Finke Desert Race 2014

I've recently returned from a trip on the NC700S to watch the Finke Desert Race, some 1,500-odd kilometres from home. The ride took me through the Flinders Ranges and outback Australia on some great roads. On the trip with me was Leigh in his brand new Ford Ranger, and Leigh's brother Adam with his two kids in the old Toyota Coaster bus. I apologise in advance for being a little light on photos in some sections - with Leigh as the commander of the trip it was flat out, with little time to stop and soak it all in. Definitely not my style of trip, but was good to tag along none-the-less.

The route is roughly marked in red over the top of this map I found on the wall of the Mt Dare pub.


Having travelled these roads before, I knew it was unwise to go without protection from the rocks.
So after swapping my 7,000km old Shinko 705 for a new one at Leigh's workshop...


I set to work making a stone guard from 1.6mm stainless sheet.

Good work on the pan! Too bad about the pics as I would have enjoyed that ride along.

Big Thump said:

Good work on the pan! Too bad about the pics as I would have enjoyed that ride along.

Click to expand...

There's a few photos I'll post, so hopefully you'll still get a reasonable idea of the landscapes I rode through.

Nice lonely stretch of road. You have to get that GoPro mounted for the next trip!

Despite arriving at 3:30am, Leigh was up at 7 and wanting to get moving. So without time for breakfast, I set about breaking camp, forgetting to take a photo of the top spot we'd camped in. On the way back to the road I did manage a snap of the surrounding area though.



From camp just out of Hawker, we made our way past Wilpena (not stopping for a look), up to Blinman (turning off just before the town, so no look around Blinman) and headed out on a few tracks in the Flinders.







The roads in the Flinders are fantastic to ride. Some of the most scenic around.





The gorges are... well... gorgeous.



We then dropped out of the eastern side of the Ranges and on to the Frome Downs road, winding our way north.

I had the GoPro on for this section; set to take a photo every 30 seconds. It's a shame the day was so overcast, as the photos don't do the scenery justice.

Awesome pictures! Please keep them coming.

That is some really interesting countryside. Looks like you had a great time!

Great photos. Makes me want to jump in my jeep and hit some back roads.

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The rest of the day was spent heading north to Balcanoona, then west through the Aboriginal settlement of Nepabunna to refuel at Copley. From there it was north, straight through Lyndhurst without stopping and on to camp in a creek bed beside a derelict bridge from the old Ghan railway, which we would follow north all the way to Alice Springs.



The next morning we continued north through Marree, again without stopping and headed west along the Oodnadatta Track.

The track was in excellent condition on some sections.

Nice pics! Big country!
Noticed you going 72 in one pic. Even in klicks, it's faster than I would go!

Continuing west from Marree, we went through the Dog Fence, the world's longest fence. Not quite as long as it used to be, it's now 5,614km. Further on we hit upon the edge of Lake Eyre, a massive, usually dry salt lake, sitting below sea level.



I had enough time to pull my helmet off, take a photo and inhale a muesli bar before I set off in chase of Leigh and Adam again. By now, this rate of sightseeing was wearing thin.



As we continued to follow the old railway we saw ruins of old sidings.



The next stop was Coward Springs, for the first bath in a few days. It's an artesian bore that flow warm water to the surface under pressure. After about 6 minutes in the spring (OK it may have been more, but it really didn't feel like it), we walked back to the vehicles, where lucky for me, Adam noticed his awning was becoming detached from the side of the bus. That meant while he and Leigh fixed it I had time to actually dry off and get back into my riding gear before having to race off in pursuit.



We were now within Anna Creek Station, which at 6 million acres is the world's largest cattle property and the size of New Hampshire

William Creek was next; population 6. The others grabbed a drink at the pub while I filled up with fuel and stuffed some food down my gullet.



From William Creek it was out onto a stretch of freshly graded road that made me grumble at the road quality back home.



How is it, in the middle of nowhere, they can grade a road so flat and smooth, yet when they build bitumen roads round home you pretty much need four wheel drive?



Overnight stop was beside the Neales River, where the 580 metre Algebuckina bridge carried the old Ghan railway.

Holy Cow - that is one huge expanse of nothingness...your definition of 'road' is very different to mine - I'd call the best of those 'tracks'

That is a great trip and pictures - love the 'no motorcycle' sign in a place that hardly gets any humans! ....and a 5,000 km fence?!

Keep 'em coming...

Glad you're enjoying it Nelmo. Sorry it's taking a while...

Now the roads in and out of Mt Dare were awful, as this bloke can attest to.



It was going to be a slow trip out of there for this guy. There's a photo album in the pub with other vehicles in similar predicaments.

After stopping at Mt Dare, we headed further toward Finke to find a creek bed to camp beside, crossing the border into the Northern Territory.



It was along this road out of Mt Dare that I had a massive deflection from the rear suspension. Fortunately I was standing up as the rear hit a square edge, bottomed out and kicked back up and out to the side. I've no problem with it happening on a dirt bike, but it was a bit more of a handfull on a 215kg behemoth.

We made camp and watched the sun go down.

We were off early again the next morning, heading into the aboriginal settlement of Finke. The road was in much better condition. Mainly hard packed to begin with, but with the odd softer bit.







Adam's tyres were pretty suspect before he left, but they were disintegrating further as we pressed on. A flat front held us up for a bit and Leigh expressed his concern with the state of one of the rear tyres, especially since Adam only had the one spare.




Closer to Finke the road got very sandy.



Despite his lack of spare tyres, Adam had worked out it was much smoother in the bus travelling at 100km/h over the sandy corrugations, and that he got bigger air time when jumping the bus off crests! So with Adam setting the pace through the sweeping sandy corners, it was a high speed run into Finke, with only the odd gate slowing us down.

We stopped for a few minutes in Finke, the namesake and halfway point for the Finke Desert Race that we'd come to see.



Finke is about 230km south of Alice Springs and sits on the derelict Ghan railway line we'd been following since south of Marree. Today was Friday, and we had a booking at a caravan park in Alice Springs, where we'd spend the night at the public scrutineering of all the race vehicles. Saturday is prologue (qualifying) day, with all the competitors racing a lap of the buggy track. Sunday, race day 1, the competitors race from Alice Springs to Finke along the old railway service track. They camp the night in Finke, then race back to Alice Springs the following day.

After a quick drive through the town of Finke, we headed north, through the dry Finke River, reportedly the oldest river in the world, and along the old railway, which parallels the race track all the way to Alice.