Simpson Desert - Day 19, Mitchell to Beerwah 05/07/2017

We had a big day of travel ahead of us today so we rose early and packed up camp and were on the road by 8.30 which was the earliest time we had set off for the day on the entire trip. Before leaving Mitchell we topped up with diesel and grabbed a few snacks for the car ride. We stopped for morning tea and a stretch of the legs at Miles and then continued east to Dalby where we stopped for lunch.

Then it was a run home via the back roads through to Kilcoy and eventually over the range at Peachester to Beerwah. A weather system had been following us from Dalby and we managed to stay in front of it long enough to unpack the car before it poured and made the car look even more dirty...

It's good to be home although we are struggling to cope with the noise of suburbia after being in such a peaceful and quiet part of the world. We are back to work next week which is unfortunate but will allow us to build up some funds for our next trip which we are already starting to plan.

Distance Travelled - 552km.

Here are some stats for this trip that other may find useful when planning a similar trip.

Birdsville to Mount Dare  via the Rig Road, 774km we used 93 litres of diesel (12L per 100km) - Diesel @ Mount Dare $2.15 per litre

Mount Dare to Birdsville via the French Line, WAA Line, Knolls Track, French Line and QAA Lines, 558km we used 94.5 litres of diesel (17L per 100km) - Diesel @ Birdsville $1.60 per litre.

As mentioned in an early post at the time of our trip the Rig Road was very easy with a hard clay cap completed in high range 4wd. The return trip via the French, WAA and QAA lines was through much softer sand with bigger dunes with a lot of slow low range work resulting in higher fuel usage.

Water - We have a 100L water tank in the canopy which we filled at Birdsville, we monitor our usage with a flow meter and for the dual crossing we used 45 litres. That was just for drinking, cooking and washing up, no showering.

Food - Anna pre-cooked and froze the majority of our dinners which we cryovaced and stored in our 28L Waeco Freezer. I think we cooked (instead of just warmed) 3 dinners on the whole trip. This worked really well and made our evenings so easy. Lunch and Breakfasts were simple affairs often made on the side of the road. Most food was bought at home but we did stock up with a few items in Birdsville before and after the desert trip.

No punctures or breakages aside from our little run in with the motor home and we are very happy with our entire setup, wouldn't change a thing. If you have any questions about the trip  get in contact with us and I'll do my best to answer them.

Hope you found this useful.

Birdsville to Mt Dare via Rig Road

Mt Dare to Birdsville via French, WAA and QAA lines