Simpson – Day 14

Friday, 14 August 2026

This morning we woke to a heavy dew on the fly of our swag and a beautiful sunrise. We were also able to properly appreciate the campsite that we pulled into late yesterday. Although the campsite has toilets and showers we only made use of the toilets, choosing to use wet wipes to freshen up again this morning. It was just too cold to traipse across to the showers and we were keen to get packed up and ready to go as quickly as possible to make it into Marree sooner rather than later.

Now in the Tirari Desert, we pulled out of the campsite at 8.40am with just 53 Ks to travel into Marree. There were still mucky patches on the track, that needed to be negotiated with caution, but we managed to pull into Marree just before 10.00am. We made it, we had successfully completed our circuit through the Simpson Desert.

The gang pulled in at the Roadhouse and purchased fuel and put air in their tyres before lining up to purchase coffees. Then it was time for the farewells, with everyone going their separate ways, now that we are back in Marree. John and Helene were turning around and driving north up the Birdsville Track to head back into the Simpson Desert to work on a well repair/restoration project. Others were heading towards the Flinders Ranges and some of us were just heading home. After tackling so many challenges with this great bunch of adventurers, it was quite emotional saying goodbye. Then all of a sudden I was the only Tracey again and I wasn’t going to be getting whiplash turning around every time someone said Trace or Tracey, ha, ha.

After a quick couple of photos in Marree – we hadn’t taken a photo of the Marree Hotel last time we were in town – we pointed the truck’s nose southbound on The Outback Highway to head back to civilization. We stopped in Lyndhurst at the 24/7 diesel bowser to put $99.00 worth of fuel in the tank to keep us going until Hawker.

We decided that it might be slim pickings for a late lunch in Hawker, so pulled in at Copley to visit the Copley Bush Bakehouse and Quandong Cafe for an early meal break. We had really good sausage rolls last year and hoped for more of the same. We were sadly disappointed with only pies in the pie warmer. They were in little foil trays too so I suspect they were not even made on the premises, but warmed up this morning from the freezer. I’m pretty sure it has changed ownership since last year and not for the better. The cafe at Leigh Creek on our way up was a much better option. Ah well, something in our stomachs to keep us going.

We arrived in Hawker about 1.30pm and visited their facilities. Woo hoo, a flushing toilet rather than squatting behind a bush. I won’t mind if it is a long time before I have to use the bush toilet again. Before leaving town we filled the tank with diesel at the BP Servo and purchased chocolate. We ran out of chocolate coming into Birdsville and didn’t restock when we shopped at the Birdsville Roadhouse. Now THAT was quite an oversight!!

Only a few kilometres south of Hawker we turned onto R M Williams Way. Just around the corner we saw a few emus in a paddock in Craddock. We are still surprised about how little wildlife we saw out in the desert. Aside from the handful of emus, we were quite clearly back in agricultural/pastoral country with fields of wheat and grazing sheep. It seemed like a long time since we had seen any sheep, with cattle the preferred stock further north on the big outback stations.

We motored through Carrieton, Ororroo and Peterborough, where Bernie was pulled over to be breathalysed! He blew too hard on his first attempt and nearly blew the straw off. The policeman had to reseat it and ask Bernie to blow again to get his reading, which was all clear. After this short delay we were wished a good weekend and sent on our way.

We cut across to Sunnybrae then stopped in at Terowie. We had been given a tip by one of our travelling companions that Terowie makes for an interesting stop. The town is heritage-listed and known for its well-preserved 1880s stone buildings. We took a stroll through its eerily quiet streets snapping photos of the atmospheric old buildings. The town is also know for its railway history (it was a bustling break-of-gauge railway junction until the line closed in 1970) and is famous as the site where General MacArthur stepped off a train on the 20th of March 1942 and said ‘I came through and I shall return’. The town probably deserved more than the half a hour that we spent, but the afternoon was getting away and we had a room booked in Morgan.

We continued on the Barrier Highway (A32) to Burra, where we tuned onto the Burra Road. Only a short way down the road we passed the turn off for the Worlds End Highway … again. We have passed the turn off on a few trips now. One day we’ll have to take the road to the Worlds End to see what we might find?

The Burra Road delivered us to Morgan by about 5.30pm. With the IGA due to close at 6.00pm we drove straight to the supermarket to pick up a couple of items for breakfast tomorrow. From the town centre we drove the short distance back to the Morgan Colonial Motel to check in. We have stayed at this motel before, so knew we would have a clean and comfortable room for the night and a hot shower.

When we checked in our host advised us that only the Terminus Hotel is doing meals at the moment, with the Commercial Hotel currently renovating its dining room. That made our decision easy, off to the Terminus Hotel for dinner. Anything from the hotel’s kitchen was going to be better than the reconstituted meal we attempted last night. We were very happy to enjoy veal Parma’s with chips and salad. I was even happier that they offered half serves so I didn’t have to try to get through a whole schnitty.

From the posts on our WhatsApp group it seemed that our group was now spread out between a camp somewhere on the Birdsville Track, the Flinders Ranges, Outback Queensland and the eastbound route towards Victoria and NSW taking in Orroroo, Peterborough, Morgan, Renmark and Mildura. How quickly we had dispersed!