Big Red
Submitted: Thursday, May 06, 2004 at 19:50
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Willem
The truth about Big Red.
Seventeen years had elapsed since screaming my Suzuki over Big Red. Last Sunday I drove out to this icon of
the desert. These days a wide graded road from
Birdsville takes you there where the majority of desert travellers cross over on their Simpson trek. This cross over point is know as
Little Red and is 58 metres ASL.(At the
information sign it is 39 metres ASL and so the drive up the sand
hill is only 19 metres in perpendicular height). The southern blow at this crossing which I did not climb is approximately 68 metres ASL. The original
Big Red crossing lies 3 kilometres to the north. On the flat at this point the height is 35 metres ASL. The crossover point is 65 metres ASL.( It was at this crossinjg where I drove the Suzuki over). The northern blow is 70 metres ASL and the Southern Blow is 75 metres ASL. This cross over point is no longer used and is vitually impossible to cross due to the nature of the sand at this point in time. There is a crossing a little further to the south which may be conquerable. Nevertheless I managed to walk up the dune with the aid of my stick and a few short rest stops in between to take the measurements and some pics. It brought back fond memeories of our desert adventure all those years ago.
Reply By: Andrew - Thursday, May 06, 2004 at 21:19
Thursday, May 06, 2004 at 21:19
Willem
We were up there on the Anzac weekend.
Big Red was a challenge as I had to drop from 20 to 17psi to get over it in my GU. The auto disco did i easily with only 12psi (!) and the GU ute with camper on top made it right to the top and I towed him over.
While we there we heard a group (who were actually camped next to us in BV) struggling to get over the bypass track.
I havent uploaded my (film camera) pix yet but I have put the digi pix from one of our group up on my site:
Birdsville 2004
Andrew H
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Follow Up By: TonyT - Friday, May 07, 2004 at 09:32
Friday, May 07, 2004 at 09:32
Great photos- when will the next instalment be up- cheers TonyT
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Follow Up By: Willem - Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 15:50
Saturday, May 08, 2004 at 15:50
Andrew,
Yes you went over where I have said it was night impossible. When I was there on Sunday 2nd there had been no fresh tracks over for a few days at least...lots of back downs though.... and there was a sandblow of about 2 metres at the apex of the track. On my crossing in 1987 we made the track to the right as there was none then. Others must have followed the tracks over the years and now it is a regular feature. This time around I did not need to put my
old truck to any more stress than necessary and decided to walk up instead.
When up at the top of Big Red and looking east the second sandhill in the distance seems higher than BR. Maybe it is just an optical illusion. Anyway that track is on the station property and they do not want visitors on it.
Cheers
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