29th April - Official Meeting # 2.

Time for another meeting - emails flying to try and find a date/time/location...as follows.

An afternoon type gathering was mentioned - 

So,  begins the arduous task of agreeing on a date/time/location etc etc........

Btw you may remember Nic put up a messenger group thingy on floodwater heading to Birdsville? Well, it has arrived - see link below.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-07/water-brings-new-life-to-channel-country/9626056 

Good news is that the desert area should be looking good. Bad news is that the Warburton crossing is likely to be still shut when we head up that way and if so we will have to go up to Birdsville to get in to the desert. The distance from Birdsville up the Hay River is about 150km less than from Mungerannie but there will be more sand dunes to cross so......

Also, permits are needed for the Hay River track so we will to get organised re who is coming etc. We will also need Desert Parks Passes however they are reasonably easy to get.

So we have a date - 29th April.

A place if Drouin is ok to you all?

Soooo - time? Are we doing an afternoon drifting in to dinner thing?

Bbq or pizza/etc?

It will probably need to be a lengthy meeting as we don't normally get around to talking about the trips much - but as the water currently at Birdsville is heading south that probably will impact access in to the south of the Simpson. No real issue - we just need to have options.....

We could keep these emails going for some time yet 

Regards

SS

Who is in, who is not.

I was in after getting leave approved, Meg not so sure, Jadon and Bec - no, Kate, no, Ro - no, Michael - no.

INITIAL MEETING NOTES

Depart LV 23.6.18

24.6.18 - meet and camp at Parachilna. OR The intersection of Yunta Rd and Wilpena crk where we will bush camp. OR
Meet at Yunta at lunchtime on Sunday 24 to be sure we all know what’s going on. OR
backup meet at Innamincka day three - Monday.
LEAVING
Jackson’s - lFriday
Nic - Saturday am
Mary/Phil - Saturday am
Stef and Milani - Saturday?
Steve and co - Saturday pm

Ron Moon - crossing the bight. 

Dear all,

Following our very pleasant bbq on Sun (thanks to all, especially as you all left my fridge far fuller than it started!!) it seems we have a bit of a plan for our trip.

My understanding of said plan is:

We will head up to Birdsville via Yunta, Lake Frome, and part of the Strzelecki Track. 

As the Jacksons will probably leave before Sat, and the Daveys won't leave until Sat afternoon we discussed meeting somewhere on Sunday. The destination seemed to change every time one of us left the room, and it didn't seem to matter who it was at that time....

However I think  we finally agreed we would aim for a Sun lunch meeting at Yunta. We should be in phone contact all Sat so it should not be a problem sorting this on the fly.

We will refuel at Innamincka and head across Walkers Crossing to the Birdsville Track and up to Birdsville.

From Bridsville we go across to Peoppel Corner and north up the Hay River Track. We will need around 700km range for this however there will be more sand dunes to cross compared with coming up from Mungerannie via the Warburton Crossing, and we will be going over the large dunes fully loaded....

From Jervois we head in towards Alice, and on the way could travel via Cattlewater Pass to look around Arltunga and Ruby Gap, plus other places in the Eastern MacDonnell ranges.

After a refuel/refresh in Alice we head down the Old Andado Track to Mt Dare then Dalhousie and east in to the Simpson. We did discuss Uluru and the Field of Lights but that is a 1000 odd km detour so I think we lost interest in that?

If we get lucky and the Warburton Crossing is open by the time we get back to Poeppel Corner - unlikely - we could head down to Mungerannie however we most likely will be heading across to Birdsville. From there part of the the Morgan/Willshires will head North East, and the rest of us home, some way or the other...

We will need to think about when we apply for the Hay River permit - I suspect they shouldn't take too long, but maybe in the next 2 or 3 weeks?????

We can buy Desert Parks Passes at Innamincka, Birdsville,  or you can buy them on line - 15 working days delivery.

As always, thanks Nic for draft notes, and please let me know if I have got think wrong or missed anything.

SS