Madigan's Line 2008
It was a cool crisp morning, huddling around our vehicles at Mt Dare, the meeting point for our epic adventure. The trip had been a year in the planning and everyone was jumping with nervous energy. For me, this would be the first real test of my new Pajero, and they don’t come much tougher than this. Madigan’s Line promised to be a real test of both man and vehicle and one of the last true outback adventures in Australia.
We set off with 5 other vehicles, all carrying a minimum 200litres of diesel and seven long days and 750km ahead of us. We had been told many stories while staying in Mt Dare, ranging from “you won’t make it without 250 litre” to “It will take you 10-14 days!”. But I was confident in our planing and in my vehicle.
The first day would be the most scenic and allow us to travel the most kilometres. We travelled north to the Old Andado Homestead via the newly opened Binns Track. The track was smooth and fast but was littered with many large bulldust holes. Some of the Bulldust stretched on for many hundreds of metres as the fine talc powder tried to find its way through every seal. The Pajero proved to have fantastic dust sealing, although dust still made its way in whenever I opened the door for a photo opportunity.
From the homestead we continued north to the real reason we were on this trip. To trace the route Dr Cecil Madigan took on his expedition in 1939. Back then the team took 31 days, camping in 25 different locations as the crossed the desert on camel. After only 4 hours we had travelled more than 200km and joked that we might even try to set a new speed record for a Madigan’s crossing……..how wrong we were!
Camp 1 was hidden amongst a maze of new mining tracks. As we ventured cross country for the first time our leader also experienced the first of numerous punctures. The ground was covered in Spinifex, rocks and old tree roots as sharp as knives. All up the group would suffer only 5 punctures for the trip which was a good indication of how tough tyres are these days. The cross-country route to Camp 1 and 1A had everyone excited but as the scrub closed in and the scratches could be heard down the new paintwork, we realised this was not just a Sunday drive.
By night on the first day we had travelled 250km and made it past camp 2 to an area know as “The Twins”. We really thought we could do this trip in 4 days, but as dawn broke on Day 2, we set off on our day from hell. Camp 3, 4 and 5 are all on Aboriginal land and we had been denied permits to cross the land. In fact anyone who applies for permits is denied. The alternative is to head east to camp 6., the route we thought most people would take. The only problem was, we could not find any wheel tracks. We were forced to make our own route, navigating via the GPS. The Spinifex mounds were high, slowing the group down to a crawl at 13km/h. The ground caused the vehicle to constantly rock from side to side while it tested the limits of articulation.
The Pajero handled this terrain without fault, giving me a more comfortable ride than some of the others in solid axle vehicles were getting. After nine hours and 2 punctures, making our own track through the desert we arrived at the crossing of the Colson Track. It was here that we made our second camp after only travelling 48km for the day. It had been a hard and tiring day, but this is what we came for.
Day 3 and 4 were much of the same as we made our way from camp 6 to camp 14. After Colson Track, we found wheel tracks which we could follow. This made the travelling slightly easier, but the going was still slow with less than 100km travelled each day. After rain only 3 weeks before we arrived, the sand was fairly firm, but as we travelled East, the dunes became bigger and the crossing became more adventurous. The Pajero is great in the sand and quickly became the official recovery vehicle for the trip. (Ok, maybe I made that last statement up, but it was the only vehicle to perform all the recoveries).
Day 5 saw us travelling between Camp 15 to 16 on the Hay River Track. It was great to finally be on a smooth, fast track but our joy was short lived. After camp 16 we turned East again as we travelled towards Queensland. Again the track turns very rough and we completely lost the track on numerous occasions as we made our way to the next camp using the GPS alone.
Day 6 saw us cross into Adria Downs Station property. We had gained permission from the station owners before setting out on the trip and it was a huge relief to be back on smooth tracks. The area between camp 20 and 21 was completes saturated with water, and we were constantly making detours to find our way around the muddy mess. On one occasion the detour was so large we ended up 3 sand dunes away from our intended location. We then had to make our own way across the mother of all sand dunes. This sand dune would easily rival Big Red but we had not wheel track to follow. The mighty Pajero easily climbed to the top, making a path for the others to follow.
Our final day took us into Birdsville which was the final camp for Madigan. It was a fantastic trip, made all the better by a great vehicle and a great group of friends. This trip is not for the feint hearted and needs plenty of planning and preparation. But if you prepare yourself then you will have memories to last a lifetime.
