Big Red and more about Birdsville

Our impressions of Birdsville are of flies dust and wind!! Nethertheless, the town has more than we’d imagined and with plenty of water from the artesian basin, has some gardens and green grass! Mind you, the caravan park is not very green.

                

The artesian water comes out at 98degrees and is used for power and cooled for town use. 

          

                    

We did a walk around the town and saw the airport, iconic hotel, old Royal Hotel and ended up with a coffee in the bakery. Such luxury!! I even had a quandong pie which was very nice. Note our beautiful hair styles and nets - thanks to the wind and flies!

   We also learned that Burke and Wills camped near here on the Diamantina River both on the way up to the Gulf and on their way back. It would have been a huge trek both ways through very inhospitable desert country! 

Our afternoon jaunt was out to Little Red & Big Red and the boys were pretty happy to satisfy their sand driving desires and we successfully got up both hills with no mishaps! The view from the top is pretty impressive.

                                   

  

Now we’re off to have a drink in the legendary pub 🍺🥂. In the morning we pack up again and set off down the Birdsville Track following the footsteps of the mailman Tom Kruse. I doubt we’ll have service again for a while. Good luck to all sports people this weekend - we sort of lose track of the days and what’s going on in the rest of the world. It was great to hear though that some rain finally fell at home!!

Till the next blog, 

Love from the travellers. ❌❌❌❌