Birdsville-Poepples Corner

Another glorious day! Unfortunately another early start too though... We left Birdsville about 9, heading west towards Poeppels Corner, where NT, SA and QLD all meet. Before we left, I made sure I said goodbye to Ian, one of the workers, who really looked after me. He made my life a hundred times easier over the weekend and I wanted to say thank you. We actually came across lots of people with names from our family this weekend..
To get to Poepples Corner we had to cross the Simpson Desert. And several hundred sand dunes. The very first one is Big Red, the biggest sand dune known in the Simpson Desert, standing 40m tall. There were already a few people waiting to go up when we arrived and most of them took a couple of tries to get up. Leon has a V8 Land Cruiser, so we had no trouble. The view from the top was amazing! Obviously I couldn't get around in my chair on top of a sand dune, so Leon put me on the bonnet of the car, and I had a good look from there. We did consider leaving me there as a hood ornament, but decided against it. Good thing too, since it was just as steep going down the other side!

Sandra and I on Big Red

We were hoping to travel at 40-60km/h, but we soon realised that we were being a little optimistic; it was closer to 20. I lost track of the number of sand dunes after ten or so. It's hard to know which ones count as dunes when they get a bit smaller.

Coming down Big Red

I found it interesting coming through the desert. It really didn't look like I expected. There are flowers everywhere for a start, and trees. We also passed through several waterways and crossed a couple of clay pans- salty lakes that have dried up, leaving salt all over the ground.
There are also lots of vehicles travelling this way this weekend, having just been to Birdsville. One couple were particularly friendly. We had stopped for lunch and they pulled over to say hello. We passed them a little while later, and they pulled out and followed us. Leon tried to get ahead of them, but they kept following us. Then when we pulled over to let them pass, they told us to go ahead, they'll follow us and see us at Poepples Corner. If we knew them, that would be a perfectly normal thing to say, but we had never met them before! We eventually pulled over for a toilet break, and even then had trouble convincing them to keep going.
 After the embarrassment involved with buying the toilet, it has been a worthwhile cause. It is a little difficult to get my pants back up again though. I fell off it into a pile of prickly grass today, much to everyones amusement! Though thankfully not Jock and Denise, as we nicknamed our new friends/stalkers. Now I have included a photo of me rolling around in the grass. Please disregard the 10kg I appear to have put on. The camera lies! (It actually does)

Just rolling round...

We pulled up for camp about 5km (and 20 minutes) short of the corner. I cannot tell you how good it is to camp somewhere with solid ground! Its a bit sandy around the fireplace, but otherwise, it's great!
I tell you what, we do it tough out in the desert! Brie cheese, smoked salmon and capers on biscuits, and a bit of pâté and dip for nibbles. Sandra and Leon had a nice glass of white too. We were treated to a nice sunset with our biscuits. At least he flies left once it got dark- they were not nice.

Dinner

While we were in Birdsville, Leon picked up an information brochure on crossing the Simpson Desert. It include helpful information on local wildlife such as the rodents, dingos, and the marsupials carnivores, kangaroos! Not sure what they are feeding the wildlife out here... I'm striking close to the fire tonight!
So far the only wild life we have seen is a couple of native rat looking things (dingos maybe?) running round our camp, climbing into everything. As long as they don't chew my swag we will all survive the night ok.
Leon is cooking (heating) us up down soup for tea, then I think I'll climb into my swag and get an early night!

Distance travelled: 174km
Time driving: 7 hours