Monday 24 March 2014

Big Red again

Kerry returned to Big Red at sunrise to capture some more of the magic. The highest part of it is 45m high-  so equal to a 15 storey building.  It is hard to show it in pics but he had a good try. No one has come across the Simpson from the west yet and the only ones who have tried from this side were 2 bike riders and they gave up and returned here yesterday.  The first ones across have to blaze the trail as all the roads are covered over with sand and Nature has taken over in the off seaon-  beautiful to behold.

Animal tracks
Kerry tracks
Goanna tracks
Unusual selfie
What a landscape!
Sunset same day- this is at Pelican Point not far from town. Not too many pelicans that day but 4 showed up for the photos!
Gorgeous colours
still the flies reign supreme - through the windscreen
local camels

Sunday 16 March 2014

More from Birdsville

It's a week since we arrived and we have settled in well. The computer programs are not so daunting, the cleaning is becoming routine and we continue to find things to do in the afternoons that are of interest nearby. This post shows some of them.


The Diamantina River - old crossing now a bridge upstream
The sunsets here are amazing
Burke and 
Wills were here too

You can faintly see 1860 carved into the slash
Birdsville cemetry

Flies flies flies
Waddi trees  - prehistoric trees that grow for 1000 years
Ali in uniform near a waddi
Kerry also in uniform
selfie
love the population!
The famous Birdsville race track
The track itself

Wednesday 12 March 2014

A MONTH IN BIRDSVILLE

Welcome back for another episode in the Dawson wanderings. We are in Birdsville for a month managing the caravan park. We got the job because when we were travelling through last year we left our names and contact so that if any relief managers were needed we were available. The guy who leases the park lives at Moffat Beach!  We flew out here on Monday on a twin engine plane and landed 5 times-  Toowoomba, Charleville, Quilpie, Windorah and then Birdsville.  We were grateful to finally get here. Its been a steep learning curve since we arrived-  learning how to run a caravan park is not a walk in the park with various computer programs to deal with as well a motel business on the side with rooms and cabins to make up and clean. Kerry has grass and trees to water, help me with cleaning and do any repairs. We have a truck, quad bike and a push bike so we can get around quite well. Our accommodation is a 3 bedroom airconditioned house with everything in it. Our shopping is done by colesonline and is delivered every 2 weeks but the shop has heaps of stuff if we run out.
We went out to see Big Red at sunset last night. It is the first and biggest of the 1100 dunes on the Simpson Desert. It was amazing to see the untouched dune in all its glory-  no vehicles for 6 months has given it a chance to regenerate. There was plenty of soft sand and without the vehicle tracks etched out up and down it-  it really  looks great. We will do more exploring over the month so look out for a couple of more posts.

The plane
The magnificent big red
looking back towards bordsville

Kerry sampling some of the local wares
Our house
BBQ area
Quad biker - minus his leathers
the shed
looking towards back of park
reception/shop

amenities block