Tip Leader: Allan Barton
The time had finally come 13 vehicles and 18 people headed off to cross the Simpson desert via the Madigan line. We all made our way to Dalhousie Springs over the Kings birthday weekend in June. People stopped on the way at different places, Wentworth, Hawker, Morgan, Marree and Algebuckina Bridge with everyone arriving at Dalhousie Springs on the Tuesday 11th of June 2024.
We found a large area at Dalhousie Springs camp ground, where all of us could camp. It was quite busy. It was surprising that there were not more people swimming in the warm waters of the springs.
On Wednesday, 12 June 24, Morri was ready to go early and made his way to Mount Dare. The rest slowly headed off about an hour behind him. The road was corrugated in sections but overall very good. The graders had been out. We arrived at Mount Dare, everyone filled their tanks and jerry cans with diesel ready for the 760 km of the Madigan line .Souvenirs were purchased, meals eaten, drinks drunk. It was a bit of an early lunch or late breakfast when we headed off.
We arrived at Old Andado Station mid afternoon and set up camp for the night. It is a great place with plenty of room to camp. The old Andando station itself is just magnificent. The station home has been left in the place, including old food containers. Molly’s (the owner) after she died they left the house the way it had been, clothing and everything else is the way it was when she was alive, fascinating place to overnight.
On Thursday, 13th of June, we headed up to join the Madigan line, smoko was at the Mac Clark Conservation Reserve which is one of only two areas left where you can find the Acacia Peruce tree in Australia. The early settlers loved them as the wood was very hard and made great fence posts as the ants didn’t eat them.
We continued on to camp 5 of the Madigan line. It was surprising how corrugated and rocky the road was. You cannot visit camp 1,2,3 or 4 as they are on native title areas and the owners do not allow people to visit them. We arrived at camp 5, a large area and camped up for the night. We had a great fire and most people retired by about 9 o’clock. It had been a long day.
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we travelled to Madigan line. The scenery was fabulous and glorious. The dunes were not a great deal of trouble to get over as we were travelling east to West. The early parts of the dunes were covered with shrubs, as we progressed further the shrubs dropped off to become spinifex a while later they changed back to scrub again. We are most fortunate that four weeks before we arrived, Birdsville was an island as everywhere up there had a good amount of rain the wildflowers were coming out. The trees were green. There was nothing dry about the area. It was a sea of red sand and green vegetation.
The pictures which you have seen will tell you how beautiful the sunrises and sunsets were, just fantastic. This is a trip that everyone, if they can, should do. We found travel was limited to about 80 to 100 k’s a day and that was enough.
The weather was fantastic cool mornings but not cold no ice or condensation apart from two mornings we had a bit of condensation. The days were 25 to 30° Pack up was so simple. Nothing was wet. Nothing was damp and everyone had been packed up by 8:30 quarter nine with no rush. We headed off most mornings around 9 o’clock and we wanted to be finished by about 4 o’clock. Fires were kept minimum as the only wood we really had was what we carried, basically two bags a night but that was enough. It wasn’t overly cold.
Monday and Tuesday.
On Monday we finished the Madigan line at Camp 15 and turned onto the Hay River track which now is running between the dunes and not crossing them. We headed off and it was a different sort of country again, due to being a river course. There were now smallish gum trees and the scenery was different again. We camped up on the Hay River track, one side of the road had bindis and the other side didn’t so everyone moved over to the right side.
Today Tuesday we were travelling down to Popples corner the junction of the NT, SA, and QLD.
At Popples corner, Alex‘s mum and dad turned up in a different form of transportation for the desert. We headed back up to the QAA line on the alternate route running along the edge of a large claypan back to the QAA line if you moved off the track area you may have had a very long stay sunk to your diffs in mud. We found a large camp area on the QAA line and burnt all the wood that we had left as this was our last night in the desert.
Wednesday. Arrived at Birdsville but before we got there it was to have some fun on big red, the last clay pan on big red we had to go through some of the water. The tracks were hard packed so there was not any problems getting through various people had great fun on big red trying different tracks and different ways to get to the top. Eventually we all got to the top some on the hard tracks some on the easy way.
We had done the trip across the Madigan line about lunchtime we headed off to Birdsville which was on blacktop, it was a nice change after the sand and corrugations we had had for the last 7 days. After looking around Birdville and people getting motel rooms, caravan sites and campsites we all met up at the pub for dinner. The only person missing was Ruby, as she had headed off for Marree to go to a 21st Saturday night in Bendigo. It was a good meal and everyone had an excellent time, a great end to the trip. The next day people headed off in various ways and groups home.
On the last day in the Simpson we finally found a camel.
All the vehicles got through with only minor problems, Lee with a fridge, Tim in need of repair to his diff lock, Geoff needed to rebuild his drawers and fridge slide. Most other vehicles had rattles and noises they hadn’t had before, eight days in the desert on the roads we were driving, certainly had shaken things about
Thanks again for a most enjoyable trip, yes I had flown over this countryside before but never understood how beautiful it was from the ground
