3 Corners & a Double Simpson Desert Crossing - Day 1

Day 1 - 23/3/2016 - Bundaberg to Goondiwindi

What was planned to be a quiet easter break was suddenly going to be not so quiet and relaxing!  A mate from Uni days mentioned that he was planning on doing a double Simpson Desert crossing over the easter break and wanted to know if I wanted to tag-a-long.  It was too good an opportunity to pass up.  A Simpson Desert Trip had been on my bucket list for a while but I had never really put much thought into how I was actually going to do it.  So when this opportunity presented itself it was too good to refuse.

2016 also marked the 20 year anniversary of finishing Uni, so what better way to mark the occasion than doing a road trip with a Uni mate and picking up some prominent survey marks along the way, (we did Surveying at Uni, hence the theme of picking up the survey marks).

It was going to be my first major camping trip without the camper so I had to do a bit of work to re-work and setup my camping configuration.  I managed to get all necessary camping gear in along with all of the recovery gear, extra spare tyre, 2 x 20ltr fuel jerry cans, 30ltrs of “working” water and 30ltrs of purely drinking water, spare engine oil, oil filter, fuel filter, air filter, fan belts, radiator hoses and other miscellaneous spares.

All packed up and ready to roll!

So after about a month of intense vehicle and camp preparation it was time to set off.  There were three vehicles doing the trip.  Selwyn, (the uni mate), and his son Lachie from Brisbane, and Mark aka Snowie (one of Selwyn's mates) and his two sons Bailey and Dakota from Sydney and my vehicle.  The plan was for us all to meet in Bourke NSW and set off from there.  Because I was the furtherest from Bourke I was going to take an extra day to get there compared to the others.  By splitting the trip from Bundaberg to Bourke up into a stop over in Goondiwindi, it made the trip two smaller and easier going days instead of one massive 1,200km day.

Kumbia for lunch stop

The big Yabbie at Moonie

The Townhouse Hotel for the night

Goondiwindi by night