Birdsville

Sunday morning. We could have stayed longer at this lovely campsite, but we had to keep on the move. Drove back to into Mt Isa, got some supplies and fuel and by the time we were back on the road, it was midday.

The Diamantina Development Road, between Mt Isa and Bedourie is in very good condition considering it is an outback road, but it is long and boring. There is not much to see as you pass through a lot of cattle country and stations.

We had one fuel stop on the way, at Boulia, and then it was time to start looking for a camp for the night as we had driven over 4 hours. The camps were few and far between. I really hate looking for a camp after 4pm, as it is getting late, and we are getting tired. There had been a lot of rain recently and although the ground was firm, there was a lot of thick undergrowth on the side of the road, making it impossible to just pull off the road.

We eventually found a designated site (WikiCamps) which had a picnic shelter and bins. There was a dirt track leading the river, but there were already 3 caravans closer to the river, so we camped near the picnic shelter. Soon, 7 more caravans pulled in after us, all from the same group, and they formed a wagon train on the track leading to the river. We had seen this large group pulled up on the side of the road as we drove through Boulia and were to see them again at Birdsville.

Fish for dinner and afterwards while I cleaned up, Theo sat outside just on dusk, then he said he was being attacked by mozzies so came inside very quickly.

We kept all the lower windows closed in the van and only had the top windows in the pop top open which stopped insects coming in, and also allowed the warm air to escape and the van to cool down during the night. Had a great night’s sleep and I didn’t even hear the 10 vans leave, as they passed close to our van on their way out at 8am.

Monday morning, and we continued on our way south, crossing the Tropic of Capricorn, and stopping at a couple of sites on the way including Carcory Homestead Ruins which was abandoned by Sidney Kidman in 1906, and arrived at Birdsville just after 1pm where we checked into the caravan park for the night. $20 unpowered.

The last time we were at Birdsville, about 8 years ago, there was only about 5 vans in the park, today there would have been about 60-70 campers spread out in powered and unpowered sites. We have noticed that there are so many more caravans and travellers on the road now.

After lunch, we took some snags and bread with us and drove the 42 kms out to Big Red, to relax and enjoy the afternoon and watch the sun go down over the Simpson Desert sandhills. The flies were far too friendly and we resorted to wearing an old fly net each (having left our newer, better flynets in the caravan).

Spent a couple of hours watching cars driving up Big Red. Some took several attempts to get to the top. About 45 minutes before the sun set, a large all terrain outback tour bus drove up the sand dunes and about a dozen people got out and the driver set up a table and chairs for his guests to enjoy the sunset.

Big Red is over 30mt tall (stands as tall as the Statue of Liberty), and is the edge of the Simpson Dessert, and part of a series of 1,140 parallel sand dunes stretching across the desert. The dune is red from rusting iron particles in the sand and provides a challenge for 4WD enthusiasts.

Big Red is also the backdrop to the Big Red Bash, an annual 3-day music festival held in July every year. The Birdsville Races are held on the first Saturday in September every year. These are popular outback events and people travel from all over the country to attend.

Fun fact: we took a sample of the sand from Big Red on our last visit and colour-matched it and painted the end wall of our pergola, as I wanted an earthy outback colour. I called the colour ‘Birdsville Red’.

We cooked our snags and enjoyed them while having a cold drink and watching the changing colours of the outback sun setting on the horizon, then drove up and back down 'Little Red', a smaller sandhill before driving back with the setting sun in the rear vision mirrors.Meer informatie