Birdsville Races 2012

[Old.Tony]

I called the Cosmos Centre. We can't use their car park, and people stopping on the side of the road could be moved on by the authorities. Apparently previous visitors to the area have been somewhat unkind, dumping toilet waste in drains and stuff. Limp dicks like that should have their RVs taken away from them.

As a result, the only options are either staying several km outside of town (about 10km east and 20km west, the west side is Ward River where I'd already picked as an overnight stop) or the two caravan parks in town. If those two caravan parks become full, there are two other caravan parks that open up and if THEY become full, they open up the sports ground as well.

I think booking into one of the van parks early will be a reasonable thing. It'll be our second day on the road, and this will give us an opportunity to have a good shower and get a meal in town.

The Cobb & Co Caravan Park (top centre of this map) looks like the one to choose but we had better book early. The park is pet friendly, has showers and decent-sized sites, some are drive-through. The other caravan parks have smaller sites and not enough amenities. Cobb & Co also have a dump point, which at this stage of the trip we may not need but would use anyway just to freshen it up.

 

[NA_R33]

Mmmmm really want to attend!! Only drama is my first young fella is due late feb and I dont think this sort of trip will be appropriate... Might have to beg for a leave pass...

Anyone else going from southeast qld??

 

[Al]

Can't commit yet but am keen,will be just me without family if i do go.

 

[Old.Tony]

I think we need to cater for "contingency plans" too.

Seems that the road from Windorah to Birdsville isn't always open, according to a reasonably reliable source I spoke with today.

It made me think that we're going to have to keep an eye on the weather at each stage, and consider alternatives.

The road is sealed up to Windorah but that doesn't mean the sealed road is immune to flooding.

What my wife and I would LIKE to do is, if we cannot proceed off the sealed road beyond Windorah, we'd like to try and explore further north in Queensland, perhaps up to Longreach/Barcaldine. If we can't proceed further north, then it's back to NSW.

The issue here is that we've applied for leave, we have the time allocated, so we want to make the most of it. What do we do if we have to turn back to NSW?

I might look into some alternatives in northern NSW - suggestions are welcome. If we're turned back @ Charleville - which is the Tuesday - we'd still have a week to kill with days to spare.

 

[LLadnar]

That's good thinking Tony. Have too look at the dates and see if there's anything else on around that time if we're turned back.

 

[Old.Tony]

I suppose we don't need an "event" to go to either. It could just be a nice place, if there's nothing else happening.

Some initial choices suggested by RLI (who is on the mend, but could be doing a lot better) are Girraween National Park and Carnarvon Gorge. Both have 4WD tracks if we want to use them, free camp areas, spectacular views and aren't too far out of the way.

Considering we're planning to be at Charleville on the Tuesday - and then taking a week to get to Birdsville and return to Charleville - we've got about a week to play with if we're turned back at Charleville. Carnarvon Gorge is like 2 hours from Charleville. Girraween National Park is about 600km as the crow flies, but it's about 800km by road, so it's a long day's drive.

There are plenty of places to go to. Lightning Ridge is sort-of on the way back home from Charleville - I guess it depends where we get turned around.

The original trip is about 4,000km of driving. Weather permitting, adding a night at Poeppel's Corner (NT/QLD/SA corner) would be cool - it's about 130km from Birdsville across the Simpson Desert and we might get to line our Navaras up on Big Red for a photo too. This would be on the Sunday night (2 Sep 2012) returning to Birdsville on Monday 3rd. We'd be back @ Windorah on the 4th, Charleville on 5th (Wednesday) and home by Friday 6th at the latest.

That's the timetable - if we adhere roughly to that then I think we're doing well. Back to the trip if the weather is kind to us ...

It looks like Big Red itself is on the French Line about 30-odd km west of Birdsville, at GPS coords -25.880942°, 139.039596° (25°52'51.39"S, 139° 2'22.55"E). It's on the way to Poeppel's Corner - there's no way we're going to tow anything up there. There don't appear to be alternative routes out of Birdsville so it's tent/swag/rooftop or don't bother coming. We need to be prepared for sand recovery (essential to have MaxTrax or those other folding ones which take up less space - I might buy some of these). Not taking a compressor and airing down will be suicide - I already have a heavy duty ARB set now, so anyone coming with me will be okay.

For one day and night, we'll need about 6-8 litres of water per person. I'll bring a 25L container of fresh water, a little spare won't hurt.

This is all fun, isn't it?

 

[RLI]

G,day Tony,

Finally flying the new laptop, so to speak! I feel a lot better today, than i have over the last couple of days. Count Allison and I and our two children in for this trip.

Sorry for not skype contacting you last night! I had an early night due bowel pain flare-up.

PS i note that you are on line now! How can i skype you now from this new lap-top?

Regards

RLI

 

[joshman]

Sounds good tony! When we were out there they had a detour in place to get to big red. It's about 50k's driving to get to big red, because the detour heads south to the QLD/SA border and run along that and you eventually pop out on the western side of big red. It'll be worth looking into what detours are in place because of all the water from the floods. We might find that a 130km trip as the crow flys, turns out to be 200km with the detours in place.

Well also be doing some creek crossing, so a wading bra's and snorkels will be necessary.

 

[mitch92]

Coming from the north i will not be doing any of the other stuff you guys are looking at. I'll get most if not all of the way in one day, do the races, and be heading home again in one or one and a bit days.

 

[joshman]

Coming from the north i will not be doing any of the other stuff you guys are looking at. I'll get most if not all of the way in one day, do the races, and be heading home again in one or one and a bit days.

Where abouts will you be coming from?

 

[mitch92]

Rockhampton. Out to longreach, down to windorah, then to birdsville. It's only around 1300km's so not too bad, probably do it in a day.

 

[joshman]

That's alright, I'll be coming from Gladstone myself, but I'll be crushing via toowoomba to pick up my dad. Well take a lazy 2 days to make our way out to Birdsville, do the races, night at poeppel corner, night at haddon corner, make our way down to innaminka and Cameron corner, come back via mildew and Sydney probably. Take 2-3 weeks to do the trek. Take it nice and easy.

 

[mitch92]

Unfortunately my leave will be a little low hence why mine will be a get in and out quick trip. I wanna go out oneday and do big red, maybe even spend a night, but definitely going home quickly.

 

[Old.Tony]

For anyone that wants to go to Poeppel's Corner as well ... one of us is going to have to take a toilet. I can't remove the one from the caravan. I have a fast-assembly shower tent (just a few seconds to put up) but I no longer have a porta-potti.

 

[joshman]

I bought a cheap fold up toiled chair. It's a bit like a camp chair, but it's got a toilet seat for the base. Takes up very little space. Comfy too.

 

[teamkiwi]

I'd be pretty keen to tag along on this one. I'm in Adelaide so would come up through the Flinders and Birdsville Track.

 

[Old.Tony]

My wife and I have decided that if we're going to Poeppel's Corner (still not sure on it yet) we'll take a tent, a shower tent and one of those little 10L porta pottis, because we prefer those to a stool with a plastic bag hanging from it. Rays Outdoors have the Wild Country version on sale at the moment for $70 each. Grab that, and a little blue bio for both top and bottom tanks and things should be sweet. It should last the wife and I until we get back to Birdsville.

We're going to compile a list of free dump points on the way up and back too. We're going to need one every second day - so that's Wed, Fri, Sun, Tuesday and we should be back home for the last one. I'll work out where they are and will post the list up here with markers on a Google map.

 

[Old.Tony]

I'd be pretty keen to tag along on this one. I'm in Adelaide so would come up through the Flinders and Birdsville Track.

You might be able to meet up with Siringo and his wife as they head to Poeppel's Corner - depends on what you're going up for. I don't know if they're going to the races with us and then heading out, or they're coming up via Poeppel's corner. That's a detail we haven't covered yet!

 

[Leprechaun]

We're going to compile a list of free dump points on the way up and back too. We're going to need one every second day - so that's Wed, Fri, Sun, Tuesday and we should be back home for the last one. I'll work out where they are and will post the list up here with markers on a Google map.

Without doubt the funniest thing I've read on the forum this year. Maybe you should lay of the fibre for the trip!

 

[hamod40ST]

You can unhook your caravan and it gets taken across by itself but they charge a $70 fee to do this just an idea for you if you really want to go down the birdsville track and need to cross the ferry.