Gismo Queen and her King

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!