice, Monkey Mia is just teaming with disease. Even places like Coober Pedy do not grant you immunity, dispite its isolation from other places.
To get over it, all one has to do is ; get outta there. That easy, symptoms will subside quite quickly and most folk will be fully over it in a couple of days, with little long lasting effects.
THf?

Tourist Haemoragic fever.

( an affliction of the wallet)

**ducatijim** · 11th October 2009, 16:01

Holed up in Birdsville for a couple of daze, been a bit of a mission gettn here I can tell you

So, time for some pix while I while the time away:

Part Mereenie loop rd,
Track into Tnorala( a comet crater, 142.5 million yrs old)
Inside Tnorala
Ellery big hole

All round Alice region

**ducatijim** · 11th October 2009, 16:08

Did the tourist thing round the big rox in the middle.

That was all sealed road stuff and taking a big toll on my new(?) desert tyre!

Stayed- Curtin springs( don't) Erldunda( wonderful) and Coober Pedy( fun!)

PIX-
camp at Erldunda
'digs in CP; underground!
last 2 are the painted desert rd to Oodnadatta

**Bass** · 12th October 2009, 11:09

Some of those corrugations look like dunes!

How are the butts and the suspension holding up?

Did you stop at Mungarannie?

**ducatijim** · 13th October 2009, 15:40

We are holed up right at this moment in the smoko room at the Moomba oilfield gate house:
Sheltering from a dust storm, the second in 2 days!
Rode for 10 hours yesterday, from Birdsville to Innamincka, mostly thru a storm on attrocious trails( trails= worse than goat track, goats have better judgement!). Cleaned aircleaner this morning and after 1 hour on the track towards Arckaroola we were into another storm, turned back another hour later and a Santos worker told us to come here and shelter!!

There is a Telstra site here so I am busily typing this up as we have coffee and sambos in comfort!

Have used our fuel range up now so cannot go ahead anyway, will have to try and return to Innamincka and refuel and then try again EARLY tomorrow, fingers crossed!

Wondering when we will get home now?

**clint640** · 14th October 2009, 07:30

See attached pic for what it's like when not dusty

It was pretty corrugated south of Moomba when we went through. Good luck.

We really enjoyed Arkaroola & the Flinders area. Be sure to leave Arkaroola by the western track not the main rd, it's a fun ride. How far south are you going to go?

Cheers
Clint

**ducatijim** · 14th October 2009, 21:10

Adelaide m8!

**Triwi** · 15th October 2009, 16:36

Dj,
Stop at Wilpena for a night. It will be paradise after what you're going thru.
No dented front rims yet? And now where did I put that steering head spanner?
cheers
Triwi

**ducatijim** · 17th October 2009, 18:05

Great idea Triwi, but got to Blinman and we were fucked, again! So pulled up at the pub!
Now this region has some fan-bloody-tastic riding, both sealed and not. And lotsa wildlife along the roads in the morning too( after a 'Reporoa' like FROST I might add!!!)

**ducatijim** · 17th October 2009, 18:13

Clint is right; the road from Copley to Arkaroola is indeed a beauty! God bless the Gammon ranges.If you get back Clint, make sure you also ride the road from Tea Tree out station to Blinman; its also a beauty!
Anyway, back to Coober Pedy I think? We stayed in a genuine old opal mine/underground backpackers - 6.5m underground was so nice; cool,quiet and dark! I did the tour of a working mine the next morning while DJoolz drained my CC! Met a Dutch couple at the servo later who were travelling around oz on 2 Yam XT660's, see them here-
www.crisscroz.nl
We hit the road out thru the painted desert to Oodnadatta just before lunch, a quick 200k before lunch, right? That went well, good conditions and great scenery but too late at Oodna for anything decent for a feed. Head south on the Oodna track to find a campsite at the Algebuckina Bridge site for the nite, we come across a downed 1200gsa that had been travelling the other way untill the rider lost it in the deep gravel/sand mix. He was gone, rescued by following travellers without any serious injuries(?), a chap with a sat fone had stayed with the wreck for recovery...it would be a while as Adam from the 'pinkie' was away for a while so rescue would need to come from CP.
We had the campsite to ourselves and did some poking round the ruins before dark.
Next morning it was off to William Creek for a burger for lunch; did not see pix of anyone I knew on the walls! Then off to Coward springs for the nite. Nice, well set-up camp done by the station owners but done properly, except for the mosquito control....that left a LOT to be desired....the lil buggers were even biting us right thru our shirts! Was made up for by very nice company there.
Marla the next morning for maggot pax for brekkie, yum, beef curry! Then up the Birdsville to Maungerannie Pub, and yes Bass, Phil and Pam are still there, after 10+ years, and still doing a real great job of shareing true outback hospitality, great food and...and.......COLD beer! The Oodna was rough and loose, the lower Birdie was fine but, the rest up to Birdsville was Appalling, truely shite- took us 7 hrs to cover 300k's. I met Kiwi Chris by the fone box, really, he rode into town after us on a tricked dr650! I would think he is well known in NZ; he does some bike tests but Im not sure who for and he was with about 20 others including the Ed of 4x4 mag doing field tests on several rv's and also testing these 2 dr's that he( the ed) would be part of a team doing Sydney to London on,early next year. These guys had wives, girlfriends, electric coolers full of beer and campa trailers...wow......headed off 50km into the Simpson to set up camp. Then, thrash the shit outta other peoples rv's......and they get PAID for it! Reminded me of a bunch of kindy boys with a sandpit full of nice, new,somebody elses toys!!! I really enjoyed a few beers with these guys, and it turned out that Chris and I had done a 2 week tour of the SI on the same group ride a couple of years ago...fancy who you meet in Birdsville!!
Liked it so much here, we stayed 2 days and saw the sights! Also took the oppotunity to fit a new rear tyre, from my mate at the Shell roadhouse( chain last year), with the help of his bead breaker on sunday morning....this guy is a legend for sure....there seems to be nothing he doesn't have/can fix! And, he had 3 18" Michelin Desert tyres( all the station bikes use them here...can't wear them out he says....hear that Bass?)
Also filled my pillow tank, with 11 litres, for the first time here; ready for an early start Monday morning to attack the Cordillo downs rd to Innaminkca- 425km and a varyed lot according to Chris who had come this way the other day, admittedly at Endo speeds, unladen!
Varyed? it went from bad to bloody awefull and back again....huge rocks embeded in the surface with 75-100mm protruding, surrounded by their mates that had been completely ripped out and swathed into berms 100mm+ high.....not too much choice where to put the wheels! The dust storm started about 3 hours into it and by the time we stopped at the old Cordillo downs woolshed for lunch, visability was about 200m. Couldn't even get out of it in the shed; wind and sand just whiped thru relentlessly so we bolted lunch down and shot thru....our helmets which we placed on the ground, face downwind, were 1/2 full of dust when we picked them up.....bugger!
We had this storm for about another 5 hours, I was wondering what it was doing to the Kt's airfilter? I was also wondering if the fuel we had, 32L, would be enough given the slow speeds and the possible filter clogging?. We had lost a litre getting fuel out of the pillow before I cut the arse out of a water bottle to make a funnel to pour into the tank! However, the lo lite came on earlier than I would have liked so concern set in,not making the already hard riding any easier.
Then there it was; the Innaminkca repeater tower, these things are a beacon in the deserts, located at every little hamlet and visable from 20-30 km usually, we saw it at about 15km( dust was abating finally), by my best reckoning, so I was almost extatic....almost.....cause then it came-a falter in the engine.......then.........then.........stop.
We drained the last 300mls outa the pillow and 200mls(?) outa the Coleman into the bike.....off we go again, till........2km to go and we are MT! Kaput!
We park up and set off walking to town(?). A couple of local station hoons stop and gave us a ride to town(?), pity, servo was closed 1/2 hour ago! But wait....there are 2 BM's parked outside the pub, heaps of kit on board, bet they have fuel? For the SECOND TIME in ozzy, we are rescued by a BM rider; Andy; 800gs, top bloke!

Coming up....ESCAPE FROM INNNAMINKCA !!!!

**ducatijim** · 18th October 2009, 11:02

Had time now in Adelaide, while at Taffys place, to get some more pix sorted.

Here we have;

Campsite @ Algebuckina bridge, Oodnadatta trk

Scene(?) from the Oodna trk

Campsite at Coward springs( wot u can't c is the mozzies!)

Rail siding ruins( of origional Ghan line)

**ducatijim** · 19th October 2009, 22:36

Its winding up for us now, last nite here in Adeliade so I will throw up a few more tasters to keep you interested(?) while I compose something that looks like the last leg( to you!) of our trip!

So here for your pleasure are ;

Me trying to look cool somewhere on the Birdsville track

The clasic pix, any desert traveller wants while here!

The Cordillo woolshed ruins inside from the sandstorm

Thru the Gannom ranged to Arkaroola

**ducatijim** · 19th October 2009, 22:55

Andy, f800gs, doubled me out the 2km to Darkie with his pillow tank and we put a splash into the old girl; enough to get me back to 'town'.He and mate Mark along with Marks wife Maddy, all from Sydney on a weeks desert 'taster' had come up the Strze from Arkaroola today when Marks 1200gs spat the dummy 120km out and they were rescued by a passing Santos worker with a tray back landie. Good folk at Santos we were to find.I put the high consumption down to a clogged airfilter from the dust storm we had to ride in; 32L/425km, so next morning I was out there dismantling the bike( yes...990 filter is NOT roadside servicable by any means!!) and gave it a wee clean, it was not as bad as I expected. As we got on the road, Mark and Andy were pushing the 1200 to the bush mechanic who practiced locally....good luck i wished him, not confident at all that they would get it going!
We were fully loaded with fuel; 21L in tank, 10 in pillow and another 1.5 in a coke bottle!! No chances were being taken with 485km to get to Lyndhurst today. Took the 'old' strze outta town; had to show the BM riders that us Kt pilots were hard( mad?), and almost immediatly the track turned to shite, with lotsa sand patches( I later told Djoolz that the only reason I did not turn around was it was so narrow and sooo loose that I couldn't, when the real reason was I did not want to loose face to the Bm riders who would have surely noticed if we had come back thru town again!
1'5hrs and 46km later we cut the main Strze, bloody yay! Turn right and away we go.Right into the start of another dust storm. I also know with 1.5 hrs run time already up, we risk not having the range, running these doubts past Djlz, she says go for it and we do! For about an hour; we missed seeing the Moomba plant in the dust and didn't see trucks approaching the other way, visability was down to below 100m and we pulled off the road for a 'regroup' of ideas. As we did a Santos truck pulls in and asks how we doin? Well, you know! Go back 10k to the plant gate house and go into the smoko room he says, I'll radio it thru and tell them your coming.
Ok.
We do. Now I know we don't have fuel range anymore. We make coffee there and eat our sambos outta the weather. I do some emailing( there is a Telstra cell there just for the plant!), have some more coffee and we head back to Innaminkca a couple of hours later( have to get there before the servo closes so we can refuel tonite to be on the track before daylite tomorrow to beat this weather). Make it with 1/2 hour to spare, the visability got down to 10m, it was like real bad fog but it made you sneeze!
Mark and Andy couldn't belive their eyes when they saw our bike back there, however, I did not own up to causing our dilema with the time and fuel loss doing the old track this morning! They however had sucess with a fix on the 1200- fuel pump wires corroded, only $600 to have a couple of new wires soldered on! The mechanic was livid that Mark had accepted a recovery, for nothing, from a Santos guy, and done the garage out of their fee had they been contacted to pick it up! All are sure the bill reflected, and compensated this!
5am we were up and by 6-15 we rode outta there into a cold and clear morning, filled with promise! By morning smoko we were well down the track and it was warm now and we could see the dust storm way off to the north east of us; someone would get it today but not us! I kept checking my fuel usage a the light came on and a measured amount was replaced and the results looked promising. Even when the light came on the final time, with no more top-up, we had only 85km to go and at our usage rate we would do nearly 100km on reserve. We quietly celebrated roadside with a drink of warm water then settled in for an uneventful cruise into Lyndhurst. We thought!
7km out, she hesitates, 5km out she stops...dry again! Fark! You know, we are so over this! Its too far to push and we haven't seen anyone else on this road since early morning trucks going into Moomba ages ago.
Wait.......Djlz says lets drain the Coleman.....theres only about 300ml in there? In it goes and she fires up....we make it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Never argue with a practical woman, if you can recognse it in time............

I will spend my 3hrs in Sydney airport 2moro to gloss out the final coupla daze thru the Gammon and flinders.......stay awake( unlike me now..too many drugs!)....it is some of the best and really accesible

**Frodo** · 20th October 2009, 05:30

DJ

Enjoying your stories, as always. Tempted to do something similar myself, but will make sure that I have enough fuel!

Not sure if I'll be thinking of dust as I commute into another stinker of a wet southerly in a moment or two!

Cheers