We were planning to go to the pub for breakfast but they had run out of eggs! So it was toast for us.
We headed to the Birdsville Bakery to grab some lunch. They apparently have award winning pies.
The bakery was packed with people! They had pies such as Kangaroo and Claret pie and Curried Camel pie. I was disappointed, I wanted to try a kangaroo and claret pie but they had run out! It was normal mince beef pies for me then (it was very good too).
Next we went to the visitors centre to find out some information on road conditions. All the road to Innamincka were closed (including the ones we traveled on) and the road we travelled on yesterday from Windorah was closed too. Apparently it rained last night and the roads flooded.
We decided to head out to see the infamous 'Big Red' sand dune. It is a massive sand dune at the start of the Simpson Desert that is extremely hard to drive up.
Before we left though, the pub was relatively empty of cars out front so we posed our cars for a photo.
And then it was off to see Big Red!
We drove on a sandy track to reach the dunes. We had to do a bit of a detour around the usually empty lake that you drive through to reach Big Red.
We arrived at Little Red, a smaller sand dune that I got to drive Mum and Dad's car up. I got up it easy enough even with leaving the handbrake on accidentally!
James decided he wanted to practice going up a sand dune before tackling the Big Red. So he went down the other (much steeper) side of little red and drove back up.
It's quite weird driving on sand, it's so thick and soft that when you put your foot on the accelerator it feels like the car hardly moves haha.
After our fun on the sand dunes, we continued on to Big Red.
There are three main tracks on Big Red. The one on the left is the extra hard, basically impossible one, hardly anyone can get up that! The middle one is quite hard and only certain cars can get up it and the one on the right is the easier track. They call it the chicken track (even though that one is still quite difficult). The dune doesn't look that big in the photos, but it was huge and very steep!
We watched a car take two attempts to get up the middle track before he made it to the top. And another two others were trying the impossible track (which they couldn't make up!)
James attempted the middle track but he couldn't make it over the top! He went full speed, accelerator pressed to the floor and it would just lose power right at the top. He just needed a little bit more traction and he could go over the rise.
As you can see in the picture, he was right near the top. It was so frustrating! There were quite a few people on the top of Big Red and they would cheer him on. He got so close so many times. He even went up the chicken track and then down the main middle track to try and flatten it to give it more traction (that helped him get further up).
Finally on his 6th attempt, James made it up the hard track of Big Red! Everyone watching was cheering, it was so much fun! My brother conquered Big Red! :-)
Mum and Dad took the easier way out and went the chicken track lol.
Everyone was quite happy to reach the top!
The car we had watched earlier that took two attempts to get up the track, tackled it again but got bogged at the top. He had to dig the tyres of his car out and then James snatched him out with his car.
Anyway, after out fun on Big Red, we started heading back to Birdsville. Not long after leaving Big Red, we came across a stranded outback tour bus full of elderly people. The bus had slipped off the track and was stuck in the soft sand. The old people were all standing out by the lake with wet face washes on their necks hehe. The poor people. It was quite hot and they were stuck outside in the middle of the desert while the bus driver was trying to dig out the tyres.
The big ute we had just pulled out of the sand went ahead and pulled the bus out of its bog hole and all the stranded old people cheered and slowly made their way back to their bus.
We finally made it back to the main road and had to wait while James and Dad pumped up their tyres (you have to have low tyre pressure when driving on sand).
We returned to the Birdsville hotel and had dinner. The wait wasn't as long as yesterday, only an hour and a half this time! I had Red Thai Kangaroo Curry. It was quite tasty.
Next stop Mungerannie, SA!
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Location:Birdsville, QLD
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