Simpson Desert Rig Road, Charleville Queensland to Maree S.A.

Travel to Charleville in Queensland  at your leisure. You are booked into a Caravan Park for the night and we will have a meet and greet meal in town. From Charleville we will travel through Quilpie and Windorah, there is approximately 275 km’s of a well maintained gravel road out on the Development road to Birdsville. We will visit some fantastic rock holes and camp on the iconic Coopers Creek along this section of our adventure. We will also Visit the Haddon Corner Post & stop in at the Betoota Hotel . 

Once in Birdsville you are booked in at the Caravan Park for the night, set up your camp before we head over to the Hotel. Enjoy a quiet beverage in this famous hotel before sitting down for a meal or, cook your own back at the Caravan park if that is your preference. There is a great campers kitchen available for your use.

Our desert trip begins in earnest next morning, perhaps you may like to grab a big breakfast at the Birdsville Bakery before we head out of town. We are on an east west crossing, this is more challenging than west to east as the dunes are sharper therefor slightly harder to traverse, much more fun in my opinion! We will air down our tyres prior to heading over “Big Red” the largest sand dune in the Simpson Desert. Following the QAA Line as we make our way to the Corner Post and Lake Poeppel. The “post” is the marker for the borders of Queensland, Northern Territory and South Australia.  

From the Post we run over the lake and along the french line to Knolls Track, then turning south we travel down the swale and into the knolls before continuing south to the Rig Road intersection. Turning west, we will follow the less travelled Rig Road all the way across seeing a completely different Simpson Desert to the popular heavily trafficked French Line. See the Lone Gum, drive the old clay topped tracks made by oil companies as they explored the desert with their drilling rigs. Whilst little is left of the search for oil these days we will have some fun on the dunes, see Purni Bore on the French line before we eventually arrive at Dalhousie Springs. Swim in the thermal spring, relax for awhile out of the vehicle.

From the springs we head down to Oodnadatta for Fuel before heading south down the track, we will visit Algiebuckina Railway Bridge and the ruins at Peake before William Creek. The old pub is definitely worth a stop over to quench your thirst!  We will see the Strangeways ruins, Old Ghan railway sidings, the “bubble” and Lake Eyre South before arriving in Marree. This is where our trip concludes however we have an evening meal together at the pub before we all say good bye. Travelling South from Marree you can enjoy the blacktop once again, as you head towards the Flinders Ranges and Port Augusta. 

Fuel: Diesel and Petrol is available at Birdsville, Mt Dare, Oodnadatta and Marree. Carry enough fuel for 800 k’s of desert travel. Atagalong Tours or its operators do not carry spare fuel. Please do your fuel calculations carefully. 

Towing

Only Aussie built campers, Tvans, Ultimate campers etc. will be accepted.