On the run from Old Andado to Finke we got to see extent of the rain and flooding that had caused the change in our plans. We looked to be the first vehicles through this part of the desert and were making our own tracks at places where the road was submerged or missing altogether.
Several of the group found themselves bogged during the day, either by being slightly off the firm line, or because the only way through was made softer by preceding vehicles in the convoy.
As well as the recovery of bogged vehicles the convoy stopped while repairs were made to Ron’s GU Patrol after it expired when a wire came loose from the fuel solenoid, and while there a missing shock absorber nut was sourced and replaced. The local camels were vaguely interested in our shenanigans as they watched from afar.
The road was completely washed away at a couple of river crossings, but thankfully the water itself had subsided which allowed us to pick a line across the sodden sand that was left.
The group continued moving forward and eventually reached the Finke Aputula indigenous community, where most of us refuelled and restocked with snacks and essentials. The number of visitors in our group was more than out numbered by the wandering dogs, who roamed amongst us sniffing and cocking legs on each wheel they found.
We exited Finke to the north, driving onto the Finke River flood plain on a road that was still drying after being submerged until recently. The ford across the river had only opened the day before our arrival, with locals telling us that this was the first time the crossing had been cut in many years.
We were now back on the Old Ghan Heritage Trail, a road we had joined a week earlier at its northern end. This southern section is infamous for two reasons; it is a stony and corrugated track still littered with old railway track dog spikes that are a renowned tyre destroyer, and it follows the route (and once was the actual route) of the famed Finke Desert race from Alice Springs to Finke and return.
We rattled and swerved our way northward on the rough track that was hewn through stony ridges and soft sand dune crests, in places still only width of the original railway levee and barely wider than the cars. In places the road was still too wet to follow and bypass tracks diverted through the scrub around the hazards, although not everybody took the right line around. Trent ended up bogging down after recovering a lone traveller, and I was assigned to drive Ron’s iconic Patrol to act as his anchor for the winch recovery.
Our destination tonight was Chambers Pillar, but vehicle recoveries were eating into our time table. We reached the turn off to Maryvale Titjikala on sunset and were making one last push when another breakdown halted the convoy – Trent’s tow bar bolts sheared off, leaving his Sierra ZR trailer nose down in the dirt. Eventually the trailer was swapped onto Ron’s Patrol so that we could keep moving, and we settled on the abandoned Rodinga rail siding for tonight’s camp site.
This would be our final night with the Moon Tours team and the group of travellers that we had grown to know over the past couple of weeks. After setting up another camp in the dark we grouped around a communal fire and shared drinks, nibblies and chatter to celebrate the time we shared on the track. We had become a tight little group and all vowed to return next year for another crack at the Madigan Line.
The Moon Tours team departed to Alice Springs to restock, resupply and get their ailing vehicles attended to. They were headed to Kununurra on far western side of the country. The rest of us decided to finish what we started, and headed across to view Chambers Pillar.
The country heading into the Chambers Pillar Historical Reserve was amazing, varying from red dunes to shaley stone ridges and rocky jump-up country. While traversing a rocky climb the Cruiser chirped an alarm tone and brought up a “Park Assist System Malfunction”, while we also lost the central display screen and air conditioning controls. Hmm, this didn’t look good, but at least we were still mobile. We continued into the destination with windows down, thinking it would be a simple fix and reset once there.
It was definitely worth continuing the drive in, Chambers Pillar has been a beacon in the desert for our nation’s first people and European explorers for centuries and is a place I wanted to visit. After admiring this natural and historical landmark I attempted to diagnose and reset our car’s fault, but it proved to be more than a simple job. A few of our group stayed and camped there the night, and we’d love to have joined them, but our car problems meant the responsible action was to return to Alice Springs for repairs.
The last of our splintered group headed back to the Maryvale Road, with Travelling Two at the front so that we had clear air and could leave our windows open. Once back at the Titjikala township we stopped for lunch and called ahead to book the Landcruiser into Alice Springs Toyota, they were reluctant to take our booking given they were already over capacity in the week before Easter, but agreed to have a look the following day.
We had secured accommodation at apartments with room to park our campers, in case the Cruiser would be with the repairers for a while, and enjoyed having access to a hot shower and full sized bed.
It wasn’t just the Cruiser giving us trouble either. I had a sore back after our run into Alice yesterday and this morning it spasmed and had me laid flat for a while. Some pain killers got me moving again, but something I’ll have to nurse on rest of the trip.
This morning we dropped the Cruiser to Toyota and wandered into Alice Springs to kill some time. We found the most bohemian and eclectic little café for breakfast, a most unexpected find in the middle of Australia! We also played tourist and visited some of the town centre’s galleries and ended up buying a beautiful indigenous artwork by Clarise Tunkin to adorn our lounge room wall as a souvenir of our trip.
As for the Landcruiser – Toyota couldn’t find the fault using their scanner and were put off by the many aftermarket modifications to the vehicle. They suggested booking it back in next week when they had more time to investigate. That wasn’t really an option to us because I had to be back for chemo treatment before then…
With no other choices, this afternoon I systematically inspected the under car wiring looms from front to back, removing bash plates and cutting cable ties to give me access to every length of wiring that might have been damaged by rocks or rubbing on the roads we had been pounding over. After rolling around in the dust and rocks loosened by my efforts I still had no luck fixing the fault, so it looked like we would have to endure a long dusty drive home with the windows down.
I put a post on a 200 Series Facebook group in hope someone might have seen something similar then we headed to dinner, Korean bibimbap in Alice Springs seemed an odd choice but it went over well. When we got back my post had an answer that was worth following up, the reply from a Cruiser owner said he had the same fault after his blind spot monitoring wires were crushed between body and chassis after having a Kaymar rear bar fitted… hmm. And sure enough, by completely removing the little loom I found an unseen rub mark that had exposed a bare wire, woo-bloody-hoo we were back in business!
With the loom repaired we are set to hit the road and make tracks homeward tomorrow, and with air conditioning as well. What a relief!!
We still have 3,000km left to go, taking the Plenty Highway into Queensland then dipping down to Birdsville before trekking home to Brisbane. Jump on board and catch our next blog to follow our trip back.