Saturday, 16 July 2011

Day 2 - 2011 Mini-Desert trip

After a great nights sleep in the cabins and a positive sounding weather
forecast for Birdsville we decided to head off to WIndorah and to stay
there the night, hoping the Birdsville road would be open the following
day. We slept in until 8'ish and after packing we headed into town for
brekky at the bakery. Then off to Windorah at about 9:15 am. It was a
pretty uneventful trip, although for some reason the Paj was drinking
diesel not as frugally as it should. Along the way we saw Kangaroos,
Emus and chicks, and pigs and piglets.

We stopped at Cooper Creek Bridge for a look, there was tons of water
and heaps of birdlife, so we took a few photos. The ground was very
clayie and we built up a considerable amount of mud on our tyres and
shoes. Then it was into town where we initially had some good news at
the information centre that the road to Birdsville was open to 4WD's
which is what we were driving, so we were happy. But it turns out the
this road crosses two Shire Councils and the one at the Birdsville end
said it was OK but the one at the Windorah end said it was closed. SO,
we have to wait until the morning to see if it opens. Apparently a lot
of people have come through from the Birdsville side and although they
looked muddy they had no problems.

After, a burger at the pub for lunch we headed out to the west for a bit
of a drive and took some photos of the dunes. We came back to Windorah
and refueled and headed back to drive along the Nature track which would
take us back to Cooper Creek. Along the way we found a perfect camp
site, which will be involved in our Plan B if the road to Birdsville
doesn't open in the morning. Then it was back to the cabins for a relax
and shower before dinner.

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