Birdsville Trip Day 5 - Eyre Creek and Big Red
This morning we chilled out around camp and gathered some fire wood for the next few days in Birdsville. Just after lunch we ventured out to Big Red and after a quick walk to the top to watch some of the action I drove up the eastern side without any drama and continued west into the desert.
We've always wanted to visit the Simpson Desert and one day we will do a full desert crossing but this time we had to make do with just a few hours and a short drive to Eyre Creek. As we headed west we came across several groups who had made their way across the Simpson via the QAA line for the Birdsville races. Heading west was relatively easy with the eastern sides of the dunes being fairly smooth, the western dune faces were badly scalloped and our descents were slow 2nd gear low range affairs.
We soon arrived at Eyre Creek and stopped to stretch the legs and look around, the flies were really bad here and it was the first and only time that we used our fly nets. After half an hour or so we turned around and tackled the western sides of the dunes, it was slow going and with tyres at approx 15 PSI we didn't have any issues but I could see how heavy 4wds or those towing could struggle.
We finally arrived back at Big Red and I got to tackle the western side of the famous Big Red sand dune which for those of you that don't know is the biggest sand dune in the Simpson Desert and a must do for most 4wders. Unfortunately it took me 2 attempts to climb Big Red... my first attempt didn't involve enough right boot and we ended up a couple meters short of the top. I kicked my passengers out and backed down the dune for a second go, with a lighter load and plenty more go pedal we made it up easily. I have some video from inside and outside the car which I'll edit with other video from the trip and add to the blog later.
We joined the growing number of spectators up on Big Red and settled in with a few drinks to watch the last groups tackle the climb and watched the sun sink into horizon. We had a great time and met a great group of guys who had just completed an east/west and west/east crossing of the Simpson. We would end up hanging out with these guys a fair bit over the next few days.
Trip Distance = 118km
Total distance travelled with camper = 12,644km
Total number of nights in the camper = 92
We've always wanted to visit the Simpson Desert and one day we will do a full desert crossing but this time we had to make do with just a few hours and a short drive to Eyre Creek. As we headed west we came across several groups who had made their way across the Simpson via the QAA line for the Birdsville races. Heading west was relatively easy with the eastern sides of the dunes being fairly smooth, the western dune faces were badly scalloped and our descents were slow 2nd gear low range affairs.
We soon arrived at Eyre Creek and stopped to stretch the legs and look around, the flies were really bad here and it was the first and only time that we used our fly nets. After half an hour or so we turned around and tackled the western sides of the dunes, it was slow going and with tyres at approx 15 PSI we didn't have any issues but I could see how heavy 4wds or those towing could struggle.
We finally arrived back at Big Red and I got to tackle the western side of the famous Big Red sand dune which for those of you that don't know is the biggest sand dune in the Simpson Desert and a must do for most 4wders. Unfortunately it took me 2 attempts to climb Big Red... my first attempt didn't involve enough right boot and we ended up a couple meters short of the top. I kicked my passengers out and backed down the dune for a second go, with a lighter load and plenty more go pedal we made it up easily. I have some video from inside and outside the car which I'll edit with other video from the trip and add to the blog later.
We joined the growing number of spectators up on Big Red and settled in with a few drinks to watch the last groups tackle the climb and watched the sun sink into horizon. We had a great time and met a great group of guys who had just completed an east/west and west/east crossing of the Simpson. We would end up hanging out with these guys a fair bit over the next few days.
Trip Distance = 118km
Total distance travelled with camper = 12,644km
Total number of nights in the camper = 92
 |
| Fire wood duty |
 |
| On top of Big Red |
 |
| Somewhere heading west on the QAA Line |
 |
| Eyre Creek and the flies |
 |
| Waiting for our run at Big Red |
 |
| On our way... |
 |
| So close |
 |
| Mission accomplished |
 |
| Drinks and Laughs |
 |
| New mates |
 |
| Steve surfing Big Red |
Comments
Post a Comment