Innaminka, Birdsville. Bedourie and Boulia

gate to South Australia

After leaving Tibooburra we headed for the other end of the Sturt NP and stopped at the Fort Grey campground.  Fort Grey was another of Sturt's depots. It is situated on a fresh water lake that only fills when there are floods.  After filling it takes seven years to dry up.  because of the floods a couple of years ago it was still quite full with a prolific bird population.  Next morning it was only 40km to Camerons corner, where the borders of NSW, SA and QLD meet.  The dingo fence runs along the borders and you actually have to open the gate to get into SA.

I don't think I have ever seen kangaroos and emus in such numbers as I have in the Sturt NP, they were grazing on the roadsides till quite late in the day and a large number of them seemed intent on becoming road kill.

Coolibah under which Burke died

From Fort Grey it was about 300km to Innamincka, the bloke at Camerons corner store called the road the rollercoaster.  Its unmade road all the way over many regularly spaced dunes, the last 45km was particularly rough with close corrugations and dust.  We camped in the town common on the banks of Cooper creek. Cooper creek and Burke and Wills is what Innamincka is famous for.  In the hundred km's of Cooper creek around Innamincka the tragic end of the B&W expedition was played out.  We saw the lagoon bank where Wills was left to die alone, the coolibah tree under which Burke died.  The dig tree, where supplies were left and the lagoon where King was found living with an aboriginal tribe.  Away from the creek the land is very arid, there is not much wild life other than dingo's/wild dogs and feral cats.  This place must be fly capital of the world.  It was a great relief when the sun went down and they disappeared.

Cath coming out of Birdsville Hotel

The next town north is Birdsville about 400km away.  There are a number of ways of getting there from Innamincka, I chose to go via the Walkers Crossing 4WD  track across to the Birdsville track.  For most of it's length the Walkers crossing track was a single lane sand track, however at various places there were detours along well constructed gravel and clay truck roads.  The whole area is full of gas and petroleum mining, there are roads running everywhere, unfortunately none of them are on any maps or my GPS. It was a pretty slow journey and took nearly seven hours to get to Birdsville
.

Birdsville is the gateway to the Simpson Dessert and many of the people passing through were about to cross or had just crossed the desert.  Not for us this time, from all reports its pretty rough and needs to be done in a group.  We did go out to see the  "big red" dune.  I didn't attempt to drive it.  It was too late in the day for digging.  It rained while we were at Birdsville and consequently a number of roads were closed .

We continued north to the next town of Bedourie.  It's claim to fame is the invention of the Bedourie Camp ven, an Australian icon.  There is not much here, but we stayed for a couple of days.  The roads further north were closed due to the rain. The town has a population of 120 and boasts a fine 25mtr swimming pool and 16 person thermal spa (40 degrees).  Use of this facility is free.

Station Road entrance

The road is opened and it is off to Boulia, home of the Min Min light.  The journey is across gibber plains with little vegetation.  There are quite a few cattle on these plains, they seem healthy , but I have no idea what they eat.  Along the road the tracks leading to the various properties are decorated, a couple of hundred pairs of old shoes, a faux marble outdoor setting, and a house without walls.  Out here it is a bit of desert humor, transport them to a converted warehouse gallery in Fitzroy and they would be art.

 The Min Min light is a mysterious ball of light that hovers and moves quickly and  has been  seen by many people over the past 100 years.  Unfortunately we didn't witness this phenomenon.  Boulia is also home to a collection of marine fossils which have been found in the area.  Unfortunately we were also too early for the highlight of the year in Boulia, the Camel races.

Tomorrow northwards.

More photos on the following link
https://plus.google.com/photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721#photos/111502274836770337051/albums/5881793933753214721