Melburg Luft

morts wrote :

Been meaning to get some pics of this up so will roll 'em out over the next few days...

Day 1 - Adelaide to Hawker

Well, two of the starters didn't even make it to the starting grid at Cavan! A recently built bay window kombi spat out a spark plug while waiting for his travelling partner in the Adelaide Hiills. A heli coil later however and they made it to Hawker that night though...
The rest of us left all bright eyed and bushy tailed however just before we hit Burra we pulled over to check out a weird noise out and noticed the camper had developed an oil leak from the rear of the case. We decided to keep going and see if we could make it to our first night at Hawker and then make a decison whether to push on or limp home...











Couple more...

Thanks Fonzeey...

Day 2 - Hawker to Maree via Wilpena Pound, Parachilna, Blinman, Leigh Creek, Lyndhurst & Farina.

After chatting with a few wiser heads about the oil leak and given we were in an luft cooled vw convoy we decided to buy another 4 litres of oil and press on.

Just after Lyndhurst the bitumen ended and we hit our first serious dirt road and corrugations. It was here we discovered Cat in the Hat was really The Bus of a Thousand Rattles...

Farina was once a thriving Ghan railway town but has long since been abandoned, however the town is currently undergoing a slow and painstaking restoration by dedicated volunteers.

Comimg into Maree, another old Ghan railway town, we had one of the most amazing sunsets I have seen and yet it only lasted about 20 minutes.

After the bitumen...

love that green lowlight ute, few of them coming out of the woodwork lately

Looks like a fun journey.

Thanks for the write up. How many days was it in total?

That's awesome

I'd love to do a Luft your somewhere, have to stay on the schwarz stuff though.

Have often thought a Luft version of the Shasta snow trip would be cool.

As you say though, maybe start off with something a bit more friendly for lowered cars.

Thanks for the pics guys. The wasser shots look fun

beaner wrote:love that green lowlight ute, few of them coming out of the woodwork lately

It is a sweet thing - a '68 running a 1916 from memory

FONZ....eeeeeeyyyyy!!!....eeeeeeyyyyy!!! wrote:Have often thought a Luft version of the Shasta snow trip would be cool.

That's what this kind of reminded me of in reverse - hot rather than cold!!
and it was over 9 days.

Day 3 – Maree to Oodnadatta via Coward Springs, Lake Eyre & William Creek

From the outset the roads were quite rough and overall our convoy had 5 punctures throughout the day, an intermittent electrical fault with the square but most significantly about 30km’s into this leg the bay window that had been helicoiled pulled up stumps with a burnt out No. 3 piston.

The Amarok support vehicle was summoned into action to begin the 400km tow to Oodnadata... As we had the satellite phone on board we returned to their position and within half an hour all the parts required for a rebuild were being arranged in Adelaide and were put on a Greyhound bus to Coober Pedy that day to be flown into Oodnadatta the next morning.

One thing also became quite clear – people in the Outback have far too much time on their hands! The wasser tank that has been made to look like a dog is HUGE and its head was once a full sized car...!!

The Oodnadatta Track follows the old Ghan route and we came across Algebuckina Bridge just before Oodnadata. It is SA’s longest rail bridge at 588 metres. (for the train spotters)

....

And Oodnadatta

Great pics, thanks for the updates, looks like an awesome trip!! Good luck

Day 4 – Oodnadatta to Dalhousie Springs via Mount Dare Station

Oodnadatta reckons it is the hottest, driest town in sud Australia and it might be at the height of summer but it received 2mm of rained overnight and the forecast was for between 1mm and 5mm more today.
Our hosts at The Pink Roadhouse, Lynnie & Annie Plate, told us if we got 1mm we would be fine, however if we got 5mm we would be in deep trouble and even if we did manage to get to Dalhousie Springs we may not get back! This information was dissected by the tribal elders with some members electing to remain at Camp Oodnadatta with the crew who were staying behind to re-build the engine of the bay window kombi.

Of the 15 luft cooled VWs that departed from Adelaide only 7 were setting off for our destination of Dalhousie Springs with the Amarok to follow. There were 3 bay window kombis, 2 beetles, my split window kombi and the square. After filling up with another half litre of oil we got to the starting grid in last place and set off behind the only bay window double cab making the trip.

All went well for about the first hour and then the double cab pulled over. It had hit a rock that had knocked the oil filter off its housing and it was leaking oil profusely. Due to the terrain radio contact was patchy and we couldn’t get in touch with the main convoy so we stayed with the stricken dc for half an hour before setting off solo. They were soon picked up by the Amarok and towed to Hamilton Station where they stayed overnight.

Up until now the roads had been sandy but after Hamilton Station the terrain soon alternated between indistinct rocky trails to long, sticky clay pans. And then the rain came....
After travelling in convoy it was eerie being out in this vast landscape alone and looking at the horizon in all directions only to see dark clouds and rain enveloping the land. As the conditions deteriorated driving over the thick red clay became quite treacherous and it was like driving on ice. It took us about two hours to catch up to the main group and the only reason we did was because a few of them had become bogged! We had to slither and slide about a kilometre past one of the kombis before we could find a suitable spot to stop so we didn’t suffer the same fate! Thankfully it wasn’t far to Mount Dare Station, fuel, lunch and a little respite...

The next 12km stretch of track was by far the worst, it wasn’t even a track, just rocks and we were limited to 20km/h so it was a long, hard, slow slog. We were behind the square when it spat out a rock the size of a small gas bottle behind it and it wasn’t long after that the contents of his bonnet storage were strewn all over the track - the gas bottle rock had completely ripped out his spare tyre housing!

We finally arrived at Dalhousie Springs at dusk to a rousing cheer from some campers who had heard over the radio that a bunch of old Volkswagens were heading their way.

Dalhousie Springs is a thermal spring on the edge of the Simpson Desert about 80kms sud of the NT border. The wasser is constantly 33-35 degrees Celsius so after a long day in the saddle we set up camp, had a feed, a few coldies, stripped off and soaked in the spring as the sparse cloud cover slowly drifted across the moon and a kaleidoscope of stars....

Day 6 – Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy

Due to the recent rain the road to Coober Pedy was closed to two wheel drive vehicles, however our hosts again came to the rescue and lobbied the authorities on our behalf, informing them we were a well organised and resourced bunch who would be able to make the journey under our own steam. We were therefore granted a special dispensation to travel on the road which didn’t turn out to be overly challenging apart from a few sections anyway.

The landscape from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy is very flat and open and this was the windiest leg of the journey by far. It was definitely noticeable driving as the car was moving around quite a lot but it was when you got out of the car I don’t think I have ever experienced such windy conditions... The aerodynamic styling of the kombi didn’t help when it came to our fuel consumption on this leg either which went through the roof!

The main mishap on this day apart from a few punctures was when a fast moving road train flicked up a rock that shattered the windscreen of the low light single cab and to add insult to injury the single cab was also one that suffered a puncture...

Day 7 – Coober Pedy to Mt Ive Station via Glendambo, Kingoonya and Lake Gairdner

Today was to be another long day in the saddle with an early start and it didn’t get off to a great start with Keith Poole’s ‘Grey Streak’ blowing a welsh plug off the carbie before we hit the start line. However this was soon fixed with a cork and cable tie!

We had to leave by 7.00am as the main highway was going to be closed down for a few hours by the military so they could carry out some rocket testing. The testing wasn’t going to go over the road but they shut it down in case there is a margin of error with the flight path of their rockets – probably not a good look wiping out civilians with errant rockets...!! Due to our early start we got through the checkpoint before the allotted time and went on to refuel at Glendambo.

It was along this stretch we also passed Dave in his ’55 11 window on his round Australia trip. I’m not sure who was more shocked or excited – we hadn’t passed one luft cooled vee dub on the whole trip and Dave across 15 all in one go! His bus was hammering and sounded very sweet...

Just before Mount Ive Station is Lake Gairdner, where the salt lake racing is held. The area is very pristine, beautiful and peaceful – a contrast to what it must be like during speed week.

Mt Ive Station was like an oasis with fuel a range of sleeping options, hot showers and a great camp kitchen in the shearer’s quarters. After a feed we had a great campfire at this beautiful, remote station.