TRIP REPORT: Finke River Gorge - LOTS OF PICS

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

Hi all,

We are heading out early tomorrow to check out some trails around the Finke River Gorge Area for leachy. Not sure how we will go at this stage there is no plans on where we will go but I will have the SPOT active for anyone that wants to check on us occasionally through the day. My SPOT webpage is:

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/face ... igP0l0pSQE

You will only see a map of the west coast of USA at the moment till it receives our first co-ordintaes tomorrow then it will show where we are.

Cheers

Mav

[Mrs Fishnut Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mrs Fishnut]

Re: Finke River Gorge Area

That's very cool!!

[jeff s Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close jeff s]

Re: Finke River Gorge Area

Yes, that is cool.

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area

Well we are back and we had a great day out but even though we only went a short way in to the gorge area we definitely copped a bit of a scratching up. So I can say that you will get some scratches there is plenty of debris from last Novembers rains along the track and we had to stop on occasions and move debris so we could pass.

I will post up some photos later, it would have been wonderful if not for the damn flies which were horrendous. Thank god for fly nets otherwise we would have been driven to dispare. :lol:

We found a nice little waterhole which is at point 15 and 16 on the tracking shared webpage, we set up our camp ther for lunch and had a BBQ with several dozen winged protien bombs consumed by everybody. :lol:

Really hot in the gorge area as it forms a bit of a waddy and the temps sored to around 42, out of there the temps were down to 35.

Anyway I am off to wash the truck and I will post up some pics tonight.

[LiveFreeAndRoam Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close LiveFreeAndRoam]

Re: Finke River Gorge Area

So I can say that you will get some scratches there is plenty of debris from last Novembers rains along the track and we had to stop on occasions and move debris so we could pass.

Mate,

I think you should have taken those MTZ all the way through the gorge, and cleared the passage for the rest of us .

LFaR.
PS: Is there some way that I can download your GPS track data?

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area

So I can say that you will get some scratches there is plenty of debris from last Novembers rains along the track and we had to stop on occasions and move debris so we could pass.

Mate,

I think you should have taken those MTZ all the way through the gorge, and cleared the passage for the rest of us .

LFaR.
PS: Is there some way that I can download your GPS track data?

No problems mate, which format would you like it in, I can export the data in CSV, GPX, or KML format. Just let me know which you want and I will send it to you. CSV is Garmin format which is the one most people would want.

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - WARNING not dial up friendly.

Okay I have a few photos to load up so here we go. We headed out to Hermannsburg and turned off onto the Boggy Hole access track about 14 kms before Hermannsburg. So the first photo is when we turned on to the access track and stopped to air down:



The following are shots of parts of the track into the Finke River National Park:













Next is some of the scenery:





My wife spotted this rock formation and reckons it looks like a snakes head coming out of the rock face. Much like a Cobra:



This is the gate that you go through in order to get into the National Park and the accompanying signs :





This was our little lunch area:



We came across this on a back road into Hermansburg, it had rammed a tree doing a fair old lick and from the outward impact marks on the windscreen it was obvious the occupants were not wearing any seatbelts.





I guess that will do for photos of this trip. :lol:

[Pearcey Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pearcey]

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - Warning NOT dial up friendly

Great photos. I'll be in Alice by about April 13 and heading down the park shortly after so just curious, what pressure did you air down to and did you have any tyre problems with the track in the condition it was in?

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - Warning NOT dial up friendly

Great photos. I'll be in Alice by about April 13 and heading down the park shortly after so just curious, what pressure did you air down to and did you have any tyre problems with the track in the condition it was in?

I have just had Mickey Thompson MTZ's fitted on this passed Saturday and went down the Finke River National Park on the Sunday. I aired down to 21 PSI all round to find a happy medium between soft sand and river rubble driving. Still I had it in mind to drop to 14 PSI if needed but I did not get to the really soft sand areas. No tyre problems, however on the entry tracks into the National Park you do have to watch for broken glass, old stubby bottles and bits of jaggered metal on some tracks. These are left overs from some local people who do not know what a garbage bin is and are happy to live with trash around them.

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - Warning NOT dial up friendly

Hey Mav, you posted a number of picks of the track but none showing a bit of dirt on the new rubber :?:

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - Warning NOT dial up friendly

Hey Mav, you posted a number of picks of the track but none showing a bit of dirt on the new rubber :?:

Tell you the truth. I didn't take any ofthe truck with the new tyres on in the wild. :lol: They were exceedling good though and loved going off road with them for the first time.

We were planning to go further but due to getting away later than we wanted to we decided that it would be better to turn around and head home via Hermannsburg. Actually with hindsight we should have gone back the way we came instead of detouring to Hermansburg, we only went there in order to air up again but the servo's compressor was so damn slow that it took forever to pump up one tyre. I ended up getting my portable compressor out and had the remaining tyres pump up in no time.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: TRIP REPORT: Finke River Gorge - LOTS OF PICS

mav, what's with the pornography warning on the sign?

I'm trying to imagine. Are they talking about creating it, or viewing it? It seems kinda strange to have it up in lights as it were like that out in the bush. Not that I'm into that stuff at all, but it strikes me as the last thing people would be doing out in the desert...

I have struck some hikers skinny dipping at various times, but that's a few steps short of pornography!

Is this the real reason you didn't take any pictures of your tyres? :mrgreen:

Michael

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

Re: TRIP REPORT: Finke River Gorge - LOTS OF PICS

mav, what's with the pornography warning on the sign?

I'm trying to imagine. Are they talking about creating it, or viewing it? It seems kinda strange to have it up in lights as it were like that out in the bush. Not that I'm into that stuff at all, but it strikes me as the last thing people would be doing out in the desert...

I have struck some hikers skinny dipping at various times, but that's a few steps short of pornography!

Is this the real reason you didn't take any pictures of your tyres? :mrgreen:

Michael

Michael, these signs have gone up everywhere out here. It is part of the Intervention on Aboriginal communities where all pornographic material and alcohol is banned on aboriginal lands. Out here it is being taken pretty seriously so don't think of carrying beer etc on to aboriginal lands else face a fine for doing so and yes the police do do inspections of cars in some weird places that you would never expect them to be. Also best to leave the stick books at home.

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

Re: Finke River Gorge Area - WARNING not dial up friendly.

Mav... this raises an interesting point and something that anyone traveling in this direction as part of the PP GTG needs to fully consider - especially if carrying a few ales or wine on board, even if only for medicinal reasons. Last thing we would want is for someone to have their rig seized by police due to an unfortunate misunderstanding.

As you have already indicated, these laws are strongly policed and enforced, including remote areas.

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

Re: TRIP REPORT: Finke River Gorge - LOTS OF PICS

Mav,

Thanks for the pics. It's good to see what the terrain is like.

Leachy