How long needed for Sydney - Simpson - Sydney

You've got a day or two up your sleeve each way Sydney/Birdsville. I'll leave the other sections for others to comment on. Depends on the road/weather conditions prevailing at the time.

As you are heading to Birdsville why not do the Simpson east to west ? Look at your time table at Dalhousie and decide if you want to include Mt Dare and Chambers Pillar. Also don't forget the Painted Desert.

Smudger,
I once drove birdsville to sydney straight through....... It takes 29 hours of actual driving. Birds to maree I have not done. Maree to dalhousie in 3 days is nice. Can be done in a very long day. French line in 3 days is comfortale 7 hrs drive each day
peter

Smuger,

Looks fine to me. Both times I did the Simpson straight across it was 2 nights and 3 days for the crossing without pushing it. Depends how long you want to stop to smell the daisy's.
Have fun.

Just to confuse the issue- I would suggest a West to East.
The shape of the dunes are 'gentler' from the West.
And also- if driving from the East- you'll have the low afternoon sun right in your face !!
Also, it's great to have a good shower & cold beer (or 3) when you get to Birdsville!!

Which way to Birdsville are you going to go? We followed the NSW / QLD border and that was great but we were up that way anyway. Maybe even to broken hil and then up.


i recon that you could do it...maybe even cut back a day or 2 days to and from Birdsville and have those days in the simpson.....

Laura...

Why Birdsville twice?? If you go from Sydney to Maree direct you can do the west/east crossing of the Simpson as was suggested as being the best direction and have more relaxing times on the trip.

PeterD

How long? 8 days driving time....

2 days to Birdsville via Camerons Corner, Bore Track, Innamincka and Walkers Crossing

3 days across the Simmo. Can do it in 2 if you are in a hurry

3 days back to Sydney from Dalhousie.

Or vice versa.

Rest of the time RnR....lol

BTW Strzelecki Track is a big wide graded road(unless you take the Old Strz. which is also an easy run).

BVT to Marree can be done in a day....easy. Nice camp at Claytons Bore 52km out from Marree on BVT.


Cheers

we did it between 23-12-2005 to 6/10/05 7132klms & it was rushed, but I could not get any more time off .but we still had a great time.(i had also done it several times before)

Jervis bay NSW to hawker SA (Hawker was flooded when we arrived) first 2 days were long (kids watched DVDs) then we just took our time up the Oodnadatta track, spent a whole day & night at the peak telegraph station (donkeys ran thru the camp at night kid loved it) left Oodnadatta for a quick drive to the rock walked about the rock & Olga's then on to the geographic centre of Aust, on to Dalhousie across the Simpson via French line to Birdsville, then via walkers crossing (in the rain & mud) to Innamincka, the dig tree to Cameron's corner, Tibooburra, broken hill, Broken hill to Home (1 day) by putting in some big days in the beginning & at the end we had plenty of time to see most things & found we were travelling at the same pace as most other travellers.

but I would not recommend to anybody who's not use to doing long hauls to go out & try. I'm quite use to long hauls & I shared the driving & I could also sleep quite well in the patrol

You've got 18 days not a problem other than the disco (every vehicle we came across on that trip with problems was a disco good luck