Towards Longreach

The Bash concluded on Thursday, and we left Big Red on Friday, July 13th, in convoy with many thousands of others returning to Birdsville. 

 

It was much slower to exit the "Bash" than when we arrived. 

 

We could only imagine that the three access roads leaving Birdsville would be congested with traffic and dust, with people either heading home or northward to the Bedourie camel races scheduled for the following day.

 

Considering this, our decision to stay for another three days and camp again south of town proved to be a wise choice. It also gave us plenty of time to wash and clean the van's interior. It was almost impossible to keep the dust at bay while camped at Big Red.

Many others had the same idea, but not in the same numbers as before the "Bash".

Minimum temperatures have been very low here as they were during the "Bash." Most mornings have been well below zero, with the coldest at -3.1°C.

 

We left Birdsville on Monday, 16th of July, and by then, only a few stragglers like us were heading north towards Bedourie.

The corrugations were quite severe, but we expected that, given the thousands who had already left.

In the worst sections, we actually drove through the bulldust outside the road markers to avoid the worst of it.

 

We had planned to camp 319 km north of Birdsville at a spot we had visited the previous year, near Marion Downs Station. The creek there has water and is part of the Georgina River system. We arrived just after lunch, but the flies were swarming in plague proportions, so we decided to stay in the car with the air conditioning on and drive the extra 64 km to Boulia.

 

We last camped beside the Burke River just outside town six years ago and thought that would suffice. You can imagine our surprise when, on our way out to the river, we passed over more than a hundred vans camped near the toilets at the racecourse. We then realised that the camel races were happening here this weekend.

 

We continued towards the river, and although we didn't camp right beside it, we found a lovely spot nearby. 

We enjoyed happy hour with a couple who invited us to sit around their campfire before heading back to cook dinner just after dusk.
 
We had both forgotten how bad the Kennedy Development Road was. The vast majority of the 361 km road to Winton is mostly single-lane bitumen and in a dreadful state. Our preference would have been to drive on the dirt rather than this road.
 
The surrounding countryside is relatively flat and featureless until you reach the Lilleyvale Hills. Cawnpore lookout is situated in these hills, and the surrounding flat-topped hills, or mesas, are incredible formations that have resisted erosion over time.
It's now not possible to drive up to the lookout, but even though the climb is quite steep, it's not that far. 

Just 55 km later, we stopped for lunch beside the Middleton Pub. It's hard to believe that we camped opposite the pub six years ago and spent time having a few beers with Lester, the publican.
 
After leaving Middleton, we followed a B-triple cattle truck for the remaining 169 km into Winton. Numerous vans and 4WDs were heading towards Boulia for the races, and all had to move onto the dirt while the road train continued on, with us following closely behind.
 
We arrived in Winton just after 3 pm and stopped at one of the pubs for a carton of beer and some wine. We've both become accustomed to drinking the XXXX bitter full-strength beer. 
We spent the night camping at Long Waterhole, just south of town, with quite a large number of other vans.

We are currently in Longreach for the next two nights. Our Anderson plug that connects to the van's battery charger must have been hit by a rock as we were leaving Birdsville, so we are here to have this fixed.