The Red Centre 2022

We took a few photos at first light then started packing up for the long drive ahead.  The Windorah to Birdsville Road was well cut up with lots of corrugations and gravel banks thanks to the Big Red Bash traffic a couple of weeks earlier. There had been a small amount of local rain, but mostly the floods had come down from up north and the Cooper had recently broken its banks and spread out across the country - it was amazing to see the colours starting to develop in this arid land.  After a long day of corrugations it was a relief to see the Betoota Pub come into sight just on sunset. We had called up from Windorah to see if we could get a meal - but the cook was off sick.  What the publican failed to mention was that he was far to sick to be working and the pub was essentially shut as the Big Red Bash had bought a nice lot of Covid and Flu to the bush.  We backed out of the pub quickly after an obligatory drink as the last thing we needed was a dose of Covid for our desert trip. We

 Hell Hole Gorge is a National Park in South West Queensland. The Hell Hole itself for which the park is named is at the junction of Powell and Spencer Creeks.  There is another waterhole which can be explored up Spencer Creek - Spencers Waterhole which is accessible via 4WD off the main track into Hell Hole Gorge.  The Gorge is around 70kms north of Adavale - follow the signs as Google Maps is a bit misleading out this way on what is gazetted roads and station roads aren't exactly clear.  The way to get to Windorah is back via Adavale and out to Quilpie - though if you lived locally and new the station owners there may be alternative routes. The National Parks have stopped camping on the other side of Powell Creek these days whereas there were tracks across the stone bottomed creek to some sites overlooking the gorge when we stopped through here in 2020. The flies....were bad....very bad.  All this rain seemed to increase the fly population exponentially.  Our bee veils came in ve

The trip started mid afternoon yesterday when we had the opportunity to get away early and make tracks towards Hell Hole Gorge from Brisbane.  We ended up stopping at a motel in Roma for the night rather than leaving Brisbane at sparrows for the around 1000km journey out to Hell Hole Gorge. We had breakfast at Mitchell and can recommend the bakery and the breakfast wrap!  We got to explore Mitchell on the way back - but more on that later in the trip! We refuelled in Charleville where the phone lines were down and luckily we had some cash for fuel and then headed out on the Adavale Road to the bush town of Adavale.  This is the second time we had been out this way and the pub was again shut....maybe next time.  The photos below show Lot 1, Registered Plan (RP) 1.  The folks at work were interested in this block as this was the very first lot on the first plan ever registered in Queensland. Adavale has a long history, starting back in 1880 and is closely linked to the large station whic

  It looks so clean!  Locked and loaded and ready for take off. We ended up being able to take off around 3:30pm from Home, headed up and over the Mt Glorious to avoid Friday afternoon traffic and made our way to Roma and a motel. This was plan B, as we thought we might take off on Saturday morning around 2am and do the drive out to Hell Hole Gorge (west of Charleville and North of Adavale) in one very big day so it was a quick decision to jump in and go after we handed our house over to our house sitters early. The car remained fairly clean until we ended up driving after some heavy rain on the road from Kings Canyon to Hermannsberg!

  Well that was a rough trip.  From Brisbane to Birdsville via Hell Hole Gorge and then across the Simpson, a loop around the centre of Australia, back down the Binns Track, along the Oodnadatta Track, back up the Birdsville Track and then a loop via Yaraka and Blackall to Augathella and back home to Brisvegas. Around 8000kms with around 5000kms on dirt and sand and the rest on tarmac.  The corrugations were the worst I have seen, bull dust holes that were swallowing vehicles and jimny size holes over the Simpson Desert.  A suspension upgrade is in order! I had an issue with the MAF O2 sensor again - the Jimny doesn't seem to like swallowing dust and my rear passenger side bearing went.  I had both these issues on the first trip so my kit for remote travel will now include: - Spare MAF O2 Sensor; - Mass air flow spray can; - 2x Rear Bearings. I am going to change my suspension from my well used 4 year old tough dog with a 40mm lift to a 40mm old man emu lift kit which will take int