It’s always nice to get away for a few days and in my case it was certainly needed after what seemed like an endless August of non-stop rodeos!
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So I finished up early on Thursday to do the five hour drive down to Bedourie for a long weekend.
My plan was almost scuppered from the off as I endured a torrid night on Wednesday due to the ill-effects of food poisoning from a packaged dinner. So it wasn’t until 2.30pm I felt well enough to do the drive and I was racing against the clock to get to Bedourie before dark.
I didn’t quite succeed. The last light slowly disappeared about 50km north of Bedourie and there were a few close shaves with cattle that seem to like the heat of the bitumen and mobs of them were standing on the middle of the road after dark.
Having made it there very cautiously, the wait was on to see if the road to Big Red was open on Friday. The news in the morning was good – Diamantina Council had just re-opened the Birdsville-Big Red road to 4WD access only.
So I set off with my friends in their big Prado and the car proved its worth on the drive.
There was plenty of water still between Bedourie and Birdsville but the track out to Big Red was a serious challenge.
We saw one vehicle stuck awaiting help from a council grader to get out of the mud.
Local knowledge said the best strategy was to stay on the centre of road where the base was hardest and we made it through.
Neither my friends nor I had been to Big Red before so it was a worthwhile adventure.
It was a bit blowy on top of the sand dunes so we didn’t hang around for long but we stayed long enough to enjoy the endless view into the desert.
This was as far as the road was open, it was clear the further south you went the more rain there was.
The Diamantina was running freely in Birdsville as was the Eyre Creek further north.
The bird life was amazing and all that lovely water should be filling Lake Eyre up nicely.
It was a wonderful glimpse of the harsh but stunning beauty of our great land. DB
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
