Gol Gol to Greens Lake
All good things must come to an end. Tonight is our last night on the road, and we are camped on the very peaceful shores of Greens Lake, east of Rochester. Yes, we're back in Victoria after having visited four States on this trip.
We were on the road by 9:30am this morning, and crossed the Murray into Victoria about 80km later. We continued travelling along the Murray until Swan Hill, where we stopped for fuel and for lunch. Then we veered towards Kerang, Cohuna and Echuca, then south from there we headed to Greens Lake. We have heard good things about this place so were keen to check it out, as it would be a good campsite for weekend trips from home.
As we pulled in, the lake is full of water and looked very peaceful. There wasn't a ripple on the water and plenty of water birds around. We found a flat spot avoiding the wet spots (apparently it's been wet in Victoria?!) and soon had the fire roaring. We enjoyed afternoon tea with the last of our delights from Jude's Cafe Bushtracker as the sun set and ducks headed home.
So this is our last campfire, our last dinner, our last marshmallows toasted over the fire, our last Baileys (missing the Baileys glasses, Neill!) and our last cosy night in the Patriot - for this trip anyway. Time to start planning for the big trip!
Silverton to Gol Gol
One of the biggest benefits of all the rain in the desert has been all the plant life, especially the wildflowers. Jude and I have especially enjoyed walking through, photographing and enjoying the myriad of coloured flowers against the red dirt of the desert. But to date, the famous Sturt Deset Pea has been elusive. I saw them out near Roxby Downs last year but thought there would have been more this year, especially given the rain. Imagine my surprise when I saw them today, on the roadside driving out of Broken Hill! Unfortunately, it was the highway so I was going too fast and there was nowhere to stop to take photos. However, it pleased me greatly!
The other surprise this morning, was this view out rhe caravan window this morning:
Yep: piglets! not what I expected, and quite cute!
We knew Neill and Jude would wake us with their early departure this morning so we said our goodbyes last night and I dropped the blind a little to wave them off from bed when they left. We then rolled over and went back to sleep - waking up when the sun was shining and the temperature was in positive digits! That seemed to be quite a bit later, so we certainly didn't have an early departure.
We stopped in Broken Hill for fuel, then headed down the Silver City Highway towards Mildura. Apart from the Sturt Deaert Pea, the scenery was pretty boring and the kilometres melted away. We stopped for lunch at Lake Popiltah (no water) then kept going. When we hit the Murray, we veered around Mildura and hance are still in New South Wales. We were aiming for a campsite on the Murray River but the river access road is closed so we are in a bush camp which is a little disappointing. Anyway, it is warm inside the Patriot and who knows what animals we might see outside our van tomorrow!
Silverton - Wednesday 13th July
Happy Birthday, Neill!
And for his birthday, Neill had a rest day with a sleep in, lunch at the pub and a lamb spit roast for dinner! It was a great day!
We all slept in this morning, after waking to a 6C (inside the van) morning that had none of us keen to head outside. Although it was a beautiful, sunny day with no breeze so much nicer than yesterday.
We had our morning tea out in the sun, and then Neill and Jude went to the historic cemetary while Greg and I read. Then we all walked across the river into town, for lunch at the pub. The Silverton Hotel was a lot busier than we have ever seen it, and it's had a revamp since we were last here - especially from a dining perspective. So we ordered our meals and enjoyed them, although we all agreed the Mungarannie Roadhouse burger (on Greg's birthday) was the best burger of the trip. Neill and Jude did the walk around town while Greg and I walked back to camp, checking out what changes have been made to Penrose Park since we were last here (this is now our fourth visit).
What was to be a quiet afternoon in front of the fire took a slight turn when Neill discovered his spit batteries wouldn't work. Knowing that he really wanted to test his new toy out (it was his birthday after all), I unhitched the caravan and Greg and I drove into Broken Hill for new batteries. Back to camp, the lamb went on and we all ooohed and aahed as the spit did its thing - over a specially designed second campfire!
We opened a bottle of bubbles for the birthday boy, had nibbles and watched the last DVD of The Big Lap on our outside cinema. The lamb was taking longer than anticipated but we had a cracking fire going to ward off the cold and plenty of reminiscing of the best parts of our trip, as this is our last night together. The resulting spit roast lamb and roast vegetables was exceptional. We then put candles and sparklers into Neill's dessert as we sang him a happy birthday. A great night with great friends.
Tibooburra to Silverton
We must be heading south - it was quite cool all day with a strong breeze, quite different from the warm 25C day we had only a couple of days ago.
Up early in Tibooburra this morning, and out of the campsite by 9:30am. Straight to the servo for fuel where it is fair to say the customer service staff work on "outback time". Eventually, we headed down the Silver City Highway where there were bitumen sections and dirt sections. The scenery was also pretty boring so it was a good thing we had our audio book!
Neill found us another "cattleyard cafe", after we went past one where three men were working at - Neill's description of that was that "there were no tables available there!" Coffee in front of the van protected from the wind was quite pleasant, until I spotted some wire on the driveway. This prompted me to run the length of the driveway checking for more - good exercise after Jude's homebaked delicacies that was morning tea.
On the road again, more of the same. At lunchtime, we arrived at the Packsaddle roadhouse, where we planned to pump our tyres up as that was the end of the dirt. No airhose to speak of, and plenty of other vehicles there so we moved to the other side of the road. Lo and behold, there was another Patriot (same caravan as us) there. So we got talking, and swapped lots of stories and tips. Theirs was from last December so not much older than ours. In the meantime, the compressor came out and the tyre pressures went up for the first time in nearly 3 weeks.
After lunch, we were able to travel a bit more quickly but the wind was strongly buffeting the van so it wasn't all easy. Not to mention the roadkill obstructing the road, the eagles swooping to eat that, the emus, kanagaroos, cattle, sheep and goats running across the road. And then throw in 14km of roadworks so it was actually pretty slow going.
We didn't get into Broken Hill until after 4pm and had a couple of chores to do before we headed out to Silverton. So it was nearly dark by the time we got here, and in the fading light, we had to quickly choose a campsite. It was too cold and windy for a fire so we had drinks and nibbles, and then dinner, in Cafe Bushtracker.
Merty Merty Station to Tibooburra
It rained last night - which was probably the last thing we needed. The rain was quite loud on the caravan roof during the night and there was even thunder. Given how badly the Birdsville Track turned to mush after a little bit of rain, there was some concern this road would also be bad. Especially as it isn't as good or popular a road as the Birdsville Track.
It was also quite warm overnight so after breakfast and a nice hot shower (yay for gas), we were ready for an early departure. Until I noticed that Jude was increasing in height as she walked from her van to the car - the mud was building up on her feet! So I quickly changed shoes and made a dash for the car as it started to rain again. This didn't bode well for the drive.
The mud was noisy, slippery and for probably the only time in my life, I appreciated corrugations as they provided a bit of grip! The road was also very up and down over sand dunes. As we started out there was a bit of fear that the road was going to be like this for the whole 116km! Soon, the muddiness and slipperiness gave way to more whoopy-doo sand dunes - and lots of corrugations! The whoopy-do sand dunes were very much like a roller coaster. At the top, you couldn't see what was on the other side. I had the advantage of being behind Neill so I knew he would tell me if there was anything of concern. Hence, I got a bit cocky with riding the roller coaster and got a bit close to the back of the Bushtracker at times.
After about 50km, it was well and truly time for morning tea, so we stopped at the Cattleyard Cafe! Yep, the Merty Merty Station cattleyard which obviously had a nice firm driveway which was reassuring after the rain. As we drank our cappucinos, we saw a dingo watching us from the end of the yards. It was the second one I had seen for the morning - one was running along the road parallel to the mighty merlot only 10 minutes before.
Then it was 60km to Cameron Corner. The road again offered a bit of everything - with lots more sand dunes. For 4wd enthusiasts, there are 1040 sand dunes across the Simpson Desert. We reckon we covered about 140 sand dunes between Merty Merty and Cameron Corner. It was driving up and ober some of these that I noticed some red sticking out the left side of the back of the van. On the corrugations, we lost the screw on cap for the tube t the back of our van that holds my (red) ladder and the three legged stools. It was the ladder I could see, so at least I rescued it and the stools, but the cap was not to be seen.
We arrived in Cameron Corner at lunchtime. We had planned to top up with fuel but upon pulling up to the bowser, the lady told us they were running short of fuel and so we were rationing it to 20 litres per person! At the price of $2.20 per litre, that was probably a good thing (we got a discount because of the rationing - down to $2 p/l). The shop there markets itself as the Cameron Corner Store but it was really just a pub - there was nothing to buy! However, we settled in for steak sandwiches for lunch before standing in all three states that is Cameron Corner's claim to fame - the point where NSW/Queensland/SA meet. The dingo fence runs along the SA/Queensland border as well - complete with a very solid gate!
Then we crossed into New South Wales for the 140km to Tibooburra. The road was pretty good, and as this is part of the Sturt National Park, there were lots of animals. We first saw eagles eating a road kill kangaroo, then lots of big red kangaroos, then some emus ran at Neill's car, and we even got overtaken by some camels. We arrived in Tbooburra at about 4pm but the fuel tanker was filling up at the servo and Greg always says you should nver fill up after the tanker has been so we drove out to an Aboriginal Campground just outside town. The campfire was soon roaring, we had curried sausages for dinner followed by pancakes, and it was all washed down with red wine - so the usual! The only difference being that we have mobile phone signal so we are all being a bit anti-social around the campfire, uploading blog entries and checking facebook!
Burke & Wills Dig Tree to Merty Merty Station
It was a lovely quiet morning on the banks of the Cooper this morning, until we shattered the peace by starting the generator! The fridge is keeping cold overnight and with the long driving days, it is powered by the car on the road. Nevertheless, we hoped to get gas in Innamincka today.
So after our kettle of boiled water was delivered from Cafe Bushtracker and we had breakfast, we walked over to the Dig Tree to see what was still visible. The ranger arrived at the same time we did and told us he was about to do a talk about the tree. I raced back to camp to get Neill and Jude as a few of our fellow campers arrived. He did an excellent job and had some really great stories - as well as some honest opinions about the various writings that have been done in recent times. He was complimentary about the one we are listening to "The Dig Tree" by Sarah Murgatroyd.
So for those who are not familiar with the story - here's a short overview. The Royal Society established a Victorian Expedition in 1860 to traverse the interior, from the south coast to the north coast. They appointed Robert O'Hara Burke as the expedition leader. It was the most well resourced expedition on record and they left from Royal Park in Melbourne. It took them a long time to travel to their first depot in Menindee via Bendigo and Swan Hill. From there, the party split and half of them pushed onto Cooper Creek and established Depot 65 - where we camped. After setting up there, Burke, together with 2IC Wills and two other men (Grey and King), set out for the Gulf of Carpenteria. They told the remaining party they would return in 3 months, and if they weren't back by then, the party could return to Menindee. Wills confidentially told them to see if they could wait 4 months - he wasn't convinced they would be back within 3 months. So off they set, and following water courses, made it to mangroves just short of the north coast. We had been to their northern most camp - Camp 119 - just out of Burketown on the Savannah Way in 2014. On their way back, they started to run out of food, their camels started to die, and they were getting very weak. One of the men, Grey, died just before they got back to Camp 65. They arrived back here on 21st April at 7:30pm, to find the campfire ashes still warm but the campsite abandoned - the remaining party had left earlier in the day, assuming the four explorers had perished and were not returning. They buried a cache of supplies and a letter 3 foot out from the Dig Tree, which the three remaining explorers eagerly fell upon. Being too weak to follow them, they started in another direction (not before Wills buried his diaries of the trip in the same hole (in a trunk)). Wills died first, then Burke. King survived, thanks to the kindness of the local aboriginal community. He was so friendly with them, he fathered a daughter with one of their women. Her great great great granddaughter works in the National Parks Office in Innamincka now. Thanks to Wills' diaries and King's verification, the truth of the expedition's succcess of the now renamed to Burke and Wills expedition was published and Burke and Wills became national heroes.
It was a real bonus for us to have heard the extra stories from the Ranger but it did mean we were a little later leaving than originally planned. It was 70km into Innamincka so we arrived there just before lunch. This is a very small town that has re-established for tourism, after dying after the droving days. We got fuel, got our gas bottles filled (yay!), then decided we may as well have lunch here. So we enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the Innamincka Hotel before hitting the road on the Strzlecki Track at about 1:30pm.
The Strzlecki Track was in better condition than the Birdsville Track, so we were mostly averaging 60-70km/hr. There was very little to see though. We traversed the extensive Moomba gas fields and skirted around the huge plant, and apparently even got Telstra signal there but didn't realise it.
After 120km, we turned off towards Camerons Corner but as that was still 116km away and it was after 4pm by this stage, we decided to find a campsite. 10km down the road we found this great site and are camped a mere 20m away from a magnificent red sand dune. The sunset from the top of the dunes was amazing! We have a campfire roaring but it is by far the mildest night we have had so far - Jude and I are still in shirts! It was also quite a warm day today, hitting 25C this afternoon. We'll have to remember this night next Sunday night when I am facing a return to work!
Cordillo Downs Station to Burke & Wills Dig Tree
What a day of driving today! We feel very much like the intrepid Burke & Wills whose depot camp we are at tonight. We've travelled through creeks, over rocks, through sand, up and down hills etc today. Along the way, we listened to the audio book of the Burke & Wills expedition so it was very fitting that we turned onto the road that takes us the last 14km to their dig tree, just at the point in the story when they returned back here after their successful mission to the gulf of carpentaria only to find their remaining party members had left earlier the same day. However, they had left a message in the tree to dig here for some more food. Hence, the dig tree!
We discovered in the night that we had a faulty gas bottle after only 3 days which left us with no gas (we had tried to refill our empty bottle in Birdsville but they ran out of gas). Thankfully the nights are cool so we figured the fridge would keep cold overnight. However, we did crank up the generator this morning to make sure it was cold. A fry up breakfast had been planned so that took care of the morning meal in a very yummy fashion this morning. We were still on the road just after 10am - with clean dishes thanks to the billy boiled on the fire.
First stop was Cordillo Downs Station homestead for a look at the largest shearing shed in the world. Not that this station runs sheep anymore but back in the day - even in the heat of out here - a good shearer could do 187 sheep a day.
Through several variations of road conditions, we finally got to the intersection where we had heard that the road to the right was closed and we had to go the slightly longer road to the left. There were no signs but we followed the advice we had been given and went left. We stopped for lunch a while later but suffice to say, the afternoon's driving was a bit of everything! So was the scenery - we had flat plains with no tall vegetation, then there was sandy or rocky creek beds - some with wide water bodies, there were even hills, curves and very red sand dunes.
It was 5pm before we pulled in here. We quickly set up camp, got dinner underway, fired up the generator to keep the fridge going (we haven't been anywhere near a service station or anyplace that might sell gas) and enjoyed another great meal around a roaring campfire washed down with red wine!
Birdsville to somewhere on Cordillo Downs Station
A travelling day today. Thankfully, so many of the Bash travellers left yesterday so although there were quite a few cars on the initial section of our road today, it was a lot easier to travel.
Neill got up early to go to the bakery for our fresh bread - after I did the other day. We didn't even hear him, although unlike me driving, he walked. However, we discovered later that he found - together with several other people there at the same time - that th bakery was shut today! Which surprised us all! They had to close early yesterday because they ran out of flour but we heard they had a new delivery so we assumed they would be up and running today. Alas, no.
We hit the road at 10am and did about 60km on dusty roads with many other vehicles out of Birdsville. As we stopped for morning tea, the cars were still going past us. On the road again, it was another 60km before we turned off onto the Cordillo Downs Road. Here, the road was better and the traffic was less so we did another 40km before we hit the South Australia border. We stopped here for lunch. As far as border crossings go, it was one of the less inspiring! The road (that we were on) approaching the border is little more than a track.
We were hoping to push on to Cordillo Downs station (homestead) but after another 60km with a road of varying condition, and crossing a couple of creek crossings with quite substantial riverways, we pulled off the road at another creek and set up camp. It was a beautiful afternoon in the sun, we soon had a campfire going, shorts on, beers being drunk as we watched an amazing sunset. Another beautiful dinner around the fire as we appreciate the simple beauty of being able to do things just like this.
Last day in Birdsville
Such a tough day - we slept in, had morning tea, moved back to the caravan park, went to the pub, had pizza for lunch, did some caravan work, went back to the pub for dinner, did washing, had a fire - that's it. I could stop the blog there, couldn't I?!
Apparently there was a queue out of Birdsville this morning. Our caravan neighbours hitched their van up at 7:15am which woke us up. We had no intentions of joining them, and instead enjoyed watching everyone else pack up.
We did ourselves after morning tea for the long drive back into Birdsville (!). Then we basically ate and drank for the rest of the afternoon. We had our afternoon beer - and our dinner - in the Lizard Lounge. Apparently it got it's name in 1967 when there was a particularly bad flood of the Diamantine River and all roads into Birdsville were cut off for many weeks. The pub ran out of beer and all they had left was Creme de Menthe and lemonade, so they made green drinks - called Lizard drinks. They even formed a Lizard League, which is still running to this day.
We're heading off to Innamincka tomorrow morning, but not without dramas as there are still roads closed down that way, which will require us to re-route in a couple of places. We also won't have internet again until Broken Hill in about a week - not that you can call the various haphazard connections we have had here in the last week "connection". So stay tuned for the next update!
Big Red Bash Day 3
Birdsville was rocking tonight! And we were better prepared so we weren't too cold either. Col Finley, Russell Morris, Adam Brand, the Angels and Jimmy Barnes - it was another great afternoon and evening of entertainment.
We all had sleep ins in the warmth of our vans today, after being so cold last night. Being practiced at the packing and preparation after yesterday, this took less time so we enjoyed morning tea in the sunshine outside our vans - with a lot less wind than yesterday. I prepared our dinner of stew and put it in the DreamPot to take with us - and serve with noodles that could be prepared at the time.
We left at the same time as yesterday, parked in the same spot, couldn't get in again as they hadn't finished sound checks - again - and when we did, took up pretty much the same position again too!
We all enjoyed the first three artists and even had beers in the sunshine. Then it was afternoon tea after which it started to cool off so the layering and blanket insulation both underneath and over us as we sat in our chairs was implemented. As the Angels put on a good show, we had our lovely hot dinner - that DreamPot is a winner!
Then Jimmy Barnes came on and while we're getting old, so is he. He's not as good live these days as he used to be. However, his light and sound show was pretty amazing and he wrapped up this very unique event - the Big Red Bash!
Big Red Bash Day 2
We're just home from the second day of the Big Red Bash concert, and it was a great day - if long and cold. It started at 1:30pm wth Christine Anu (great voice), followed by Shane Howard (great classics from his Goanna days), Adam Hervey (one of Greg's favourites and a fabulous entertainer), Troy Cassar Daly (another great country icon) and wrapped up with Paul Kelly (a flashback for me to my uni days!)
The day started early for me as I had promised to do the early morning bakery run to get fresh bread, after we heard from some people that they kept missing out on getting bread. The bakery opens at 6:30am so I was up and dressed by then, with a short detour to our front toolbox to change gas bottles after running out of gas during the night (the fridge runs on gas when we are free camping). So I was at the bakery at 6:45am, along with a healthy sized crowd - yes, even at that hour. I got our bread, ordered takeaway breakfast for Greg and I, and before that was even ready, the bakery had sold out of bread! Good thing I went early!
Home again, home again - jiggedy jig! Fair to say, I am the only one from our party to have seen sunrise over Birdsville. I was even home again before the sunrise scenic flight took off! Greg and I enjoyed our breakfast egg and bacon sandwich and with a full belly and a warm bed, I dozed some more until the wind blowing the awning was too noisy and I got up. It was a beautiful sunny day but the wind was cold. We did some housekeeping, had a nice warm shower, packed our provisions for eight hours of concert and having decided to drive in today, left just after 12:30pm.
They were late finishing their sound checks so it was after 1pm before got in. We settled ourselves, and started on lunch as Christine Anu wowed us with her magnificent voice. She played for over an hour, then there was changeover time before Shane Howard - formerly of 70's/80's band Goanna - took to the stage. His repertoire was quite good and we all sang along to some tunes. There was a good crowd in by this stage, with the oval pretty chockers. Adam Hervey came on in fine form, well he actually said he was sick but it didn't show. He is a great entertainer and really gets the audience involved. We were laughing lots in between songs, and singing along to his songs. He got Troy Cassar Daly up to do a duet - just like they did on the cruise last year. Because he and Troy used the same band, their changeover was quick. Troy did lots of songs Greg likes but he isn't quite as charismatic as Adam.
Along the way, we had afternoon tea from the thermos we'd brought, drinks and nibbles from our store of provisions, and then a nice hot dinner of pasta bolognaise from the DreamPot that Jude had made. It really was quite cold sitting in there so a warm dinner was fabulous.
Troy and Paul Kelly also did a duet, as did Troy and Shane Howard. It was lovely how they involved each other. The changeover between Troy and Paul was quite long and we almost had to do aerobics to keep warm. Then Paul came on with some of his classics. It took me right back to seeing him live in Fitzroy pubs in my uni days. He also had Vika and Linda Bull singing with him, which was a surprise bonus. He sang for an hour and a half and it was great. However, we were all pretty cold and ready for our diesel heaters (and hot showers!) at the end of it.
Birdsville - Monday 4th July
The Bash has started! While we weren't quite "rockin' the Simpson" as originally heralded, Birdsville was indeed rocking tonight. The concert kicked off at 5:30pm with Wilbur Wilde as MC and tonight's line up was Glenn Shorrock and Brian Cadd so it was old time rock and roll on the playlist tonight. It took us a while to get in with long queues for the shuttle bus because they discouraged people taking their cars (mainly because of parking - Birdsville doesn't have many streets so it wouldn't take long for them to fill up) although coming home was slightly quicker. However, once we got ourselves settled and chairs set up on the oval, we had a reasonable view of the stage and a good view of the big screen. The music was good and the audience was in a good mood. Home for a late dinner of fried rice in Cafe Bushtracker and to warm up, as it got pretty cold sitting on the oval (no campfire to keep us warm).
We had a nice sleep in this morning and woke to a lovely sunny morning so on with shorts and t shirt to soak up the sun. We had the nice view of a hot air balloon rising over the sand dune in front of us. It was very close, both to see and hear. Reading in the sun was very pleasant. Not quite so pleasant - but still entertaining - was Neill's and my trip to the dump point. It seems half the camp went at the same time. Suffice to say, I have never had to queue for a dump point before. But, as I may have mentioned on previous trips, I could write a book about dump points around Australia. Firstly, because there so many different kinds; secondly, because of where some of them are located; and thirdly because of the conversations you have there. Today, there was a very well dressed woman there supporting her husband with wet wipes and hand sanitiser. She looked out of place because a) this does seem to be a male dominated task, and b) she was too well dressed for the task! Then there was toilet cassette envy - I got many comments because I wheeled mine from the car. Turns out many don't have wheels!
Jude and I then did some baking while Neill lit a fire so we could have baked bean jaffles for lunch. After sampling the baking products with the after-lunch cuppa, we prepared for the concert and Jude got dinner ready to go for our return.
The next two days of the concert should be even better although we certainly hope the couple of drops of rain we had early this afternoon don't increase over those two days.
Birdsville - Sunday 3rd July
What an awesome day! Firstly, camp is full of considerate people as there were really no sounds until 8am. Apart from the sunrise scenic flight taking off that woke me initially! The sun was shining and there were no clouds.
We headed out to Big Red at about 10ish, all loaded up with coffee machines and gas cooker to froth our milk for morning tea. It is 36km from Birdsville to Big Red and given the concert was relocated due to poor roads, we thought it might take awhile. But it was pretty good so we arrived at Little Red, the smaller of the sand dunes in this line and the official entry to the Simpson Desert, at 11am. There were plenty of people there and one of the scenic helicopters had relocated from the main Birdsville airport to out there to do 5 minute scenic flights over Big Red and the original concert area and campground - all for $80. As we fired up the 12V espresso machines in the back of the LandCruiser, we tried to swap a capucino for a flight but to no avail. We enjoyed our morning tea while watching boys with their toys trying to get up the steepest part of Little Red, and the helicopter landing in front of us. The wildflowers were also pretty amazing!
It was fascinating to watch everyone there and it was glorious to do it on such a nice day. After an hour and a half, we followed the track around to the east side of Big Red which overlooked the dry lake bed that was to have been the concert area and campground. Again, Big Red wasn't the image one has in mind of desert sand dunes. It didn't seem quite as steep up the eastern side - until we walked it! At the top, we were able to watch other boys and their toys trying to climb the steeper western side of Big Red. This was a bit more challenging and it took most vehicles several goes. From the top, we looked out over what was meant to be the campground and tried to imagine what it would have been like. Ah well.
Then it was back into camp for a late lunch, and some reading in the sun - in shorts and singlet as it had gotten quite warm! Later, we headed into town to see what had changed since yesterday with regards to the concert venue and to have a drink at the iconic Birdsville Hotel - where the planes practically taxi to the front verandah.
There's a lot more people in now, and the campground is a lot busier. The caravans/campers/tents and swags stretch for over a kilometre. We went for a wander around again tonight - checking out the newcomers and the various set ups.
Then it was time for pre dinner drinks, our campfire, dinner, and some more DVD watching on the outside Patriot cinema.
I have finished writing this at 10:25pm. We'll see what time in the middle of the night I can get service to post it. We get Telstra signal well enough, but with 6,000 people trying to access voice and data on multiple devices, it is nigh on impossible to even make a phone call. Last night I was woken at 3:35am and by chance then tried the internet on my iPad and got on, so the blog was updated. Let's see what time than happens tonight (if at all).
Birdsville - Saturday 2nd July
Being stuck on the Birdsville Track for those few days, we weren't aware that the Big Red Bash - the concert we are here for - had to relocate, due to the same rain that isolated us. We started to hear from people as they came into the Cooper Creek campsite that the concert was now going to be in town, rather than at the base of the Big Red sand dune. All those people - many of whom had been queueing at either the Maree or Lyndhurst entrance to the Track - had been notified via various means. So as we started to hear bits and pieces, we were a bit unsure what it was going to mean for our camping arrangements etc.
So arriving in Birdsville yesterday, we weren't much the wiser. Seeing all the people camped on the "common" (the public areas along the Diamantina River), we thought that a lot of people must have changed their plans. Checking into the caravan park told us similarly. We walked up to the visitor information centre to find out more and were told that earlybird camping (which we had paid for) was now on some Council land out of town and that it would open today.
This morning we were up early to fill our water tanks and check out, before heading to the Visitor Information Centre to get our concert wristbands, our entry to the earlybird camping, some merchandise etc. That all took a while with queues etc, during which we heard that some people weren't happy with the earlybird camping - that it was desolate and dusty. Folks, we're in the desert - what did you expect? We were suposed to be camping on a dry lakebed - how different was this? We had coffee while we were there - expensive coffees at $7 a pop but we are in Birdsville and then headed to the famous Birdsville Bakery for a camel pie (we took cold ones to heat up for our lunch) and some fresh bread.
Therefore it was after 12pm by the time we headed to the earlybird campsite and yes it is desolate and flat but we found a spot near the sand dunes and it's not too bad.
(We're on the curve, on the upper RHS of this photo).
We had lunch in the sun, then date scones for afternoon tea before we decided we really better do some walking so we climbed the sand dunes for a view of our new village. It's amazing - there are now 1500 caravans/campers/tent sites spread out - it's like a big camping show! There are lots of wildflowers growing ip from the recent rain and we even saw a group of brumbies running hrough - quite spooked by the sudden invasion of people. Doing a walk around, some people had a very elaborate set up. There are lots of groups and many have them have brought very fancy kit!
We headed back to our camp in time for a stunning sunset over the sand dunes. The campfire was lit, pre dinner drinks were had followed by steak and vegies for dinner (yes, there was lots of yummy food again) before the cool wind forced us back to our caravans. Time for bed anyway, after such a busy (?!) day!
Into Birdsville - Friday 1st July
What a peaceful night at our unique campsite on the banks of Bloods Creek. So nice that I woke feeling much better and we were ready to go by 9:30am. Because of the way we were parked, I turned out onto the Track first and hadn't got very far when I had to stop due to dropped firewood on the road!
It wasn't long before our first water crossing. It turned out that they came thick and fast after that, usually very muddy but with good solid base beneath all the water. For a desert track, it was amazing how many water crossings there were! We got held up at some road works and so had only covered 50km or so when it was time to stop for morning tea. This track, unlike other outback roads we have done, has very few places on the side of the road to stop at. Admittedly, everything is pretty wet at the moment so pulling off the main road is tricky but it took us several more kilometres before we came to the roadworks depot at a bore - which therefore had a very good entrance and lots of room to turn around in! - before we could have morning tea. Another 50 kilometres up the road - with plenty more water crossings, corrugations and even some dust (which seems incongruous given all the water - especially when the water is is laying in lakes either side of the road), we stopped for lunch at the wreck of an old Ford customline ute. With a sand dune in front of us - although the vans were parked on stony gibber plains - the scenery was starting to change. It was less than a 100 kilometres to Birdsville!
The road get better from then on, and we even got up to 70km/hr is a few sections so the afternoon passed pretty quickly. We crossed the border into Queensland and therefore lost half an hour but arrived in Birdsville just after 4pm. We came in past the famous racecourse and as we crossed the Diamantina river, we started to see all the caravans free camped on either side of the road. It got thicker the closer to town we got!
Our first stop was the roadhouse for fuel, then as we have arrived a day early, we thought we'd try and swap our paid for night in the caravan park from tomorrow night to tonight. No worries, so we got in. Nowehere near as nice as our campsites from the past few nights but we have water and have been able to do a few loads of washing - very necessary after a week of mud! Mind you, many other people had the same plan so there were queues for the washers and dryers.
We are back in service but with thousands of people trying to get data, it is pretty slow. Hopefully we will get this up in the next day or so. Maybe not with photos though.
Birdsville Track - Greg's birthday
Happy Birthday, Greg!
And for his birthday, Greg has had lots of driving, a burger lunch at the Mungarannie Roadhouse, and a very unique campsite on the banks of Bloods Creek!
We aimed to start our engines at 9am, which we achieved. I was still not feeling great so it was decided that Jude would drive the Bushtracker and Neill would drive Mighty Merlot. We had a girls car and a boys car! We had noticed a tap next to the toilets at our campsite and after testing it last night, we figured it would be OK for our shower water so we drove over there to fill up. With two filters trying to improve the water, it took a long time to fill but "have a chat" (Lisa, Neill has inherited Kobi's nickname!) was chatting to our fellow campers and the sun was nice so it wasn't hard to pass the time.
Soon we were back on the Birdsville Track, heading north. The road wasn't too bad. We stopped in at the old Mulka ruins for morning tea. This was originally "the loneliest store in Australia" and it operated for 30 years from 1923 - even selling petrol from 1927. It was pretty sad, and must have been an awful and lonely place at the time.
On the road again, it was up to Mungarannie to the roadhouse, roughly half way along the Birdsville Track. We arrived just in time for lunch. After filling the vehicles with fuel, we parked and entered the pub for lunch. The publican - an older bloke with very long grey hair and beard - saw Greg coming and greeted him with "good thing I got rid of the pool table, I hate it when people bring their own cue"! He then went on to say that he had heard Greg was coming, that a bloke had been in telling them about Greg. We worked out it was Murray - the bloke we had met in the Flinders Ranges. Anyway, we had a great lunch but as luck would have it, their coffee machine broke down last week and the new one was due in at 4pm today! So it was back to Cafe Bushtracker for capucinos and then we hit the road again.
The road north of Mungarannie was pretty ordinary. We could see why this section of the Track was still closed until 2 days ago. Although there were two tracks flattened from the various vehicles, the rest of it was still pretty wet and slushy. We even had to go through a couple of river crossings - highly unusual for the desert. There were cattle on the road, they were looking very fat and healthy due to all the feed. Other than that, the scenery was pretty flat and boring. The slight hills out of Mungarannie were flat topped red hills, but the sand dunes around the Lake Eyre catchment were quite different. After driving for two hours, we were 30km out from our proposed campsite when we pulled into a roadworks depot for a rest and the site manager suggested a different campsite at Blood Creek. So we pulled in at Blood Creek and what a nice place it is. A few trees, plenty of firewood (someone had kindly left us a pile of firewood), lovely scenery, dingo tracks in the sand - and we've got it to ourselves!
Soon the birthday beers were out (it was a lovely warm 20C day), followed by smoked salmon on toast (one of Greg's favourites), then lamb cutlets for dinner, then golden syrup dumplings for dessert. We put a singing candle and a sparkler into Greg's dumpling, and sang for him. Just after his nieces had sung happy birthday down the satellite phone line! Washed down with Scotch, shared around the campfire as we were enjoying the still, quiet night air (it feels like we are the only ones on the Track again), Greg reckons it was a pretty good birthday.
Birdsville Track - Wednesday 29 June
Today did not go according to plan. I woke up with vertigo, and seeing as I couldn't even walk back to bed from the toilet without vomiting, it wasn't looking good. At 8am Greg went to the Bushtracker to tell them. At that stage, I would not have been able to travel so we decided to stay put for another day.
By the afternoon I started to feel better, and by afternoon tea time I could walk out to the campfire, to sit quietly. So it was a very quiet day, with lots of naps (due to drugs!), some reading and not much else.
Our campsite was a lot busier tonight, with 8 vans in here. From some of our fellow campers, we have heard that the Big Red Bash has moved from the claypan lake at the foot of Big Red into the town of Birdsville. Undoubtedly, we will find out more when we get there.
Birdsville Track - Tuesday 28 June
We were pretty convinced the Track would open this morning and that by about 10:30am we would start to see cars. But there was nothing this morning. It was a gloriously sunny morning, warming up quickly which also meant the flies were active quickly. After our morning cuppa around the fire (shared with a couple of million flies) Neill and I were off firewood hunting before lunch. This was hot work, so we were cooling off with a beer when we saw a ute appear. We radioed him to ask if the Track was open, given he did look like a station worker (translated = no luggage). "Yeah, I think so. You'll be right" was the reply. This didn't fill us with confidence and we'd already written off departing today so we had a quiet afternoon. Afternoon tea was pikelets cooked on the open fire, which we had just started making when the first vehicles started appearing over the hill. They kept coming (well, there was about 20 of them) for about an hour so we calculated the Track must have opened at 3pm. The only vehicles we saw were single 4WDs, capable of doing the 130km in 1.5 hours. No towing vehicles, but it did at least inspire us that the road was in better nick. Just before 5:30pm, a 4WD and camper trailer pulled in here, so we're not alone tonight.
So our last night stranded on the banks of the Cooper Creek saw us enjoy another delicious meal in front of our roaring campfire washed down with a bottle of red. And no, that wasn't copied and pasted from the last few nights!
Birdsville Track - Monday 27 June
It's tough beng stranded in the Outback. A beautiful sunny day, eggs and bacon cooked over the campfire for breakfast, savoury damper in the camp oven for afternoon tea, corned beef for dinner, outdoor cinema - I don't think that's how Burke and Wills endured their travels through the Outback!
Such a relaxing morning, knowing there was no pressure to be up and packed. We knew we weren't going anywhere today. After our morning cuppa in bed, I went to collect kindling to restart the campfire in order to cook our bacon and eggs. It was still very wet underfoot. The fire was soon roaring, the sun was shining - we were taking off clothing layers very quickly! After a divine breakfast, washed down with a coffee percolated over the open fire, it was time for some housekeeping. I did the dishes, vacummed the caravan, mopped the floors and cleaned the bathroom. I even started the corned beef for dinner, which was to be finished off in the DreamPot. We then did some outside cleaning of mud off the caravan and car.
By afternoon tea time, the clouds had come back in and the shorts and tshirt which had been donned for a short period of time, were replaced with long pants and sleeves. The flies persisted though. You can tell it's getting warmer when the flies come out. They started at breakfast but lasted all day, and seemed particularly thick, bit that's probably just because we haven't see any so far. We will probably have to get used to them over the next couple of weeks. Neill wanted to christen his new camp oven so we decided on a savoury damper for afternoon tea. It came up beautifully. Served with the best capucino we have had on this trip thanks to Jude, we then fired up the outdoor cinema. Our TV has a bracket and connections on the outside of the van so we set all of that up in order to watch the Big Lap DVD (thanks, Brooke!). Greg and I had already watched it but thought Neill and Jude would like it. Not that anyone can see us, but we must look pretty odd - four camp chairs around the campfire, watching a TV screen on the side of the caravan!!
We'll try and find out some more about the road conditions tomorrow. We don't expect to see a vehicle until the afternoon so we'll put the radio on late morning to see if we can hear anything. If not, this is a beautiful place with plenty of birdlife so spending another day here certainly wouldn't be a hardship.
Birdsville Track - Sunday 26 June
The stars are out, the dingoes are howling, we have a cracking fire burning and it's fair to say we are the only people camped along the Birdsville Track at the moment - because it is closed!
It rained overnight but we didn't think there was much in it. The other two vehicles at our campsite left before us - one went north and the other went south. After our morning spa (which was quite hot!), we hit the road. The first 30km were quite good so we pulled up for morning tea just outside Dulkaninna Station. It was quite cool, and very flat and open and there was still a bit of drizzle. But we thought the road was still pretty good. The only vehicle we saw was a mine vehicle that passed us and he was heading our direction. Just as we got back in our vehicles after elevenses, we heard a truckie on the UHF talking about how soft the Track was, how he had slipped and slid so much that he had had to leave one of his trailers behind and how awful the clay top was. "Uh-oh" we thought, as we turned back onto the Track. The truck passed us heading south, so we knew he was talking about the road we were about to head out on.
And so began the hard slog along the Birdsville Track. It was awful. The mud was inches deep, there was next to no track marks to keep your wheels to, we were slipping and sliding all over the road. Everything the truckie said was true. Neill was in front of us and although I sort of tried to follow his line, he was sliding more than we were. Those brand new tyres on our Landcruiser weren't doing much - they were so caked in mud. I was gripping the steering wheel so tight and concentrating so hard. The point when I saw the sign that said it was 25km to the next campground, my heart sank a bit because I thought I couldn't cope with 25km of these road conditions. Then the gravel would come back and I would breath a bit easier but it didn't last forever. 23km down the road - with nothing to see along the way - we came across the Tom Brennan memorial, which was his original punt (ferry) used to ferry passengers across the Cooper Creek when it was in flood. We were amazed at how much mud was vber our cars and caravans. I marvelled at how the wheels were even turning - there was so much mud stuck to the wheel arch.
Just down the hill, we were pleasantly surprised to see the turn off to the campground. We turned in with a sigh of relief. Although it was a bit muddy and slippery, we found a campsite and were just making lunch when we heard a vehicle pull in behind us. Turns out it was the same mine vehicle that had passed us earlier in the day. The driver was a young man by the name of Aiden who was a diesel mechanic at Roxby Downs, who had been sent up here to fix a grader. He stopped in to tell us the road was closed, that it got worse further north of here, and that he couldn't even get through to the road crew to fix the grader he was there for. He was a very admirable young man for going to that effort to let us know and we appreciated it very much.
So we now feel very intrepid, if not a little isolated. Apparently the Track is closed all the way, as Birdsville had 9mm of rain last night. We know we are not going to see any passing traffic for a couple of days. We do wonder what happened to the other people who left our campground this morning (he is the head of emergency at Cabrini hospital) because it sounds like they wouldn't have got through. All of these questions we pondered while we had afteroon tea of scones with jam and whipped cream, then salmon patties for dinner. So it's not so bad being stranded. We found a good supply of firewood (although we still have bags of the stuff on the roof), have plenty of food, wine and water and it's all very pleasant. We texted my brother on the sat phone for the latest Birdsville weather and he said it was to be fine for the rest of the week, so as soon as the Track dries out, those road crews will get back to work (except for the grader which Aiden couldn't get to to fix), and we'll be on our way again.
Farina to Clayton Bore on the Birdsville Track
Well, after all the drama about whether we would be able to get onto the Birdsville Track, the first 60km have proved to be very good. Now there is rain forecast for tomorrow so we shall see if that holds but so far, so good.
It is also amazingly quiet. Until we turned off at our campsite, we hadn't seen another vehicle since Maree. I suspect that will all change in coming days.
The day dawned bright and sunny in Farina. Who said Farina was a windy place?! The boys were stripping off to short sleeved shirts as we left the campground, and stopped in at the bakery again, did our underground tour, bought some more goodies, checked out the current excavations at the police station, then wondered how we got out of there. The main track into Farina is currently impassable so there is a temporary higher track, but it is definitely only one vehicle wide and very bumpy. So we waited for some oncoming cars then radioed to say we were coming out and headed off. 10 minutes later, we were turning north to Maree. The road was OK, especially as there are some sealed sections but it was still lunchtime before we pulled into Maree. We topped up our fuel then stopped for lunch then turned north onto the famous Birdsville Track,
Originally a drovers track, and before that, an Aboriginal traders route, the Track has had a few paths over the years but has always been the main link between the stations along here. Not much to see for the first 40kms as it was very flat and treeless (although green from the recent rain). We crossed the dog fence at about that point. It was in very good knick and Neill got a fright when beeping started as he crossed the grid at the fence. He thought something was wrong with the Landcruiser but it turns out it was the dog fence. Instead of having a gate at the dog fence, the beep scares the dogs away. We then stopped at Lake Harry Ruins. There was a lovely hot artesian shower and the ruins of the old homestead. The lake was in the distance with plenty of wAter in it. We kept going.
20km later, we arrived at Clayton Bore. What a peasant campsite with hot showers, flushing toilets, some trees and plenty of spots to set up camp. There is also most amazingly, a hot artesian spa! I got very worried after running it for 20 minutes that the water was still cold but eventually it warmed, and we filled the spa (aka a cattle trough) with 50C water. 30 minutes later it was full. I never thought i would be running across red desert dirt in my bathers in June but this I did, in order to soak away the afternoon in the spa! It was glorious! After a while, i though i would take advantage of the hot shower to wash my hair. The shower is also from the artesian bore and also delightful. It was just amazing to lie/stand in/under naturally hot water, look out over the bore's wetlands and listen to the serenity. We didn't want to get out.
Eventually, i did to make dinner - a chicken cashew curry washed down with a bottle of red in front of a roaring campfire!! Although we got so desperate for wood we even burnt the axe handle! Not really - it broke so it did get burnt but we're not desperate for wood yet. Another awesome day.
Leigh Creek to Farina
Farina - what a magical place! Once the railhead for the Ghan, then a farming centre when they thought they could grow crops here, but declared "ruins" or a "ghost town" after all that failed - although before the Ghan finished this route.
We have been fascinated by this place since meeting some of the restoration people at a caravan and camping show several years ago. Since then, we have been donating every year and of course, came here last year after the Oodnadatta Track.
Today was much better. It was sunny, the wind not too bad, and most excitedly, their 120 year old underground bakery was operational. We arrived for a late lunch and enjoyed freshly baked pasties, apple turnovers,mlamingtons and of course, bread. Amazing. it was also great to chat to some of the volunteers, who come here for two week stints between May and July to restore more of the ruins.
We then went and set up camp and enjoyed afternoon tea in the sunshine. Given how much we have eaten especially today, We then did the 2.5 km round trip walk to the cemetery, which was also most interesting. Back in time for roast lamb cooked in the Weber (much more successful than last year's), eaten in front of a roaring campfire, washed down with red wine and port. Stop me if you've heard that before! A magical night - the stars came out, it wasn't too cold and we had a great campfire.
The Track itself was not too bad getting here. You can tell it has been very wet, as there are two distinct compacted tracks (wheel lines) on the road. But being well compacted, it was pretty smooth. They have had to forge a new track into Farina as the main "road" is still too wet, and that was a bit bumpy. But we made it, and will now prepare to get out again in the morning!
