Wednesday 22nd July 2015 - Birdsville to the Simpson Desert

A short walk this morning around the lagoon at the bottom of the caravan park and along the cycleway out of town.  There's a lot of work being done around town as far as footpaths, main street beautification etc is concerned.

Dawn at Birdsville

After breakfast we made sure we had everything organised for our trip out to Poeppel Corner sans trailer.  We are leaving that behind at the caravan park and tent sleeping tonight and Richard and Jennie are also leaving their trailer behind).  National Parks ask that people do not tow trailers across the Simpson and we're quite happy to oblige.

Stopped just before Big Red to put up our sand flags then headed over Little Red then headed north to approach Big Red from the West (the hard side).

The Simpson begins

We all managed to get to the top but then Dave got stuck in some very soft sand and had to be snatched out by Richard.  Chezbe (our Prado in case you didn't know) also got stuck in some soft sand but was soon extricated thanks to our Maxtrax.

Big Red

No worries - well almost!!

We then headed west.  There's a lot more traffic this year then when we have been out here previously.  This slowed us down somewhat (waiting for vehicles to come over the dunes from the west).  The track is also a lot rougher that in previous years, quite rough on the approaches and also getting down the other side.  It's a fine line between enough speed and momentum to get over without suffering to much from the rough track.  Dave's Mercedes need a bit more momentum then the Prados and was struggling on some of the bigger and rougher dunes.

Crossing the Simpson                                                                                 Munga-Thirri National Park

Pulled up before the crossing into the National Park and loaded up with some firewood for the night.

And on we went - dune after dune after dune....... until we reached a very serious dune that really stumped the Merc!  It was telling us it had had enough for one day so we pulled off the road and set up camp.

Dinner was eventually cooked with much creativity and very nice it was (apparently we were meant to bring some saucepans which we had left back in the camper). Oh well!!   After today we can see why the trailers are not welcome out here.  No doubt people towing trailers and others not letting enough air out of their tyres (we're running 15 to 18 psi) are at least part of the reason the track is so rough.

We set up our little Eureka tent (it's a long time since we have slept in it) and made a bed with two Aldi inflatable sleeping mats we had recently purchased.  The bed was very comfortable.  Mind you we had a heap of bedding expecting it to be very cold.  It only got down to 13 degrees so we ended up having to throw some of it off.

Sunset was once again spectacular!

Camp in the Simpson