Simpson desert August 2013 trip

[Chris_M Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris_M]

W are currently in Broken Hill flashing it up in a B&B after nearly 20 days in the swag, weather is cooling so its nice to be indoors for a change.

We left Melbourne 4th Aug and travelled in the rain to Gawler, then up through the Clare valley to Farina. Very nice camp, then off to Coward springs however a blown tyre 70k north of Marree had us side tracked to Cobber Pedy for a new tyre. Blow out was cased by still running highway pressures on the dirt and going through a wash away a bit fast, 90k.

Then up the highway towards Alice, turned off towards Kings Canyon. Nice walk around late afternoon, next day around the Meennee loop and camped at Palm Valley, lovely spot but the dingos are a bit too friendly.

We spent the weekend in Alice and got cleaned up and restocked. We went to Milners Meats and had all the fresh meat for the Simpson trip cyrovaced which was great. Had the last pork chop last night 12 days later.

Then headed south down the Sturt highway to Rainbow Valley for a look and then onto Chambers Pillar for overnight, another great camp site, long drop, gas fire place and no issues with having a fire as well, just bring your own wood, plenty to gather on the way in.

Then down through Finke to Mt Dare for final fill befor the Simpson. Got into Dalhousie about 4pm set and and had a very nice swim. The other two vehicles arrived from Coward Springs about 6pm.

[Chris_M Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris_M]

Once I get home on the weekend I will post some photos as well.

The run from Dalhousie to Puni Bore was the worst bit of road for the whole trip, big corrigations really give the trucks a workout. My biggest issue was the stupid lump of a sand flag I bought, too big and heavy and just thrashed around on the bull bar. After a couple of stops to tighten and Loctite all was good.

One we got to Puni bore the track settled down, we went via Rig Road. Very quite, hardly saw anyone for two days, just dingos each morning on the tracks as we were starting up. Lots of fresh dingo tracks walking along the sand track.

We had 4 nights camping across the desert with the last night at Eyre Creek. The track from Knolls track along the French line was fairly cut up and lumpy and we had heard other reports of the French line being bumpy all the way. As the dunes got bigger the track got better.

Big Red was good fun and we played there for a few hours, then Birdsville for lunch and then headed towards Innaminka via Walkers Crossing. We got to the crossing just on dark and made camp just in a clearing off the road.

Next day we headed towards Innaminka where the other two trucks left us and they headed back to Melbourne, we then went onto Innaminka for lunching the pub and camped on the waterhole.

From there we travelled to Fort Grey near Cameron's Corner via Fortville gate, nice drive and a good back way to get to the Corner.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Sounds like a great trip Chris. Looking forward to the pics.

Any chance you have a plot of the route you took?

[Chris_M Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris_M]

Hi Leon
Sorry no plot of the trip but it was down the rig road, across then up Knolls track and turn right at the French line.

Not to many people there at the moment, we didn't see anybody else on the rig road until lone gum. This was a nice camp spot.

As we came off a few bikes were riding onto the desert, maybe 8-10 in different groups. And they looked like they were traveling without support vehicles.