EXCEED July/August 2019 Vol 36 No:4 | Page 10

TRIP REPORTS Australian border. Pies were the meal of the day. A couple more casualties were discovered – Phil’s Anderson plug. From here we took the Cordillo Downs Rd, and were almost at the station when Jacob had a puncture. After changing his tyre. We continued on to have a look at the ruins of the shearing shed but were only able to walk around outside as it was in the process of being restored. The day ended at Cadelga Waterhole near the ruins of the original outstation. Peter & Sue Thomas. 1016 Day 6 – Cordillo Downs to Bashville After a pleasant night’s sleep, the plan for today was to leave early. Well that went out the window when we heard a pop and then shattering glass from Pete Symons car. The rear window had just decided to let go. After a patch up job we headed off. Who would have thought that you would have to wait at the corner of Cordillo Downs Rd and the Birdsville Development Rd for the traffic to clear. Once arriving at Birdsville and being told that there is a 2 hour wait for fuel but with good planning we had plenty. We went to pick up our ticket for the Bash. Some people had to drop off tyres for repair and replacement. I had arranged to meet Mitch and Danni plus little Heidi from the club. They weren’t on our trip but we arranged to meet them. Off to bashville for the next 4 days. Bashville day 1-4 It was a fantastic 4 days of great music and entertainment for 1 and all. We had the Nutbush World Record broken, the Drag race was run and won. If you would like to know more information have a chat with anybody who went on the trip. Ed Reddick 1623 Day 10 Birdsville to Mungerannie Well, we all survived the Big Red Bash and now it’s time to start heading for home. We seemed to time our departure from Big Red perfectly. Many other campers had started moving by 5.30am trying to beat the rush but we seemed to leave at a time in between the early rush and those that were leaving later so we all had an uneventful drive to Birdsville where we were all expecting long delays to fuel up the drive southwards. The queues fuel wasn’t long at all with only 4- 5 cars waiting for fuel so we all fuelled up and waited in town while everyone got ready. The queue for coffee took much longer than that for fuel. With everyone organised we headed south along the Birdsville Track heading to Marree “and bitumen” but stopping at Mungerannie overnight. For me it was a nice feeling to drive with a new spare tyre on the car after shredding one a few days previously on the road to Moomba. It’s now a busier drive heading home with a lot more traffic but everyone seemed to be travelling safely and although people would overtake our group everybody seemed to be driving respectfully and leaving ample room. At times the track was 5 lanes wide and it was in pretty good condition. There was only one soft spot where the track had been re-routed between the edge of the dunes and around water from recent floods for a few kms. It was quite different in parts where the floods had obviously been where the green plant growth was abundant only to go over the next dune to sand, sand and more sand. At one point Ed told us “there’s a toilet stop just up the road” it’s a green shed, you can’t