That Mad Belgian

[north-north-west]

Still heading more or less south by south east towards the second airstrip. A strange choice. And little progress today despite it already being 15:30.

[doogs]

Hmm. Looks like he's about to head into a world of hurt down in that gully of filth..

[north-north-west]

Given what he's already been through, "a world of hurt" would be the norm. More like it's going to be a world of even greater and more exquisite torture.
He is, however, tending towards the track. That will make life a little easier down to the river.

[ILUVSWTAS]

So is he heading to the vale of rassalas enroute to lake gordon or will he head over pokana and down??

I haven't looked at his tracker today but it sounds like he's staying more to the east of the spires?

[north-north-west]

Looked like he thought of heading for Innes High Rocky and the Spires yesterday (from the northern airstrip) but changed his mind and is now aiming more at Battlement or at least Badger Flats. Hard to tell what his thinking is (apart from illogical and erratic).

[ILUVSWTAS]

If the track through the airstrips is still followable I can see why that would be tempting to stay on. From the southern airstrip the options would seem to head down the valley west of battlement hills to badger flats then over pokana to lake gordon. Or down the vale to the rassalas track and onto the stepped hills to the lake or the gordon gorge.

[jmac]

I don't reckon we're seeing any evidence of the route decision yet. Still just trying to find a good line to the Gell. That gully he's entering sure looks tedious. Hope his sore eye is not too painful or vulnerable to infection or long-term harm.

[north-north-west]

From the airstrip until approx 17:45

LPL01.jpeg (225.94 KiB) Viewed 21234 times

Either he keeps losing things - including himself - or the signal is erratic due to thick scrub, or he can't decide which of a number of bad options is the best.
However awkward the old track between the airstrips may be, it has to have been a better option than what he has done since reaching the northern strip.

[AndyR]

Looks like he only needed to go a couple of hundred meters further east and he would have found the track

[Warin]

Either he keeps losing things - including himself - or the signal is erratic due to thick scrub, or he can't decide which of a number of bad options is the best.

Option F: all of the above is my guess.

He stop yesterday at 6.30 pm.
He started today at 1 pm... Think the short distances and short times for travel demonstrate the difficulties he finds himself in. Possibly he is now looking for a place to camp.

[north-north-west]

Looks like he only needed to go a couple of hundred meters further east and he would have found the track

He wasn't much more than 100m from it. The vegetation may have been horrid, by it's a waste of effort to push all the way across the gully and then turn back so close.

[Mechanic-AL]

This has become way more intriguing since Looney LouPhi staggered off into the darkness of an area I know very little about.
Those airstrips.........Hydro, Forestry, Jetstar ??
And "the track" ? The one that starts in the middle of nowhere and finishes in the middle of another nowhere ??
Can anyone enlighten me ?

GO LOUPHI !!

[ILUVSWTAS]

The track starts at one airfield and goes to the other...

Mining I believe. There is (or was) an abandoned bulldozer at one of the airstrips too. I guess they flew the dozer in by chopper bit by bit to build the airstrips, find nothing of value and move on.

[tastrax]

Both strips have been 'rehabilitated' by PWS and volunteers if I remember correctly. I doubt they pulled the dozer out!

[AndyR]

On the map I have, the northern one is labelled as an "abandoned airstrip", the southern one as "earthworks" so maybe they never finished the second one?

From tonights post:

day 30
2 Sept. Hard to find motivation. Rain, leeches, high scrub or forest for which my backpack is too high and wide. Tried to find old track, found man-cut branches but lost the trail again.

[Guido]

Today 1,63 km in 4h 50m. Average 0,34 km/h. I can't imagine how hard this must be for him - I want to scream at my screen to get him onto the old track! How can he not find it? It's right there on his InReach.
Come on louphi, hang in there.

[matagi]

So is all that clearing of vegetation due to a natural plain, or was there extensive clearing for the mining operations?

[Tortoise]

Does this remind anybody else of the Truman Show, or is it just me?!

[Lizzy]

Yes Truman show- someone is thickening up the scrub whenever he gets close to the edge of the movie set! Lol

[ILUVSWTAS]

Today 1,63 km in 4h 50m. Average 0,34 km/h. I can't imagine how hard this must be for him - I want to scream at my screen to get him onto the old track! How can he not find it? It's right there on his InReach.
Come on louphi, hang in there.

I think you'd find that track marked on the map is probably not much of a track these days. Years before it was becoming overgrown and hard to follow and I haven't heard of anyone being in the area in recent years so I suspect it is close to being obsolete.

[AndyR]

Today 1,63 km in 4h 50m. Average 0,34 km/h. I can't imagine how hard this must be for him - I want to scream at my screen to get him onto the old track! How can he not find it? It's right there on his InReach.
Come on louphi, hang in there.

I think you'd find that track marked on the map is probably not much of a track these days. Years before it was becoming overgrown and hard to follow and I haven't heard of anyone being in the area in recent years so I suspect it is close to being obsolete.

Google Earth image is dated 2015 and you can still see what appears to be parts of the track but no telling what it's like on the ground of course

[north-north-west]

Some if it will hard to follow, particularly through the forest and scrub sections, but it couldn't be any worse than the line he has taken instead, and much would be better.

He really needed to have an alternative route such as the Spires/Denison option plotted before he left, through the least scrubby terrain he could find. It's a lot harder when you're trying to find a line through on the ground and just joining up dots on the map when you have no idea what it's like.

So is all that clearing of vegetation due to a natural plain, or was there extensive clearing for the mining operations?

The clear yellowish patches are mostly buttongrass plains. Some of what looks clear on the sat photos is tea tree and other heath and can be surprisingly high and thick.

[Tortoise]

Some of what looks clear on the sat photos is tea tree and other heath and can be surprisingly high and thick.

I learnt that the hard way. From a summit, it looked like we had a beautiful big clearing to aim for. After much confusion and exhaustion, it finally dawned on us that we were in the 'clearing' - what we'd seen was the canopy of dense 3m high tea tree. Strong trunks that I could hardly move, 15 cm apart.

[stepbystep]

So is all that clearing of vegetation due to a natural plain, or was there extensive clearing for the mining operations?

Aboriginal cultural burning for thousands of years. Now rewinding hence the high tea tree....

[jdeks]

Does this remind anybody else of the Truman Show, or is it just me?!

I dont know about the truman show....

More like this:

https://youtu.be/Qvk2wNWmB20?t=46s

[Jon MS]

A bit of ancient history regarding those airstrips and dozer track…
Those airstrips and dozer track were put in by illegally by a bloke called Johnston in the early 1970s for gold exploration. Johnston ran an aerial crop-dusting company, hence the airstrips. He apparently had no permits for any dozer works, let alone approval to build airstrips and over 30 km of track.

There is a dozer at the second airstrip near the Gell River. The dozer was abandoned due to having a blown motor (con-rod through the block). There was also a caravan and lots of junk next to the Gell River and empty fuel drums scattered along the whole track.

I understand that in the late 1970s it was possible to get a 4wd to the second airstrip.

When I first walked that way in 1981 the dozer track was easy and quick to follow all the way to the Gell River. At that time, people were taking 4wds at least as far as Cavalier Creek, south of the Gordon River on a regular basis.

By the mid-1980s the track down the Firths River was very hard to follow but with care could be followed almost all of the way to the Denison River.
The first (northern) airstrip was re-vegetated by Parks, I think in the mid-1990s. I don’t think any re-vegetation was done on the second (southern) airstrip since it was naturally re-vegetating due to not having been finished (probably due to the blown motor in the dozer).

[Mechanic-AL]

Interesting bit of info. Thanks Jon.
Maybe Louis can find whatever maybe left of the caravan and do an 'Alexander Supertramp' until some spring weather kicks in.

[doogs]

He's discovered mornings today and is making good progress.. now just head down that hill and you might find a track of sorts....

[north-north-west]

Milder weather today so it will have been easier to get out and about. Keeps up this sort of progress and he'll be at the river tonight. Then we can all break out a beer (or some chocolate) and celebrate for him.

[johnw]

Yes, his methods might be unorthodox but I have to admire his tenacity. I've occasionally attended the odd lecture by similar types over the years.
They are usually very driven people, mostly unfazed by the hardships and stuff ups of their various expeditions.
I'd be a dribbling incoherent mess by now.