Adelaide to Birdsville

[Hupnupnee]

Hi everyone,

What a great forum, this is my first post.

I have a couple of questions I'm hoping this brains trust might help me with.

1. I will be riding to Birdsville from either Adelaide of Port Augusta via the Mawson Trail and then Birdsville Track. As time is limited I'm hoping to shorten the Mawson Trail a bit. Can people suggest which bits to leave out and which bits are MUST NOT MISS? If I leave from Port Augusta instead of Adelaide will I miss much?

2. Has anyone attempted the Inside track to birdsville, and if so how would you rate it?

Cheers

[australiantourer]

Hello. I’ve done both trips: Mawson Trail and Birdsville Track. No problem answering your question about the Mawson — I would go to Port Augusta and ride to Quorn and join the trail there. If you need to severely prune the ride, I reckon the best bits are after Wilpena Pound. Re the Birdsville Track, I was surprised to find mainly northerly head winds, day after day. It became a bit tedious. Maybe it’s best ridden heading south, if you had the option. I took 9 days to travel from Maree to Birdsville, spending a rest day at Mungeranie Roadhouse. 3 days to that point, another 5 after that. I had an Extra Wheel trailer to carry 25 litres of water. I was expecting solitude, but didn’t find it. I was unlucky to be travelling at the time of the Big Red music festival out of Birdsville — mid July 2018. I ate a lot of dust from huge caravans going there. Endless road corrugations were a bit tedious — my bike was unsprung — a Vivente World Randoneur tourer. Also, the festival goers (7000 tickets, from memory) had bought up essentially all the supplies in the shops in all directions leading into Birdsville. Maybe not a problem in covid times. The caravan park in Birdsville is pretty expensive and uninspired — there’s free camping along the river which is much better. I was startled to learn that the road east out of B to Windorah is far worse than the Track, so getting to B is only part of the equation unless you made some onward arrangements. I ended up asking a truckie for a lift over that difficult bit, and then rode on from W to Gympie. The first couple of hundred kms from Windorah were delightful, but traffic then increased drammatically: the threat and smell of road trains carrying cattle to their doom (presumably) is a bit draining. I have mixed feelings about the tour, but would be interested to ride it again in non-festival time.

[Comedian]

I drove the Birdsville track last year on my way to riding across the simpson on the Madigan line.

The Birdsville track was nice, but I think it would be a bit slow on a bike. IE in a car there was enough interesting stuff but it would be a while between cool things on a bike. Barren open wasteland from what I remember. I mean there was some nice stuff and a nice hot spring camp.

Anyway one thing I will say having experience roads in that area. They are very very rough. If they are corrugated you'll be in for a hell of a time. If they are covered in bulldust you'll really have your work cut out. That part of the world has this stony clay. It's rough as when dry and turns into a giant sticky mud mess when wet.

[V17L]

Rather than the Birdsville track, maybe the Oodnadatta track might be a better option.
Having worked along both tracks, I liked the oods more.
Gives the option of popping out at say Marla and catching the bus back to adelaide.
Check out bohwaz's account of the oods.

[Comedian]

Rather than the Birdsville track, maybe the Oodnadatta track might be a better option.
Having worked along both tracks, I liked the oods more.
Gives the option of popping out at say Marla and catching the bus back to adelaide.
Check out bohwaz's account of the oods.

You know.. I read "popping out" to be "pooping out" and before I'd read the rest of the sentence I thought.... "yeah I don't remember many trees out there".

[bohwaz]

For the Mawson I liked most of it (but we were also stopping to do some day hikes on the way, eg. Mt Bryan is great) so I would recommend all of it

For the Oodnadatta yeah check out this:
https://haere.net/Cycling-the-Oodnadatta-track-notes

Just to let you know: if there's any rain forecast make sure to stay put and rest as it's nightmare to ride most parts of the Mawson or Oodnadatta if they're wet!

[dirtroadtourer]

G'day Hupnupnee,
Agree with the previous posters. Start at Port Augusta and join the Mawson at Quorn. I think the northern section is by far the best so nothing lost. At Blinman you have the choice of heading west to Parachilna then heading north (brilliant ride through Parachilna Gorge) or heading east and doing the loop through the Gammon Ranges before re-joining the main road at Copley. Recommend the Gammon Ranges loop if you have the time. At Maree, you get to choose Oodnadatta or Birdsvile Tracks. Very different rides. Good provisions at max 200k distances along the Oddnadatta plus you can get the bus back to Port Augusta from Marla. Food and water is more of an issue on the Birdsville plus when you get to Birdsville, you are a still long way from civilisation. Have done both and loved both rides.
Cheers, Ross.