Up I think about 6.30am this morning, it'll be pies from the Birdsville bakery this morning for breakfast - we haven't had one this trip yet and after all you've gotta have a pie from the Birdsville Bakery.
Coffee and then start packing up. We have to remember to get a picture of the truck in front of the Birdsville Hotel before we go, we forgot last time we were here. Everyone had something to do this morning once packed up, so we were all meeting at the pub. Firstly pies for breakfast & sausage roll for Boris, then it was a photo shoot for Travelander with all the campers in front of the Birdsville Pub,
Outside the Birdsville Hotel
Boris having his sausage roll
Jamie loves a chat!
My boys
Just waiting for everyone
Travelander photo shoot.
Burke & Wills plaque across the road
then out to the Racecourse
Everyone at the Racecourse
Geez, what a motley looking bunch!
& the Welcome to Birdsville sign.
My models
Adrian & Tania waiting patiently
Milo leaving Birdsville
It's busy being involved in photo shoots, I must say.
Everyone was saying they wanted to have a look at Walkers Crossing track, the boys had spoken to a few people over the weekend who had come up the track and said it wasn't too bad.
10.30am all the photos done & dusted, everyone's ready to hit the road to Innamincka via Walkers Crossing if there's no "Road Closed" sign up of course. Let the second part of our adventure begin!Some info on our little expedition party:
Craig, Boris & I in the Hilux with Travelander camper on the back
Adrian, Tania & Jamie in a Toyota Troopy with Chevy engine & rooftop tent.
Darren, Julia, Jayden & Damen in a Mazada BT50 Dual Cab with Travelander camper on the back
Hayden, Jess, Zoe, Cooper & Sienna in a Hilux Dual Cab with Travelander camper on the back.
Craig's leading the convoy down the Birdsville track toward Walkers Crossing.
Well we're here and no "road closed" sign or locked gate and the track certainly looks like fun. Beyond the first water pool there, it doesn't look too bad. You can see recent tyre tracks, so we're not the first ones today to use it. So off we go and the boys voted Craig to go first - between me and you, I don't really think boy thought about the results of being out front, but he will soon enough!
Walkers Crossing track
And there's the track
Challenging, interesting and hopefully some good video footage on the GoPro stuck on the windscreen. We stayed in existing tracks, but when the main track looked too muddy and so not to chew it up we popped up onto the tracks running along side the main track. Craig only made one bad choice when he went to the right, it was a bit boggy and we had to go a little further to the right of the track, 2 of the trucks went to the left instead seeing this.
Righto, off we go!!
Looking a little bit dirty
It's certainly flat out here!
The track
We stopped for lunch somewhere along the track in the middle of nowhere. Poor Boris was wandering around trying to find somewhere to go for a wee & the 2 little blokes Cooper & Jamie were following him around like he was the pied piper - looked hilarious, but poor Boris. Craig took him for a walk while the little fellows had lunch and he managed to get his wee done then.
Lunchtime - no Hayden's not staying
the night.
Not so shiney silver Gaylux now!
Boris & his followers.
Feedin time at the zoo
Everyone's fed, watered etc., and it's time to continue on towards Innamincka. We made it through to the end of Walkers Crossing unscathed & nobody got stuck (we tried to do the least amount of damage to the track for future travellers, as it was a little sloopy in a couple of places).
Lookin a wee bit dirty now!
Hooo, move em out....
Adrian & Tania in front of us
Sensational track to drive along
Keep your eye on the track.
We pulled up at the crossroad, boy got out and looked back at the truck while the other boys were all pointing and giggling and of course having some fun with it all. Maybe all the trucks could do with a wash now!
Everybody's safe
Looks a bit dirty doesn't it, wait....
I think I saw a a tear in the corner of
boys eye, when he saw the state of the
shiney silver Gaylux, LOL.
Next challenge of the day seemed to be negotiating our way through the myriad of tracks running through the gas fields. Hayden had the lead but eventually pulled over and announced on the UHF "I'm Lost, somebody else navigate". Rogie, Darren's turn to lead our little expedition into the wilderness..... Now between you and I, you'd think with all the GPS's, paper maps, experience, etc., we had on board between us all, we'd be able to figure these tracks out, but I'm pretty sure the boys were just hoping they were taking the right tracks all the time making out they knew exactly what they were doing!! Well at least it made the day interesting & fun.
Hmmm yes, what can I do for you mob
These 2 Wedgetail Eagles were just sitting
around, not phased when we stopped
to photograph them
On the home stretch of road to Innamincka, Craig was given the lead again about 30klms out of town... "You know where you're going to camp tonight, so you lead", well yes, but it was 6 years ago! Well we made into Innamincka about 5.30pm, about 416klms done today. Looked at both sides of the Cooper Creek for a campsite, but came back to the first spot we looked at (which was just metres away from where we camped in 2007). Camp was within walking distance of the pub and as Adrian, Tania & Jamie were planning on going up there for dinner, it was ideal.
Check out the mud
Darren & his boys went off to find some firewood for our campfire, Hayden kept the kiddies amused while everyone else started getting dinner on the go. It was a busy campsite with all this activity and throw in children & dog running around chasing each other - sometimes camping can be exhausting!
Jess feeding the little ones
Julia getting dinner for her boys
Haha, Darren doing the dishes!
Around the campfire
Nice little fire to chat around
Adrian & Tania returned to camp as everyone was starting to sit around the campfire, they were saying the only way they found our campsite coming back in the dark, was the 3 Travelanders setup with the lights on. It's a beautiful starry night out here tonight, even saw a satilite passing over. You really can't get any better then this (my photography's not quite good enough to get a nice picture of the stars just yet, but I'm working on it). Some drinks & chatting around the fire for a bit, then people started drifting off to the bed after such a big day.
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