Windorah to Birdsville

We travelled on through Windorah after refuelling and stayed the next night around 180 km from Birdsville.  We found a nice little spot just off the dirt road behind a few trees to set up camp.  While setting up we were entertained by literally hundreds of little green budgies performing an aerial ballet - they would all swoop in one direction, then suddenly turn and head in another direction before breaking up into little groups, going separate directions, then reform into one huge mass.  It was fantastic to watch, then they all settled into a couple of trees for a while before taking off again.  Nature is wonderful!  And we were also treated to a wonderful sunset while keeping warm around our campfire.

Next day we headed for Birdsville, where we finally met up with Lorraine and Bill, who had travelled across from Brisbane.  We'd been trying to catch up with them since Quilpie, but couldn't get in contact.  We booked into the caravan park for a couple of nights, as we planned to spend at least one night camping in the Simpson Desert, just past the large sand dune named Big Red.  

That afternoon we rearranged our vehicles and packed tents, sleeping bags and enough food for a night out in the desert.  We set off next morning, leaving our vans behind at the park.  The road out to Big Red wasn't too bad, but recent rains had affected the road, and we had to take it easy as Bill and Lorraine had recently bought a Captiva, which was AWD but not 4WD, so they didn't have as much clearance as we did.  We got up to what had previously been a river crossing but was now a large lake (Lake Nappanerica) and had a huge detour (a go-around) around the lake to get to Little Red, then on to Big Red.  The detour was a bit rough, but the lake was absolutely beautiful, with lots of birdlife, trees in the middle and red algae and vegetation through the water.  With the red dunes as a backdrop, it was quite spectacular.

On arrival at Little Red, we watched a few cars drive up, then drove up ourselves and checked out the view.  From there we drove around the lake and onto Big Red.  We spend a good couple of hours watching vehicles driving up and down both sides of the dune, and clapped and cheered along with everyone else when the vehicles made it to the top, and laughed when they didn't.  It was great fun, and everyone was having a good time.  While there, we bumped into the local member for the area, Bruce Scott - Trevor and I had both driven him several times in Canberra in our jobs as Comcar drivers, so we had a chat with him.

We found a spot to camp (believe it or not, in tents!) between the beautiful sparkling lake in the foreground and Big Red in the background.  Couldn't have picked a better spot - and it was free.  We climbed Big Red to watch the sunset with a glass of champagne, then cooked dinner and had a roaring fire that evening.  What a great day.

Next morning we packed up, then Carole & John, Bill and Lorraine headed back towards Birdsville while Trev and I drove up and down Big Red a couple of times - and yes, I drove up and down it myself.  Woohoo!  The good old Rangie conquered Big Red.  We followed the road on the other side of the dune to go back around Little Red and caught up with Carole & John to head back to Birdsville.  Our car and new caravan are now looking very dusty and dirty - red sand and dust caked onto every surface.

When we got back to town Trev and I popped into the Birdsville Bakery for a curried camel pie and a kangaroo and claret pie for lunch.  A young man and a film crew walked in, and I realised it was Tom Williams from 'Dancing with the Stars' and 'The Great Outdoors' - they were filming a segment on Birdsville for 'The Great Outdoors', and we ended up being in the background while Tom was ordering his curried camel pie - so now we're famous!

That evening we all went over to the Birdsville Hotel for dinner - well, that was a bit of a mistake.  On our last trip out here we had had a really good meal, so thought we'd do it again.  When we went to order a meal (you can't book, you just have to turn up and hope you get fed), we were told it would be around an hour and a half wait for our meal.  Well, over 2 hours later we were finally served.  I know they had a busy night, they must have had a  couple of hundred people there, but this was ridiculous.  And our food was not great!  Lorraine's was cold, mine was overcooked and they'd run out of mashed potatoes and veges, so I got the last remnants of curly chips and about six peas - not impressed at all.  Won't do that again!  People at the next table to us had ordered at the same time, and two of them were fed around the same time as us, but the other two had still not received their meals as we were leaving.  Very poor.

Next stop - Bedourie then on to Boulia for the Camel Races.