Riding the Birdsville Track

I almost didn’t ride the Birdsville Track. But I’m glad I did.

The Birdsville Track, a major dirt road running north south, connected Marree in the south (where I was) with Birdsville in the north (where I needed to go). Over a month ago, I was informed that the Birdsville Track was closed due to flooding. In March, Cyclone Trevor had gone through the northern part of Australia, and the rivers around Birdsville and surrounding areas were at maximum, and flooding the desert regions which the northern part of the Birdsville Track went through.

At that point, I was already starting to think of having to do some major re-routing.

But I decided to head south from Alice Springs, anyway, loop around Lake Eyre as planned and see how things were with the Birdsville Track. And– well, que sera sera.

By the time I passed through Oodnadatta in mid-June, the status of part of the track had changed from “Not Open” to “Light 4-Wheel Drive only; No Towing.” It was theoretically passable for me. When I was in Marree near the end of June, I had to decide. Marree was where I either committed to going the way of the Birdsville Track– or not.

I went for it.

If things really started to look bad, I reasoned, I would simply hitch a ride in Mungeranie (half way up the track) from one of those 4WD vehicles. But as I asked people who had come down the track, most seemed to think that the way was easily passable; they came through it after all. There were a few streams to cross, and some desert sand patches where I would have to push my bike. Oh, what the heck, I thought, the ride could use a few adventurous moments.

It turned out to be smooth sailing all the way up to Birdsville– no drama. Except for one terribly windy day, but that had nothing to do with the status of the track; that is another story.

The road itself was fairly smooth; it had minimal corrugation, probably because it had less traffic than the other dirt roads I had been on. In the end, I could walk across the streams without hardly getting wet. The sand dunes where I had to push the bike was only about a mile long at most. I had a some gorgeous sunset evenings, clear starry nights in the wide expanse. And– unexpectedly, the region turned a verdant green when I rode through the once-flooded areas. It was like I suddenly entered the land of Oz (no pun intended; I am literally thinking of the story of The Wizard of Oz). This lush green occurs only once in a long while, and I get to ride through it. On some moments, I felt like I was pedaling through the Vietnamese tropical countryside by my grandfather’s farm, like I used to do when I was child. It was exhilarating.

The Birdsville ride was memorable in many ways. It was delightful for much of it with the different scenery– both day and night. Although it also contained one of the windiest, and thus horrible, day of my entire ride, I can endure even that because of the other stunning moments along the way

In the end, I entered Birdsville as planned and ready for the next phase of Outback riding.