Madigans

[bitdist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bitdist]

Well I am all packed.....I hope and it has been a big rush to get ready. I had things to do to the Prado that I have run out of time to do, but thats life.
In the morning I am off.
I'll try and drop in on the SA people when they meet to go off on their day trip, then it is off to Mt Dare then every Madigans camp GPS coordinates we can get to (there is a couple od camps we could not get permission to go to, but the rest should be OK)
There are 6 vehicles left to make the trip (started with about 11 but they dropped off gradually)

So when I get back I'll add some photos and trip reports here !!

cheers

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Happy and safe travels bitdist !!

6 cars sounds just about right I reckon... not too many but enough to stay out of trouble.

Look forward to the report and pics

[bitdist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bitdist]

After meeting with some of the SA pradopointers and Mav on the Saturday.......


we meandered up to CooperPedy and Oodnadatta



and then up to Mt Dare via the Pirderka track



and Dalhousie. There we met up with the other 5 vehicles to do Madigans Line. Mt dare has a new pub built there since the last time I was there so it was very modern and flash. There were so many birds in the trees around there, they looked like white leaves on a tree




It took us 7 torturous days to cross from Mt. Dare to Birdsville. I would not say the crossing is difficult (especially at the moment as the sand was very firm and quite damp once you dig down a bit) but it sure tests both the vehicle and the patience.
For those that don't know, Madigan's Line follows the route that Cecil Madigan took on Camel across the Northern Simpson Desert in 1939. This was the first crossing of the Simpson. We had GPS points for his 25 camps which we planned to visit on the trip across. Each of them has been marked by a star picket with a plaque on it. There is a book of his journey around and it is well worth a read. Gives you an idea how tough the explorers were.
We left Mt Dare and went up Binns track through to Old Andado station (which Mav is planning to do a bit of the other end of Binns track with the pradopoint get together next year) then on through some really deep bulldust patches up to 200m long


Binns track

first flat tyre

Old Andaddo Station



For Camp 1, 1A, 2 and 6 we mostly had no track to follow at all. It did not look like anyone had visited camp 1 for quite a while. Our trip leader paved the way and we ventured cross country to each of the camps. Although it is desert, it is still very heavily vegetated with heaps of spinifex and small dead shrubs. We had to weave our way through, as well as over sandunes ranging from 10-35m high. During this section we all sustained a lot of scratches and had 4 punctures in the group, 3 of which were side wall slashes. (Most were in the vehicle with BFG ATs on and I did not get any on the MTZ’s for the trip)


one of many....


You will notice that I had omitted camp 3-5 above. This is because these camps are in Aboriginal land and we could not get the permits to cross the land. They will not give out permits to anyone, although some still drive through risking the fine and doing the wrong thing.

Camp 6-15 were not navigational challenges as there was a set of wheel marks to follow but it was still slow going. The spinnifex mounds and small humps make it impossible to get up any speed and for the next 3 days we averaged only 15km/h. It was hell on the shocks, with many of the shocks in the other vehicles suffering badly and not doing too much by about lunch time, which made the going even slower. Mine were OK for the first 3 days, then the front ones gave up entirely and took no further part in the trip and the back ones were pretty bad as well. So I bounced the rest of the way home which was a bit disappointing !!
Camp 16-23 were again a navigational challenge as we lost the wheel tracks on numerous occasions and had to go cross country, making the most direct route to the next camp. The dunes also go a lot higher and softer which made things a lot more exciting.



near camp 12

lots of flowers just starting to come out. In another couple of weeks it would be covered





We met a group going up the hay river track when we crossed it and then kept on going into Queensland

This is the Hay River Junction

The last two camps were on a nice dirt road on one of the stations with Camp 25 being Birdsville.


Near Birdsville

Near Camp 23

The weather was great all the way across with temps between 25-30 deg and it was a bit of a shock to come back to the Melb weather. At night it was mostly around 0, sometimes ice on things in the morning but for the first time I was in a swag and I could not believe the difference it made as I was really hot most nights and kept getting half out of the sleeping bag

We then made our way to home via Walker's Crossing and Flinders Ranges. It was the first time I had been able to do Walkers Crossing as it has always been closed due to water every other time I have been in the area, and it makes a big difference to the trip from Birdsville to Innaminka. The normal way over the top via the development road it is a full days trip. Via Walkers it is only about 4 hours drive.


It was an awesome trip and I am glad I did it but not one I would like to repeat too soon.
1. Fuel consumption -. This was the fuel usage for the vehicles crossing from Mt Dare to Birdsville.

Pajero NS - 175 litres
Landrover D3 – with small trailer 150 litres
Landrover D2 - 154 litres (trip leader and making the track for us)
Landrover D2 - 148 litres
Landrover D2 (manual) - 135 litres
Prado D4d - 143 litres
During the really tough cross country sections I could barely believe the fuel I was going through. (watching the scanguage) If someone had said it was possible for a diesel to do this I would not have believed them (The Pajero computer said worse !!) For hours on end we were averaging between 30 and 40lt per 100 km !! That’s scary
One of the most useful mods I did in the week before was mounting the aircompressor (max air) under the bonnet and running a hose to a connector on the bulbar. It was just SO easy to pull the hose out and plug it in on the bulbar and away you go with air. In fact it was so easy that everyone else wanted to use it as well !!
If anyone is planning to do it sometime remember it is a LOT more isolated than the normal Simpson and probably one of the most isolated tracks in Australia. If you want to do all the camps like we did (except for a couple near the start) you will need permission from the station near Birdsville and QLD national parks as well for any camps past 16 (hay river track) A lot of people do the first bit and then go down the hay river track back to Birdsville as was pretty obvious by the lack of tracks past this point. I would not be surprised if it becomes very difficult to get permission to do camps 17-24 in the future from what I hear. Also Mt Dare has a great little booklet they have put together on the track with lots of track notes etc on. Well worth getting for those thinking about it.

cheers

[damonat Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close damonat]

good to hear you had a good and safe trip in the prado.
go the MTZ's.
not my cup of tea, doing deserts (not enough water) but it's the adventure.
sounds like the trip was torture on the suspension. good luck with it.

[MickL Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close MickL]

FANTASTIC!!!!! Great pics and write up.......



Mick

[leachy_9 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close leachy_9]

Great trip report and photos.

Leachy

[Chippy Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chippy]

Brilliant.

Fantastic report and pics Bitdist.

Cheers
Chippy

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Great trip report Tim, good to meet you in Elizabeth and the rest of the SA PPers.

I thought we might catch up with you up at Pt Augusta but we must have missed each other, well at least I did not see your Prado anwhere there.

Cheers

Mav

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Really good read there bitdist. Interesting to hear about the BFGs as I have been considering a set of these. Have heard from a lot of people that the new BFGs just arn't the same as they used to be and have become quite suseptable to side wall damage. Might start looking at something with a little more strength such as a set of Mickeys or Silent Armours.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. What was the price of Diesel at Mt Dare? Have heard this can be shockingly expensive up there.

[lc120_man Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close lc120_man]

Great report and pics. That's reminds me why we had BFG tyres banned from this trip :twisted:
We did Madigan Line up to Camp 16 and them up to Hay River.
The fuel consumption for petrol Prado was 28 liters per 10 km...

[bitdist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bitdist]

Really good read there bitdist. Interesting to hear about the BFGs as I have been considering a set of these. Have heard from a lot of people that the new BFGs just arn't the same as they used to be and have become quite suseptable to side wall damage. Might start looking at something with a little more strength such as a set of Mickeys or Silent Armours.

Glad you enjoyed your trip. What was the price of Diesel at Mt Dare? Have heard this can be shockingly expensive up there.

After seeing the BFG slashed several times, the sidewall was pretty thin...
We had two in the group with Silent Armours and they got one puncture each, but they were just straight through, which ANY tyre could get out there. They both are impressed with them for what it is worth.
Diesel at Mt Dare wasn't too bad I thought -$2.35, so only about 50c more than back home. Last time I was up there it was almost double home

[bitdist Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bitdist]

Great report and pics. That's reminds me why we had BFG tyres banned from this trip :twisted:
We did Madigan Line up to Camp 16 and them up to Hay River.
The fuel consumption for petrol Prado was 28 liters per 10 km...

Overall between Mt Dare and Birdsville I did 19 litres per 100km.
You might be suprised but you missed the roughest part !! For a while between camp 16 and about 21 it was rougher and bumpier than the day or 2 before camp 16

cheers