- Home
-
Treks
- TTT 7 - 2016
-
TTT 6 - 2015
>
- TTT 1 - 2010
- TTT 2 - 2011 >
- TTT 3 - 2012 >
-
TTT 4 - 2013
>
-
TTT 5 - 2014
>
- Trek-Blog
-
Day's 1 to 6 12/8/2014 to 17/8/2014
>
- Day 1 - Wangaratta to Renmark
- Day 2 - Renmark to 30km's out of Port Augusta
- Day 3 - 37kms North of Port Augusta to Mabel Creek
- Day 4 - Mabel Creek- 60kms in to Anne B to Anne Beadell 25kms short of Emu 15-8-2014
- Day 5 -Anne Beadell near Emu to The Unamed Conservation Park 16-8-2014
- Day 6 - UCP to 25kms south of Vokes Corner 17-8-2014
- Day's 7 to 12 - 18/8/2014 to 23/8/2014 >
- Flying Doctors
- The Movies
- Photo Albums
- Links
Day - 9 Geraldton Bore to Warburton - Tue 20 Oct 2015
Desert Sunrise.
Around 4.00am the carpet of stars that covers the sky starts to fade as in the east the dark night sky lightens. Slowly the light inches across the sky, taking away the twinkling jewels of the night sky, eventually leaving just one brighter star low in the east, a planet no doubt. The eastern horizon begins to glow, magenta, orange, red, and around 4.40 it is fully heralding the arrival of the sun. The colours fade to a lighter, brighter hue with clouds hanging low in the east from overnight thunderstorms providing long streaks of deeper blue. At 5.04, with the sky at its lightest, the edge of a glowing orange orb breaks the line that delineates the boundary between earth and sky, changing colour as it rises from the east south east. At first you can look at it and marvel at the warmth and light that it brings, but as it gets above the low tree line at 5.14 you can look no more as it sears the retina and reminds you that out here, it is in charge – of life and death.
The Geraldton Historical Society must be thanked for the facilities that they have installed at Geraldton Bore, our overnight campsite here in the Gibson Desert. The water that flows has soothed our feet and cleaned our faces, and helped to wash away the 530+ kilometres that we completed the previous day. This has put us back on track with our schedule, recovering from the time lost stuffing around with trailers on the coast. Breakfast is cereal and coffee around a re-stocked fire, listening to Midnight Oil played by DJ Joc. Our goal today is to reach Warburton, about 293 kilometres away across rougher tracks than previous days. A particular highlight that we were looking forward to was a visit to Mt Len Beadell. During the early morning, lightning had been seen in the distance in the direction that we were heading and still this morning building cumulus clouds indicting some instability lingered. Big Scotty took out the Anything But Average award for his enthusiasm, his knowledge of the outback and in particular Beadell history and his dedication to his beer fridge job. During fines there was an objection and an appeal which took some deliberation. Either way the issue was that Joc ran out of fuel…again.
As described above we were up and about early, eager after yesterday’s riding to take on the track again. Immediately it was obvious that the track today would not be as easy as in previous days. Thick and fast came corrugations, sand, wash outs, rock shelfs and side-tracks around the roughest, un-navigable sections. As Joc describes it,
“It’s the type of track that breaks vehicles and trailers. It’s like the Canning Stock Route; you have to expect that stuff will get broken. The footage when people see it will show that it’s really difficult to ride, mainly because of the terrain changing quickly, wash-outs popping up, corrugations that shudder you to the core and wear you out. Its not maintained, it’s just washed away and eroded over time”.
The BradsJocs average speed (the speed that they ride comfortably at) was well down today, around the 60-70 mark, well below the open track average of 100+.
After three hours the bikes had reached Mt Beadell, leading the cars by a very big margin. In these conditions the bikes do it hard but the average speed of the cars slows right down. Mt Beadell was a welcome respite from the tough conditions and also one of the key sites that we wanted to visit. Len Beadell, known as Australia’s Last Great Explorer, is a hero of Trek the Trak. It was Len and his Gunbarrel Road Construction Party who surveyed and constructed this road between Victory Downs in the Northern Territory and Carnegie Station in Western Australia. It was part of his job in setting out and opening up this part of Australia for a weather station to support operations at Maralinga and Woomera rocket range. In its original guise it was 1350 kilometres long which we won’t cover; some of it is now abandoned. On top of Mt Beadell is a memorial to Len; it is a replica of his theodolite.
We left Mt Beadell around 11.15; too early for lunch but enough time to eat out some more miles. We went past Camp Beadell and then into Thyrptomene Hill Bore. At this point the bikes were well ahead. Young Rips was out of the Max as the Troopy and Chuckwagon came in. He immediately noted a strange smell about the Troopy and trailer, and on inspection it was found that the shock absorbers on the trailer had failed; they were extremely hot and leaking oil. Not good on one of the roughest roads in Australia. We allowed them to cool for a while and then continued on slowly, stopping regularly for them to cool and to clean them to check for further oil loss. Time was slipping away now, and compounding this was the fact that the bikes had gone ahead, were out of contact and had no food or fuel.
We redistributed weight to try to get the trailer to work better and continued on, eventually being met by Brad and Joc short of the corner of the Gunbarrel and Heather Highways. At this corner we met the rest of the team. It was now around 3.30 and we still had over 140 kilometres to go. The bikes refuelled and riders refreshed and the decision was made that the trailer should continue at a normal speed; if the shocks are stuffed, they are stuffed and more damage shouldn’t be done. It is what it is. Eventually the bikes and cars made it to Warburton, where we had accommodation booked. The cars arrived after dark, sighting a herd of camels 10 kilometres outside town, reinforcing the dangers of travel after dark. Most of the bikes had got to town not long before us due to fuel issues, Brad and Joc had got to town at 5.02, 2 minutes after the close of our accommodation. However they still let us in and fed us. Let us in is quite accurate; Warburton is another story but for now we will say that the caravan park has two eight foot fences, one colour bond, one wire mesh. A complete set of security cameras covers the site and we have put in place a watch system where two of us will be awake and about for two hour shifts during the night.
This gives us time to contemplate our position which we believe, even though today we broke two trailer shock absorbers, two aerials, bike fairing and had a small smouldering fire in a bike, ran out of fuel a few times as well as whatever we discover tomorrow when we have a look over the gear and trailers, is solid. Today we went to Mt Beadell and Brock discovered the cause of a persistent gremlin in his bike. We are healthy and the fatigue isn’t too bad. We reckon it’s on!
Desert Sunset.
Viewed from a car driving eastward, the edge of the sky begins with a darkening rim, edged with a flush of pink that lifts, seemingly pushing down the sun that is opposite and behind us. This upward pushing continues until the sun, visibly dropping, loses its intensity and again you can view its anger subdued. The sky ahead darkens but behind the sun pushes off to other places, a continual traveller. Its memory lingers though in yellow and red that stays quite a while, with a pleasing glow, reminding you that it will all be done again…tomorrow.
Desert Sunrise.
Around 4.00am the carpet of stars that covers the sky starts to fade as in the east the dark night sky lightens. Slowly the light inches across the sky, taking away the twinkling jewels of the night sky, eventually leaving just one brighter star low in the east, a planet no doubt. The eastern horizon begins to glow, magenta, orange, red, and around 4.40 it is fully heralding the arrival of the sun. The colours fade to a lighter, brighter hue with clouds hanging low in the east from overnight thunderstorms providing long streaks of deeper blue. At 5.04, with the sky at its lightest, the edge of a glowing orange orb breaks the line that delineates the boundary between earth and sky, changing colour as it rises from the east south east. At first you can look at it and marvel at the warmth and light that it brings, but as it gets above the low tree line at 5.14 you can look no more as it sears the retina and reminds you that out here, it is in charge – of life and death.
The Geraldton Historical Society must be thanked for the facilities that they have installed at Geraldton Bore, our overnight campsite here in the Gibson Desert. The water that flows has soothed our feet and cleaned our faces, and helped to wash away the 530+ kilometres that we completed the previous day. This has put us back on track with our schedule, recovering from the time lost stuffing around with trailers on the coast. Breakfast is cereal and coffee around a re-stocked fire, listening to Midnight Oil played by DJ Joc. Our goal today is to reach Warburton, about 293 kilometres away across rougher tracks than previous days. A particular highlight that we were looking forward to was a visit to Mt Len Beadell. During the early morning, lightning had been seen in the distance in the direction that we were heading and still this morning building cumulus clouds indicting some instability lingered. Big Scotty took out the Anything But Average award for his enthusiasm, his knowledge of the outback and in particular Beadell history and his dedication to his beer fridge job. During fines there was an objection and an appeal which took some deliberation. Either way the issue was that Joc ran out of fuel…again.
As described above we were up and about early, eager after yesterday’s riding to take on the track again. Immediately it was obvious that the track today would not be as easy as in previous days. Thick and fast came corrugations, sand, wash outs, rock shelfs and side-tracks around the roughest, un-navigable sections. As Joc describes it,
“It’s the type of track that breaks vehicles and trailers. It’s like the Canning Stock Route; you have to expect that stuff will get broken. The footage when people see it will show that it’s really difficult to ride, mainly because of the terrain changing quickly, wash-outs popping up, corrugations that shudder you to the core and wear you out. Its not maintained, it’s just washed away and eroded over time”.
The BradsJocs average speed (the speed that they ride comfortably at) was well down today, around the 60-70 mark, well below the open track average of 100+.
After three hours the bikes had reached Mt Beadell, leading the cars by a very big margin. In these conditions the bikes do it hard but the average speed of the cars slows right down. Mt Beadell was a welcome respite from the tough conditions and also one of the key sites that we wanted to visit. Len Beadell, known as Australia’s Last Great Explorer, is a hero of Trek the Trak. It was Len and his Gunbarrel Road Construction Party who surveyed and constructed this road between Victory Downs in the Northern Territory and Carnegie Station in Western Australia. It was part of his job in setting out and opening up this part of Australia for a weather station to support operations at Maralinga and Woomera rocket range. In its original guise it was 1350 kilometres long which we won’t cover; some of it is now abandoned. On top of Mt Beadell is a memorial to Len; it is a replica of his theodolite.
We left Mt Beadell around 11.15; too early for lunch but enough time to eat out some more miles. We went past Camp Beadell and then into Thyrptomene Hill Bore. At this point the bikes were well ahead. Young Rips was out of the Max as the Troopy and Chuckwagon came in. He immediately noted a strange smell about the Troopy and trailer, and on inspection it was found that the shock absorbers on the trailer had failed; they were extremely hot and leaking oil. Not good on one of the roughest roads in Australia. We allowed them to cool for a while and then continued on slowly, stopping regularly for them to cool and to clean them to check for further oil loss. Time was slipping away now, and compounding this was the fact that the bikes had gone ahead, were out of contact and had no food or fuel.
We redistributed weight to try to get the trailer to work better and continued on, eventually being met by Brad and Joc short of the corner of the Gunbarrel and Heather Highways. At this corner we met the rest of the team. It was now around 3.30 and we still had over 140 kilometres to go. The bikes refuelled and riders refreshed and the decision was made that the trailer should continue at a normal speed; if the shocks are stuffed, they are stuffed and more damage shouldn’t be done. It is what it is. Eventually the bikes and cars made it to Warburton, where we had accommodation booked. The cars arrived after dark, sighting a herd of camels 10 kilometres outside town, reinforcing the dangers of travel after dark. Most of the bikes had got to town not long before us due to fuel issues, Brad and Joc had got to town at 5.02, 2 minutes after the close of our accommodation. However they still let us in and fed us. Let us in is quite accurate; Warburton is another story but for now we will say that the caravan park has two eight foot fences, one colour bond, one wire mesh. A complete set of security cameras covers the site and we have put in place a watch system where two of us will be awake and about for two hour shifts during the night.
This gives us time to contemplate our position which we believe, even though today we broke two trailer shock absorbers, two aerials, bike fairing and had a small smouldering fire in a bike, ran out of fuel a few times as well as whatever we discover tomorrow when we have a look over the gear and trailers, is solid. Today we went to Mt Beadell and Brock discovered the cause of a persistent gremlin in his bike. We are healthy and the fatigue isn’t too bad. We reckon it’s on!
Desert Sunset.
Viewed from a car driving eastward, the edge of the sky begins with a darkening rim, edged with a flush of pink that lifts, seemingly pushing down the sun that is opposite and behind us. This upward pushing continues until the sun, visibly dropping, loses its intensity and again you can view its anger subdued. The sky ahead darkens but behind the sun pushes off to other places, a continual traveller. Its memory lingers though in yellow and red that stays quite a while, with a pleasing glow, reminding you that it will all be done again…tomorrow.
