Blogs from Birdsville, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

“Is this what Birdsville really like?” That’s the comment we made in unison as we entered the main street last evening. Two vehicles parked beside the pub, occupants probably seated at the bar, lone attendants at the 2 fuel services, no one wandering about and only 3 vehicles with their vans in the 30-acre (12.2ha) caravan park with their owners seated around a fire conversing. Not even a dog in sight. As the night wore on the beauty of silence, the blackness and the trillions of stars came to the fore. I love the freshness of the mornings. Jane describes it as, “freezing”, however quickly comes around when her hands, wrapped around a hot cuppa, are being warmed. Hot shower in clean ablutions rapidly brought life back into us. A healthy breakfast and it was all ... read more

In no rush. Lingered in bed longer than normal. The cold was very persuasive with that decision. As the airport is across the road from the pub, well most things are across the road from the pub, the early morning flights of the roaring, sometimes straining, single engine Cessna’s fly directly overhead, so the lingering is not sleeping. Today we readied ourselves for the Big Red Bash beginning tomorrow and lasting for 3 days. By readied I mean what food, drinks and warm clothes would we take to get us comfortably through the day. The camper stays put. We wandered around the well organised and kept roads taking snaps here and there, visiting the pub, conversing with other travellers, and visiting the very interesting Information Centre. The walk along the bank of the Diamantina River was ... read more

We exited the Hay River track onto massive salt pans that were a bit weird to look at - very white amongst the red of the sand and green/grey of the trees and bushes. After a short time we hit the QAA line, which is one of the main tracks across the Simpson Desert. So after five days of travelling South we took a 90 degree turn to the East. This was some awesome driving up and over the dunes. There were a few that we had to back down and try a few times - mostly because my stoopid traction control kept turning on automatically which kills the wheel spin that is sometimes needed to get over those last few ruts. The pictures that we have do not do justice to how big, long and ... read more

We headed out of Boulia for Birdsville although I did stop off at the truck wash to hose off some of the dirt. Next stop was Bedourie. I have to confess that there isn't a lot to see along the Eyre Developmental Road but it is a sometimes two lane sometimes single lane bitumen road. We arrived at Bedourie and the information centre was closed but the lady on the reception at the Diamantina Council office opened it up for us. We had lunch at the royal Hotel which is an original mud brick building and here is the crux of the issue. I've had many complaints about the blog being too PC and that there has been no mention of fat country girls in black tights. I'll be honest I haven't seen one since Menindee. ... read more

Our Map of our trip... read more