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Our first camp on the Simpson Desert was at Purnie bore, a hot spring, on the way we saw a family of five dingoes. We chose The French Line, which was first bulldozed across the approximately 1000 sand dunes in the 1960s by a French oil exploration company, the other main alternative is The Rig Road, which was capped with clay to carry the weight of the heavy equipment needed to drill.  We found the dunes much easier than those of the  Canning Stock Route, it may have been that the base was harder after the wet weather, we are not sure. Generally they are smaller, but closer together, which keepsyour speed down.
There were plenty of animal tracks, camel, Donkey, Dingoe, Kangaroo or Wallaby, we didn't see any but the Dingoes.
We saw some birds new to us, a family of Banded Lapwing (Plover) several Crimson Chat, a female Red Backed Kingfisher, and others we were not able to identify.
Poeppels Corner marks the junction of three states, Queensland, South Australia, and The Northern Territory, (actually a territory, not a state)
Our next camp was one of the best, in a grove of Gidgee, on a carpet of  wildflowers, between red sand dunes, made perfect by Hilde and Robin preparing a full roast of beef with all the trimmings, cooked in the coals of a great fire, proceeded by a convivial “Happy Hour”.
Big Red is the biggest at 90 metres, and last sand dune before reaching Birdsville, it is a real challenge if attacked from the West, taking the “straight up” route, it took me three goes with our heavily laden Landcruiser, for those who cant make it that way there are easier routes.

Birdsville is a remote, small town with a pub, caravan park, store, service station, police station, air strip and not much more. Once a year 6000 people flood into town for the famous Birdsville Races, including severalhundred light aircraft, enormous quantities of beer are consumed! We left as the crowd was on it's way in, and were not unhappy about it.
The only track open heading South, was the Windorah Rd, through Cadelga, then Cordillo Downs, once the largest sheep station in Australia running 38,000 sheep.
 The next town was Innaminka with it’s beautifully rebuilt inland mission building, great pub, and showers. Our camp on Cullyamurra Waterhole, onhistoric Coopers Creek was superb.
Access to Coonjie Lakes had been closed until two days before we arrived, we were fortunate to see it with so much water. On the way in we saw some Shields Shrimps, a prehistoric looking small stingray shapedcreature with a scorpion like tail. They were in shallow mud pools stirred up by a grader, apparently their eggs lie dormant in the soil for years until rain turns it to mud. Strange looking creatures!
Past the Moomba gas fields to Camerons Corner, the junction of New South Wales, Queensland, and South Australia.
Then it was home through Tibooburra, Milparinka, White Cliffs the opal mining town with it’s great underground motel, then Wilcannia, Cobar, Dubbo again and home.
We were away for four and a half very good weeks. HOME