Australia - 2017

During July we headed west for a leisurely 1,600 km drive over a few days, to enjoy 3 days of music whilst sitting on a dry lake bed at the base of the largest red sand ridge people need to cross before heading further west into the Simpson Desert.

Yes we had ventured out to participate in the festival atmosphere of the 2017 Big Red Bash, joining over 6,000 other like-minded people in this unique environment.

Once the ‘Bash’ was over, our return trip included a detour to enjoy a few days of hiking through the remote but stunning Carnarvon Gorge before arriving back home a total of some 4,700 kms later.

The trip to Birdsville, a small iconic town of normally 115 people but almost 7,000 with either the 'Bash' or the races on, famous for its pub built in 1884 and located on the edge of the desert, was reasonably uneventful until we reached Windorah where we met our friends who were joining us for the ‘Bash’.

With our little pop-top caravans in tow and almost 400 kms still to go before reaching Birdsville, we soon left the bitumen road and joined a fairly rocky and a very dusty dirt road.

Heading towards Birdsville

other travellers heading towards the 'Bash'

With so many other people heading to the ‘Bash’, most with caravans or camper trailers in tow, for nearly 300 kms we had to contend with lots of dust plumes and/or flying stones as impatient travellers charged past us.

We even managed to enjoy changing a punctured tyre on our friends’ car along the way which at least allowed us to watch as the constant caravan of cars passed by.

 There were long queues for fuel at the only 2 petrol stations in Birdsville and once topped up again and having collected our ‘Bash’ wristbands, we drove a small distance out of town to set up camp for the night with thousands of others scattered all over the place in the scrub.

Queue at 7:30am waiting to get into the 'Bashville'

It was a little like a wagon charge in the wild west early next morning, as people headed further west for the 40 km drive to the edge of the desert and by 7:30am, we found ourselves sitting in a queue behind hundreds of other vehicles, waiting to get into ‘Bashville’, the huge half moon camping area on the lake bed.

After a few hours wait and great help from all the volunteers, we were setting up camp next to our friends before venturing off for the first of a few climbs up the 40 mtr Big Red, the first and highest sand dune to be crossed before entering the Simpson Desert proper.

Setting up camp on the lake bed

During the next 3 days we enjoyed the music, the atmosphere, the friendly strangers, the scenery from atop Big Red…

'Bashville' drone view from above... courtesy of Big Red Bash website

view of 'Nashville' from the top of Big Red

some great sunrises and sunsets…

sunrise over 'Bashville'

sunset over the Simpson Desert with our friends

a trip on a bus back to the Birdsville pub for a few cold ones…

out front of the famous Birdsville pub!

at front bar of Birdsville pub

campfires each night, some excellent food, a few more cold ones and the scenery…

campfire at our camp

and oh… did I say the music!

    

music during the day

music as the sun set with people atop Big Red behind

and music into the night

including listening to music standing on top of Big Red

Then there was the dust, very fine light coloured dust from the lake bed stirred up by thousands of revellers, and it seeped into and onto most things, BUT it is the price you pay when going bush to enjoy all it has to offer.

dust rising as people walk through 'Nashville' at sunset

When it was all over, 6,000+ people in thousands of vans/trailers had to leave and yep, more good-natured queues and a very slow 40 km drive back to Birdsville which took a mere 2 hours.

queue leaving 'Bashville' back to Birdsville

The drive back to Windorah was more ‘stimulating’ simply due to many more people rushing back to their jobs, so a lot more dust and stones as they charged past us.

At Windorah, the police stopped us as we drove into town for a random breath test, the first question being asked by the older policeman, “before we do this, who was the best band at the Bash mate?”

Outside Windorah we found a free camp with our friends for our final night together on the banks for the Coopers Creek, and soon had another campfire underway, the light from the flames dancing their patterns amongst the branches of the gum trees above us.

Further on we stopped for a few days in Longreach cleaning the dust out of our little van, washing clothes and stocking back up on food before then heading to Carnarvon Gorge.

There are no camping areas for vans in the gorge, so we set up in one of the 2 closest bush style camping parks outside of the National Park.  By ‘bush style’ I mean the feel of it with lots of trees, a river flowing through it where if you’re lucky enough you may see platypus and wallabies or lots of birdlife everywhere.

the local wallabies

There is a lot to see and do within the gorge and all of it involves hiking, so in 2 days we visited most of the attractions and walked more than 28 kms to achieve our goals.

some of the scenery found in Carnarvon Gorge

On our way out to Windorah and then on the return journey home, especially after leaving Carnarvon Gorge, most nights were spent free camping at some of the hundreds of places available.

We love being near water, whether it’s a river or dam, so we enjoyed a number of nights camped next to the water of weirs enjoying the heat from our campfire each night, again with the glow of the setting sun amongst the silhouette of trees on the shoreline.

great free camp next to water

sunset at another free camp

Being back out in the country and bush is certainly something we enjoy a lot and going forward, the plan is to balance our travel between overseas and within Australia… especially the more remote parts of our country, so until next time… 

go well!