Apart from our unscheduled trip to Bedourie, our days have been spent reading, relaxing, taking walks and checking out the new arrivals who turn up each day. At first, it's just a trickle, but as the week progresses, so do the numbers.
Thankfully because of recent rains we now have grass covering most of the camping area, so hopefully, there will be less dust swirling about this year.
About a month ago the whole town common was underwater and lapping up to where this photo was taken just before the final grid into town.
Arriving early and leaving Birdsville three days after the event has finished ensures that we aren't involved in the mad rush. There is no having to contend with the people who are not aware or just don't care about outback travel etiquette.
What do I mean by that? Well, when passing a slower vehicle, it's accepted that you slow down and move to the other side of the road rather than passing at speed showering the overtaken vehicle with rocks. We have seen it far too often in our travels.
Whenever we are in Birdsville, we always camp on the town common just south of town. It's a vast area that can accommodate thousands of campsites. If your totally self contained like we are, and don't mind using your own onboard facilities, then its a great option with the added bonus of having about a dozen water points spread throughout the area. Camping here is free, and it's an easy walk into Birdsville for a beer.
Birdsville's water is sourced from the Great Artesian Basin by a bore that has been sunk to a depth of 1.2 kilometres and pours out at 98 degrees Celsius where it is cooled before it can be used.
Another benefit of arriving early is getting the right spot to camp. We always look for a site that won't have any through traffic continually going past the campsite. This ensures that we aren't covered in dust from vehicles driving back and forth.
As we are getting older, we like to think we are also getting smarter. With this in mind, this year, we purchased a 110-litre water bladder that sits on the floor, behind our two front seats.
The days of having to lift a 20-litre bucket are now over. It will just involve a simple setup of connecting our portable 12-volt pump to the bladder to transfer the water, with power coming from our Anderson plug on our vans drawbar.
Tuesday evening is the last buffet dining night at the Birdsville Hotel before the 'Bash', so we are joining fellow Bushtracker owners Glenda and Steve for dinner. From tomorrow evening, there will be two sittings which will include a set menu.
We both chose the lamb shanks, which were delicious and the vegetables were still lovely and crunchy and had only just been blanched.
One of our daily walks took us down past Pelican Point and to the billabong that's on the outskirts of town and behind the caravan park.
In April 2017 the Birdsville Bakery was purchased by new owners, and we enjoyed some of their products last year at the bash. Unfortunately due to financial reasons, the bakery closed its doors in early June.
After our walk today and using my phone app, our site is 1.5 km from the hotel. The caravan park, along with the common, is starting to fill quite quickly.
As we walked back to our site this afternoon, this food truck had just turned up.
Our dinner last night consisted of sweet Bangalow pork cutlets that we purchased from Bellingen before leaving home with sweet potato and apple slices.
Sunsets have been few and far between but last nights made up for the lack of them.
This morning we picked up our wrist bands and our two-day early entry pass for the windscreen of the car.
A last run to the rubbish dump this afternoon before heading out to the 'Bash' site tomorrow with still more vans and trailers arriving this afternoon.
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