Monday 20th July 2020 

Actually we had to wait most of the day as one of us needed some medicine that was on an aircraft from the ‘local’ pharmacy in Charleville and that did not arrive until 4PM.

Then it was a short drive 40kms to cross Big Red. Actually to save fuel we crossed over Little Red, and that was easy even at tyre pressures still at 35 PSI.

Tomorrow we will drop them down to 20 PSI cold.

Camp 10: Just west of Big Red 

Cost:  Nil

Altitude:  38 metre

Today:   38 Kms.

Total:  3410 Kms

Sunset was something unusual with one orange beam of light from the west.

With the recent rain the flowers are out.

More that 20 different varieties in just 200metres from camp

Tuesday 21st July 2020

West over a number of dunes, all without issues until we reach Eyre Creek.

We have permission from the local property owner to head north via Madigan's Camps 22, 21 and 20.

Unlike the dune country further west the Eyre Creek dune valleys are wide and really just vast flood plains.

A significant problem should some of those grey clouds drop rain.

About 10k’s past Madigan's Camp 22, which is indicated by a star picket, is the ruins of the Annandale Homestead. 

Must have been a hard life out here !

Little is left other than the stone fire places and a couple of headstones.

Our track somewhat ends at the Western Kubbaree Waterhole, actually the track crosses the waterhole, but with recent rains it would be crazy with the deep black soil equaling oozy mud.

We have walked around and tomorrow we have a plan.

So for tonight is an early afternoon and a roaring fire into the evening

Camp 11: Kuddaree Waterhole 

Cost:  Nil

Altitude:  49 metre

Today:   160 Kms.

Total:  3523 Kms

Wednesday 22nd July 2020

Just to the east of our camp is a very faint track that leads between the West Kubbaree and the northern Kubbaree waterhole. 

On the other side we pick up the original Madigan's track.

The waterhole is beautiful.

Hundreds of birds - Pelicans, Black Swans, hundreds of ducks and many others that I do not know the names of.

On north side on the main waterhole is Madigan's Camp No20, an appropriate place for morning coffee.

From here we head west out of the Adrian Downs property.

Following Madigan's Line west through the national park and then north into uncharted dune valleys.

A final discussion over maps before we track north

Camp in a remote dune valley and a good clean out of the radiator of spinifex grass seeds.

Another day in the dune country.

As we head due north the sand dunes run from the north-west to the south-east hence we are constantly tracking at an angle across the dunes.

At this stage the western side is a gradual climb however the eastern side some are at 45degrees, which will mean a challenging return.

Some of the dune valleys we follow camel tracks.

Occasionally we have clay pans, in this one a stray grinding stone ?

A herd of Camels, one of a very few groups we saw.

Our mission this trip is to check out 3 impact craters we spotted on Google Earth.

This is the first and largest.

Here we will camp for the night

On exploration we are somewhat disappointed as it seems to be an old sink hole or an ancient artesian spring.

On a central mound we found limestone deposits and small tubes of calcite deposits from when the spring was active.

The camels also like this place, here there are many dry rubs where they have rolled in the dust.

Further north was our second ‘impact’ crater.

Much smaller than the first, but with limestone around the surface the conclusion is the same.

No buried meteorite here !

Now we have to make a decision...

The third ‘impact’ crater is east of us, and very likely to be the same.

Driving East is relatively easy but the return journey very challenging as the eastern side of the dunes are particularly steep and almost impossible to cross in a relatively straight line. We could drive down the dune valleys put that would put us in national park and eventually private property. So No 3 three is cancelled.

The other consideration is that, we were to head north and eventually emerge on the Plenty highway, but with COVID-19 re-emerging the Northern Territory remained closed.

This is something we had not anticipated, so the only option is to head back south and return to Birdsville.

Heading south has it own problems. The dune field runs North West to South East so for every kilometre we head South we must cross two dunes on the tough eastern side.

But that is the plan….and a challenge !