ok guys as you all know we are looking at planning a trip to birdsville, its not going to be a long trip so pretty much drive all day sorta thing, as we are not ableto leave for too long at moment with the business.

But we will plan on leaving on a early thursday morning and drive back sunday to get home monday.

i have read up that birdsville is 22 hours drive from brisbane ,and we are on sunshine coast so same diff, what i am concerned about is the stories we have read one in particular was in 2008 in the month of june by the looks of things ,this man and his wife headed out to birdsville and got bogged for 18 hours ?they were towing a trailer camper which we wont be doing as we have purchased a roof top tent for the sleeping arrangements.

we will be driving a subaru forester low range and lifted ?.but what i am concerned about is stories you may have if you have done this trek , hubby is a little worried of getting bogged or stuck ,story told was 3,000 for a tow out by birdsville mechanic?
the person who wrote the story had racq but alas no phone reception to call
anyways story goes he walked along road found a steel fence post and put it in the ground and used his winch to get out in the end ,thanks to the steel pole in the middle of nowhere.

I know that they say in the story anymore than five inches of rain and the road is trecherous there is also talks of two road to birdsville in this story ? these people were from adelaide so not so sure what they were talkin about there but for sure they were talkin about two roads that were close to birdsville that go into the town itself?.

more than anything im curious to the traffic that goes to birdsville ? anyone done the trip and how many cars would you see pass you by in your travels ?.

any info would be fantastic ive also heard its cold in june ? so a good month to go would be great too all cept the month of races i dont want to experience my first trip with the races on i want peace and quiet ?.

thanks guys xx cheers xx

Hi mate, are you going in June then?

I have a friend who works at Birdsville in the pub there. If you would like, I can get an update off her on the road conditions. We are going there ourselves in July.

hm not sure as of yet i have to discuss that part with hubby of when he intends to go ,what time of july are you heading there yourself firefly ? would be nice to catch up ,that would be great if your friend is still in birdsville when we are setting off i will inform you and you could maybe find out a bit more ,its a little scary reading stories about being bogged for 18 hours thats almost a day ?? plus the other amounts of times this car and trailer got bogged was unreal the road was greasy and muddy poor buggers .

Yeah it would be horrifying mate for sure.

We leave home first week in July and are away for eight weeks. So the end of July would see us there. We go to Darwin first then to Broome and to spend time in the Kimberly, back to Darwin the to Lake Eyre, onto Birdsville. It would be nice to say hi, maybe the paths will cross but we have no definite date, which is what I love about travel.

She will be still there for sure, thats her home and she loves it. Let me know and I will find out for you, I know a few cars are getting through as of a week ago when we last spoke.

With "outback" dirt roads it does not take much rain to quickly turn the road surface into an "ice rink" and see the roads "closed". There can be hefty fines for driving on "closed" roads.

One time in the middle of the Darling River Run we had a night of rain that delayed us for 24hrs. That night, and the next morning, it was extremely difficult to walk to the loo as the ground was that slippery. The drive out 24hrs later when the roads were reopened was interesting to say the least.

Breakdowns/whatever in the outback that require recovery by a commercial organisation is going to be very expensive because of the isolation/distances involved.

This is all just part of "outback" life, just be prepared.

-- Edited by Ron and Shirley on Sunday 18th of April 2010 04:33:52 PM

if you are that worried about being bogged and you have such a short time to travel why don't you fly out it would be a much more enjoyable trip and probably won't cost much more than driving. just my 2 bobs worth. al

Go to RACQ Road Reports and check the conditions. You can't get to Birdsville at present. Monitor this site up till the time you go.

thanks you guys, yep im well aware of the fees charged in outback areas ive done a fair bit of travelling in the past and ive seen some realy funny sights up the top end once i saw a trailer at musgrave station with no wheel at back and had chopped up tee tree branches to make a wheel just dragged it along was certainly a sight, im not that worried about getting bogged ,that i would fly, i certainly am a person that enjoys the open road and so a flight would be boring to me . ill keep checking the racq road check until we get going, we finaly put the roof top tent on our subaru forester today it looks great and its all so very exciting.