Riding track and trails in the Flinders Ranges on solo motorbike camping adventure S2 Episode 2

I turned the corner to see a wall of water moving across the landscape. Luckily, the town of Petersburg was just down the road, so I pulled into the first service station I could find to cover up the rain and to fill up with petrol. But it was closed. It was only 7.40am, so I had 20 minutes to wait. As the heavier rain was starting to move in, it was time for the onesie. I'd only put it on once before leaving. Dave the craftsman had got hold of it for me, so either he thought I was smaller than I am, as the issue was from the crutch to the shoulder wasn't long enough, or he was playing the long run practical joke, and right now the joke was paying off. I hope you're laughing Dave. But once I took my riding jacket off, I managed to get in. Just pulled over after the rainstorm to take a break and make, just check everything, nothing's leaking. I may give crap to the onesie, but I'm bone dry. Job done. Impressed. It's not attractive. Another slight upgrade to the bike I did was put on a footstand. Great for the dirt. It'll stop the bike wanting to fall over. Not sure how good it is once you get into the rough stuff, if it's going to catch on anything. We'll find out. I've just noticed I'm on RM Williams Way. I wonder if it's the RM Williams for the boots. Maybe. An adventure bike getting nursed to the dirt? I never did understand that. I'm going to risk the weather and take the onesie off. Stunner's job. It's getting a bit warm. How do I get out of it? Oh jeez. Free at last. Onsley Bluff. Typical of the mountains, the flinders rain. I turned off to head up to a lookout so I could get a clear look of what was around, and just below is where I'd be heading. I'd made it to the Willows Springs Station, which is a 70,000 acre working sheep station, but they also allow you to camp and get access to what I've heard are some amazing trails. I hadn't actually booked anything, so I just had to check to see if they had any campsites available, and I got a very excited welcome. Well, I scored. Got the last campsite. The campsite was a few kilometers away in an isolated gully. Do you know when you wing it and you actually get it right? That's one of these times. This is pretty epic. This whole spot is for just me. So there's a trail here called Sky Track. Hopefully I'll be able to do it tomorrow. It just depends on the weather if it rains too much. There was forecast for rain, so they said maybe, maybe not. But it's looking pretty dry at the moment, so fingers crossed, because if it's anything like just that little ride in was just joy on a dirt bike or an old Himalayan that I'll tractor around and have a ball on. I might take some panniers off and gear. So I did mention from the last trip I needed to upgrade my power situation. And how could I do that? Because I was having to go into places to recharge the battery. I came up with a solution. Obviously the sun goes when I talk about solar power, but that's that square bit that's been on the back of my bike the whole time. Well, the gravel area seems pretty packed, so no pegs are going to go into that with any ease. But there are lots of rocks around, so the tent's going to be held up by rocks this evening. So I am going to take the panniers off. It's quite easy and it will make tomorrow's ride a lot more fun, I'd say. A little less weight, just less stuff to break. So I'll still have a camera with me, so I won't be pushing it too hard. But I'm sure it'll be fun, even as I said riding in was fun. I wanted to see what the bike felt like without the panniers on. So I headed up the trail. So I'm back at the campsite. I'm gonna find some more wood. There's not a lot of wood. There's a lot of bark, not a lot of wood. Just gone exploring just down from the campsite. There is this, I think you'd call it a seasonal stream, a riverbed, but only flows when there's heavy rain. And there are these absolutely gorgeous trees through it. All unique, all individual. Some crazy things going on here. But yeah, it's quite a stunning little place. And all the rock on the riverbed is this slatey looking stuff. I'm sure there's a geologist out there who can tell me what that is. The only decent piece of firewood I've found. The water must really rush through here because that's a big piece of timber. This tree definitely has a story to tell. It looks like it's gone through a few different phases. Not sure about the U-bend thing. Not sure what it was thinking then. Creative. Maybe trees get creative. Maybe. This was the only wood I could find. Back at the camp, I took in my surroundings. I came out to the lookout again to see if I could get a sunset shot. But it looks like the cloud's gonna take that away. But there's always tomorrow. I headed back to the campsite. Well, it rained a little last night. Quite a lot. So I'm not sure if they're gonna let us out on the track. So I'm gonna get stuff ready anyway as if I was going. And then if I'm not, plan B. I just noticed something. This campsite was dead flat when I got here. So there must have been some water run through last night. Lucky I didn't put the tent in the wrong spot. I filled the bike up with fuel. I rode down the access track to the homestead. The dry riverbed definitely had a lot of water run through it last night. As I expected, they're not opening the track. It's pretty slippery out there and there's a lot of washouts and that's just here. So I don't know what the rest of the thing would be like. They did say if the sun comes out and the wind blows, they'll open it tomorrow. They've just got to check, I think, one river crossing. But we'll see. The only issue with that is tomorrow night about 6pm is predicted quite heavy rain. So do I stay? Do I go? I think it's worth staying one more day. There's a little town just down the road that I might try and get some food from. Just in case I do get stuck here for a few more days. Yeah, that's just the way it is. So I'm just gonna have a chill day and wait for the sun, hopefully. Oh, I forgot to mention my backup plan. I'm going into the National Park instead. All the roads there have been closed as well. So it's not happening either. Tarmac it is. It looked like a whole lot of water had fallen through the night. With the amount of dirt and rocks moved, the water level could have been two to three feet high flowing through these crossings. The red slushy mud was super slippery. Just stopped here, got a picture of the mountain range. But even there, just coming up the side of the road, you can see my tracks coming around here. Everything is really soft. It's like, it's muddy, slippery and soft. And that's just on the side of the road. So normal tracks. You can see why they close everything down so quickly. I mean, expert riders and good riders, not a problem. But everybody else, we would be in the thick of it. All right, the first thing I see in the IGA is a picture of a dry Flinders Range. Just to rub it in. As expected, the selection in the tiny IGA was vast. We have naan bread, pepperoni, a banana and water. With every hour that passes, the hope of riding that dirt trail is diminishing. I mean, even the national park probably won't get that either. So it just doesn't seem to be my time. Two national parks, both affected by water. So there's a tip. Watch out for water when you're outback national parks because they really struggle. I thought I'd just take the opportunity to get the cameras out and take some photos. So just waiting for the light to hit some of the top of these mountains or hills. Enjoy that. These farmers definitely don't mess around. They had the heavy equipment out to sort out the access road. Ah, the station's dock. Time for lunch. It's always a good situation if just to get the groceries you have to go through a few washed out riverbeds. I mean, what more could you want? I've got food. My bike's covered in dirt. There's nobody about and we're out in the bush. I couldn't help myself and quickly ducked up to the lookout to see if I could get some sunset shots. Ah, the joys of camping. Got into the tent and my air mattress was down. So I do have spares. Patches, that is. A little patch here. Just cut out a square with that and I found the culprit. Apparently the patches need four hours to dry. So hopefully they won't need that long. Hard doing these things in the dark. Morning. It's another crisp morning. It's probably three or four degrees. Birds gave us a little wake-up call. I guess no matter what happens, if I just found the track in here and camped here, it was an epic, epic spot to be. So, the plan. Eight o'clock, I go down and see if they're going to open up this track. If so, epic, hopefully. Otherwise, if they say no, I'm going to get on the road again. But the looming weather conditions, apparently by 6pm, if hasn't changed, it's going to rain and rain a lot. So if I do stay under the track, I'm going to pay the piper and end up having a camp in the rain tonight. Oh well, all part of the adventure apparently. Guess what? Track's open. Sweet. So the lady said the first bit's going to be the most washed out from the rain. So if I can get through that, should be okay from then on. They had said nobody had checked the track. So I'd be the one to see if it's actually passable and if there's any issues. The water definitely had washed away the tracks. But as long as I could see the other side, all was good. I've just pulled over in this riverbed because there's a rock face here where there's some ancient Aboriginal engravings from people who used to obviously inhabit here a very, very long time ago before the most recent tribe that used to live here. So, so far the track's pretty good. I mean, obviously affected by the rain with a lot of washouts, but passable and the old Royal Enfield is getting through quite easy. The really silty mud, that gets a little slippery and the tyres chunk up. So there's a bit of sliding going on, but it's nothing too bad. The riverbeds are rocky. There's enough clearance on the bike. So, so far so good. It's pretty epic. I'm so stoked I got to stay and actually do this. And I'm only just at the start. So there's this riverbed area, then it opens up and then there's a hilly section is what I understand. We'll find out. Kangaroos have come down the riverbed this morning. Everything about this river gorge section screamed Australian bush and the best parts of it. It was like if a Hollywood movie had to make a set for an iconic Australian bush scene. This is what it would look like. The riverbed crossings were getting wider and wider. Well, there's a name for a campsite. More of that super slippery red mud. Man, you could fly along here if it was dry. This ride is going to take me forever if I keep stopping at every gorgeous river crossing. I picked up some branches and the mud was sticking like glue. This section had good chunks washed away and was the worst of the water damage so far. I got through the canyon riverbed section and was now into the open section of track. Nothing like a few creek crossings to clear out the mud from your tyres. Just stopped here. This area was actually an ancient seabed and you can see on some of these rocks the ripples from a very, very long time ago. A little bit of interesting geology. So this is Moxon Hut. It was built over a century ago. And it was for the station hands working out here. And they actually stayed out here until the 1960s. Imagine calling this place home. Hopefully the other parts of these walls have perished and they were actually sealed because most of it, there's a few gaps. But it has a really cool fireplace. Things have definitely got a lot more comfortable these days. This hut shows you really don't need much to survive. I continued on into the next section of track. Change again. Just a quick stop here. It's not a great time of day to be taking pictures but still worth a stop and a look. Looking up into the valley with the folded segments of ancient seabed hills on either side and their unique angle is typical of the Flinders Ranges. The hills seem to rise further and further out of the ground. The deeper I went into the valley. I got to another riverbed crossing which I continued up but realised I couldn't see the track. It was all river sand. Anything resembling a track had been washed away. So I turned around. My front tyre caught on the bank and with the ground being river sand which was super soft the back tyre dug in. Instead of trying to power my way through it and just digging myself deeper I got off the bike and moved the back wheel out of the hole I had created as I didn't want to be on my hands and knees digging myself out of the river sand. I backtracked but still couldn't find the track. So I tried going further up the riverbed this time and eventually I found the track again. I continued up the valley crossing small gully after small gully until I reached the furthest point of the track which revealed the most amazing unique mountain range.