Birdsville and Big Red Bash Bound

 We arrived in Birdsville on Monday, the 19th of June, after leaving home on Sunday, the 4th of June. We always camp on the Town Common located southeast of town where there are no facilities apart from water taps situated every hundred metres apart. 

The Common is a considerable distance from town and can comfortably fit several thousand vans without feeling crammed in, like a caravan park. The water comes from the Great Artesian Basin system that is 2032 km long and 1450 km wide. The depth of the bore is 1292 metres with a surface temperature of 98 degrees Celcius. The water is cooled in ponds before being pumped 20 metres into the air in the 45,000-litre tank and distributed to the town for drinking and household use, including the taps on the Town Common.

When we first arrived, at most twenty vans would have been here, so our choice of sites was limitless. We chose an area with a gravel base just over one kilometre from town and close to the bitumen road, which would ensure we weren't covered in dust from passing traffic, which seems to happen more frequently with the vast majority of people not concerned about affecting other people.

We enjoyed our daily walks and, on average, clocked up around five kilometres.

Vans have been arriving in dribs and drabs for the past week, but by Tuesday the 27th, the arrivals have been steady. The Birdsville Track has been closed due to a rain event streaming down from Western Australia into Central Australia. Vans already on the track before the closure were allowed to continue onto Birdsville, and they were all covered in thick mud from top to bottom.

The rain eventually reached us, with the weather bureau forecasting over 13 mm. Still, thankfully, we only received just over 5 mm, but this was enough to turn the common into a muddy expanse, and it was interesting seeing some of the 4WD towing vans trying to find any patch of ground to camp without becoming bogged.

The forecast was for more rain in the coming days, so our two-day early entry on Sunday, the 2nd of June, was moved to Friday, the 30th of July. After picking up the wristbands we wore for the concert, we popped into the Birdsville Hotel for lunch and a beer. Ros enjoyed her chicken burger, and I my steak sandwich.

We left Birdsville at 6:10 the following morning to head out to Big Red to attend the Bash, hoping we would be closer to the main arena and all the food vendors. Still, we found out later that people had even camped on the access road the night before, so we were camped five rows back from the main area.

Our first four days were spent walking on average just over six kilometres daily, looking at the rigs and a daily climb up Big Red, over forty metres in height.

We enjoyed breakfast in the van but, on most days, purchased lunch and dinner from the food vendors, which, at $70 per day, certainly added up quickly. Our favourites included the wood-fired pizzas, the brisket and pork belly burgers, and the pies baked daily in ovens on board a semi-trailer. Another favourite was soft-serve ice cream with fruit blended through and served in a waffle cone.

Our main reason for attending this year was to see Icehouse, Human Nature, Ross Wilson and Goana, who we had never seen in concert before, and we weren't disappointed.

Well, the predicted rain eventually arrived, and overnight, we received 8mm, which turned the whole area into one large mud hole, which made conditions a little trying, but then we all just coped.

Our front awning strut was making a noise and keeping us awake at night, and we put this down to the fact that we'd had strong winds. The following day, we tried to retract our electric awning to no avail. Thankfully, I had purchased Starlink and could contact Bushtracker firstly by phone and then FaceTime to find out the process I needed to follow to rectify our problem.

It involved removing the awning motor, manually pushing the awning arms against the van, securing them with cable ties before reinstalling the motor, and manually rolling the awning fabric back against the roller. The awning fabric became loose again, so we've been through the same process yet again, but this time, we have installed more duct tape to the front of the awning fabric that hopefully will keep things in check for longer.

I've contacted Bushtracker again, and we are heading to the Sunshine Coast to the factory to have them fix the problem and install a new strut.

Apart from the music, there are other ways to donate money to different charities. Three events occur before the music starts each day, and these are the Nutbush City Limits Dance to raise funds for the Royal Flying Doctors. Each entrant pays $15, and the Guinness Book of Records have marshalls on hand to ensure that the dance members follow the moves correctly or they are removed from the event. Another world record was achieved this year, with 5838 people completing the Nutbush successfully.

Also supporting the Royal Flying Doctors is the Drag Race, where men pay to run along Big Red and down into the arena wearing their best finery.

A new event this year to raise money for Type 1 diabetes consisted of people purchasing blue wigs and standing on a map of Australia that had been drawn on the ground.

This will be our last Bash. While it's still a fabulous event, three times for us is enough and besides, the event is getting bigger each year; with rumours that over fifteen thousand people were attending, it's all getting out of hand.

We met a volunteer who had been in the merchandise tent, and she said over eleven million dollars had been spent throughout the Bash.

On The Road Again

It never ceases to amaze us, but whenever we decide to head off towing our van, it always seems to rain, and this trip was no different as we left home on Sunday, the 4th of June. We experienced heavy rain for about twenty minutes after leaving home, but thankfully, the clouds gave way to a lovely sunny day.

If heading towards Queensland, we prefer to camp at Cangai Bridge on the Mann River, just over 150km from home and west of Grafton, but as we approached the turnoff, the dark clouds were starting to gather. It looked like we could be in for another downpour, so we changed our minds as the campsite was along a dirt road.

We continued onto the New England Tableland through Gibraltar Range National Park, our Chev towing us effortlessly the 1100 metres above sea level.

We stopped for lunch at Beardy Waters rest area before continuing through Glenn Inness and Inverell. It was just another 50 km to the small town of Ashford, and our camp this evening was just outside town at the Severn River rest area. The site is vast beside the river and has a composting toilet and rubbish bins, and we shared this area with four other groups.

Our second day was just a short 70km drive to another free site south of Texas in Queensland bordering the Dumaresq River. This campsite was very busy, but we had no trouble choosing a site because of our early arrival.

To limit travel distances, we spent our third night at The Gums Golf and Cricket Club for $10 for the evening. They have showers and toilets, but of course, we just use our own.

We had read excellent reports on Wiki about Judds Lagoon just outside Yuleba; we planned to spend two evenings here, but unfortunately, the whole place didn't appeal to us. So it was just a one-night stop. The lagoon was relatively small and limited to only two vans that could actually camp beside the lagoon.

After the disappointment of Judds Lagoon, we moved on to Neil Turner Weir at Mitchell, where we have been coming to for more years than we can remember. The camp area has been extended, and this may have something to do with the influx of travellers who will soon be coming through on their way to the Big Red Bash in Birdsville.

We spent three nights here, and the diesel heater indeed received a workout with frost on the car and van each morning.

We are limiting our drives to around the 200 km mark on our travel days, and that's how far it was to our next stop in Charleville, where we camped at the CMCA park outside town. Our van is insured with Ken Tame, and a CMCA membership is required with this insurance; as members, our two-night stay was just $14. However, they stipulate that no water can be let out onto the ground, there is a central fire pit each evening, and they have potable water and a dump point, which suits us just fine. It's incredible the amount of money spent in these towns; we spent $569, which included fuel, grocery shopping, a haircut for me and lunch at the pub. Fuel was $1.899/L

Our next port of call was Quilpie, where we spent three nights camping on the western side of Lake Houdraman for $15 per night, with the only facility being a rubbish bin but with the added benefit of having the place to ourselves. It was free many years ago, but the property owners have installed showers, toilets, power, and a bar on the eastern side. We passed through Quilpie last year after completing the Strzelecki Track, and even more businesses have closed during this time, which is sad to see.

We were now heading towards Windorah after negotiating the many hundred or so floodways over single-lane bitumen. We decided to camp at the caravan park as Ros wanted to wash our sheets, and it was easier doing this there than in our washing machine. We paid $22 for an unpowered site, and fuel had now increased to $2.33/L

We left Windorah on day fifteen to camp at Betoota. The single-lane bitumen stretches for 125 km, with the remaining distance mostly dirt with the occasional stretch of bitumen near Deons Lookout and 20 km from Betoota. The gravel sections, while extremely dusty, were in good condition as we sat on 60km/h. We camped beside Browns Creek waterhole, where we had the place all to ourselves. A composting toilet has now been built at the far end of the waterhole, so it will mean the white graffiti brigade won't be leaving toilet paper blowing in the wind.

Even though the pub was extremely busy, we had our lunch of meat pies with sauce washed down with a Canadian Club. We sat under the trees, which were lovely and cool beside the waterhole, for the remainder of the day.

The remaining 166 km gravel road into Birdsville was in good condition, with bitumen caps on some of the more enormous sand dunes. We came across a very healthy-looking dingo beside the road and wondered if he was being fed by people passing by.

Arriving at the Town Common, we set up camp just before the bridge and one kilometre from the pub.