FIinders Ranges Trip 2025 - What Happened Next

 

I was up early next morning for the three kilometre walk to the caravan park to pick up the car. It was quite cool this morning but being rugged up I enjoyed the early morning peace and quiet.

We loaded the bikes, grabbed some breakfast from the local IGA supermarket and hit the road. 753km of goat dodging to Dubbo today. It was much greener along here after all the rain we drove through on the way out. Again, there were ten thousand goats lining the sides of the road but they were all smart enough to walk the other way as we drove by. Not so the hundreds of squashed kangaroos.

We arrived in Dubbo late afternoon and checked into the same motel as they had good off street parking for the car and trailer. Important in Dubbo! A quick dash to the supermarket for some supplies and we picked up a couple of pizzas on the walk back.

Now, with another four days off for me we needed a plan for some more riding. I suggested to Steve that we drive over to Scone (only 258km) first thing in the morning, find somewhere to leave the car then ride up over Barrington Tops via some roads I knew would be fun, then swing back north via Glenrock and Barry Station and the Twenty Creek Crossings track to Nundle for the night.

That decided on we were up at sparrows and on the road. We arrived in Scone about 0930 and set about finding a place to leave the car. There was a huge car park behind what would have once been a pub on the corner of the main street and Liverpool street. 

Perfect!

We quickly unloaded and hit the road. Out the Gundy road, through Moonan Flat without even stopping and we soon began the twisting climb up onto Barrington Tops. We were in for a surprise because the whole climb was sealed! It seems the local shire is trying to create a tourist loop and I guess they want it to be "all" car friendly. Anyway, we stopped towards the top when we were back on the dirt to take in the views. We also noted some showers to the north - where we were planning on heading for Nundle later on...

As we neared the dingo gate at the top it began to spit rain. The forecast was good so I was a bit surprised at this. It was clear there had been recent rain as the ground was sodden but I knew the main road across the Tops was a good rock base.

Steve was starting to look worried......and wouldn't ride his bike to the view point for the must-do photo opportunity to the west, thinking it might be slippery. It wasn't. Oh well.

Through the gate and we made a quick stop in the spooky feeling stand of pine trees. It was a bit busy with picnic-ers so we didn't stay long.

Initially we hooked along quickly as it is a wide, well surfaced road but as we climbed it began to rain. Just lightly but the road surface was getting slicker and slicker looking. I knew we would be turning left at some point soon so tried to put off donning my wet weather gear. 

After a  while I thought "this is stupid, just put your wets on" so I stopped and wrestled myself into my new rain jacket and overpants. I had decided that the wet liners that come with the RST suit just aren't practical to put on mid-ride, especially the pants liner. Stripping off on the side of the road is too much of a pain in the arse. Steve's new Klim gear is waterproof so he didn't need to stop. So, suitably encased, we pressed on

We soon came to the turn I was looking for. Pheasant Creek rd would take us to Tomalla road and back towards Ellerston.

I hadn't done this road before but this was another good, rock based road which quickly dropped us out of the cloud and the misty rain. We didn't stop along here until we got to the bottom of the hill at Backwater Creek.

It wasn't much further to the northern entrance to the park. It was all up hill which is much more fun on these big bikes. 

Tomalla road was only a few hundred metres away and we stopped there for a minute. We were going to have lunch but I suggested to Steve that we ride along Tomalla road for a bit as I knew where there was an awesome outlook where we could stop for a while.

Yeah, this was much better.

We spent quite a while here as I broke the drone out and tried to get some video. 

Unfortunately, I think I locked the exposure on the ultra high vis of my massive 3XL rain jacket and it completely blew out the colours and the poor little drone couldn't compensate! 

This one is a little better.

Moving along we enjoyed the ride off of The Tops along Tomalla road. We turned north towards Ellerston and Glenrock Station. 

The riding got more picturesque the closer we got to Glenrock.

Glenrock was where the twenty creek crossings track proper (on Hunter road) began. We avoided the first concrete crossing by riding around the side of it. It is ice-like slippery and we have seen dozens of instances of riders going down on it so it was nice to see that someone had actually graded a track around the left side of it. 

I can't fathom these stupid councils that concrete these crossings and leave them smooth. All they need to do it broom them once the concrete has nearly set and it will give the crossing some texture for motorcyclists to grip onto....

The next creek crossing was soon upon us and it was like the next eighteen were going to be - natural rock and sandy gravel. I rode through and it wasn't too bad. So I jumped off to give Steve some tips (he has no experience with water crossings). He ploughed through easily though. 

Sweet!

 Or so I thought. 

This will be easy. These crossings come thick and fast so not 200m metres further we came to the next crossing. It was a bit rockier than the first and I paddled across. Steve didn't wait and dived in - almost literally! I was in the process of jumping off to come back and coach him when I heard "help" in the helmet comms. He has done the cardinal sin of creek crossings by going too slow and not keeping his eyes up. Looking at your front tyre and then hitting a largish rock causes one to loose momentum and balance. I'm bummed that the Action 4 battery has just gone flat because I would have loved to have had that footage as I ran back and Steve was ever so sloooowly lowering the big Twin into the creek as he couldn't hold it any longer.

Picking it up I could see that it sat on one of his panniers and water hadn't got down the exhaust. The Twin's air intakes are waaay up high too so we could see that water hadn't got near them. 

Good-o!

But it wouldn't start. Puffing hard I told Steve to take his helmet off to cool down then unclip his luggage as we couldn't push it out of the creek as it was. Once that was done we took a moment to think. I asked if he had turned the key off and back on or was just trying to start it. It was the latter, so I cycled the key off then on and the big girl fired straight up! (The Twins have a tilt kill switch that stops them when falling over and that just needed resetting.)

Whew!

We took a few moments to catch our breath then headed off again. I decided to ride across each crossing, then walk back to point out the best line (it didn't help that Steve's helmet comms had gone flat now - just when we really need them!) As you would expect his confidence was shot so he approached the crossings with no momentum and head down. I eventually got him to hit them with a bit of speed and standing up and he began flying through them like a pro. This was good as I was getting knackered from jumping on and off my bike and wading across creeks. My boots were full of water, but at least it was warm.

After the last crossing, which was a tiny one, the road began to climb. As I sort of remembered where it went from my ride last April I gave the DX it's head. Jumping water bars uphill and power sliding out of corners was a hoot. I stopped high up to let Steve catch up and to get a photo. All the stress of the creek crossing was sooo worth it. This would also be a great point to point mountain bike ride if one had a support vehicle to meet at the other end.

Leaving Glenrock Station we were back on a forest road and soon close to Nundle. I turned into the Hanging Rock lookout area and while neither of us were that keen, I am glad we took the time as the view across Nundle is a stunner.

Rolling into town we checked into the Peel Inn. It was pumping as they had just had a big dog show in town. It was nice to get out of those wet boots and into dry clothes. We enjoyed a couple of New England Pale Ales (the Uralla brewery) then a very nice dinner and desert again. This wasn't a pie and chicken parmigana fueled trip!

There was no rush to get going the next morning as we only needed to roll back to Scone, a mere 100km away. The Peel Inn provided a cooked breakfast as part of it's accomodation package so we partook of that before loading up. My boots were surprisingly dry today, which was rather pleasing and surprising.

We took the road less travelled and went via Crawney Pass. This is the area where the DC-3 crashed back in the 1950s. It is rugged but beautiful country.

The cloud was low on the hills this morning making for some dramatic scenery.

It didn't take long, even when we were slowed by fog in the valleys, before we were in Scone. We decided to get a coffee in the main street before loading my bike up.

Steve was riding home to Sydney and I was driving back to Brisbane. It had been an awesome ten days or so on the bikes and this Barrington Tops ride had been the icing on the cake with its stark contrast of greenery and creek crossings to the Flinders harsh, barren dryness. It was also awesome to ride with Steve again as we don't get to do it that often these days. Perhaps once his kids are finished with school we might have more opportunities......when we can work on his "walk like an Egyptian" skills....

The epilogue route from Scone to Scone.

All up we covered 2 315km on the bikes. The Desert X was faultless and I'm really happy with how it is set up. The Africa Twin did well and could be better with a couple of small accessory modifications that would make Steve's ride easier. We did notice as I loaded my bike in Scone that the AT had oil around the bottom of the shock. On closer inspection we could see the seal had failed and he just had a big pogo stick for the last day or so. He has since spent some money and had it rebuilt, along with the forks. I will bet money that it is a far better handling bike now (not that it wasn't decent from the short ride I had on it in the Flinders) with properly weighted springs.

I did another 3300km in the car.

Cheers.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 6

 

I was going to get up early this morning and go for a walk along one of the hiking trails…..but it was bloody cold and staying in bed seemed like the better option.😊

When we eventually did get up we wandered around to the restaurant for some breakfast. We were a bit later today so it was quite busy.

There was no great rush to get going. We were heading back to Broken Hill (and reality) today so we had 300km of dirt then ~200km of sealed road to tackle. While our biggest day, it would be easy going.

Once loaded we rolled off and immediately my bike felt funny. It felt like the steering damper was wound right up or the front tyre was flat. I stopped to check - nope, damper is wound off and the front is pumped up - but the rear tyre is looking pretty flat! 

Bugger!

I must have flatted not far from Arkaroola yesterday afternoon and it went down overnight. Riding around to the fuel pumps where the air hose was I pumped the tyre up and went hunting for the puncture. It didn’t take long to find as it was hissing fairly loudly. Don’t know how I didn’t hear it yesterday?

Anyway, I shoved a plug in, pumped it up and was good to go. Tubeless is the way to go when it is this easy to fix.😉

Rolling, take two, we stopped numerous times to get photos in the morning light. 

We overtook a couple on a KLX 230 and an MT450 not far out of Arkaroola, trying not to dust them too much.

We were on the lookout for the sandy creek crossing and it was indeed hard to spot when coming from this direction. It caused no problems for us this morning though.

This morning consisted of just blatting along at 90-100km/h. No need to go too fast and once we took the turn to the south at Frome Downs, toward Yunta the road became covered in a 50mm deep sand/ gravel which made for some "loose" moments.  We stopped along here for a short rest to give our concentration levels a break. 

A while later we came to the mining ruins at Waukaringa. I missed out on checking them out closely in 2022 so I followed some bush tracks over to the old kiln and chimney for a quick look around.  Steve wasn't keen so stayed over near the main road.

 We then wandered down to the couple of derelict buildings only to find a group of adventure bike parked out the front. The riders were all hiding around the corner,  out of the wind, cooking sausages on the bbq that their support car had supplied.  Talk about doing it in style!

We chatted for a bit and they offered us a snag which we politely declined. We would be in Yunta soon and would refuel there. 

We tried the other service station in Yunta this time.  A sandwich and an iced coffee worked to avoid the hot coffee disappointment of our last visit. 

As we were fueling up a van with Jemma Wilson splashed on the side pulled in for fuel.  Jemma was/is a high level Moto Crosser and now does ladies coaching.  She must have been down in Adelaide for some coaching.  We would leapfrog  the van for the next two hundred odd kilometres back to Broken Hill.

Arriving into Broken Hill I suggested to Steve that as it was still relatively early we ride the thirty or so kilometres out to the historic Silverton. We were riding into a settling sun along a road lined with kangaroos so we took it gingerly. 

Stopping into the iconic Silverton Hotel it looked pretty deserted but entering the bar there was actually quite a few people. 

We grabbed a couple of Tooheys Olds and sat out the front watching the shadows grow longer. 

That done it was into Broken Hill to find some accommodation.  We weren't that chuffed with the caravan park unit from last week so we found a nice clean, warm motel room - briefly checking that my car was in fact still OK at the caravan park.  I'll go get it tomorrow morning. 

All up,  a pretty easy day but we were a bit tired from the concentration required on the looser dirt roads into Yunta.

Dinner was at The Broken Hill Pub which was very clean and modern. 

I didn't take much rocking to sleep tonight! It had been a solid week on the bike.  Not huge kilometres but quality stuff that demanded concentration. Tomorrow would be an easy day in the car back to Dubbo..... and as we both still had all the next week off we would need to come up with a plan for some more riding...... stay tuned! 😎

Cheers.

What happened next HERE.

Flinders Ranges Trip 2025 - The Ride Day 2

 We were up early again today,  well 7am anyway and loaded up to go.  We had decided to get rolling and just find some breakfast along the way today.  

The plan was to go from Melrose up to Wilmington, then west down the awesome little Horrocks Pass to Port Augusta,  then back north east to Quorn, Hawker and finally Blinman, our overnight stop.

 

Melrose MTB Trailhead art. 

The road north out of Melrose parallels the Mt Remarkable range (which is the southern spur of the Flinders) and is dotted with huge gnarled old gum trees. Their white bark glowed almost luminous in the morning sunlight prompting a quick about face to get some photos. 

Rolling into Wilmington we quickly scoured the main street for a likely breakfast spot but nothing jumped out at us so we continued on, turning left into the Horrocks Pass road.  

Steve was in for a little treat here as the Pass winds through a gap in the hills toward the Spencer Gulf that consists of a bunch of 35 and 45km/h bends with a great surface. 

We may have turned around and ridden it again... and again....😉

Once through the Pass the view over the Gulf and various wind farms is pretty spectacular. 

Then we hit the T intersection for the main highway. Being the main road between the east and west coasts of Australia,  it is BUSY. We rode the short distance into Port Augusta on the lookout for a likely breakfast spot as the worms were now biting pretty hard.  It took us a good thirty minutes of riding around before we finally found a cafe' in Port Augusta West. It turned out to be worth the search as the food and coffee really hit the spot.

Leaving Port Augusta we headed north east for Quorn. I had never ridden this road before and it proved to be quite the cracker. Well surveyed and surrounded by spectacular scenery.  With it being so dry there wasn't a blade of grass to be seen,  just lots of shades of red rock. There was an historic rail line, The Pitchi Ritchi Rail, that criss-crosses the road as it passes through the southern Flinders between Quorn and Port Augusta. We marvelled at hillside cuttings that looked so precisely cut and the stone bridges that carried the line over this twisting, turning section of road.  We even turned around and went back to do one section again!

We just cruised through Quorn itself,  as pretty as it was because we didn't have a reason to stop.

 

Another 66km up the road was Hawker, a place we did want to stop at. We fueled up here as there are only really three petrol stations in the Flinders.  This one, one at Wilpena Resort and one at Angorachina Resort. 

We also decided we needed a photo at another pub so the Hawker hotel was paid a visit.

That done we headed out the Flinders Ranges Way towards Wilpena Pound. The expanse of the plains along here was quite spectacular.  Screen grabs from a video don't do it justice. 

Looking at the map while in Hawker it looked like we could branch off the highway onto Moralana Scenic Drive, then cut back across to Rawnsley Park on the main road. As this was dirt (and probably more interesting) we decided to take a look. 

Almost immediately we had several emus try to commit suicide under our bikes.  How dumb are these birds?! All of this vast expanse of outback to run away to and they all decide they need to be on the other side of the track to where they are standing?!! Having helmet comms in these situations was a bonus as we could warn each other about wildlife.

Anyway,  we weren't going quickly so they were easily avoided.  Moralana Scenic Drive proved to be a very pleasant ride on a well graded road.  

We somehow missed the turn for Rawnsley Park. The first intersection we came to was for a track to Black Gap which caused us to look at the map and realise our mistake. Steve said "let's take a look" as it was only three kilometres to Black Gap. The track started out okay but VERY quickly turned into dirt bike territory.  We decided to turn around in the first sandy, rocky creek bed and head back to look for the Rawnsley turn. (If we had continued up Moralana Scenic Drive it would have dumped us out on the western side of the Flinders on the Outback Highway.)

Watching the GPS like a hawk,  we spotted the turn and saw why we missed it on the first pass.  It was a gate well off to the side of the road that opened onto a barely discernible track. Hmmmm, "that looks pretty challenging" (and possibly a private road) was the consensus so we just decided to keep heading back to the Hawker Wilpena road and continue north that way. On the way back we encountered the same silly emu just standing in the middle of the road at the exact same spot we saw it on the way in!

As we approached Rawnsley Park the terrain began to change with the huge range of Wilpena Pound dominating the skyline and scruffy looking pine trees dotting the landscape.  There is a viewing point in the eastern side of the road here so we pulled in and rode to the top of the hill (as you do when on a bike😁). The view from this slightly elevated position was impressive.  I don't think I got any good photos but Steve had his DSLR camera out and should have got a couple of crackers. 

From here we took the turn off into Wilpena Resort. Again we stopped for more photos of The Pound, this time from a different angle. 

We faffed around here for a while with Steve wanting to get some DSLR photos of me riding around. Doing a few laps of the entrance road I kept spooking a huge flock of Galahs into flight, which I managed to capture on the "chin cam" on one of the passes.

I have never seen so many kangaroos by the roadside, especially in the middle of the day! They were everywhere!

Rolling into the resort we filled the bikes up before wandering into the shop to grab a cold ice cream and a snack to enjoy later on. Wilpena Resort has a chilled vibe that we soaked in a we sat on the verandah outside the shop/visitors centre.  

I decided that I WILL be back here and do some of the walks one day. 

Mounting up again we retaced our steps out to the highway and turned left to head north again.  The next few kilometres are some of the most fun and uniquely scenic sealed road kilometres you will find anywhere. 

We blasted these 35, 45 and 55km/h bends as we climbed up to Huck's Lookout. Here we spent some time just taking in the stunning view back towards Wilpena Pound.

 

Wilpena Pound from Huck's Loout. 

Looking back at Huck's lookout, north towards Stokes Hill Lookout. 

As we pulled up at Huck's lookout Steve spied a track snaking up a hill to the north of us. "That must be Stokes Hill Lookout" I said. "Let's check it out next".

At the bottom of Stokes hill I told Steve to turn his traction control off as the hill was steep and looked rough and loose.  "Nah, I'll be right" he said...... clearly basing his decision on his vast off roading experience. 

To say he almost ate shit as the back wheel lost traction, then cut the power,  then gripped, then spun and cut power,  then gripped again - all while he kept rolling more throttle on to make up for the lack of power to the ground and subsequent forward motion - all happened in a few split seconds and saw him roosting wildly up the hill! 😆 This became the running joke for the rest of the trip - me "is your traction control off ", him "nah, I'll be right". 

Unfortunately I don't have footage of that little incident. But the view from this bald knob of a hill was breathtaking as well.  The sun was getting a little lower in the sky by now and it was really bringing the colours of the landscape out. We tooled around here for quite a while taking photos, video and just generally soaking in the ambience.  

We weren't right at the top of the climb here. There was a large communications tower up there and I didn't want it to spoil the vastness of the otherwise empty landscape.

The colours of the landscape here just don't show in my photos. The deep red of the earth isn't correct here but its the best I can do with the equipment I have.

There wasn't a breath of wind. It was just a perfect, cool afternoon. So we then took it up a notch by breaking out the red wine, cheese and crackers to complement the views. Very decadent.

Looking back to the ever present Wilpena Pound. 

We did scoot up to the top of the hill where there were view across the plains to the east but I think our initial choice was better.

Steve going back down Stoke Hill climb. It is steeper than it looks. 

Getting back on the road it was getting a bit late in the afternoon and the kangaroos were making an appearance along the roadsides.  Even going slowly we came up behind a car and decided to sit there, using it as a shield to potentially fend off errant wildlife.

Luckily we did too as not five minutes later a small kangaroo came charging out of the brush on the side of the road and went straight under the car! They didn't even have time to brake until it was under their car! 

Look closely for the Kangaroo checking the cars sump plug! 

And a few seconds later, deceased on the side of the road. It happens quickly!! 

Yep, good call. 

Even though it was getting late we decided we needed to turn off again to take a look at a feature called Great Wall Of China. 

It was on the eastern side of the highway,  facing west so we figured that as it was getting closer to Golden Hour the chance of amazing photography was increased somewhat.

No doubt Steve got some good shots but my screen grabs and phone camera stuff wasn't very inspiring, so I went a bit "arty".  It was a nice spot to stop nonetheless. 

Back out to the highway and it wasn't far to our overnight stop in Blinman. Just thirteen kilometres of suicidal kangaroos to negotiate!  We managed unscathed but the sheer volume of kangaroos on the side of the road was mind numbing!

Get that one up ya Geoffrey! Steve getting photo bombed by some random meat bag. 

Keeping up the theme,  we grabbed a beer straight up and sat out the front of the pub watching the setting sun paint the hill opposite town varying shades of red until it disappeared in darkness.  

Nice. 😎

The Blinman pub was to be our home for the next couple of days so we checked in and unloaded the bikes into the spacious room.  A quick shower then back to the bar for a pre dinner drink and a look at the vast night sky.  Not much light pollution out here. (Of course I see the irony of us sitting here in this blinding light....but one couldn't see ten feet in the dark and we weren't risking getting ten feet away from our beers!)

Dinner was a chicken schnitzel washed down with a questionable bottle of red. The food was actually pretty good and the foreign girls staffing the bar were quite friendly.  The lady who seemed to be in charge/the owner,  not so much.  I got the impression she did not want to be there. Oh well,  another beer or two from the foreigners and we were off to bed. 

Another amazing day of riding.  Only 330 kilometres and nothing challenging at all but the Flinders just kept giving stunning views around virtually every bend.  They really are like nowhere else in Australia. 

Cheers and stay tuned for Day 3.

Day 3 here.