Exploring the Simpson Desert

August 2022

Attending in no particular order

Penny and Spence - Toyota LC 76

Ivo - Toyota LC 76

Lin - Toyota LC FJ

Shane and Emily -Toyota LC Triton

Dave - Toyota LC Prado

Peter and Malou - Toyota LC 76

Keith - Toyota LC Ranger

Alex - Toyota LC 79

The meeting point for this awesome trip was at The Lakes Roadhouse. Funny enough, the 2 non Toyota members had planned to meet up with us on the road, we had a guy in a Land Rover think we were a Landcruiser Club. Right, we are on the way.

The first nights stay was at the Widgie Tavern, great food but an interesting nights sleep. The camping area was near the road way. Throughout the night, as the trucks were driving past, it literally felt like we were sleeping on the road. The feeling that we may get run over at any time. lol

Day 3. The day we crossed the Nullabor and entered into South Australia.

Taking advantage of the facilities, a nice hot shower, clothes washing and a nice kitchen was a treat. Tomorrow was the the day we started the Googs track. We would be 3 days out before being in some type of civilization.

Googs Track and Googs Lake

Googs Track

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5 minutes.

The next day, since we were next to Mt Finke, Ivo of course had to climb to the top, accompanied by Peter.  Some of us made it half way up then gave up, but even then the views were great.  For us, the next discovery was not so much fun – Spence tested positive for Covid in the middle of nowhere, and I (Penny) followed closely.  We spent the evening at a safe distance from the rest of the group.

The next morning we made our way out. The track closed in a little more but was still an awesome drive and well worth the trip.

Story by Penny.

Kingoonya, a 3 horse town, where we saw 3 horses roaming around freely, where ever they wanted. It's also where Penny and Spence had separated from the group and headed for Port Augusta for a bit of R&R, for the rest of us, a fuel stop for the cars and our tum tums before heading to Coober Pedy.

The weather driving into Coober Pedy was a little rough, with strong winds and rain. The plan was to stay at the Oasis Caravan Park, which we did, while most were staying in the chalets, Lin and Dave planned to tent. The weather certainly changed that, and the staff were very accommodating, finding inside accommodation for everyone. The yummy dinner was at the Bar and Grill, followed by checking out the underground churches.

Oodnadatta, here we come

Wow, what an amazing place. The natural spring sits at around 38-42 degrees all year round. There are little fish swimming around, that are about 30mm long. If you're still enough, the little fish will come and nibble on your skin. It's a weird feeling.

As you know, Penny and Spence had to divert to Port Augusta, and as most know, Penny will always jump in for a swim, weather its the freezing water of Augusta or the boiling hot spa at her house, Penny would have been in this Spring without a doubt.

Shane had a little tribute swim for Penny.

Click on the link below to see a short "Swim for Penny" vid

Finally, we are here. We had travelled a long way to take the Simpson Desert and Big Red, and we conquered it all. From seeing a wild camel, to a dingo, wild winds out of nowhere, salt lakes and of course a couple sand dunes .........(more like a thousand dunes)

After having our BBQ On Big Red we had a short drive into Birdsville. Thank goodness for the phone reception and civilisation after a long three days in the Simpson Desert. We checked into our camp for the next 2 nights and got set up, the facilities were really nice too! For dinner that night we all took a short walk and went to the Birdsville Hotel which had really good food and a great pub atmosphere. I’m sure Malou would agree that they served the best fish and chips! While waiting for dinner we witnessed a stunning sunset.

Story by Emily.

Edeowie Station, Flinders

Rangers

Lunch time was a stop at Blinman bakery where they had beautiful pies and a flushing toilet. It was a good opportunity to have a quick look around the town.

The Flinders Ranges has a wide range of sites to see, from driving through beautiful gorges to walks visiting ancient Aboriginal rock art.

Edeowie Station Flinders Rangers – Shane

Skytrek Willow

Skyrek Station in Willow Springs, what can I say, its just an awesome station with its own 4wd track around it. The station has a big 4wd track around it exploring many things like Aboriginal Rock Art, to a little bit of history of the original staion owners, the flora and fauna. At best, I would rate this as a 3.

Then there is the 4wd track, easily rate this as a 4 and I would think maybe a 5 in the wet. You are warned before tackling this part of the track as its not for the faint hearted.

August 2022

It wasn’t long before Dave pulled up a squid, Emily caught a Herring, and I caught a crab of unknown breed. The wind was a bit chilly so we decided to join the others at the local clubrooms for dinner.

The next morning was a chance to take a short stroll from our cabin to the jetty to get some morning shots as the sun rose over Smoky Bay.  We then headed off to the whale center.

Great Australian Bite

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September 2022 – Emily Curline

On the way across the Nullarbor we drove past the Whale centre and decided to explore it further on our way home. We left Smoky bay and headed for the Whale centre, stopping at some scenic lookouts along the way of course. We all purchased our admission tickets and began the stunning short walk towards the ocean.

It was a beautiful sunny day making it the perfect conditions to do some whale watching, at first we noticed some ‘rocks’ in the water which we later realised were a cow (female whale) and its calf. There were two different lookouts to walk to and they were all equally as stunning.

We headed off to another lookout where we were able to see the stunning coastline known as the Great Australian Bight. Then the convoy travelled through to Mundrabilla for the night.

Western Australia and South Australia both have a beauty in there own rights

South Australia has a combination of sandy tracks and beautiful mountain ranges ie Flinders and very interesting vegetation and also the time difference

Rainy weather and cold nights but sunny days including a very windy sandy storm we had one night to our surprise this all makes South Australia different

I always had the Simpson Desert on my bucket list and really enjoyed the trip

Big thanks to Penny and Spence for such a well organized and creative trip – all well planned and which we all enjoyed

Ivo