cam04
Well-Known Member
Sitting in a motel room in Charleville collecting my thoughts. This trip turned into a bit of a quick one with temps to 43 deg in the Simpson this week not leaving much to do during the days apart from driving.
We left Brisbane Saturday and made it to Jervois station on Monday for a refuel ($3.00 a litre for diesel) and hit the corrugations for 80kms into Batton Hill and start the run.
The desert was done in 3 nights, a motel in Birdsville last night, and we will be home tomorrow.
The track is much more picturesque than the standard east west crossings we have done prior, and offers a bit of everything. I wouldn’t recommend towing on it as it is tight and some of the dunes down the south end are steep and badly wombat holed.
Eyre creek has stopped flowing but the flood bypass is still in effect.
We refuelled in Quilpie this morning and the start battery dead shorted at the bowser. Dead car. A call to RACQ and a new battery was fitted in under an hour. We dodged a big bullet there. In hindsight the Ute kept changing to 4th and driving me nuts for a couple of hours prior - the electronics were clearly not getting enough power because it all went back to normal and better with the new battery and probably a brains reset at the same time. The only other casualty of the trip was my ancient Scorpion Off-road fridge slide which finally succumbed to the corrugations, and a can of soft drink that rubbed through. It’s a pity we couldn’t have done it in June as originally planned but the Eastern access routes were all still flooded, but we still enjoyed it immensely. Our travelling partners had to pull out at the last minute with an injured back, so it was a solo run with my youngest son which was a bit daunting while out there at times. We saw nobody on the Hay at all until lake poeppel on the QLD border on the 3rd day. He has smashed his required hours on his L plates though and is turning into a handy driver.
We left Brisbane Saturday and made it to Jervois station on Monday for a refuel ($3.00 a litre for diesel) and hit the corrugations for 80kms into Batton Hill and start the run.
The desert was done in 3 nights, a motel in Birdsville last night, and we will be home tomorrow.
The track is much more picturesque than the standard east west crossings we have done prior, and offers a bit of everything. I wouldn’t recommend towing on it as it is tight and some of the dunes down the south end are steep and badly wombat holed.
Eyre creek has stopped flowing but the flood bypass is still in effect.
We refuelled in Quilpie this morning and the start battery dead shorted at the bowser. Dead car. A call to RACQ and a new battery was fitted in under an hour. We dodged a big bullet there. In hindsight the Ute kept changing to 4th and driving me nuts for a couple of hours prior - the electronics were clearly not getting enough power because it all went back to normal and better with the new battery and probably a brains reset at the same time. The only other casualty of the trip was my ancient Scorpion Off-road fridge slide which finally succumbed to the corrugations, and a can of soft drink that rubbed through. It’s a pity we couldn’t have done it in June as originally planned but the Eastern access routes were all still flooded, but we still enjoyed it immensely. Our travelling partners had to pull out at the last minute with an injured back, so it was a solo run with my youngest son which was a bit daunting while out there at times. We saw nobody on the Hay at all until lake poeppel on the QLD border on the 3rd day. He has smashed his required hours on his L plates though and is turning into a handy driver.
Attachments
Last edited:
