Big Red Run - Day 8 - Birdsville to Maree...er no make that Quilpie

We rose early to capture the sunrise on Big Red to overcast and foreboding skies.  And after a leisurely pack up, we headed back into Birdsville to fuel up and make tracks south to Maree.

The sun starts to make its appearance felt through an overcast sky.

Sunrise lights up our camp - at Big Red

We headed out of town on the Birdsville Track - and almost immediately got stuck in clouds of dust, behind a convoy of caravans doing about 50 kilometres an hour.  It became apparent in the next minute or two that the caravans weren't likely to pull over and let the trail of 4WDs behind them past in a hurry, so we pulled over to the side of the road to re-think our options.

It took all of a few moments to decide that the best way out of Birdsville was east, via Windora, so we did a u-turn, and backtracked the eight kilometres to the Windorah turn off.  It was a good call.  The road had far less traffic, it was going much quicker and there were plenty of overtaking opportunities both sealed and unsealed.  What we didn't expect was the amazing scenery we were about to come across.

They say the snakes out near Windorah are large... honestly!

We stopped at Cuppa Creek for lunch - but the real treat of the drive was the amazing Deans Lookout.  A sandstone relic of the old sea bed, Deans Lookout rises far above the valley below, offering almost 360 degree views of the region - as far as the eye can see.

Deans Lookout

We fuelled up at Windorah, and it was getting on in the day, but we decided that we would be better served if we pushed on the 250 kilometres to Quilpie.

We finally pulled into Quilpie around 6pm after an interesting last hour and a half on the road.  There were so many kangaroos, emus, feral cats and goats active on the roadside, that we took the last 100 kilometres a little slower than normal. 

Quilpie was a real delight.  The Quilpie Channel Country Caravan Park (http://www.channelpark.com.au/)  was well set up - and we would have happily used the camp kitchen, except we arrived just in time and could purchase a camp stew dinner there. Sold!

After a delicious dinner, that tasted even more better as we didn't have to cook it, I decided to tackle a niggling fault that had been bugging me for a couple of days.  The battery in the canopy wasn't charging properly, so I decided to investigate.  Thankfully I had made an inspection port above the battery, and after pulling out the camping equipment and the jack off legs, I found that the negative  terminal, that yours truly had crimped, had come apart.  A few motivational hits with a 4 pound hammer fixed that problem, and twenty minutes later everything was back in the canopy, battery was correctly charging again, and I finished off my beer.

We sat down to map out our route for the following day.  We also decided that travel after 4.30pm was not to be undertaken unless absolutely necessary.  Little were we to know that we would break that very rule the very next day...