Day 6, Friday –
Haddon Corner -
BirdsvilleA worrying amount of rain overnight but not much surface water this morning, although there is much thunder, lightning and rain to the north-west. Some of us found ourselves camped in mud, other more fortunately on sand. 8:40 depart.
Compared to the rain which had fallen a week ago this was was light rain, but enough to make the road very slippery. It was horrible clay of the type that when you walk on it that you grow taller with every step; It has similar effect with vehicles, clogging up the wheel arches. Back on the main road (gravelled) great lump of clay would fall off sometimes as we travelled along. Before long we were on dusty road again.
We turned left onto the
Birdsville Developmental Road and planned a
rest stop at
Betoota. Unfortunately a communication
breakdown combined with that locality being recently bypassed (and the bypass not shown on most maps), saw only some of the party visit what was by all accounts a very interesting place.
It was around 1:30 when we drove past the
Birdsville race course into
Birdsville.
It is NAIDOC week this week (National Aboriginies and Islanders Day Observance Committee); we were fortunate to be able to attend a local community NAIDOC event in the evening, with children dancing traditional dances to didgeridoo music, followed by a free meal with your choice of kangaroo or fish. The kangaroo was barbecued, while the kangaroo tail and the fish were slow cooked in hot coals. The fish and the kangaroo were very nice, but I passed on the kangaroo tail.