Mungerannie to Birdsville
At 5pm we said our goodbyes to Phil & Pam and reluctantly took to our bikes again. We were a little nervy as we popped our legs over the saddle for the push to Birdsville along the Sturt Stony Desert.
The rocks are huge in this region, making us pay extra attention to avoid hitting the [...]
Birdsville Track – Mungerannie
We had a very hot 85km to cover to get to Mungerranie by lunchtime. There were golf ball sized rocks to negotiate, burning hot sand to surf the bikes and trailers through and we constantly felt that we were going uphill even though when we turned around it looked up hill in the opposite direction!
We [...]
The Birdsville Track
The Birdsville Track
How do you prepare to take two push bikes on the Birdsville Track, a 517km stretch of remote outback Australia spanning three deserts, the Strzelecki, Tirari and Sturt Stony deserts? We loaded up 30 litres of water to get us from Marree to Mungerannie, some 200km away.
These next two days would see us being [...]
Lyndhurst to Marree, Gateway to the Birdsville Track
First of all, a big thank you to Ivan for keeping the blog going! Love the Mungerannie post :o)
This is a bit out of sync but we couldn’t publish earlier – the interweb connections are satelite links and really slow in hot weather so we’ll publish now (from Boulia library).
After an evening of watching the stars [...]
Tim and Dave cross the SA/Queensland Border
At 10 am SA local time we left the sand dunes of South Australia and cycled into Rural Outback Queensland!!
Mungerannie
(From the Gulf2Gulf Correspondent)
(From the Gulf Correspondent)
Not many people know that Mungarannie is aboriginal for “Big Ugly Face”. That’s probably because not many people have ever heard of Mungarannie. However, for those that do manage to find it, I am sure that “Big Smiley Face” would be more appropriate.
The Mungarannie Hotel is 210 km north [...]
Leaving the Flinders
Today we cycled 104km leaving the Flinders Range behind us as we pulled our heavy bikes and trailers towards the Lyndhurst in rural outback SA.
It was a very hot and day in the saddle plagued by Tim’s fanclub of flies which followed everywhere we went! Tim even bought a mozzie net for his hat!
We stopped for [...]
Beautiful day in the Flinders
What an amazing day! Tim and I slept through a terrific thunderstorm last night-we were pedalling our hearts out from Wilpena to Arkaroo Rock ready for a wet night camping.
We woke up to find the clouds had cleared and we prepared for our first bit oif off road riding, taking the lesser travelled route from [...]
We’re in the Flinders
Tim and I are blogging from the community centre in Hawker. The weather is awesome for riding today – we have been shielded from the sun all day today with what could be rain clouds – we felt a few spits of rain in the last hour coming in to town.
Last night we camped by [...]
Adventure starts already – Flight Cancelled
I received an SMS from Virgin at 1:00am saying the 06:50 is cancelled – next flight is 12:05 direct to Adelaide. That means we’ll miss our connection to Port Augusta unless we can get on the 4:30pm train instead.
I’ll call the Ghan first thing. It’s 2.30am now – I’m gonna get some sleep (I [...]
A big thank you for a lovely afternoon
Thanks to everyone who popped in to the pub to wish us well for the trip, it was lovely to see you all on such a beautiful day! It’s 12:20am, gotta be up in 3.5hrs so need to get some sleep. Thanks to Sue for the photos!
Just finished packing
It took the best part of 5 hours this evening to pack the bikes, trailers and all the tools in to their boxes ready for the big day tomorrow. We’ll be leaving Manly at 5am and flying to Adelaide at 06:50am. We’ll then get the train from Adelaid to Port Augusta and rebuild the bikes [...]
NZ Phloe Singletrack T’s offer gold coin donation to World Vision Australia
Founded amongst the MTB track development of the Wainuiomata Trail Project 2004 – 2008 and the surf / special places along the NZ coastline - Phlôe is about the very essence of our riding culture
Printed garments are top end, quality made 100% cotton / Organic cotton and made in China for an NZ company.
In time Phlôe will become [...]
2nd attempt at packing
Tim came round last night to go thru the checklist for our gear again. All good except we still need a grill, multi fuel stove (this has been the subject of debate – regular gas or multi fuel??), spare chain and an MSR tent footprint (Activate ordered one in for us – it’s a ground [...]
Diamantina Shire Council
Kerry from DSC called me back just now and said we should be sweet for the Birdsville. The flooding has subsided considerably in the last 10 days and passage should be smooth along the Birdsville.
I just received a voice mail from her requesting any photos for their community newsletter – something tells me we might [...]
Call the Police
Just got off the phone with Birdsville Police to work out the real state of the tracks up there. They say the track has been dry for ‘a while’ now. A little confusing as the transport SA site shows closures and the local ABC news for outback QLD has photos of floods as recently as [...]
Birdsville Track (Marree to Birdsville)
Birdsville Track (Marree to Birdsville)
Open – Marree To Mungeranie
Warning – Mungeranie To Birdsville – NOTE Access from SA Border to Birdsville is closed due to Diamantina River flooding.
Still closed!
Missing my bike
While both my bike and Tim’s bike lay in pieces on my front porch it means I can’t ride to work which is a real shame, I quite like battling with the traffic on Military raod now. I’ve got to know some of the bus drivers over the past few months, passing each other at [...]
‘Racking’ our brains
The epoxy steel has set, the racks are on, the holes drilled and we have enough spare high tensile screws and washers to compete with Bunnings. The epoxy is kind of untried for what we are doing. The original ideal was to use washers to pad out the indentations in the frame where the racks [...]
Bob visits Manly Dam
I took the Bob trailer for a test ride to Manly Dam this morning and I must say I am super impressed with how she handles. You’d think the trailer would be cumbersome but in fact it tracks very well and to be honest I forgot I had it on!
Of course, tight turns are tricky [...]
Rainfall in the south now, brilliant
Rain is falling across South Australia’s mid-north region as the weather bureau maintains severe thunderstorm warnings for the mid-north and north-east pastoral districts.
Port Augusta has had 15 millimetres of rain before the system moved towards Port Pirie and the Flinders Ranges.
Water has entered two houses in Port Pirie but the State Emergency Service says it [...]
Flood Warning for the lower Diamantina River
“Issued at 10:24 AM on Wednesday the 11th of March 2009
by the Bureau of Meteorology, Brisbane.
Moderate to major flooding is falling slowly along the lower Diamantina River from the Durrie area to Birdsville.
Moderate to major flood levels have now peaked at Roseberth and Birdsville with river levels expected to continue falling during the next few [...]
Last physio session
Just had the last of my physio sessions for my left knee. This week Leanne took me through how to tape the knee up on the road. II’ve learnt a lot about knees and their inner workings over the last couple of months. I took a photo of how she taped [...]
Favourite Cycles, Manly, work their magic on Tim’s bike
Tim dropped his machine in for some loving by the guys at Favourite Cycles, Manly today. Leyton’s face wasn’t quite as troubled as it was when he saw my bike, which is good.
Tim will need the following done to his bike:
New chain
Tighten the front cones
New cables
New break pads
Should be ready for pick up this Thursday [...]
