2012 - outback desert trip

2012 Outback Desert - Brief Trip Report Day-1: (22-Jun) Departed Fri, 22nd June at 2am made our way to St George via Dalby & Moonie (Breakfast stop). The plan was to try & get to our pre-planned stopover on the Banks of the Paroo River at Eulo, but fell short and decided to camp at one of the FREE camps at Bollon along the river (Nice spot). Refuelling: St George - 545kms // 63.65ltrs / $1.499/ltr / 11.7ltrs/100kms Stopover: Town of Bollon - Free Camp along Wallam Creek Distance: 654kms Driving Time only: 7.52hrs Day-2: (23-Jun) Left early trying to make up some lost time and managed to get to the banks of Wilson's Waterhole near the Noccundra Hotel late in the evening. Beautiful spot to camp (BYO your own wood - nothing left there). Make sure u don't have to rely on refuelling here as quite a few people got caught and had to wait for the next Fuel Tanker some 3-4days later. Refuelling: Cunnamulla - 298kms // 40.40ltrs / $1.649/ltr / 13.6ltrs/100kms Stopover:  Wilson's Waterhole near the Noccundra Hotel Distance: 525kms Driving Time only: 5.73hrs Day-3: (24-Jun) Target for the day was Innamincka, visiting the Dig Tree ($11 entry) along the way and reaching/camping at the Innamincka's "The Common", along the banks of the still flowing Cooper Creek. Refuelling: Innamincka - 687kms // 50ltrs (PART-FILL only) / $2.097/ltr Stopover:  The Town Common at Innamincka Distance: 296kms Driving Time only: 4hrs Day-4: (25-Jun) Found a lot of the surrounding tracks to the historic sites around Innamincka still closed due to the floods, with the only sites open to visit being the Policeman’s Waterhole & Burke's Grave & Cullyamurra Waterhole. The plan was to stay 2 nights but with all the tracks closed it was decided to push on towards Birdsville via the Cordillo Downs Rd. Due to the possible poor (i.e. Muddy) road conditions twds Birdsville, I decided to add an extra 40ltrs of fuel at $2.097/ltr. Crossed the flooded causeway at Innamincka and headed north towards Birdsville encountering some muddy sections but all being negotiated w/o any problems. Camped at the turnoff to the Cordillo Downs Stn/Woolshed. Stopover:  Creek near T/O to Cordillo Dns at Montkeleary Creek Distance: 191kms Driving Time only: 3.78hrs Day-5:  (26-Jun) Target for today was Birdsville, but with the unknown track conditions ahead, it was another early departure. Reached the historic Cordillo Dns Woolshed for the usual pics, etc. then pushed on coming across a few muddy/boggy sections but all having a bypass track around. Stopped at the old Cadelga H.S Ruins. Once we hit the Qld/SA border the roads vastly improved and passed Lake Moonda (which had water in it for a changed) reaching Birdsville easily for hopefully 2 nights stay. Stopover: Birdsville - Caravan Park Distance: 285kms Driving Time only: 4.77hrs Day-6: (27-Jun) Our 1st sleep in for the trip, giving us time to restock; do some washing, have a look around the town, etc. Was disappointed to find out that the old Museum that we 1st visited some 18yrs b4 had finally closed its doors to the public only last year. Without much else to show the kids and after talking to my co-traveller, we decided to make a BIG change to our proposed route.... Seeing all the vehicles (& their trailers) coming into town and heading out across the desert, it was mutually decided to head across the Simpson Desert as this we believed would be a little more interesting to the family than simply heading down the Birdsville Track. We decided to forfeit our 2nd night camp fee and start our Desert adventure early, so we packed up and refuelled our tanks; top up with water & left late in the arvo deciding to find a spot on the edge of the desert to camp for the night. This crossing would be my 4th crossing for myself, but I knew it would be different as always. 1st fantastic surprise was being able to see a Lake of water on the eastern side of BIG RED Sand dune, something I've never seen b4 on my previous crossings. This made for some GREAT pics. We stopped for the usual play on what we thought was Big Red and made it to the top w/o too much problem and took the normal pics and headed off but noticed that the track wasn't heading in a westerly direction but more north. It wasn't until after travelling along this track for a little while that we saw this BIG sand dune in the distance on our RHS. We then realised that this was Big Red and from talking with others, that the previous Sand dune was what they call Little Red. With the sun failing quickly we tried our luck on the real Big Red and eventually made it to the top with just enough time to take some family pics and also some great Sunset photos as well. We quickly packed the kids back in the car and headed off into the Desert for our 1st night's camp some 2kms west of Big Red itself. After we just had dinner, we were surprised to see another group of travellers passing our camp and heading west at this late hour... Refuelling: 428kms