The arrival of Mick Gillies in our outback midst has added further fuel to my current obsession with dirt road touring. Mick is in the middle (both literally and phyiscally) of his Australian cycle tour. He has tackled some awesome country on his Long Haul Trucker (LHT) and the rig seems to have handled both the sand and corrigations with aplomb. L-Dub and I decided to see how the LHT would hold up on some of Centralia’s most rugged, red dirt (#ahem#) ‘roads’, dragging Mick out to the oft visited Mantaru last weekend.. The LHT drilled it no worries and we spent an evening by the fire discussing remote cycling routes.
The term ‘radventure’ has being playing through my mind constantly.. So many possible ‘red earth’ missions! Owen Springs, Boggy Hole, Kaltukatjara, the list goes on! Timmy Stredwick has modified my Steamroller to run panniers and Epic Eric is whipping me up set full set of bags for the 1×1. Radventure looms!
To keep the palette wet, Sammy and I rolled out to Tapiya on a (mini) ‘Red Earth’ Mission yesterday. Tapiya could be discribed as ‘hill’ I guess, but the description ‘big pile of rocks’ seems to fit better. There is a road of sorts to Tapiya, but you would need a seroius four wheel drive to traverse it. Deep sand and corrigations the whole way. Sammy and I tackled the first five or six kilometers of the track on our bikes before the constant stutter and regular dismount and push action got too much. We bailed for what Sam described as a ‘back route’…
To start with, the ‘back route’ was ok (see above picture), no corrigations and light sand. Plain sailing really.. until we hit the Kangaroo Grass.. “Er, Sam. Mate, where did the track go?”
Not being deterred by disappearance of the road, we pushed on. A few kilometers on we found the faintest of tyre tracks and followed the south.. As we travelled the country changed, spinifex dunefields, mallee forest and open grasslands covered in giant thorns (super bindies! and again, UST tyres rock). After several hours of riding we arrived at our destination, TAPIYA!
The camel didn’t make it.. but the 1×1 did. Tapiya is an important water pit-stop for Anangu travelling over country to Uluru and Kata Tjuta… Lots of evidence of past useage (grinding surfaces and shard from stone tools) and well hidden waterholes. A really amazing location. We made it back home that arvo in time for a well earned beer. So that’s a wrap on this mission, but more to come!
lovin it! keep em coming ben!
Mate, another awesome desert riding instalment. I have a new appreciation for sand riding after our ride out to Mantaru. Brutal!
great pics and good reading!,im fasinated with austrailia`s size and the adventures that have been undertaken there,sounds like your going to have some of your own soon!,thanks for sharing