Central Queensland and Simpson Desert Trip

Page 3 Week 2

OUR CENTRAL QUEENSLAND AND SIMPSON DESERT TRIP 2006

Saturday morning was very cloudy and quite cool. Before leaving camp some running repairs were done to one of the fridges which had a dodgy power lead. We said our goodbyes to our friends and once again hit the track. While in Birdsville we were told that we could drive straight across to Coongie Lakes from an old stockyard that was nearby. So with maps and gps we set off. We found the stockyards that had been mentioned to us, and headed east cross country. Unfortunately after a couple of hours of trying to get around fences and across dunes we realised that these obstacles were sending us too far to the north of where we wanted to go. With the clouds threatening to rain at any moment, we decided it would be better if we weren't quite so off-road.

Our joint campsite. No tracks to follow here.

After retracing our steps back to the track, we once again headed south towards Innamincka. Soon after crossing into the Innamincka Reserve there was a track on our left, and we figured we'd have a look where it went, and see if we could get across to Coongie Lakes. As it was, the track took us through some beautiful desert country. There were numerous intersections, but we kept heading east as far as possible. At about three in the afternoon, and the gps telling us that we were less than a kilometre from our goal, we came across a creek. Way too deep to cross. So after a long days drive, we again set about retracing our steps, and made it back to our start point as it was getting late. We immediately set up camp off the track between two large red dunes. It was my favourite campsite of the whole trip.

Bugger! No way across the creek here. Our campsite between the red desert dunes.

Sunday morning we headed towards Innamincka. After seeing all the water the previous day, we expected 'Walkers Crossing' to be full, and to present a challenge. We were both a little pleased, and disappointed that there was not a drop of water in the crossing. In Innamincka we had showers, made a couple of purchases from the general store, and headed straight out towards the Dig Tree. We stopped for lunch on the Cooper's Creek, under the Burke and Wills Bridge. After visiting the Dig Tree we made our way back to Innaminka and set up camp on the town common.

There seemed to be a lot of old cars coming into the campground, and we found out that they were all part of a car rally. 'The 2006 Tour de Kangaroo' was a charity fund raiser run by the Kangaroos footy club from Melbourne. That night 130 people were expected at the pub for dinner.