DAYS 28 - 37 (14/5 - 23/5): Windorah to Birdsville to Mt Dare Roadhouse (Mithaka, Wangkangurru-Yarluyandi, Irrwanyere countries)

DAY 28 (14/5): 8:30am signalled the start to our Simpson Desert Tag-along Tour. After the heavy rains from the west and the draining of heavy rains from the north down into Eyre Creek our itinerary has changed, but we will be having 6 nights in the Simpson Desert unless things don't go according to plan (and with us on the trip that may well happen).  This is our little group.

We drew the short straw today and were "Charlie", the last vehicle of the convoy.  This meant I had to learn quickly how to use the uhf radio and echo whatever instructions/information our tour leader was relaying to everyone. Pity our radio wasn't working properly - lucky someone had a hand-held one we could borrow.  I did work out later what was the problem with our radio (microphone gain was too high) and fixed it, much to our relief. The other negative about the role of Charlie is the amount of dust you need to swallow if you are to remain in touch with the group.  It wasn't too bad really - lots of the time the wind blew the dust away from the road, but the views certainly aren't as good as when you are travelling alone. The role of Charlie is taken turn about so tomorrow we will be up behind the tour leader.

The road from Windorah to Birdsville was surprisingly varied.  I was not prepared for much of the scenery, nor for the green.  There are lots of 'jump ups' and we stopped at one with particularly good views.

We stopped at the Betoota Hotel for lunch and had the 'famous Bernie's pies'. They were good but probably not the best pies I've ever tasted.  The Hotel is interesting though, inside and out. There has been a pub here since early last century but the township planned for the area never eventuated.  As with other places we have passed through (notably Barringun), the original town plans revealed great master plans that obviously did not take the geographical/meteorological realities into account.

The Betoota Hotel has quite a collection of interesting vehicles around the place.

They also had some of the ubiquitous farm machinery sculptures.  This quiet fella was my favourite. 

We had a good amount of time here so I was able wander around looking for this and that. Found a few flowers.

Pete, meanwhile, went searching around for the sub-editor's office so he could offer them his congratulations.

A little bit of a drive past Betoota is another piece of outback art, this time an indigenous work, The Serpent, made with all the different rocks found in the Diamantina Shire.  Apparently this is one of three.  There is another artwork in Birdsville and another in Bedourie.

                            

I guess because of the popularity of the Big Red Bash and the Birdsville Races, there are good rest stops on this stretch of road. Here is a typical one.

I will include here a few more photos of the varied country we drove through.  The green was amazing to see - rain does wonders anywhere, but out here ...

Finally, we reached Birdsville where we settled ourselves in the caravan park. Pete and I wandered around a bit, checking out the lagoon on the edge of the park. There were hundreds of kites, mostly Whistling Kites, but some Black Kites too, some sitting, some flying around the lagoon.

Then, on our way to the famous Birdsville Hotel (this is beginning to sound like a pub crawl) for a drink and Mothers' Day dinner (roast), we looked around at some of the sights around town.

The clouds were beautiful for sunset tonight.

                              

All in all, not a bad start to the tour.  We have booked ourselves a treat for tomorrow - a 6:45am 90-minute flight over the Channel Country and Lake Machattie on one of those little planes in the above photo. Can't wait!

DAY 29 (15/5): An early 5:30 am wake-up for our plane ride up to Lake Machattie and Eyre Creek and down to Big Red (large dune west of Birdsville).  We left well before the sun came up.

The light was just enough to be able to enjoy the scenery from the plane and it doesn't take long to lighten up substantially. It was wonderful to see the desert wake up, although a bit worrying to see how much rain was around!

Not long after 7am, the sun rose.

We then began to see water appear. Water, water, everywhere!

The next video is part of Eyre Creek.

No wonder the original plans for this trip were scuttled.

The patterns in the desert, the greenery around, the dunes and the general desert scenery were spellbinding.  

We even saw a rainbow. 

The last place we visited was Big Red, a 40-metre high dune west of Birdsville,  which we would  be driving over later on our way to see Eyre Creek on the ground. 

After landing safely we went off to join the rest of the group in our first sand driving experiment.

Driving the sand was fun!  We all coped with Big Red fine.

Our vehicle didn't put a foot wrong and coped, fully laden, with everything we asked of it.  We intended to have lunch at Eyre Creek but our day was again subjected to change, this time by an accident about 6 km ahead of us, once we had got over Big Red.  A motorcyclist had fallen off, and we had only proceeded a few kms when the ambulance and police needed to pass.  This meant we had to stop - not only stop to let them pass, but stop to let them both have three attempts at driving over another dune known as 'The Nemesis'. Already, one of our group had failed two attempts (but succeeded on the third after letting more air out of their tyres and changing into a different gear).  The poor policeman is only here for 6 weeks from Townsville, to give the permanent officer a break.  He had no idea what radio channel to use nor any idea about how to drive in sand.  He learnt the quick but hard way!  Maybe the ambulance driver was new to the area too.  We learned later that the motorcyclist had concussion and a broken shoulder but that he will be okay.

We had not expected the wait to be as long as it was, but when I finally realised, I went for a bit of a wander where we had parked.  Always something interesting to be found.

Unfortunately, after the emergency services had passed to go to the rescue, the rest of our group had to catch us up and after the whole group had travelled a few more kilometres we had to stop again for the emergency services to return with their patient!  Then there was the rest of the motorcyclists.  By the time we arrived at Eyre Creek it was more like 3:30 pm than lunchtime so we stayed there only briefly before returning.  The Eyre Creek we saw was the most easterly channel of the creek - 4 kilometres closer to Birdsville than usual. I trod about 1 metre away from the shore and sank about 8 cms into the mud!  Don't think crossing in the car would have been very successful!

Upon our return to Birdsville we received more bad news - the Birdsville Track has been shut. Today's rain has made it too boggy to travel on.  Now the tour leader has to come up with an alternative ...

I had a wander around the lagoon behind the caravan park and found huge numbers of black kites resting in trees. There were some Whistling Kites as well,  but they were far outnumbered. 

Pete spent the evening converting our bike storage box into a chicken coop so we would have a reliable fresh egg supply.

DAY 30 (16/5): The decision has been made.  We will try to do our trip in reverse and end up in Marree at the bottom of the Oodnadatta Track, so today we head up to Boulia.  It was a little frustrating not to be able to stop at some places and most was on bitumen except for a detour around Lake Machattie (one of the lakes pictured in my 'water in the desert' photos of yesterday). Nevertheless, it was an interesting drive and in some places sooo green!

We stopped for lunch at Bedourie where we had a little time to wander around and look at things. There is a mud building from the 1880s and an old police building.  Bedourie is on Eyre Creek so we went down to look at the creek and birds there.

After Bedourie the scenery changes and you are really on Mitchell Grass downs again, rather than in the desert, although I suspect that technically the rainfall here is desert rainfall. We passed over the Topic of Capricorn. 

We are camped at a caravan park tonight on the Burke River at Boulia (pronounced Bullya). Everyone is invited to fill up with water in this town to commemorate Burke and Wills filling their waterbags at this spot. There was plenty of bird life around and as we were right on the river, I was able to spend a little time wandering around. Good relief from being in the car for so long.

DAY 31 (17/5): From Boulia, we spent another long day heading the 550km or so to Jervois Station.  The first 150 km was bitumen and then we hit gravel again.  Known as the Donohue Highway on the Queensland side, the road becomes the Plenty Highway on the NT side.  Yep, we are back in the NT again.

We crossed over the Georgina River, the one from which all the water is entering Eyre Creek.

The road to lunch at Tobermorey Station, just on the NT side of the border, was very reminiscent of the Barkley Tableland – large expanses of grassland with very few trees.  On occasion we passed small ranges which gave relief to an otherwise somewhat monotonous landscape. 

Tobermorey Station is well set up for having campers stay there, although none appeared to be there when we drove in.  There is a lovely coolabah grove where galahs were enjoying a rest and some nice shaded picnic areas.  One, in particular, was pretty cool – it was shaded by old windmill blades and had some nice bar benches and other bits and pieces of bushman’s woodwork.

Since we were not staying there, but enjoying their facilities we decided to splurge on an icecream from their shop.

While there, we learned that they have access to the Hay River Track (where we are headed) through their property which would be a quicker way to access the Simpson Desert from Boulia.  Alas, we did not know this in advance and thus had not arranged it ahead of time with the station.  Therefore, we had to continue on our way to Jervois Station where we are camping tonight.

On the way we stopped at a magnificent termite mound – one of the many such massive ones in the NT. Being right beside the road made it a good one for photos.  

While we were stopped there we also saw a small but beautiful eucalypt.  Huge fruit and beautiful creamy-yellow flowers, not unlike some of the famous WA eucalypts.

Jervois Station provided a good campsite but it was here that we learned that one car in our group would not be continuing the journey. Unfortunately, the car was just not fitted out properly and, after suffering a puncture on the road in, we discovered that it did not have the right tyres to make it safe on the tracks we are to head out on tomorrow.  Light truck tyres with better reinforced side walls are a must. So sad. 

Two lovely people who had tried so hard to tick one more thing off their bucket list.  One of them gave me some instruction on how to take a starlit nightsky shot on my camera, so I played around with that for a while with him.

Meanwhile, Pete was embroidering the map of our trip onto a tablecloth.

Day 32 (18/5): Today was the start of our real Simpson Desert journey. We headed south from Jervois Station toward the Hay River Track. The first 75km was badly corrugated and we bone-shattered our way down.  It was quite tricky to find a good speed to minimise the effect of the corrugations but at the same time be slow and safe enough for the dips and other obstacles in the way.  Nevertheless, somehow all cars ended the corrugated track in good shape.

From there we hit the actual Hay River Track, a sandy drive through quite varied country following along the Hay River. The colours along the road are just beautiful – the red sand, the greys and greens and yellows of the grasses and shrubs, then occasional burst of colour from flowers. We stopped briefly at Batten Hill, a place I would have loved to have camped and explored more but we were headed further south. The traditional owners of this land, pre-covid, were providing cultural tours here but this does not now appear to be happening. Batten Hill is actually a hill that just appears out of an otherwise hill-less landscape.

We then crossed over the Tropic of Capricorn for the second time, but this time heading south. The sign was somewhat less grand than the one we had passed on our way to Boulia.

We later passed by Dingo Well, an old dingo conservation area that doesn't appear to be functioning anymore. The drinking trough was dry and I don't think the bore has been used in a while. Saw evidence, in bones, of camels.

We lunched somewhere along the Hay River which allowed me some time for having a closer look at some of the flowers we've been noticing from the vehicle.  And yes, I also found some little critters.

                             

About 180 km from Jervois Station we turned off to visit Lake Caroline, a dry sandy lakebed just west of where we would camp the night. Pete and I mucked about with ‘infinity photography’ and enjoyed the beauty of the area. We were there at a beautiful time of the day, just before sunset, so the colours were wonderful. 

We also passed a couple of dead camels that had obviously been shot on our way back to the camp. These camels made me the butt of a group joke for the night. I had heard over the radio that they were obviously dead from poison.  What I’d missed is that they’d said ‘lead poison’.  I actually got out to inspect the camels because I couldn’t work out why someone would think they were poisoned not shot.  Duh!!!

Today has been a long day driving and by the time we’d seen Lake Caroline and set up camp there was little time to explore. However, while I was fiddling and faffing about with my photos, Pete found time to catalogue his burr collection.

The night is cool. I am glad we have brought an extra doona.

Day 33 (19/5): Today we covered about 130 km. I have no idea where we have ended up, except that it is south of the Madigan Line, somewhere east of Bedourie, somewhere north-west of Birdsville and somewhere south-east of Jervois Station.  Again, the desert is glorious in its colours. Pete and I climbed a dune near where we set up camp to watch sunset.

Today’s drive was an up-and-down and very bendy one.  We surmise that perhaps many eons ago it was a walking track and the road has just followed that. Whatever the case, it was a very good arm workout, turning the steering wheel this way and that for hours! (Of course we had a few breaks along the way.)

We saw camels, a number of birds including birds of prey, a kingfisher with a lizard, and budgerigars. I was really hoping for a photo of a Grey Falcon but they were very shy except when high up in the sky.

We passed the Madigan line entrance from the west and exit to the east and Madigan’s Camp 16 blaze tree, although the blaze is barely visible these days. We have borrowed a book from the guide about Madigan and it was interesting to compare our photos of the tree to those he took. (84 years apart!) Trees don't grow quickly out here! Basically all that has happened is that the tree has grown over its scar.

                    

                    

There are lots of flowers around at the moment, although at first glance it doesn’t appear so. Many of the flowers are hidden in the foliage but can be found with a bit of a ferret around. The flora on the dune near where we are staying tonight is just beautiful. I spent quite a bit of time up there investigating flowers and grasses.

I found lots of tiny footprints in the sand made by creatures unknown.

The reds of the sand in this desert at dusk are stunning.

Pete, after joining me for a while, returned to camp to play with his toy truck.

DAY 34 (20/5): Another long drive today but what a fun one!  Up and down over dunes, across salt lakes, squiggling along winding, sandy tracks.  Yesterday I noted that driving is a real workout. After a morning’s drive, my Garmin fitness watch calculated I had climbed 17 sets of stairs and walked 9797 steps!!

I have included a couple of the videos of the drive we did today because they perhaps best explain a little of what it was like.

The main landmark for the day was Poeppel’s Corner, where the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia meet.  There are two Poeppel's Corners – the first one, which Poeppel got wrong (his chain had become 2.5cm longer with use and he was about 300 metres out) and the second, correct one. In the third photograph below, Pete is in SA, the guy with the hat and guide-looking uniform is in the NT and the rest of the group are in Qld. To get here via the Hay Track you actually go from the NT into Qld, then into SA before heading north again, all in the space of about 10 km.  I guess lakes and dunes get in the way of a direct route.  

There is a distinct change in vegetation as you near Poeppel’s Corner. The spinifex and associated grasses become more dominant and trees and other shrubbery become rarer, only appearing irregularly in the swales between dunes.

From here, we travelled along the French Line to our camp at Knolls Camp. We had not realised how many salt lakes are out here. They extend from the Queensland side of Poeppel’s corner and continue down to Lake Eyre.  We travelled along the edge of one of them for more than 5 kms (before Poeppel’s Corner) and crossed many more.

It was slow travelling. Our last 16 km took one hour. Up and over dune after dune.

Tonight we have met with another group doing a tour with the same company but going the opposite way.  We are camped together. Just before dusk, I went out wandering hoping to see a murmeration of budgerigars but although there were many small flocks of them, I was not in luck. While I was out bird-hunting, Pete kept the other members of the group entertained with some of his magic tricks.

The tour leader of the other group had a black light torch and managed to find quite a few scorpions in the vegetation around the place.  Impossible to see otherwise.

I did manage to do a moth trap tonight for the first time in this trip and found a surprising variety of moths attracted to the lights.  I really was not expecting so many species.

DAY 35 (21/5): We farewelled the other group who left early with the three long days of driving we have just completed ahead of them.  Our days will be shorter from here on. We are heading to Mt Dare via a slightly different route, even though I'm not exactly sure which one yet. 

I do know that today our first turn was off the French Line onto the Knolls Track.

Our first stop for the day was at Approdinna Attora Knolls, two gypsum covered limestone hills (or limestone covered gypsum hills - I've become really confused about this) arising out of the desert.  We walked up to the top (not very far) – not another hill to be seen. Apparently the gypsum began as ‘flour gypsum’ in ancient lakes and was swept into dunes where it formed a hard crust on the top. This gypsum is everywhere around this part of the Simpson Desert. It appears along the road making for a good bumpy ride. 

At the end of Knolls Track we turned onto the Rig Road and continued west for a while, then south, until we reached the Lone Gum.  This is an amazing coolabah tree that has been there for an unknown length of time. It is the only one known in the Simpson desert (except for two young ones growing underneath it) and looks so healthy.  No-one appears to have any idea how it arrived there. Judging by its size it would definitely appear to be pre-colonial times. My photos really don't do this magnificent tree justice. Coolabahs normally grow by watercourses in heavy clay soil.  This one is nowhere near either.

We crossed a number of salt lakes again today and the sands are less red along quite a lot of this part of the desert.

We continued driving until we found a nice spot on the eastern side of a dune to camp, somewhere along the Rig Road, heading west. 

Just before arriving in camp, a dingo decided to halt the rest of the group up by taking a rest in the wheel tracks on a dune.  This afforded a wonderful photo opportunity, even though he was a respectable distance away.  After posing beautifully, he eventually became bored and allowed us to continue on our way.  The same dingo, at least we think it must have been, appeared in our camp not too much later.  It is amazing how far they can travel. 

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

As we had arrived at camp earlier than on previous days, I was able to spend quite a bit of time wandering around which I did, in fact, until sunset. There was an amazing array of plants on the dune under which we camped.

Meanwhile, Pete was busying himself at camp leading a meditation session with the rest of the campers.

DAY 36 (22/5): Today saw the desert change character again. The first section of the Rig Road that we travelled today was much more sparsely vegetated than the desert we have seen previously.  However, once the Rig Road turned north again and we were travelling along swales, only crossing dunes occasionally, the vegetation became more dense (that is a relative term here). There were also plenty of camel and dingo footprints along the track.

The Rig Road, as its name suggests, was originally developed by companies involved in oil exploration.  Other tracks around here were too, including the WAA Line and the French Line.  This means that every so often you see remnants of oil wells that eventually were considered financially unviable. Today, we passed the Macumba Oil Well completed in 1977. Some wells have the depth of the well that was sunk but unfortunately this one didn’t.

We also passed an airstrip and solitary grave of a “Mr. Peck”, an as-yet-unknown-to-us person.  We will have to find out who he was.

                                    

Towards mid-afternoon we turned west onto the WAA Line and looked for a place to camp.  Again, not long before camp we were accompanied for quite a way along the road by a dingo.

I have heard birds around the camp and went climbing the dune in hope of seeing some.  I did, but I didn’t. They were so small and shy and I gave up after one extremely poor shot of what I think was probably an Eyrean Wren.  A Nankeen Kestrel took up post metres away from our camper after the sun had gone down.

We enjoyed a lovely campfire tonight and I made everyone a camp oven lemon meringue pie. We have been lucky to have a good group of people, particularly as there are only 8 of us in total (including the guide) so it was nice to give a little something to the group.

While I was preparing the lemon meringue pie, Pete led a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of 2-phase and 4-phase shock absorbers.

DAY 37 (23/5): Today we took our leave of the Simpson Desert National Park and entered Witjira National Park. A Nankeen Kestrel greeted us on the first speed sign we have seen in a while.

Almost immediately, the dunes were gone and we entered what I think of when I think of northern South Australia - flat, desolate-looking country. 

Not long into the drive we stopped at Purni Bore, an artifical, but now permanent wetlands.  Originally a bore was sunk as part of the oil exploration push here in the 1960s and 1970s.  After exploration was abandoned, water reached the surface of the bore and was left to run.  These days the bore is capped, but a small amount of flow remains to retain the wetlands.There was not a huge amount of water around but unusually for this part of the country there were reeds and other waterplants. No birds this morning.  The water is about 85 degrees C., just enough to poach a person silly enough to try and enter the waters.

Past Purni Bore the road continues, flat.  However, just when you think the drive might be boring, you come across the mesas and jump-ups of this part of the world.  The myriad of colours in the rocks is beautiful in its own desolate way.

Our next stop was at Dalhousie Springs.  As you approach Dalhousie you pass a number of mound springs and a watercourse that had a substantial amount of water in it.  Hot or cold? No idea as we did not stop there.

 I was not sure what to expect at Dalhousie Springs, but there is a large natural waterhole there that is between 34 and 38 degrees C.  You can swim in there - it is just sooo nice, especially when there was quite a cool breeze chilling the air.  We spent quite a while lolling around in the water before having lunch, feeling wonderfully warmed up.

Another 70 kms or so driving through this arid landscape towards Mt Dare where we will camp for a couple of nights - a day's rest tomorrow from driving.  Near the Mt Dare Road turnoff, we passed a patch of purple - purple flowers in full bloom. I initially thought it was just a reflection off the gibbers through my sunglasses but no - just beautiful.

Real toilets and hot showers awaited us at Mt Dare, a real treat. 

I even had time for a bit of a wander around to see what I could see of the myriad birds that I could hear. 

While I was doing that Pete was lubricating tent zippers with Gidgea oil.

We also had another tour dinner at the pub here, extra special since we were also celebrating the birthday of one of the others on the trip. A great time was had by all.

The Mt Dare hotel is decorated with stubby holders donated by visitors from far and wide. 

The Simpson Desert has been wonderful.  So varied and we have been lucky to see a wide variety of Simpson landscapes due to our revised itinerary.  This is the route we took on the above part of our tour. The closer the dots, the slower we were moving.

Three days to go.