Simpson Desert Trip - Spring 2013

[pauld]

Stuck in bed unwell so thought I would share some of the trip.

Before the trip:

Only had 2 weeks notice so rushed to have everything ready. Bought a 2nd swag, water & diesel jerry cans, reviewed the first aid kit, removed the 2nd row seats, secured the fridge in 2nd row, picked up wheels I bought months back and had a tyre fitted to one to carry on the roof as 2nd spare, cable tied max trax to roof cage (they can stay there), went over car with mechanic, removed everything unnecessary from car and repacked the required. Bought a new CB, great unit: http://www.uniden.com.au/AUSTRALIA/p_uh7760nb_index.asp
Used a quality handheld also - listened to Ch 10 and had our own group on Ch 18 at the same time.
Couldn't find in a hurry a small basic table, simple to setup for cooking so grabbed a fold up 'fridge stand' from local shop and cut some wood to make a top with a couple of ribs secured to the bottom to hold in place on the frame. Worked well, Coleman petrol stove just sat on the ground. The Coleman units are awesome, army design, used 1.5 L of petrol for entire trip, boils water faster than anything else, has grunt to cook a steak properly but can also turn right down and slow cook over hours. http://www.colemanaustralia.com.au/g...rhouse™.aspx

Did some meal cooking + some vac sealing - had most dinner meals covered, just heat & serve. Pre-made sandwiches with cheese, ham etc and then froze them individually - thrown in the pan with olive spray makes a quick toasted sandwich & means less need for fresh bread. Had spare food covered with things like pasta, noodles, tuna, tinned soup. Sandwiches most days for lunch but sometimes we just snacked all day and skipped lunch - we had a cooler bag sitting just behind the console with fruit, nuts, biscuits etc repacked each morning.

Day 1 - Melb to Pinaroo
Didn't get away until lunchtime and then had to stop at Bendigo. Had to coach my 9 yo step daughter on how to deal with long drives & ease her into it (she hasn't been good in the past) so made a couple of other short stops also. Got into Pinaroo late, planed to grab a room at the pub(s) but all booked up, cabins all booked up, grabbed a motel that night as a bit of a treat (still easing her into it!). All good until she burnt her hand & wrist with boiling water using a kettle she wasn't used to. Didn't seem too bad at first, cold water towel on it, first aid kit out but missing the burns cream that was definitely in there before the 'review'...., went to fridge - can't find the ice pack that was in there before the freezer was repacked that morning..... Spoke to Motel owner, off to the local hospital. Great little bush hospital, they gel wrapped it for the night, next day off to chemist to get some gel & new ice pack. Turned out to quite a decent burn that needed attention for the next 4 / 5 days. The ice pack turned up on day 9 (fallen down behind fridge).

Day 2 Pinaroo to Orroroo
Up to Loxton for breakfast while we waited for chemist to open. Also picked up a pile of local, fresh fruit & veg.
Drove through to Waikerie where we enjoyed the local park and crossed the Murray on the barge.
Burra for lunch by the creek in the park. Orroroo by mid afternoon. We checked out the free camps in & around town, one of them was good but bull ants everywhere, went to the caravan park, found a nice piece of grass at the back. Flys were a bit of shock to the system, went for a walk down town, heated some pasta for dinner and ate in front of the TV on the couch in the laundry to get away from the flies, was comfy spot.
We took it easy on this day, lots of stops and things to entertain, still getting her used to long driving as I knew the days to come were going to be much more relentless & she would start missing Mum.
The 2nd vehicle in our group arrived late that night from Robe, sleeping like a log I didn't even hear them setup right next to my head. After that though I was woken by my step daughter who had got up to go to the toilet and mucked up the zips on her swag + her sleeping bag & now complaining she was cold. Quickest & easiest way to solve it was to let her in my swag, hoping we weren't going to be doing that each night.

[pauld]

Day 3 Orroroo to Lake Eyre South
Breakfast with our friends in the morning & then on our way together.
Hawker for fuel showed I had used 15L / 100 the day before..... about to buy another jerry can and then try to find somewhere to put it but I was convinced by others that there was enough spare with other vehicles to get us all through the Simpson. Filled up again later that day 10.3L / 100 better than I had done for a long time.... must of been the big head winds hitting the roof cage the day before. Also picked up hats with fly screens at the Hawker road house, great investment.
Stopped at Parachilna for an early beer & lunch, had to wait for kitchen to open, emu, camel, roo and chicken consumed around the table. Flies really bad outside, no flies in the shade....
Stopped at Copley for a Quandong milk shake. Stopped at Marree for fuel. Pulled up for camp at an old railway siding a few kms past the Lake Eyre South lookout. We picked up some discarded railway sleepers a bit earlier so had a fire that night. Some cans were shot with a 22 before dinner, including the 9 yo having a shot - she was starting to settle into the groove and having some fun. A long sunset & a huge sky of stars flagged that we were now well and truly in the outback.

[pauld]

Day 4 - Lake Eyre South Lookout to Oodnadatta
Up an hour before sunrise, beautiful time of day out there. Plenty of time to enjoy breakfast & prepare for the day.
Stops at multiple hot mound springs, river beds, large old railway bridges and the William Creek pub for a beer kept us entertained before we rolled into Oodnadatta.
We ordered lunch here, in an hour & half with 10 tables waiting only 1 meal had appeared! We complained, food eventually came out & was good.
Picked up some supplies. Filled up fuel. 3rd vehicle arrived from Port Lincoln. Checked into the caravan park out the back. A piece of dirt surrounded by a corrugated iron fence, the only part that made it worthwhile was a small tree that we sat under and a portable toilet / shower block. It was damn hot and the flies were bad in & out of the sun.

Roads Update - All roads from Melb to Oodnadatta were in excellent condition. From Marree to Oodnadatta on the dirt was good at 90-95 with tyres down at 27 warm.

Day 5 - Up early and ready to go by 7.30. Had to wait until the roadhouse opened for fuel in 3rd vehicle. Road to Hamilton Station was pretty good.
Road from Hamilton Station to Dalhousie was atrocious. Mostly done at 15 km/h! Rough as, rocks everywhere, shook the crap out of everything.
Dalhousie - we met up with the 4th vehicle, they had come down from Darwin. The whole group was together now. Removed the cheap Android Tablet from the dash mount as the tablet (not the mount) had literally fallen apart. Some lunch, some flys, a swim and on our way. A stop at Purnie Bore in the heat saw us all pitch in to fix some roof rack problems on vehicle 4. Found a camp maybe 20km past the Bore. Laying in swag late at night, stinking hot, just the fly screen over me. Woke to massive drops of rain hitting me in the face! Jumped up, fixed 9 yo's swag then jumped back into mine, already pretty wet. Preyed that it didn't rain too much as we were basically camped in red bull dust! Luckily it didn't, the wind blew hard for a while. This was the top of the storm that passed through SA and VIC causing lots of damage.

[pauld]

Day 6 Simpson Camp 20km past Bore to 100km past Bore
Woke to quite cool temps. Our camp was a bit of a mess from the wind during the night. Got moving but a bit slow that day. Everyone seemed a bit tired from the long hot day before. Everyone getting to know each other, lots of stops. We pulled the pin early that day at maybe 3pm. It was a good move, some footy was played, a fire was made, dinner was enjoyed, some songs and some marshmallows - + a few drinks.
The track seemed like hard work that day, small dunes, close together, rough, but easy.

Day 7 Simpson Camp 100km past Bore to 20km N of Poeppel Corner
Re-energised and happy was the theme of the morning.
I can't remember if it was this day or the day before but we spotted some camels roaming which got everyone excited. Lots of dingo tracks. Lots of hawks & eagles circling. The dunes got further apart and started to grow in size. The 'Simpson' we had pictured from home was appearing.
The weather was pleasant, only getting hot mid afternoon for a brief period. After a stop late afternoon we realised after a map review that we needed to get moving if we wanted to make Birdsville comfortably the next afternoon. The last stretch to the corner was travelled pretty quick, as was the next stretch 20km N to our camp. Late into camp but a good spot and a great fire made for another fun night.

[pauld]

Day 8 Last Simpson Camp to Birdsville.
Everyone up early. Motivated to get to Birdsville but also enjoying our time. Anticipation of Big Red and some good dune driving.
We were moving along quite well when over the radio we worked out we had a group of 20 vehicles coming up behind us. We pulled over and let them go, I couldn't believe how fast some of these cars were hitting the track, double our speed.
Not long up the road they had all pulled over, one of them had a broken spring! We got back in front, within half an hour they came past again!
We caught up with them at Big Red later in the day.
Before we got to big red we enjoyed some dunes & had the sand boards out for a bit of fun. We also had a nice lunch stop under a huge tree in the Eyre Creek bed.
Big Red - pulled up & took some photos. People airing down, vehicles from the group of 20 trying to get up and talking of pressures down at 10psi, huge run ups (almost dangerous). I kept the tyres at 16 psi, drove slowly up to the hardest track and when I got to the bottom opened it up in D (4LLC). Much to the surprise of many on-lookers the diesel Paj ate up the dune, the jaws were nearly on the ground.... Patrol, Cruiser & Prado owners mostly. 9yo was having a ball, down we went for some more fun. One of the large group told me that the track I went up was the easy one and that I sure wouldn't make it up the other one without a huge run up. So, we rolled up to the bottom slowly and up we went again, backing off before the top. I never saw that guy again, he seemed to disappear into the crowd....
Down we went again but this time we came up in 4H, no problem. And again but this time in 2H - we were maybe only 10 metres short of the top.

Some photos, sand boarding and then off to Birdsville for fuel, drinks at the pub, pats on the back, a big wash at the caravan park, dinner and a good nights sleep after quite a few drinks.

[Aussie_Dan]

Great write up Paul...... Keep it coming!
Cheers, Dan.

[pauld]

Day 9
Birdsville to Policemans Camp, Cooper Creek, Innamincka
Bakery for breakfast, some cricket on the nice green oval and off we went for a very late start at about 10.30
Birdsville Track was in great condition. A large Eastern Brown Snake brought us to a stop and hung around for photos before disappearing. Probably the biggest snake I have seen outside a zoo.
We turned left into Walkers Crossing PAR. The track was surprisingly good and quite enjoyable in sections being a bit twisty and long sections rock free. Navigation through the Santos fields got a bit tricky at one stage, we picked up some local advice from a Santos worker.
Into Innamincka for fuel and an ice cream.
Down to Policeman's to a great camp site on the Cooper at a large waterhole. A swim, a fire, good tucker, some fishing, many drinks and a bit of photography. A great place to spend our last night with the group.

Day 10
Innamincka to Broken Hill
Was quite sad to see my step daughter say good bye to all her new friends. After quite a few issues early in the trip and big concerns if she could cope with the trip she had made it and had more and more fun as time went on. She had learnt a lot, most of all she had learnt to relax and enjoy doing nothing but look out the window.
The drive to Tibooburra was very good after some advice on the best way from Innamincka locals. Lunch at Tibooburra then push onto Broken Hill. We arrived mid afternoon and found a Caravan Park with a pool for an afternoon swim - not for me though - too cold! I enjoyed a couple of cans in the sun. Out for a nice dinner for 2 then back to our cabin for an early night and a big sleep.

Day 11
Broken Hill to Melb
The first stretch to Mildura was crazy with huge amounts of animals - sheep, goats, emus, roos, birds, lizards - this was between 7 and 9.30. Most were gone before you got there but the roos were unpredictable.
Quick stop for fuel and food in Mildura.
Quick stop for fuel and food in Charlton.
Home by 3.30.
875kms in 8 and half hours including two quick stops.
And almost zero complaints from my step daughter, she actually enjoyed a lot of it and she was very good company on this long day.

Back to reality!

[pauld]

It was a very short trip with no spare time, with a 9 yo I was very busy staying on top of things.

I was asked by a good friend - "Would I do it again...?"

After a pause I said that if a group of friends organised the same thing next year I would have a lot of trouble saying no....

Some photos soon.

[pauld]

Have all the pictures ready, all reduced in size for the forum but when I try the upload window just says 'uploading pictures' but never finishes....

[BrisVegas]

Awesome. Thankyou for sharing. I'd like to take my two daughters out there in the next few years. Not sure the wife will come, but it sounds like a great bonding experience.

[pauld]

I almost forgot.

Flies got better and better from Day 6 which was also when the weather cooled down. I think we also got more used to them. At Cooper Creek I worked out that you can drink a can through the mesh!

[MoreliaMatt]

great write up!
its a fantastic trip, cant wait to do it again myself!

[Weavey72]

Awesome trip report Paul

Sounds like a heap of fun and the fact that you handled Big Red with such ease is just another feather in the cap for the humble old Pajero

I definately want to get up there and experience it for myself but just need to convince the wife and kids that it will be good fun (if I had my way every holiday would be a camping/4WD trip but they don't see it that way)

How many jerry cans did you take and how did you go with fuel for the crossing?

Can't wait to see some pics and I hope you're feeling better.

Cheers, Lloyd

[sharkcaver]

Thanks for the report Paul. Sounds like you had fun. And you may have just solved the step daughters problem for life. Well done. Lets face it, even a bad touring holiday is better than being at work.

How bad were those holes on the Western slopes going up? They seemed pretty bad going down I tell you.

Cant wait for the pics.

Shane.

[pauld]

Hey Shane, I do hope so, the gift of being able to travel I think is one of the best you can give to a child, I know adults who can't drive for more than a few hours, literally. As a result they see very little of this world.

It was rough as on Western slopes, I went quick between dunes and then literally crawled over each hump, then when starting to bog down 3/4 of the way up where most of the humps stopped, I would boot it and let the TC do the job.