Madigan 2016

[Rossco]

This one's not named after you @Cuppa by any chance. . .

Been good chilling out in Birdsville the last however days (starting to lose track! !) but will be good to get on the road again tomorrow. Been eating a fair share of camel pies that's for sure- forgot how good they are!

Went up to Bedourie yesterday arvo Roofy & Jane got a genuine Bedourie camp oven and went for a swim in the local pool and spa straight from the artisian. Spa was about 40 degrees - bloody hot but so good☺

[Cuppa]

I like to think so.

It looks like someone has got a bit confused about the relative distances at some point......... ah but perhaps not....... we were travelling in the opposite direction toward Birdsville.



When we got to Cuppa Creek there was a shelter & a dunny, but no sign to say it was Cuppa Creek, so I felt compelled to do a bit of grafitti.



We spent a night at Cuppa Creek. The actual creek (dry of course) was a couple of hundred metres east (right).

[gubigfish]

The question remains did you have a cuppa at Cuppa Creek?

[Cuppa]

The question remains did you have a cuppa at Cuppa Creek?

Do bears sh*t in the woods?

[mudski]

Beautiful pics rossco. Makes me very envious. Too hard with kids at school though. I'll have to wait a few more years until they can fend for themselves.

[macca]

Great read and piccy's Rossco.

We are at home now and although not crossing the Madigan we had a great trip too. The ute was repaired in 2 & 1/2 days with the pod being removed to straighten the chassis.

Got it midday Saturday and I rewired / plumbed it. We were told it would be ready the following Wednesday due to a long weekend so we had a cabin booked and thought we may as well explore the area.

Giving you lot our Sat phone was a mistake, should have made you hire one! Then we might have felt a bit better about trying to catch you, that was before we knew the pace you ended up doing. Still we would have happily done it solo.

Had a look at the West McDonalds, East McDonalds including Ruby Gap, Up the (boring) Binns Track to Lake Nash on the Sandover. Tried buying fuel just to support the communities with no success and arrived at Urandangi with not a lot. They hadn't had the pump working for 7 months!
Sign said 145klm to Dajarra, nothing for it but give it a go, arriving at the pump with estimated 5 - 7 litres!!!
The tracks were interesting and not so easy to find the right one, using GPS, seat of the pants and which track looked most used worked eventually making it all the more challenging.

The car wrecks on that stretch would easily get past 100, where the locals take a sedan is amazing and the bits lying beside the track are testament to the carnage, most popular would be mufflers, tyres, batteries, bodywork roughly in that order LOL.

Great camp 19klm north of Dajarra, so a backtrack with full tanks was added to that days drive.

As you said heavy rains had closed access to the national Parks, with Diamantina under 2.0mtres at the camp and 2.5 at the causeway, the Ranger was very helpful with alternatives.

We ended up going to Longreach to see everyone before they headed home. All the stuff around Bedourie was closed and we couldn't contact you guys to find out when you might be in Birdsville.

We visited small towns trying hard to attract tourists, Ilfracombe, Isisford and Tambo are doing great jobs and full of interest as are the NP's especially Salvador Rosa, what a gem.

We did cross the southern Simpson and thoroughly enjoyed it, this would be a lot of travellers sole aim of an outback trip so we consider ourselves fortunate to see everything we did.

As for the car, on the WAA line is a particularly steep ridge that we needed a second go at. Carrying more momentum we just made the top but it was a bouncy ride. That night at camp we noticed the gap between the pod and cab was not right and crawled underneath to find some damage.
It was solid and not moving to get any worse so we got to Mt Dare ASAP, Tony (their mechanic) had a look from the pit in the workshop finding a 35mm crack on the drivers side (the other side wasn't cracked) but both sides were bent.

That's where we said goodbye to the other travellers and headed the 500klm to The Alice, the rest is history as the say.

Great to meet you Rossco and we are really sorry and disappointed not to spend more time with you, another time mate Iain & Pauly Mac

[jack]

Bad luck Macca,

I really felt for you and Pauly when I heard about your troubles. Looks like you took the 'cup half full' attitude and made the most of it anyway.
Was really looking forwards another informative trip report form you. On the bright side you can still do the Madigan another time (now that you've retired) with so much time on your hands.

Cheers mate

[Rossco]

Awsome macca sounds like you guys had a great trip despite what happened, would have been great to be together but sounds like you had a pretty good adventure! Love the east macs have to have a look at the maps as to where you headed near the sandover that sounded pretty cool.

We're just staying in a bit of luxury at the moment at a beutifull old queensland pub in Tambo. Heading off tomorrow to Carnavon gorge was actually in the process of deciding if we can sqeeze in Santa Rosa as well as the main gorge but think we will have a look, you guys went in there yeah?

After we left birdsville headed north through Bedourie, stayed a night in Middleton (awesome!!). Then onto longreach. Think we were pretty lucky water around but everything open. Then from there north to Porcupine Gorge which was nice and White Mountains NP which was interesting, then back down to Tambo.

Anyway glad you guys had a great trip and the cars all good (hopefully better than before). Guess was a good outcome looking at those not so fortunate such as the BT50 at Mt Dare. Yeah good to meet up and a shame it was short lived but guess we'll just have to do another one !

[macca]

Awsome macca sounds like you guys had a great trip despite what happened, would have been great to be together but sounds like you had a pretty good adventure! Love the east macs have to have a look at the maps as to where you headed near the sandover that sounded pretty cool.

We're just staying in a bit of luxury at the moment at a beutifull old queensland pub in Tambo. Heading off tomorrow to Carnavon gorge was actually in the process of deciding if we can sqeeze in Santa Rosa as well as the main gorge but think we will have a look, you guys went in there yeah?

After we left birdsville headed north through Bedourie, stayed a night in Middleton (awesome!!). Then onto longreach. Think we were pretty lucky water around but everything open. Then from there north to Porcupine Gorge which was nice and White Mountains NP which was interesting, then back down to Tambo.

Anyway glad you guys had a great trip and the cars all good (hopefully better than before). Guess was a good outcome looking at those not so fortunate such as the BT50 at Mt Dare. Yeah good to meet up and a shame it was short lived but guess we'll just have to do another one !

Had a beer in the Tambo pub with Steve, enjoyed his stories. Good bloke. We camped by the river, there were about 25 camps there from riff-raff like us to the super caravan / motorhome mob.

Salvador Rosa was worth the drive with a nice campsite and interesting drive to the springs. We have been to Carnarvon Gorge twice now in 1983 and 2008 the place is amazing, during the intervening years has been damaged by "D" heads so it has changed to reflect that. The long walk is well worth doing as the previous mentioned element can not walk that far! Do all the side trips off the Gorge, the moss garden is outstanding.

The Binns we drove is on a lot of graded wide straight road, occasional rough stuff around water ways but thought the Sandover was a track we hadn't seen but was not really worth it. In saying that Lake Nash to Dajarra was great fun if not suffering from fuel stress for the second half!

There are signs painted on bonnets everywhere, some art work too at Alpurrurulam, it had us wondering until we saw all the abandoned wrecks. If travelling with others we would go the length of it and the northern region is worth a better explore.

Stayed at Middleton in 2010, Lester and his wife were our hosts, and let us use their shower... great people. It was freezing and although Lester had a thick coat he had nothing on his feet, tough rooster.

Enjoy the rest of your trip and might try to catch up at Christmas, we are going to Pauly's mums in Yarragon.

Safe travels, Iain Macca

[Rossco]

Ah cool, yeah will definatly head into Salvador Rosa (very soon actually), sounds nice shouldn't be to many crowds either. Expecting the main gorge to be relitvely developed / busy but looks beautiful, we'll do the full gorge walk up there.

The old boy still didn't have shoes on at Middleton, he's certainly a character, that shower is pretty epic. Interestingly they had just finished filming a movie using the pub and surrounding area called Goldstone, might have to check it out when we get back.

Most likely be heading to Mallacoota chrissy time so will be passing through some time so sounds good hopefully work something out.