Thursday, 13 August 2026
This morning we ate some fruit in our room before heading to Karrawa Wirinya Coffee again for breakfast. We didn’t have enough cereal to last until we get home, so we treated ourselves to a couple of purchased breakfasts. And sometimes if something is really good the first time you have it, you should quit while you are ahead. The bacon and egg rolls had been pre-made this morning, to cope with the influx of our group on the tiny café, and they just weren’t quite as good as the freshly made ones yesterday. And, we think someone forgot the relish?? Still delicious because, really, you can’t do a bacon and egg roll wrong.
Breakfast done we all drove our filthy vehicles to the front of the Birdsville Hotel for the ‘hero’ shot where we all parked rear to curb for a group photo at the first pub on the other side of the desert. In hindsight we probably should have done that on the afternoon when we arrived, when the light was better. There just wasn’t room to park all our vehicles when we got into town on Tuesday though.
Photo done it was time to start saying farewell to members of our group. Queenslanders Ash and Tracey needed to start heading back to Brisbane, rather than head south with the rest of the dingoes and end up even further from home. Don and Myf also bid us farewell because they like to winter in the warmth. They didn’t want to come with us to Marree to then have to turn around to drive back to warmer climes. After the camaraderie this group has enjoyed it was hard to start saying goodbye …
Our convoy, now consisting of eleven vehicles, was on the road just before 9.00am making our way to the iconic Birdsville Track, for the drive south to Marree where this epic adventure began 12 days ago. The Birdsville Track was established as a stock route in the 1880s and replaced the Strzelecki Track as the preferred route as it has a better water supply. The original track was used by drovers who followed a series of permanent waterholes along the Diamantina River. Now known as the Birdsville Inside Track, that route is often closed due to flooding. And sometime the more easterly track is closed too.
By quarter past nine we were in South Australia. Before 9.30am it was 9.00am again and we re-lived the last half an hour! The time zones are a bit crazy here. The part of South Australia that we drove into is further east than the part of Queensland we drove through earlier in the week but, because it’s South Australia, it is on Central Time instead of Eastern Standard Time. Confusing, but still not as bad as the area between Caiguna and Border Village on the Nullarbor Plain.
About 10.30am we made a morning tea stop at the Charles Sturt plaque more by accident than design. A metal plate on a star picket declared that Captain Charles Sturt passed near this point on the afternoon of the 28th of August 1845 on his epic journey in search of the inland sea.
So far the condition of the Birdsville Track was excellent and we were speeding along at between 70 and 80 kilometres per hour. It was quite some since our vehicles had achieved anything over 40 kph so it was quite exhilarating. The road threaded its way between the Sturt Stony Desert to the north-west and the Strzelecki Desert to the south-east.
Reaching the intersection with the Inside Track, John advised that there was a toilet if anyone needed it. I had used the bush toilet at our morning tea stop so I was good. A couple of members in our party pulled in to use the loo, afterwards declaring it ‘not very good’.
We passed the turnoff for Warburton Crossing which crosses the Warburton River on the track of the same name. John mentioned that it later becomes the K1 Line which is probably a good alternate route to Poeppel Corner as it travels mainly between the dunes rather than over the dunes like the QAA Line.
Shortly after the intersection we all pulled over for our first oncoming traffic all morning – an empty cattle road train, with three empty trailers on. We saw kangaroos for the first time and a shingleback Bridgestone! It was called that there was a lizard on the road and to keep right of the left wheel track to avoid it. When others reached the ‘lizard’ they called that they thought it was just a bit of shredded tyre. Assuming everyone was talking about the same thing??
Coming up to 1.00pm the convoy experienced its first flat of the tour. Fortunately not us. The Birdsville Track is littered with gibber rock and chunks of gypsum so there’s plenty of sharp stuff to puncture a tyre with. With 14 capable blokes with a cornucopia of tools, the tyre was fixed quickly and we were underway again, passing Lake Howitt before negotiating a detour through Mirra Mitta Station to avoid water damage to the track.
About 2.30pm-ish we pulled into the Mungeranie Hotel. John had been calling the hotel for days to try to find out if it was open. He hadn’t been able to get any answer so I guess we weren’t all that surprised when we arrived to find that everything was closed. The hotel has suffered badly the last couple of years with the amount of water flowing from Queensland’s gulf country into the desert on its way to Lake Eyre. The resultant flooding has closed the Birdsville Track for months at a time. It’s impossible to run a business if your customers cannot reach you.
This is usually a good place to camp part way along the Birdsville Track. However, with the hotel and all the amenities closed, it was decided to push on. Mid-afternoon saw us negotiating the near 50km Cooper Creek Bypass Road, where Lake Killamperpunna is currently full of water flowing from in Cooper Creek. We arrived at the barge that operates to take travellers across Cooper Creek at about 4.00pm. We were very fortunate to make it across the creek, as the barge only resumed operating TODAY!
Now on the south side of the creek, we continued on the bypass road, with Lutz and Mal seeing an actual lizard. We had already driven past and we certainly didn’t notice it beside the track. We eventually rejoined the Birdsville Track around Etadunna Station. From this point the track deteriorated with some very sloppy patches to be negotiated as the afternoon drew to a close.
We motored past Dulkaninna Station as we were treated to a spectacular sunset and eventually pulled into Clayton Station Campsite to set up a late camp. Worth it because the campsite was equipped with flushing toilets. And, if we wanted to use them, showers and a spa bath. Seriously, although the spa bath is basically a shallow poly tank. But, if you have time, you can fill it with warm artesian water from the bore and have a soak.
Lutz and Mal became our third pair of companions to peel off, deciding that they wanted to reach Marree tonight for an early start tomorrow morning as they head back to Sydney to return to work on Monday. Those of us at the rear of the convoy missed out on saying farewell to the guys as they were keen to keep on towards Marree while the light held.
After setting up our swag, our thoughts turned to dinner. After a big driving day, we decided to try another freeze-dried meal because it would be quick and easy. This one was lamb biryani which we thought might be better with it being rice-based. It wasn’t! It really was not!
Honestly the ‘lamb’ in it looked like the Schmackos that we used to use as dog treats for the Golden Retrievers cut into two centimetre lengths. And, in my opinion, it probably tasted even worse than it looked. Unless we decide to do something crazy like hike the Heysen Trail and have to carry all our food supplies in a backpack (very unlikely!) we are NEVER buying any more freeze-dried or dehydrated meals. They are disgusting.
After sitting around our last campfire while I dunked Gingernut biscuits in my favourite chai tea (to try to get the taste of bad biriyani out of my mouth!) it was impossible to get motivated to write the travel diary. Much easier to retire to the swag and snuggle into the sleeping bag.
Birdsville to Clayton Station Campground – 498 kilometres
