Taking an old Tenere to the Australian red centre.
Posted: Wed Sep 10, 2014 9:15 am
Desert trip on a 3aj Tenere.
Hi guys, I hope you don't mind but I've copied my ride report from another forum I'm on and thought you'd be interested as I did the trip on my trusty 1988 Tenere. Last year I took my 750 Super Tenere to the top of Australia (Cape York) and it'd didn't quite go too well with the bike getting a dusted motor courtesy of dodgy air filters..
Anyway, here's the RR.... Just goes to show that you don't need the latest bike to do a big remote trip like this. Sometimes the older simple bikes are better.
The plan was to trailer the bikes to Tibooburra, leave the car and trailer at the Family Hotel for two weeks and travel out to Cameron Corner, Geographical Centre of Australia, Simpson Desert, Poeppels Corner and Haddons corner before returning to Tibooburra to load the bikes and leg it home.
We left Mt Vic at 04:00am in the snow wondering if the roads would remain open but thankfully the snow wasn't too heavy. Was a pretty uneventful trip out, rotating driving duties every two hours or s, we arrived at Tibooburra about 07:00pm and headed straight for the pub.
Next morning we unloaded the bikes from the trailer, loaded our gear and headed off about 10:00am toward Cameron Corner.
We had four riders, Paul on a DR650, Chad on a KLX400, Mathew on a Tiger 800 and me on the xt600 Tenere. We also had a Prado following with Rick driving.
Paul.
Mathew.
Chad and myself.
We took the Toona Gate road north of Tibooburra out to Cameron Corner, much more scenic than the main track.
Lookout along the way.
Junction of Middle road and Cameron Corner road.
Arrived at the corner for lunch.
Dog fence.
Corner store.
After a great steak sanga we headed west to Merty Merty along the roll a coaster road.
Strzelecki track.
We headed south into a strong headwind to Montecollina Bore where we'd set up camp for the night.
List setting up camp Paul noticed the rear tyre on Chads 400 was missing every centre knob. Crickey, we'd only done 400ks today! :blink:
End of day 1.
Day 2.
It was a very cold night at the bore and was very windy all night. After a slow start we got going about 09:00am and continued along the Strzelecki track to Lindhurst where we had another great lunch at the pub. There is no fuel here anymore but we all carried enough to continue to the next town.
Lindhurst pub.
I thought I had enough fuel but ran out 10ks short of Marree because of the bloody headwind!
We were aiming for William Ck tonight, there are a few sights along the Oodnadatta track.
Lake Eyre south.
Arrived at William Ck about an hour before dark and booked into the camping area.
Can highly recommend this place, awesome people and a great pub. Thumbsup
There is an outdoor museum with a few Woomera rocket range relics.
End of day 2.
Day 3 and we're all getting into a routine every morning packing our gear.
Oodnadatta track.
Just north of Oodnadatta we turned off and took a little used track north toward Finke through Hamilton Stn.
Started out with some gravel.
Then onto a huge clay pan.
We were still following the Old Ghan railway and came to Abminga Siding.
Travelling further north we crossed into the Northern Territory where the track turned to sand.
We skirted the edge of Finke, turned left for a few Kay's then onto a really sandy track into the Lambert Centre, the geographical centre of Australia.
Setup camp here and had another great night under the stars eating dehydrated meals. Thumbsup
We found out the previous nights that Chad liked to chop wood whilst sleeping so his camp was relegated some distance away from everyone else's.
My camp setup.
End of day 3.
Day 4
As we were so close to Ayres Rock and a few of the guys had never been there before we decided to make a loop out there on some more dirt and sand.
After taking some morning photos of the Lambert Centre we packed up and rode west to Kulgera.
Then a short run down the highway to the SA NT border.
From here we headed west on a rough dirt road into no-mans-land. Well that's what it felt like with nothing around for miles!
Sand and corrugations.
After a few hours we reached this, Mt Connor or Fooluru for those thinking it's Ayres Rock.
Remember Chads rear tyre loosing its centre knobs on day one, well here it is with at least another 500ks of high speed (130kph) tar to go to Alice Springs!
Here's Chad explaining the tyre problems at Curtin Springs lunch stop. :doh:
After a great lunch and backpacker spotting at Curtin Springs we road out the The Rock and after pulling to the side of the road to take a photo of the bikes in front of it we were immediately greeted by a very rude ranger who said we couldn't ride offroad and we could be fined for doing so! Sheesh, less than 1metre from the bitumen is riding offroad! Welcome to Australia's biggest tourist attraction! mooon
No offroad riding please.
Leaving with a very bitter taste in our mouths we hightailed it back to Curtin Springs for a campsite and feed at the pub.
Mind the emu.
Day 4 done.
Day 5
Not too much to report, we had a leisurely brekky consisting of bacon and eggs at Curtin Springs after packing up camp. I've really gotta recommend this place, quarter the price of Yulara, the camping is free with only a gold coin donation for use of the hot showers and the staff are very friendly. Big thumbs up! Thumbsup
Leaving about 09:30 we headed back east and took the Kings Canyon road north for a couple of hundred Kay's before turning east again and visiting the Henbury Meteorite craters. Sorry no pics. We then stabbed it at full throttle (120kph for me :( ) on the Sturt Hwy to Alice Springs where we would have a rest day tomorrow to enable bikes to be prepped for part two of the trip, across the desert.
Day 6
Rest day, well it was for me because all I did was clean my air filter whilst the others changed tyres, did oil changes, repaired punctures etc etc etc etc...
Our digs for two nights
Chads new tyre, Dunlop D606 this time. Same as what I was running. dealz
All lined up ready to go next day.
End of rest day.
Day 7
After a great day bumming around town and getting friendly with some of the backpackers we got up early, packed and headed out of town toward Finke along the Old Ghan railway and desert race track.
Every 50ks or so we came acros old sidings for the railway. See how straight the track is, because the road is on the railway easement and you have to be very careful because it's littered with thousands of railway spikes that were used to hold the iron rails to the timber sleepers..
Looking south.
After about 200ks we arrived at Finke but not before I had my first 'off' of the trip. I rounded a corner at about 90kph and did my best superman impersonation over the bars and face planted into half metre deep bull dust!
You can see the marks where I dragged my bike out of it.
Mmm, bull dust.
No damage done, so within minutes we were off again and got a pic at the Finke race finish line.
Further south wards we crossed back into SA.
Lunch at Mt Dare hotel. We fuelled the bikes for the last time until Birdsville and also had the Prado carry extra fuel for us.
Quite a hard place to leave when the beer is cold and it's it's mid twenties outside.
After having a late lunch we did the final leg for the day to Dalhousie Springs where we'd meet up with my mate driving my car across the desert. The main track from Mt Dare to Dalhousie was closed because of track erosion so we took the detour track which turned out to be the most horrible, rocky, corrugated sandy track so far so when we finally got the the hot springs we stripped off and dove straight in. girly hi5
What a wonderful way to finish a hard days ride, and even better for me to wash off the bull dust from the earlier fall.
End of day 7
Day 8 Simpson Desert
Warning sign, be prepared.
The start of the national park.
We ran the bikes unloaded for the desert as none of use had done anything like this before, the idea was to have fun riding, not kill ourselves by being unsupported...
First stop Purnie Bore...
We hadn't got into the sand dunes yet but they weren't far away. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shitting myself, wondering if I was fit enough, skilled enough or had chosen the right bike but we were now here and committed.
Start of the small dunes.
We pulled up early today, only having done about 70ks from Dalhousie. My mate in support put on great pre dinner snacks.
Full moon in the desert, does it get any better?
End of day 8
Day 9, bigger dunes.
Cereal for brekky today, top up the camelback bladders and pack some muesli bars.
Desert sunrise.
Riding into the sun wasn't ideal but at least the sand was firm from the cool night.
Paul coming down a dune.
Chad in the soft stuff.
Tenere in the desert.
Mathew on the big 800. Respect! :omg:
Not much to talk about along here, sand dunes and sand dunes. We were all struggling to get the correct technique which made us all fatigued.
But why wouldn't you want to be out here with views like this.
My favourite pic.
At every junction the bikes would stop and wait for the cars to turn up.
When the cars caught up, we'd have a chat and something to eat and carry on... The dunes went on for every, 10ks felt like 100ks.
Waiting at the next junction for the cars.
After lunch we had more of this.
Check out the track up to the horizon!
Zoomed in.
Salt lakes appear about halfway across but the dunes get a lot bigger.
Finding shade, it was getting hot.
Poeppels corner was tonight's destination. Only 40ks to go. :gerg:
One of the many survey markers.
Another salt lake.
No pics from here to Poepple corner as we were in the aptly named "Dunes of death". It was very hard work and very tiring but finally made it before sunset to our planned destination.
Another corner post ticked off the "to visit" list.
Camp was setup just before dark and a big feed of meatballs and pasta. Awesome!
Moonrise.
Nothing like a campfire.
End of day 9
Day 10
We all had quite an early night after yesterday's mammoth effort through the dunes. Cooked brekky this morning, bacon and eggs with a side of beans onion mix! help_pls
And soon we were on our way again with today's dunes being very large but spaced further apart.
At the end of the national park, we're now on private land.
Eyre creek.
The dunes are getting real big now, we must be close to Big Red.
Second last sand dune, 40 metre high Big Red is next.
And finally no more dunes, I road straight to the top of big red! Three days of training in dunes meant no amount of fatigue was going to stop any of us from riding to the top of the highest and last dune in the desert. :happy1:
The others are nearly here. View from Big Red west.
Mathew on the Tiger 800 getting a run up.
And here comes Paul
We all made it!
Here comes the cars. Ours are the two at the back.
Panorama.
We enjoyed this moment for an hour or so, watching a few vehicles "trying" to drive up the dune with only some making it.
Then it was an easy 40ks into Birdsville where we booked some rooms at the pub and had a rather big night.
End of day 10 yes-smiley
Hi guys, I hope you don't mind but I've copied my ride report from another forum I'm on and thought you'd be interested as I did the trip on my trusty 1988 Tenere. Last year I took my 750 Super Tenere to the top of Australia (Cape York) and it'd didn't quite go too well with the bike getting a dusted motor courtesy of dodgy air filters..
Anyway, here's the RR.... Just goes to show that you don't need the latest bike to do a big remote trip like this. Sometimes the older simple bikes are better.
The plan was to trailer the bikes to Tibooburra, leave the car and trailer at the Family Hotel for two weeks and travel out to Cameron Corner, Geographical Centre of Australia, Simpson Desert, Poeppels Corner and Haddons corner before returning to Tibooburra to load the bikes and leg it home.
We left Mt Vic at 04:00am in the snow wondering if the roads would remain open but thankfully the snow wasn't too heavy. Was a pretty uneventful trip out, rotating driving duties every two hours or s, we arrived at Tibooburra about 07:00pm and headed straight for the pub.
Next morning we unloaded the bikes from the trailer, loaded our gear and headed off about 10:00am toward Cameron Corner.
We had four riders, Paul on a DR650, Chad on a KLX400, Mathew on a Tiger 800 and me on the xt600 Tenere. We also had a Prado following with Rick driving.
Paul.
Mathew.
Chad and myself.
We took the Toona Gate road north of Tibooburra out to Cameron Corner, much more scenic than the main track.
Lookout along the way.
Junction of Middle road and Cameron Corner road.
Arrived at the corner for lunch.
Dog fence.
Corner store.
After a great steak sanga we headed west to Merty Merty along the roll a coaster road.
Strzelecki track.
We headed south into a strong headwind to Montecollina Bore where we'd set up camp for the night.
List setting up camp Paul noticed the rear tyre on Chads 400 was missing every centre knob. Crickey, we'd only done 400ks today! :blink:
End of day 1.
Day 2.
It was a very cold night at the bore and was very windy all night. After a slow start we got going about 09:00am and continued along the Strzelecki track to Lindhurst where we had another great lunch at the pub. There is no fuel here anymore but we all carried enough to continue to the next town.
Lindhurst pub.
I thought I had enough fuel but ran out 10ks short of Marree because of the bloody headwind!
We were aiming for William Ck tonight, there are a few sights along the Oodnadatta track.
Lake Eyre south.
Arrived at William Ck about an hour before dark and booked into the camping area.
Can highly recommend this place, awesome people and a great pub. Thumbsup
There is an outdoor museum with a few Woomera rocket range relics.
End of day 2.
Day 3 and we're all getting into a routine every morning packing our gear.
Oodnadatta track.
Just north of Oodnadatta we turned off and took a little used track north toward Finke through Hamilton Stn.
Started out with some gravel.
Then onto a huge clay pan.
We were still following the Old Ghan railway and came to Abminga Siding.
Travelling further north we crossed into the Northern Territory where the track turned to sand.
We skirted the edge of Finke, turned left for a few Kay's then onto a really sandy track into the Lambert Centre, the geographical centre of Australia.
Setup camp here and had another great night under the stars eating dehydrated meals. Thumbsup
We found out the previous nights that Chad liked to chop wood whilst sleeping so his camp was relegated some distance away from everyone else's.
My camp setup.
End of day 3.
Day 4
As we were so close to Ayres Rock and a few of the guys had never been there before we decided to make a loop out there on some more dirt and sand.
After taking some morning photos of the Lambert Centre we packed up and rode west to Kulgera.
Then a short run down the highway to the SA NT border.
From here we headed west on a rough dirt road into no-mans-land. Well that's what it felt like with nothing around for miles!
Sand and corrugations.
After a few hours we reached this, Mt Connor or Fooluru for those thinking it's Ayres Rock.
Remember Chads rear tyre loosing its centre knobs on day one, well here it is with at least another 500ks of high speed (130kph) tar to go to Alice Springs!
Here's Chad explaining the tyre problems at Curtin Springs lunch stop. :doh:
After a great lunch and backpacker spotting at Curtin Springs we road out the The Rock and after pulling to the side of the road to take a photo of the bikes in front of it we were immediately greeted by a very rude ranger who said we couldn't ride offroad and we could be fined for doing so! Sheesh, less than 1metre from the bitumen is riding offroad! Welcome to Australia's biggest tourist attraction! mooon
No offroad riding please.
Leaving with a very bitter taste in our mouths we hightailed it back to Curtin Springs for a campsite and feed at the pub.
Mind the emu.
Day 4 done.
Day 5
Not too much to report, we had a leisurely brekky consisting of bacon and eggs at Curtin Springs after packing up camp. I've really gotta recommend this place, quarter the price of Yulara, the camping is free with only a gold coin donation for use of the hot showers and the staff are very friendly. Big thumbs up! Thumbsup
Leaving about 09:30 we headed back east and took the Kings Canyon road north for a couple of hundred Kay's before turning east again and visiting the Henbury Meteorite craters. Sorry no pics. We then stabbed it at full throttle (120kph for me :( ) on the Sturt Hwy to Alice Springs where we would have a rest day tomorrow to enable bikes to be prepped for part two of the trip, across the desert.
Day 6
Rest day, well it was for me because all I did was clean my air filter whilst the others changed tyres, did oil changes, repaired punctures etc etc etc etc...
Our digs for two nights
Chads new tyre, Dunlop D606 this time. Same as what I was running. dealz
All lined up ready to go next day.
End of rest day.
Day 7
After a great day bumming around town and getting friendly with some of the backpackers we got up early, packed and headed out of town toward Finke along the Old Ghan railway and desert race track.
Every 50ks or so we came acros old sidings for the railway. See how straight the track is, because the road is on the railway easement and you have to be very careful because it's littered with thousands of railway spikes that were used to hold the iron rails to the timber sleepers..
Looking south.
After about 200ks we arrived at Finke but not before I had my first 'off' of the trip. I rounded a corner at about 90kph and did my best superman impersonation over the bars and face planted into half metre deep bull dust!
You can see the marks where I dragged my bike out of it.
Mmm, bull dust.
No damage done, so within minutes we were off again and got a pic at the Finke race finish line.
Further south wards we crossed back into SA.
Lunch at Mt Dare hotel. We fuelled the bikes for the last time until Birdsville and also had the Prado carry extra fuel for us.
Quite a hard place to leave when the beer is cold and it's it's mid twenties outside.
After having a late lunch we did the final leg for the day to Dalhousie Springs where we'd meet up with my mate driving my car across the desert. The main track from Mt Dare to Dalhousie was closed because of track erosion so we took the detour track which turned out to be the most horrible, rocky, corrugated sandy track so far so when we finally got the the hot springs we stripped off and dove straight in. girly hi5
What a wonderful way to finish a hard days ride, and even better for me to wash off the bull dust from the earlier fall.
End of day 7
Day 8 Simpson Desert
Warning sign, be prepared.
The start of the national park.
We ran the bikes unloaded for the desert as none of use had done anything like this before, the idea was to have fun riding, not kill ourselves by being unsupported...
First stop Purnie Bore...
We hadn't got into the sand dunes yet but they weren't far away. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't shitting myself, wondering if I was fit enough, skilled enough or had chosen the right bike but we were now here and committed.
Start of the small dunes.
We pulled up early today, only having done about 70ks from Dalhousie. My mate in support put on great pre dinner snacks.
Full moon in the desert, does it get any better?
End of day 8
Day 9, bigger dunes.
Cereal for brekky today, top up the camelback bladders and pack some muesli bars.
Desert sunrise.
Riding into the sun wasn't ideal but at least the sand was firm from the cool night.
Paul coming down a dune.
Chad in the soft stuff.
Tenere in the desert.
Mathew on the big 800. Respect! :omg:
Not much to talk about along here, sand dunes and sand dunes. We were all struggling to get the correct technique which made us all fatigued.
But why wouldn't you want to be out here with views like this.
My favourite pic.
At every junction the bikes would stop and wait for the cars to turn up.
When the cars caught up, we'd have a chat and something to eat and carry on... The dunes went on for every, 10ks felt like 100ks.
Waiting at the next junction for the cars.
After lunch we had more of this.
Check out the track up to the horizon!
Zoomed in.
Salt lakes appear about halfway across but the dunes get a lot bigger.
Finding shade, it was getting hot.
Poeppels corner was tonight's destination. Only 40ks to go. :gerg:
One of the many survey markers.
Another salt lake.
No pics from here to Poepple corner as we were in the aptly named "Dunes of death". It was very hard work and very tiring but finally made it before sunset to our planned destination.
Another corner post ticked off the "to visit" list.
Camp was setup just before dark and a big feed of meatballs and pasta. Awesome!
Moonrise.
Nothing like a campfire.
End of day 9
Day 10
We all had quite an early night after yesterday's mammoth effort through the dunes. Cooked brekky this morning, bacon and eggs with a side of beans onion mix! help_pls
And soon we were on our way again with today's dunes being very large but spaced further apart.
At the end of the national park, we're now on private land.
Eyre creek.
The dunes are getting real big now, we must be close to Big Red.
Second last sand dune, 40 metre high Big Red is next.
And finally no more dunes, I road straight to the top of big red! Three days of training in dunes meant no amount of fatigue was going to stop any of us from riding to the top of the highest and last dune in the desert. :happy1:
The others are nearly here. View from Big Red west.
Mathew on the Tiger 800 getting a run up.
And here comes Paul
We all made it!
Here comes the cars. Ours are the two at the back.
Panorama.
We enjoyed this moment for an hour or so, watching a few vehicles "trying" to drive up the dune with only some making it.
Then it was an easy 40ks into Birdsville where we booked some rooms at the pub and had a rather big night.
End of day 10 yes-smiley
nice report & pics