Flight over Lake Eyre and Cooper Creek

Hi Stephen, won't the road be boggie and dug up from all the traffic soon?

Cheers

Deanna in a panic again.

Hi Deanna
When we were there, there were 4 separate grader teams working in the area and the roads were in very good condition. They will only become boggy from local rain if they get any.

We head off in 4 weeks via the Simpson, so it will be a further 2 weeks after that until we get back an relax by the Cooper.

Cheers

Stephen

Hi again Stephen, Gee I'm a panic merchant LOL. I really don't want to miss it this time, we have never been in a position whereby we could just pack up and head out there before. We leave Perth in 7 weeks time, and won't be down the Birdsville til well after the races. Ruth mentioned that the fish weren't biting so well, I told our friend who is a mad fisherman, Ray said he really didn't care if the fish were biting or not he will still enjoy trying, so not sure on times for our return trip.

Will you be putting up a post or something about the Simpson trip, would be interested on how you find it out there. We are going the Frenchline, (isn't that the chicken run over the Simpson?LOL) into Birdsville getting there about the 30th and looking forward to catching up with Ruth & Ian, sounds like a great time to be had.

Thanks again so much for your ever reasurring replies, they do stop the panic.

Cheers

Deanna

Hey D, stop fussing! Just enjoy the journey - it's going to be GREAT. Make sure you keep your eyes open so you don't miss anything. LOL.

Hi Deanna
You are in for a real treat and Ian and Ruth are down to earth, fantastic company.
I will do a report for you when we get back. From our previous Simpson trips, which been very many times, there is one very important rule for an easy trip across......TYRE PRESSURE.

What makes me laugh is people saying how hard the tracks are and they are blown over, you get the drift what I am talking about. The hardest Simpson trip that we have undertaken was our GEO Simpson Trip, pure cross country with no tracks to follow for over 400 kilometres, that is what you call hard.

If the sand is soft, do not muck around with pressure. I would go straight to 14psi and gauge it from there. You will only be travelling slow and you will have less strain on your vehicle. As for Big Red, there have been times when we have dropped to 10psi and just glide up, while all the people with high tyre pressure get stuck every time and cut the tracks up.

It is not a race over the Simpson, take your time with low tyre pressure and you will get through with not problems at all.

All the best and have a great trip, and lots of big fish, not unless Ian has caught them all first..LOL


Regards

Stephen

Hi Everyone

It was a great trip and will be doing it again sooner rather than later, thanks to Stephen for all the info posted re conditions prior to my trip, great and thanks again.

I just have to work out a system for storing and cataloguing photo's, filled a 2 gig card every day . . lol

Cheers

Ray

Hi Ray
Yes now you can see why we are going back again in August, just so unreal..

Now the best and cheapest way of storing data from your computer would be to get a mini USB portable hard drive. The prices of them have dropped over the last couple of years and you can now get a 500 GB one for under $130. In that way you can back up all your computer contents and know that they are safe. Just make your folders as you would usually do and that way you can keep a record of where you have filed various information, including photos for easy access. If you are travelling without a computer, most good quality 2GB SD cards are around $15 and 4GB SD Cards are around $24 so you could buy extra cards so you do not run out of memory. One thing that I would strongly advise is always take your photos on your maximum quality, as I have seen people that are running low of storage downgrade the image quality just to get extra pictures on a card.

Once again, thank you for your great pictures, it looked unreal from the air.


Regards

Stephen

Hi Stephen

I have a 500 gig passport storage for backup, computer tech said I needed one, but that stays at home.

I travelled with 2 x 2 gig cards, but will get a couple more and was travelling with a Eee PC for downloading the cards.

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Set up seems to work ok, my camera is a Panasonic Lumix 10 meg, 12x, with a 35-420 lens, I don't play with the settings, take the max, good for playing in photoshop, seems to be just about the handiest camera since the old Pentax Spotmatics I had years ago, just have to learn to drive this one.

Cheers and have a great weekend.

Hi Ruth, will take your advice on board LOL, yes I will keep my eyes open, I don't like missing anything when we are out in those places. I think the big attraction for me is we were lucky enough to see the landscape in it's normal state and now we have the opotunity to see it in flood. How fantastic is that?

Thanks again for information Stephen, have taken note of tyre pressures, We have done Big Red before but I realise that each year is a different year. The fish, well the longer we wait maybe the bigger the fish (that's if Ian leaves enough) LOL.

Cheers

Deanna waiting very patiently now LOL

Hi Ruth

Yep, big mobs of fun, will have to catch up when I am in Birdsville again.

Was that you and the better half taking the chocolate pups and the 4 legged feline for a walk the other morning ( I couldn't get out of the toasty warm swag to find out)?

Cheers

Ray

Ray was it two weeks ago? Probably was us - dunno anyone else who has such a menagerie (the feline thinks he's another chocolate pup). Ruth

Hi Ruth

Yep two weeks ago, morning after the State of Origin, the pups look great and the feline has attitude, looked like it was showing you the way back to the food bowl . . lol

All the best, Cheers

Ray, were you down the bottom near us - Troopie? Motorbikes? Why didn't you come and say hello - I'm not that scary ( don't say anything DD or others).

Hi Ruth

We were on the non power terrace with water views, ok, I'll drop in next time out there.

Cheers

Hi Chris

Just must do the flight . . . !!

The flight from Marree was a 2.5 hour flight for $250 pp, but we seemed to take of at 1100am and landed at 1400pm, value, not saying that every flight will be the same.

Yep, you may see me on the track, perhaps lost, perhaps confused, but having a great time.

Cheers

Ray

Those are interesting dollar figures Ray.

Only yesterday we decided not to go to William Creek for a WrightsAir flight because their website had a 60 minute flight listed at $440 per person.

I figured I could look at the photos, like yours, on EO and save $880.

Or use that money for a return flight to Bali with a week in a hotel.

$440 per person is just too much. If it is actually less than that, then they are losing business because of the figures on their website.

Hi Gonebush

Yep, we were pretty happy with the price and the flight, booked at the General Store/Bakery in Marree, just had a look at their website, I can see what your saying about price from William Creek, perhaps they have put price up to take advantage of holiday times . .

Cheers

Hi Greendog

Yep, special, just awsome.

Cheers