Tibooburra - Birdsville
Submitted: Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 18:49
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Member - Neil M (NSW)
This is my first post on Exploroz.
We are taking off in two weeks heading for Birdsvliie for the races, via
Tibooburra, Camerons Corner,
Innamincka,
Walkers Crossing,
Birdsville.
We travel with a LC100TD and a 20' Bushtracker caravan. We have travelled extensively with this rig through the outback on many 4WD-only tracks.
This region is new to us, and with the recent rain, we are wondering if any of these roads are closed. We can cope OK with corrugations, bulldust, & gibbers, but don't need to get unnecessarily bogged.
Would also welcome any suggestions of
camping locations & must-see sites in the region.
Neil M
Reply By: Member - Terry G (NSW) - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:17
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:17
Neil
Walkers Crossing is closed and the general consensus seems to be that it might be closed for the season. Plenty of other alternatives available. But go to trek notes on the menu to the left and then select road conditions. This will tell you everything you want to know.
tg
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Reply By: boulder - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:20
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:20
Hi Neil,
we just got back from trip in
Diamantina national park coming home via
Birdsville, innaminkca and
bore track to
cameron corner. the
bore track was graded only two weeks ago and is very good condition,it is also in flower and a great drive we camped in the red dunes about half way down the track and it was tops.
There were people towing trailers and campers and there were no troubles, the road from
tibooburra to wannarring was a bit rough, but from wannarring to
Bourke was very good. we got home on sat 14th and all roads were open and in good repair.
hope this of some help.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Trevor R (QLD) - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:27
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:27
Welcome with your first post Neil. This site is not all about the
forum as you are probably aware, you may not however realise the road conditions report part of the site so I will put a link up that may be of interest. I hope it helps in some way. The map is interactive and if you click on any of the other roads on the map you will be taken to that sections road report. I just got back from
Birdsville a week ago towing my Supreme without any drama to speak of, the B/v track is in great condition but the development road in from
Windorah was slow going the last 40km into
Birdsville, otherwise good.
Safe travels,
Trevor.
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Reply By: George_M - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:48
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 19:48
G'day Neil
Seems like me and my 91yo mate will be right behind you. We'll be in
Tibooburra about 6 August, and
Innamincka a day later. We plan to spend about a week around
Cooper Creek and the Lakes
Keep an eye out for two old blokes in a white Prado with a roof bag:-)
George
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Sand Man (SA) - Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 02:12
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 02:12
Hi George,
Does your 91yo mate share the driving with you:-))
Seriously though, good on you.
It's never too old to travel and
camp in our great outdoors.
Sometimes it just takes someone else to take you there.
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Follow Up By: George_M - Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 09:18
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 09:18
He still has a drivers license, Sandman, but he tells me that driving his Mazda 2 is a little bit different to driving 2.5 tonnes of Prado:-)
He's driving over from Victor Harbour to meet me in
Melbourne, and will drive home when we get back.
He's an amazing old bloke who has two great travelling advantages - he gets me organised to do these trips in the first place, and he is an absolutely fantastic
cook!
George
FollowupID:
514401
Reply By: Diver1 - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 21:40
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 21:40
beautiful way to get around out there.....
not sure of the rain an road closures but
places to go to etc....
travelling from tib to the corner is fine....just a dirt track really....the pub at the corner is really a non - event.....just get a photo of the petrol price!!
from the corner to
innamincka we travelled via merty merty through the gas fields but only by accident....never saw the
sign for bollards
lagoon turn off.
innamincka is a good place to re fuel and head the 60km to DIG tree....burke and wills saga.....and visit one of the
graves along the way.....
innamincka -
birdsville along
walkers crossing is a bit of everything...
sand dunes - wild flowers - dead forests......we left
innamincka about 11am....lunch at the
walkers crossing memorial about 2pm and got into
birdsville about 6.15pm and had dinner at the pub.
how do you go on
sand dunes??? theres a fair few out there especially just beore the corner and afterwards.
some where out there is the famous yellow double decker bus....cannt remember how far after
cameron corner but its out there.....we camped about another 30km past it between the dunes.
have a good trip....hope this has helped a little...
Laura
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Duncs - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 23:11
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 23:11
Oh
Laura,
We had one of the best afternoons ever at the pub at Cameron's Corner.
Lots of laughs for a very small investment, and that went to a good cause. We had to leave 'cause our sides were hurting from laughing too much and the sun was way to low in the sky.
The yellow bus is west of Cameron's Corner and if you go up the
Bore Track you will miss it. You say you missed the turn off to The
Bore Track. You can just about see it from the CC Store. Head west towards Merty Merty and the track goes gently downhill as it turns slightly to the left and goes uphill there is a turnoff to the right, that is the
Bore Track. It's only about 2km west of the corner. Don't forget to call into the
homestead at Bollards
Lagoon and pay the $10 for use of the track, it's money
well spent. If you have any doubts jsut ask in the store.
Duncs
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Follow Up By: Diver1 - Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 23:17
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007 at 23:17
hey Duncs......
Dunno how we missed the turn off hey...there were 3 cars so we were just chatt'n away as usual!!! oh
well...it wasan experience going through the gas fields anyway!! we saw a
homestead about 15km up but the
sign just said b&b so we thought it might have been a little further....but it worked out
well - we would have had to back track to
innamincka to re fill before going back towards dig tree!!
Im sure corner pub is good but when we all walked in (9 of us all up) no one even flinched - like no one saw us so we just walked out - were going to get a coldy or 2 and a bite to eat.....
have a good 1....Im going to bed....nighty nighty all!!
Laura
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Duncs - Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 21:07
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 21:07
I know what you mean by no one being interested when you walk into the pub.
Years ago we walked into the Lions Den Hotel (Between
Cairns and
Cooktown), everyone looked up and then we ordered coffee. You could see the enthusiasm drain from the faces behind the bar.
Duncs
FollowupID:
514500
Reply By: Member - Neil M (NSW) - Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 18:05
Thursday, Jul 19, 2007 at 18:05
Many thanks for all of the advice. Will check at Innaminca re the latest on
Walkers Crossing, however I expect it will be closed for some time.
Trevor, Thanks for the link most helpful
George, Will keep an eye out for for the white fourby with the antique contents.
Laura, thanks for the info. Have traversed some
sand dunes on the way toi Old Andaddo, but these had a decent road over them. We traversed the sand across the Finke twice on this trip without problems. Also the Finke crossing at
Palm Valley where we had to back up 50m & up the bank of the Finke to allow a 4WD bus to extract itself after getting bogged in the sand. The Bushtracker goes where we do, havent been stuck yet, so want to keep it that way, but don't want to restrict our travels.
Looking forward to the Corner to
Innamincka &
Birdsville. Last year we had planned to travel to Innaminca via
Walkers Crossing from
Birdsville, but struck a sandstorm as we were leaving
Birdsville where the visibility was down to about 30 - 50 metres. We headed east on the
Birdsville Development Road instead.
Were a couple of oldies just short of 70, & prefer to travel by ourselves, at our own pace & not eat dust in a convoy.
Neil
AnswerID:
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