Seeking Alice Springs-finke-kulgera Travel Advice

[MADOG]

G'day All,

Has anyone towed a Kedron from Alice Springs into Chambers Pillar, then back out continuing south (along the old Ghan rail alignment) to Finke, then west to Kulgera - 'tis about 400k's?

I would like to travel this route one day and ideally would like to keep the TE on behind us.

Would appreciate any advice.

Regards,

[RickA]

Wow that's ambitious. We came from Finke through to Alice Springs 10 years ago with the Troopy, not towing anything, and it's certainly a challenge. At that time, and I don't know if it has changed, we had two options. The first was to drive directly along the old tracks. There were a lot of wooden sleepers still on the track, along with the requisite nails and bits of metal. Very hard on the tyres, and the bounces were truly impressive. We had to take it very slowly. When we got tired of bouncing along the rails, we took the sand track which runs alongside. The track is like a series of small, hard sand hills with the crests maybe 10-20 metres apart, with the appropriate dips. It was like frozen sand waves. I felt at one stage as if we were on a roller coaster. For the entirety of the trip, we alternated between the rail line and the "waves".

The country is really beautiful. We made the trip in June, so the weather was cool and dry. At the Finke end of the trip, the very last obstacle is a wide, sandy and rather treacherous river bed. Once again though, conditions may have improved.

We certainly loved the trip, and I'd love to do it again in the 'cruiser, but I don't think we'd do it towing anything at all, especially not our pride and joy. We didn't do the Chambers Pillar section at the time because a leaf on one of the rear springs had given up the ghost - and the springs were heavy duty!

I'd certainly look for more information on the state of the track before making a decision. The organisers of the Finke Desert Race (http://www.finkedesertrace.com.au) should have up to date information on conditions.

All the best

[Brian and Lis]

Roger. haven't towed the van on this route, about 5yrs ago towed camper trailer from Rainbow Valley across stock route to Maryvale down to Chambers Pillar back to Maryvale down the old railway line to Finke onto Dalhousie, Oodnadatta, Marree then onto Adelaide. back then the only real rough (corrugated)stuff was 5-10KS before Chambers Pillar . There is/was a steep climb 5ks out of Maryvale heading to Chambers Pillar.

Rest was hard open sand tracks with occassional soft red sand patches. The Finke river crossing is long,sandy.

the track from Alice to Finke is used daily and regularly graded, from my view of past travel i believe you will only encounter one or two areas which may require a bit of "think about it" before rushing off.

hope this helps in some way

Brian

[Chris]

We drove that route (with a Troopy) about two years ago, and it was a bit rough in places but nothing that would keep you out, I don't think. We commented at the time that our ATV would have little trouble...

But there were a lot of nuts and spikes on the road, from the old railway sleepers, which could wreak havoc on tyres. We had no problems however. It wasn't all that spectacular country that it would tempt me back. Interesting, yes, but not as spectatcular as other places. mostly flat country with mulga bushes. I did take a lovely photo that day, which later appeared in this year's ABC Calendar... Can't insert it here as i don't know how...this forum doesn't work like others i regularly post to! When I try to insert a picture here it asks for an URL!!

Cheers

Chris

[MADOG]

10 years ... 5 years ... 2 years ... the track sounds like it is getting better like most of them out there. Will have to give it a go to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks team for those responses.

Roger

[Webby]

Hi Chris,

Just to help you out with inserting photos. If you need to post a picture in your posting and it is on the web, use the small icon of the tree (which is the one that asks for a http://)

However - if you want to attached a picture from your hard drive at the end of your message, move your curser to the end, and go down under the box you are typing in and you will see an area that looks like this:

Then browse for your picture, click the Add This Attachment button and then the white Add Into Post button. I know it sounds long winded, but once you've done it, it's easy.

Of course to save space on the server it appears as a thumbnail, and we will need to click on it to enlarge it.

Cheers

[Chris]

OK Webby, hopefully this will have done it. (At this stage, on my screen I see no picture, just a line of text saying attachmentid=76). What I am hoping will appear is a photo taken on the road to Chambers Pillar ...

Chris

[Chris]

Oh yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How good is that? Anyway, that's what it looks like on the back road between Finke and Chambers Pillar.

Chris

[Chris]

I have just checked with Val, who has updated information on the route. He says "Don't do it!". Apparently there are a couple of culverts which would be tricky to get through with a van. He says it's fine up to Maryvale but questionable after that. From Finke to Kulgera is absolutely fine though.

Chris

[Rod Priestley]

Thank you for that info. Us tassie devils (we were at

Birdsville Races 2006 - (just to remind you we are from tassie ) with an XC 2003 KC 00169

and are on the road again after Cooktown, Burketown, Jabaru, Darwin etc and the

Gibb River Road and Tanami Road to Alice and then Mt Dare and Oodnadatta

and then on to SA. We are looking forward to catching up. mobile 0418 590 500

or soff@tassie.net.au .

regards

Rod and Judy

We may have some tassie wine left.