Saturday, 4 January 2020

17.7.18 Birdsville To Innamincka

The plan was to depart at 8.00 for breaky at the bakery and if they had no food then breaky at the pub.

We were pretty much all up and packed by 8.00, so off we went to the bakery, snagged a table and placed our orders. While we were there they called that they were down to their last serve of bacon. No pies, no bacon. Things are thin.  

Mary and Phil leave us today as they head North to join friends for a yacht cruising the Witsundays.  


Mary was lent a selfie stick from the woman at the next table.

Today’s track was 400km from Birdsville To Innamincka- there were some incredibly rocky rough parts and too many corrugations. And a bit of dust

The track

We all headed South for a bit and then parted as we turned off to Cordillo Downs and Mary and Phil continues towards Windorah and Winton 

Stopped on side of road for Mary to finish a phone call - it was so green at this spot.

Green

Green and even some water in the dams.  We had some early bitumen then bits of bitumen then reality hit

This was Sarah and Steve flying down the emergency airstrip. They had arms out which I failed to snap

Dust and corrugations were the constant.

We crossed back into South Australia but I failed to time the snap - at speed and on the passenger side

That one was better. Handy in case you missed the first one

We also entered Cordillo Downs Station. 

There it is a poll Hereford station.

Some ruins

Another form of ruin. Sad to see. Still on the track where it ground to a halt.

Broken front wheel.

Very broken. They had put the stuff from roof rack into the car. Spare wheel in front passenger seat and back crammed full too. Hopefully they had recovery organised soon.

Lunch stop by a creek and lots of Minnie Richie trees

Here’s one of the trees.

The bark is amazing in both colours and texture

Up close

And again.

Cordillo Downs Homestead



There she is. We stopped last year for a look. Good to see sims restoration work going on.



A few gates to open and close today.



We passed some beautiful red dunes today. The end of the Simpson maybe





Then track was covered in many stretches by this rock and some very big ones were on the track to be avoided. Between rocks and corrugations and Boggy patches it was a drive requiring concentration

Through a patch of trees



More very red dunes

Track and a dune.

Another wreck.

One of many creeks we passed through. Very few had water.

Red red dune





Entering Innamincka Reserve

Some rain must have fallen recently, as there was a green tinge and in places she track was still wet and muddy and side tracks were formed to go around the wet bits 

A working windmill. Most are wrecked and no  longer working

Col had a tyre issue. His guages were indicating air loss. Pumped it up twice to get to Innamincka 

Using the.compressor to blow it up 
We arrived at Innamincka and fuelled up and a bit of
Shopping for some, before heading over to the camping area. 

We set up and were ready to head over to The Inna for tea when Cols tyre was once again under inspection. It was thought that the issue was rhe tyre monotor thingy, but this was dismissed when Sarah and Milani could both hear and feel air escaping the tyre. So it was all hand to the wheel to get a repair happening. Issues with the jack made for a longer  fix. 

Col , Steve and Sarah getting the tyre ready to be plugged

One jack was a bit gunned up with dust and dirt so it was WD40 to the rescue

There’s the problem

Burning the paper towel used to wipe down the jack







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