Day 18 & 19, Birdsville

Birdsville

Things you see.

We left Mungarainie this morning heading North for Birdsville, the track north of Mungaranie was in much worse condition than the bottom half, lots and lots of rocks.

Its a pretty uninteresting drive although we did find a pony and a cow on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, just them no other stock to be seen.

Another broken aerial

One casualty of the rough roads was our UHF aerial, it was already in bad shape having been fixed twice over the last couple of weeks, this time its not fixable, the fiberglass whip part has snapped and is stuffed.

Camp at Birdsville

Arriving at Birdsville we went to the only caravan park in town, there was a bit of a queue at the reception but the park did not look too busy.

After checking in we headed down toward the lowest end of the park where you can camp along the billabong, no power down there.

The ground was pretty rocky all around the non powered site area so finding a spot that was not going to tear holes in the camper floor was a little hard, we did find a nice spot right on the water and settled in.

Just like the last week it was blowing a gale and was bitterly cold in the wind.

After setting up camp we headed off to see some of the sites, around the town, first of course being the Pub where we stayed for a couple of drinks, the pub is really great and we were lucky enough to have it to ourselves for a little while before others arrived.

After the pub we went for lunch to the bakery, we were a little late so the selection of pies which would normally be huge was limited, we had Curried Camel pies which were delicious, a little on the pricey side considering their size but no big deal.

At the Birdsville Pub

BIG RED

After breakfast we headed off to see Big Red which is about 30 kilometres out of town, the road out there is gravel but in good condition, we soon arrived at Little Red where there were a few cars either letting tyres down to head ove,r or pump them up for the trip back into Birdsville.

Looking at the dune ahead of us I decided that letting the tyres down was unnecessary and kept them at 40 psi, we headed up and easily made it to the top.

At the top of Little Red were even more people getting ready to tackle Big Red, the consensus being that 18 psi was the way to go, I let mine down to 22 psi.

From there we had to go down the other side of Little Red then drive a kilometre or so  before turning right toward the might Big Red, it was an awesome site growing bigger and bigger as we got closer, when we stopped at the bottom there were a few cars at various stages of tackling the dune, some were struggling to get up, others reversing down.

I had not decided if I would do it for sure and watching other cars failing was still not convinced, I watched as a DMax like mine had three unsuccessful attempts and was leaning toward not doing it, I was feeling just like I felt standing at the bottom of Ayres Rock contemplating if I should climb it or not.

I struck up a conversation with group of bikers who were sure I would make it up, they told a and old bloke 70 years old just did it, I think that was supposed to challenge my ego.

I had to give it a go, we have come all this way after all, there are three main tracks to the top, one is difficult the others not as bad, I'm adventurous but still a little cautious so we did not do the hardest one, we took the track that the other DMax got over on its fourth attempt.

Once we were in 4x4 low we headed off, the family cheered me on as we hit the dune, up we went, it was a fair way to the top but we climbed it without too much effort, I have to say I was pretty excited about having done it.

On top of Big Red

The view at the top was fantastic, well worth the effort.

The drive back down the dune was easy and we then headed back to town, after a stop to pump the tyres back up to a pressure more suited to the stony roads.

Back in town we looked around at some of the sights, including the Old hospital which is worth a look at, we also did the "Two Brothers" aboriginal walk, and of course we drove out of town a  bit to look at the famous Racecourse.

Our stay in Birdsville was OK, not our favorite place by any stretch but we are glad we visited, our trip out and onto Big Red was the highlight, and the visit to the Pub and bakery was also great.
I think the caravan park was a bit of a let down being overpriced and not that well maintained, with minimal amenities considering the number of people that go there, having said that choices are limited.



Tomorrow we head further North to Boulia for a few Days.