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datenkave Profile
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Date Registered: 08-2010
Location: whitfield
TOTAL POSTS: 10
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Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Greetings everyone from Cairns!

We drove to the Birdsville races this year, what an experience: set off tuesday through ravenshoe and mt garnet to lynd junction then on to hughenden - the Kennedy Dev. Road, some works on that stretch left us with a nice mud pack:

Image

also there was some soft sand along the way, more roadworks with some ambiguous detour signage which had us emergency stopping and reversing out of the way of a couple of graders. camped in hughenden then an early start and a bit of a dash thru winton towards boulia (all sealed) stopped to feed our faces at Cawnpore Lookout - awesome scenery:

Image

Encountered a pretty heavy downpour at Boulia and there was plenty of standing water round the town - sign of things to come?? We had planned on staying the night in bedourie but we'd made excellent time and the roads both sealed and unsealed were in really good nick, and pretty dry just south of Boulia. So we got to Birdsville wed night.

We dont have any shots of the xtrail outside the birdsville pub (Shame!) the street was cordoned off. also, good to see a few other xtrails there too! Needless to say we had a few beers in the pub over the coming few days. Thursday we drove to SA, about 15ks to the border just to say we'd been to SA and parked up on a little sand dune:

Image Image


Friday consisted of races and rain and mud. Saturday morning was a scene of devastation: tents all around were blown down/full of water/destroyed and the mud! who suggested camping in a river bed??? No hassles getting out though a friend had to dig a little mud out before he could get his 4x4 moving. We relocated to the rodeo grounds with the blessing of the local constabulary:

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and we were blessed from saturday onwards with clear weather:

Image

sunday was a recovery day at the pub and round the shows - everyone finding out we were stuck in birdsville, all roads out closed.

Monday we took the opportunity to drive up 'Big Red' oz's biggest sand dune (40m high i think) plenty of water on the road getting there and a decent detour on sand round the lake that had cut the road at the base of big red:

Image Image

we escaped on tuesday, our biggest hurdle was the water at Cacoory, it had dropped from 120cm to 60cm when we crossed, all good except we lost the trailer cable connector in a deep gutter:

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through bedourie to boulia and a bit more mud:

Image Image

wednesday we drove to mt isa then on to normanton via the quamby pub!!!:

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thurs we went to Karumba then back through normanton, croydon on to georgetown and friday a short dash home to cairns 11 days and about 3,700ks later:

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same again next year...

---
Dave and Kate: X-1670 (c)
2003 Ti auto Diamond White
Towbar, roobar, roofrack, geolandar a/ts
Cairns FNQ
14/Sep/2010, 10:05 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message Blog
 
loafer Profile
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Date Registered: 02-2008
Location: Brisbane, Qld
TOTAL POSTS: 973
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Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Brilliant pics and trip report, Dave & Kate!

That's the sort of adventure I was hoping for when we went through the red centre last year (unfortunately, our travelling companion didn't want to take his caravan off the black stuff, so we missed out on doing the Plenty Highway emoticon ).

I've always wanted to visit Birdsville and surrounds and I reckon I'll achieve this in the next couple of years for sure emoticon (hoping to get up to the Cape, too).

Did you capture any of your trip on video? Those water crossings would be good to see.



 emoticon





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Stephen
X756 (c)

Electric Blue 2008 Ti CVT

14/Sep/2010, 10:44 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message
 
datenkave Profile
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Date Registered: 08-2010
Location: whitfield
TOTAL POSTS: 10
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posticon Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Hey Stephen, we havent got any video emoticon though i think some friends have, i'll try and grab a copy and post it. the red centre had a distinct tinge of green to it, after a good rain 5wks previous - been told we'll be lucky to see it like that again in a good while.

i recommend birdsville races to everyone and we'll be going back in the future emoticon

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Dave and Kate: X-1670 (c)
2003 Ti auto Diamond White
Towbar, roobar, roofrack, geolandar a/ts
Cairns FNQ
15/Sep/2010, 8:07 am Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message Blog
 
freewill11 Profile
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Date Registered: 02-2008
Location: North Maclean Qld
TOTAL POSTS: 4150
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Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Great report and pics Dave and Kate!

The exy certainly can handle things!

Would love as Stephen suggested some video on the crossings!

Regards Scot

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T31 2008 CVT TI Series 1 Electric Blue
X-764(c)
15/Sep/2010, 8:12 am Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message
 
jalalski Profile
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Date Registered: 02-2004
Location: SUTHERLAND, SYDNEY
TOTAL POSTS: 29100
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Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Awesome report and pics Dave & Kate. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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15/Sep/2010, 8:55 am Link to this post Send Private Message MSN Blog
 
datenkave Profile
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Date Registered: 08-2010
Location: whitfield
TOTAL POSTS: 10
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Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


thanks for the feedback - alas, no video of our exploits emoticon we'll just have to go on another venture and video it next time.

cheers, dave

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Dave and Kate: X-1670 (c)
2003 Ti auto Diamond White
Towbar, roobar, roofrack, geolandar a/ts
Cairns FNQ
15/Sep/2010, 6:33 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message Blog
 
Zipidee Profile
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Date Registered: 02-2008
Location: Sydney
TOTAL POSTS: 322
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Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Hey Dave and Kate,

Great!!!! Great car and good tyres too!!! I'm seriously impressed with the A/T Yokies, 40,000Km on mine and going strong. Looks like yours did the job too.

BTW... what happened to the dry season up in FNQ???? We were up there in July and it rained heaps. emoticon

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Dave X-774(c)
2006 T30 STS Extreme 5 Speed Platinum. Yokohama G012 AT-S
21/Sep/2010, 2:41 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message
 
datenkave Profile
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Date Registered: 08-2010
Location: whitfield
TOTAL POSTS: 10
Reply | QUOTE
Re: Cairns to Birdsville races and back - eventually


Dave, the dry season has been none-existent... good for the garden and puddles to drive through but not much else... the tyres are great, no problems to report - slightly more noise than the roadies we had previously but we just turn up the music emoticon
all the best

dave

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Dave and Kate: X-1670 (c)
2003 Ti auto Diamond White
Towbar, roobar, roofrack, geolandar a/ts
Cairns FNQ
11/Oct/2010, 6:11 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message Blog
 
trailx Profile
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Date Registered: 10-2005
Location: way west of Mareeba FNQ
TOTAL POSTS: 1233
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Re:


Looks like a great trip Dave & Kate. Your pics are excellent, and love the one of the wet dirt road thru the dirty windshield.

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Julie X-231(c)
2005 ST Manual Platinum
Yokohama GO12, towbar, roof rack, luggage pod, bonnet protector, weathershields L&R, floormats
11/Oct/2010, 11:35 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message
 
BarneyB Profile
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Date Registered: 11-2008
Location: Blakeview, Adelaide SA
TOTAL POSTS: 183
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Re:


Would have liked to see some photos of the race action, flew to Birdsville twice around 15 - 20 years ago for the races and had such a good time cannot even remember seeing a horse. Looks like you had a good trip and all went well, hope you have many more.

---
Regards,
Barney X1047 (c)

2008 ST31, CVT, Flint, Towbar, Cargo mat, Headlight protectors, Dashmat, LED kick steps. Bonnet protector
12/Oct/2010, 9:52 pm Link to this post Send Email PM   Send Private Message
 


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