In Victoria near the border of S.A. we have been working on a two-three day ride GPS plot. The final section is still to be completed. Maybe next weekend. See www.transaustraliatrail.com.au
I hit roo big time, so you will have to wait for an accurate track for section C. I have 5 busted ribs and a collpased lung. I have posted an interim guide route if you want to use the Nelson to Portland section urgently.
Perhaps you should take up golf... :) Hope alls well now! Maybe might ride back from WA and catch up with the GT boys!
Hi BBC, golf hurts with busted ribs. We arw off to camerons corner in 25 days. Sent from my MB525 using Tapatalk 2
is this the ride around portland, if so i have been trying for a few years to do this , it was mentioned in one of the tourist pamphlets , but no one seemed to know about it, ?
H JT, Yes it starts/finishes in Portland. It was on a website that was removed from the www after the webmaster died. It was a route sheet ( i.e a list of instructions like after 1Km turn left) but we have ridden it a plotted it on GPS to make it easier. I still need to finish the last section from Nelson, but really this is easy to do. Just keep the sun on your back in the afternoon/ head East using any track you can find and stop before you hit the ocean. It is still very wet on the railway track so I suggest you detour via other roads on the first part of section A
yeah i got the route sheet, but was told it hadnt been updated and some tracks were closed etc, i hope to get down there before xmas and have a go at it, i get down to port fairy a fair bit, thats how i originally heard about it, so now i have a gps route i have no excuse not to do it, thanks
hi xr man , thinking of having a go at this possibly as soon as next week, was just wondering about fuel, i only have at tops 120 km fuel range, is thee fuel at Lyons or Digby? cheers jon
cheers , i read the report that went with the gps tracks later, and saw what you had written, heading off to do it friday this week if all goes to plan, will update the gps tracks for the last part from nelson if all goes according to plan, thanks again
Well you picked the year of the longest winter in 30 years i can recall! You picked ideal bikes for the conditions though. How did you go following the GPS track? Last weekend of couple of locals recorded the Neslon to Swan Lake section. I will do the "pretty way" back into Portland next weekend, but where possible I will avoid the deep water sections. I guess the advice to ride SWAT in late Spring and Autumn is sound if you are on bigger bikes. Great Video
yeah it must still be wet down there, i drew my own gps track using base camp and the one you had posted, some of the tracks where hard to follow especially with all the water, and we went along the road to digby by for fuel as we were low and worried about getting turned around by the flooding water, the track from nelson to portland was some of the best on the bikes we were on, we pretty much followed the logging forest tracks all the way to cape bridgewater, did end up on the southwest walking trail a couple of times, coming into nelson we spent a lot of time on the walking trail, not ideal, but made for an excellent run into nelson, i can try and post the gps maps i have if you want to see where we ended up in general an excellent trip,
"2013-10-26 07:16:42 casterton to portland" "2013-10-25 09:28:59 swat portland to casterton" i really suck at this , will try and upload the next part on another reply
looks like the other half has worked, please feel free to share them if they actually work cheers jon
Hi JT, We finished the GPS plot yesterday. I still want to tidy up the alternative way back into town after Swan Lake. Many of the areas are still too wet to ride for bigger bikes. You guys obviously don't mind a challenge though! Once the railway line track dries up I will venture out and plot the single track way. I am missing not having my enduro bike anymore after watching your video. Thanks for your GPS file.
