After the Bash

We left our departure from 'Big Red', until just after 9 am on Friday the 19th of July, long after the vast majority of people had already left. Then it was an easy drive into Birdsville.

Just like last year, we stayed on the town common, for another three days while catching up on washing and cleaning.
But more importantly, it meant the vast majority of vehicles had already left, allowing us the freedom to just take our time without being overtaken and showered with stones with people in a hurry to get home.

Another lovely meal at the Birdsville Hotel with Glenda and Steve on one of our nights.

This year we headed east 168 km towards Betoota. 

Our plan was to spend two days camped by the waterhole down from the pub but sadly we were surprised to see that there was far less water than there was last year.

The hotel was built during the 1800s and is the only building here. It closed down many years ago but has recently been given an upgrade and even though that has now finished and the liquor license is in place, there are still building regulations holding up it being used as a hotel.

The vast majority of this road is dirt with the occasional section of bitumen thrown into the mix. There were no surprises with the condition of the road considering the amount of traffic that has driven over it in the past few weeks. To say it was rough and corrugated would be an understatement, but thankfully our greatly reduced tyre pressures and speed were kind enough on us, our 4wd, and our van to cope with these conditions. Most of the 168 km distance to Betoota was spent driving in the bulldust on the outside of the road markers.

After just one night we headed further east towards Windorah. We were surprised by how good the remaining 102 km of dirt were compared to yesterday's conditions.

The lady at the fuel outlet in Windorah mentioned that over the Bash period she had pumped 70,000 litres of diesel.