Up about 7am this morning and greeted by a wall of flys outside the tent - great! Decision made, to just pack up and go into Windorah for breakfast and coffee, hoping there'd be less flys in town. In town about 8am, grabbed a pie & sausage roll - yes flys in town as well, but at least not as bad.
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| Haha, traffic.... |
Not much to report on while on the road from Windorah to Birdsville - the home stretch. Got on the road again about 8.30am from Windorah and headed out. We hit dirt road today, that'll be a bit more fun for Craig to drive then the black top. Came across the people we met in Charleville just after hitting the dirt road, they were airing down which is what we pulled over to do (click on the video link below of the highway from Windorah to Birdsville where bitumen turns to dirt).
Scenery was interesting and constantly changing again today, which always makes the drive more interesting.
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| Snake made from different coloured rocks in the side of a knoll on the road from Windorah to Birdsville |
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| It's busy on my side of the car: Gopro camera, HF Antenna & UHF Antenna |
Closer we got to Birdsville the more cars/people we saw pulled over at the rest stops, who were heading for the same destination we were. This 4WD Action bash is going to be a big thing I think.
2pm - Welcome to Birdsville - we're finally here and looking forward to setting up camp for a few days.
That wind that sprang up last night in Windorah has come along with us today and greeted us when we got out of the car at Birdsville. Hoping there's no flies in Birdsville, but thinking they will be there to greet us also. Had a little tiggy tour through Birdsville on our way to the caravan park, saw Darren & Julia from Travelander at the Oval (a little back story on this: We've been friends for a number a years now and we knew they were going out to exhibit at Birdsville, but they didn't know we were going out or rather I should say Darren had no idea, but Julia suspected we were going). As we turned up past the Birdsville Hotel one of Darren's sons said "Dad that's one of the old model campers over there", Darren turned and as we did a U-Turn says "Yeah, I know who that is!". We pulled in to say hi and have a laugh.
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| Travelanders Old & New at Birdsville |
Time to go line up at the Birdsville Caravan Park entrance, get our site and setup so we can relax.
Booking into the caravan park was like a military operation, but I suppose it has to be, due to the expected numbers attending this bash. Booked in, got escorted to our site, now the full setup begins. First up camper comes off the car, open camper up (beer comes out about now), next up setting up the awning over the galley so we have shade while we're here - temperature isn't too bad, it's in the mid to high 30's today I think but it's a dry heat and yes the flies came to Birdsville as well, but at least there's a wind blowing which helps a bit at keeping the flies away (well sort of).
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| Our Camp - Birdsville Caravan Park |
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| Adrian & Tania to the right. |
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| A few of the other campers |
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| Shauno from 4WD Action's Toyota 60 series |
Forgot to mention, a fellow had great interest in our setup as we started taking it off the truck, he hung around and watched, then came back a bit later to watch the rest of the setup. I've got to say the Travelander campers certainly attrack alot of attention, they look different and are mostly definately an impressive setup and easy. It would seem a lot of people haven't seen them before each time we travel.
Once setup was completed, we took Boris for a walk around Birdsville so he could stretch his legs, called in to Travelander land at the oval again but they had disappeared (Darren said later they had taken refuge in the information centre just next to them, air conditioning and no flies - there's a pattern forming here isn't there). Upon our return to camp, met the guys who were camped right next to us in their Troopy (Adrain, Tania & their little boy Jamie). Craig decided about 4.30pm to get away from the flies for a bit we'd go out to Big Red for sunset and so he could ascend the mightly sandune again (Note: Big Red is the biggest sandune in the Simpson Desert of the 1100 odd sandunes at 40m high, there is also Little Red which is smaller). Seems that a lot of people had this idea as we pulled up at the bottom of Little Red to air down a bit more, then the 4wd Action team pulled up beside us, at a guess they're out there to have a photo shoot on Big Red at Sunset for the 200th edition of the mag.
While we were airing down Craig had a chat to Glen hadden (aka Hasbeen), when 2 fellows from Mt Isa 4x4 club came up and asked Glen for a photo (you knew they were from Isa 4x4 by the fluro yellow singlets they had on with that written on them), they must have been going down the line of all the 4WD Action crew and Craig noticed they looked a bit lost as Glen was the last one, so as you would expect boy says to them "you haven't had a photo with me yet" answer: "no I haven't and you're famous aren't you", yep you guessed it Craig posed with the guy for a photo - stupid look on their faces and the thumbs up. I'm pretty sure I saw Glen Hadden killing himself laughing just as much as I was. Off we went to the right up the track to Big Red, it looks a little different this time to last time we were out there, a huge lake sits on the eastern side of the sandune now and it looks awesome!
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| Lake on the eastern side of Big Red - Awesome! |
Up on top of Big Red we got out and watched a couple of cars trying to get up the western side tracks (the dunes are steeper on the western side because of the way the wind blows). Boy decided it was his turn, I stayed on top the get some photos, I had the GoPro camera all setup ready to go for video and remotely controlled through my mobile phone (so all Craig had to do was tap the video button on the screen - sounds easy right.....), off boy and Boris went to line up at the bottom. Here he comes, bouncing around around, Boris looking through the passenager window with a smile on little furry little face, yep got up and parked next to me. Enthusiascially I asked "Did you remember to push to video go button on my phone", answer: "I drove down the hill and I lost you phone somewhere in the car, I looked everywhere while I was waiting in line, but I can't find it" - Are You Kidding Me!!!! "You only drove down the chicken track it was plugged into the charger and you've lost it, how do you lose something in that small an area!" Righto, everything being pulled out of the cab, mats lifted up, about then half a dozen police walked past to watch the cars coming up (they had arrived in 2 cars and we're probably there to watch the speticle and also have a presence so no stupidity spoils anybodies weekend), we said Hi and I said to them "You guys are good at finding things aren't you", "Yep, what have you lost", "the boy here lost my phone somewhere in the car" and at the very moment Craig held up the phone and the Police Officer says to me "yeah, there it is", so I thanked him and said he was good. Boris might of had a fan in the lady Police Officer that was there also, because he got lots of pats from her and she remembered seeing us earlier walking around town. I really should start up that facebook page for Boris....
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| First dune to the west of Big Red |
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| Craig starting the assult on Big Red |
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| Yah, he made it! (Forgot to mention, it was the 2nd attempt - haha!) |
Next boy asked me if I wanted to come along for the ride - why not, we don't get out here all that often what was it 6 years since our last visit! Off we went and did the same track as the pictures above, no probs - well then, there's another 2 tracks to the left of that one which are a bit harder lets have a crack at them. Informed boy that an L Plater made it up one of those tracks, was informed it's a V8 Landcruiser, well then a Hilux just like our little one tried and didn't make it. Anyway the video is below for you to see (first track the one he'd made it up, next one is the one to the left - you'll see)....
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| I might think Graham Cahill is a little sweety. That's him in his shorty when we came back from Big Red. |
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| 4WD Action guys coming back down from their photo shoot while we aired up. |
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| The sunset behind us coming back into Birdsville. |
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