In July 2008 my family and friends from Sydney travelled for 3 weeks around outback Eastern Central Australia 4WDriving where possible. We visited iconic outback towns and pubs like Birdsville, William Creek Hotel, Oodnadatta, Mount Dare Hotel, travelled the old Ghan railway track, Alice Springs, camped near Chambers Pillar and much more. This is Part Two.
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Day Eight and Nine – We left Alice Springs and travelled north up the Stuart Highway to the Plenty Highway and travelled east, the Plenty Highway is bitumen and gravel varying in condition from good to corrugated.
We stopped to look at the Giant Termite Mound on the side of the road, I have seen a few termite mounds, this one was huge. We bush camped down a side track for the night. Next morning we kept travelling and got fuel at a station the only fuel stop on the Plenty Highway. I asked the lady serving us how many acres their property was. She said they own 2 propertyies both 500,000 acres each. Amazing how big these propertys are, but of course the land is sparse and harsh, nothing like what we have down south.
We reached Boulia and stayed the night at the caravan park suprisingly enough we got mobile service, very rare in the outback, except in very populated towns.
Day Ten – From Boulia we travelled down south heading for Birdsville via Bedourie which was a small town that serviced both Boulia and Birdsville so it had some resonable shops and amenities. We arrived at Birdsville and set up camp.
Day Eleven and Twelve – We looked around town, the Birdsville Hotel, information centre, there was a few shops, fuel stop, the school was interesting with one classroom setup for about 8 to 10 students, everyone had a computer and a ’smart board’ was at the front of the classroom, also had a swimming pool and separate activity room. The heat must get extreme in the outback everywhere was air conditioned.
Birdsville is near the edge of the Simpson Desert, the first dune is called ‘Big Red’ and is one of the largest dunes and a challenge to get to the top of. My husband drove our Hilux to the top and won several others did also while we there and some got 3/4 of the way up and stopped and had to back down. It was a bit of fun watching others try. The view was great from the top of the sand dunes.
We also visited the ‘Working Museum’ which was a big shed mainly a display all sorts of mainly Aussie products, inventions, the old original packaging, collections of rabbit traps all sorts of weird and wonderful things.
Birdsville was our favourite town on this tour, the next day we visited the Birdsville race track known for it’s annual event, the Birdsville Races. Thousands of people drive in or fly in for the day.
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Sounds like an amazing trip.
This is my dream to travel in Australia, I haven’t got there yet but reading about your lourney makes the dream seem like a reality.