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So I've started the trip down The Birdsville Track - today my plan was to get about 100kms down the track tonight and the get up at sunrise tomorrow - about 5:45am and try and do the 220kms to The Mungeranie Roadhouse before it gets too hot.
The real heat of day seems to come on around 2:00pm - by then everything, rocks, dirt, bricks etc has had the full day sucking up heat - so by 2:00pm you've got the overpowering heat of the sun plus all the radiated heat from the buildings and rocks etc.
When I left Birdsville this afternoon The roadhouse couldn't give me fuel, it was so hot the pumps wouldn't work - they said it happens every summer. The pulled the pump casing apart, packed it full of ice to let it cool down.
Another Birdsville Bummer - because it's not tourist season everything was shut :(. I went to The Birdsville Bakery (home of the famous Curried Camel Pie) looking for breakfast - but it was shut :( - opening at Easter!!
So I stuck to my plan and got about 100s down the track - its a lot harder than I thought - the Postie is quite top heave with 25litres of fuel and 9litres of water - so it doesn't handle the dirt overly well.
But on the plus side, I am well aware that the gibba rocks shred tyres - I'm also well aware that I don't have any spares (or tools) so I'm taking it very easy - a sharp, tyres shredding, monster gibba rock at 100kph turns into an easy avoidance at 30kph - and yes, there were many times I was riding at 30kph - I just could not tolerate a flat, nor a fall - either one would have left me stranded for days!!
I made camp tonight at a big colourful "Enjoy the Birdsville Track" sign - I wasn't!!! - photo to follow.
Tonight's campsite coordinates - just in case you want to see it on Google Maps was:
S26 deg 41.497 and E139 deg 38.156
It's pretty remote.
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