Day Sixteen of The Great Rattler Run – Taking The Rattler to the Northernmost Point of The Australian Continent Today was the final day of The Great Rattler Run. Our adventure was drawing to it&...
Day Fifteen of The Great Rattler Run – Northern Half of The Old Telegraph Track to Loyalty Beach, Last Stop Before The Tip of Cape York!!!!! If one was just to look at the kilometres alone, you ...
Day Fourteen of The Great Rattler Run – The Old Telegraph Track Here we are, eating brekkie at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse, the last stop before the Southern section of The Old Telegraph Track. ...
62 Days to go!
It was time to ditch the building of the new 20 car garage and start to pretty up The Rattler. Plenty of red dust still in crevices that was beyond water blasting to remove.
Katie’s partner Dean came to do some dent knocking, bogging and spray painting. Dean was great and very professional with what he did.
I am so anxious I could fire up the Rattler and go tomorrow. When I started the Rattler today to back it out of the garage it was such a beautiful noise. I really do love this 1929 Model A Ford. I came inside for a cuppa and there on the telly were two 4wd’s on the Madigan Line in the Simpson Desert…..bogged!!! The Rattler never did get bogged in the Simpson Desert on what we called the Desert Rattler Run where we drove from Steep Point on the west coast of Australia in WA to the Byron Bay Lighthouse on the east coast of Australia via the 5 deserts. Never did get bogged.
On August 5th we will head off for Birdsville again and this adventure is titled Rattler Run #3 and out to Big Red we will go to challenge the steepest sand dunes in the Simpson Desert. We will do a few runs from west to east up the steepest side of the notorious killer dune before heading west to Poeppel Corner and up the Hay River Track to Alice Springs.
From Poeppel Corner to Alice Springs I have allowed 2 days but Hema and others say 4 days….now that is a challenge I need for the 78 year old car. The Rattler will do it and the only weak link will be the driver….me….if I haven’t prepped the car correctly it could fail!!!
More updates and news soon.
Rod Wade – The Vintage Adventurer
It was a great day! Sia from KL Malaysia and 2016 Peking to Paris Rolls Royce ‘Brumby’ owner driver called in for a cuppa. We went over old times and I invited Sia to join Rattler Run #3 in August. Unfortunately he had to decline due to business interests. Sia owns a huge copper mine north of Mt Isa at a place called Mt Cuthbert and invited me and the Rattler Run crew to call in and camp the night and do a tour of the mine. It took all of a nanosecond to say OK.
This will mean a route change and detour after reaching Urandangi where we will head to Mt Isa thus deleting Camooweal. About 20k east of Mt Isa we head north on an unmade road…as we do, to Gereta and on to the mine.
After leaving the mine we will go north and hit the Wills Development Road and head west a short way and then north again to Augustus Downs and onto Leichhardt Falls and onto Normanton so we will miss Burketown. After a visit to the Purple Pub in Normanton and a visit to the iconic railway station we will try and make it for a prawn night in Karumba.
We will have tracking devices in all vehicles and followers will be able to see exactly where we are at all times except when the satellite system lets us down.
OOROO
ROD
‘98 days to go’ before we depart on a Rattler Run to Birdsville, Big Red, Alice Springs, Camooweal, Normanton, Karumba, Croydon, Cairns, The CREB Track-North Queensland, Lakeland, Charters Towers, Airlie Beach, Banana, Esk to Wongawallan….over 7,500k in 21 days.
All in the Rattler, a 1929 Model A Ford!!
#VintageAdventurer #VintAdventurer #RattlerRun #RattlerRunIII #ModelAFord #Australia #Vintage #VintageCar
