tiabunna's photos with the keyword: Simpson Desert

"Big Red" is the name of the largest sand dune in the Simpson Desert - and fortunately not far from Birdsville. This is the view from the top, looking across claypans to the next dune in the west. In the PiPs are images of vehicles descending from Big Red to the claypan. It's steep! The foreground plants in the second PiP are Saltbush.

Suggest viewing large. "Big Red" is the name given to this sand dune, reputedly the largest in the Simpson Desert and the first of an estimated 1140 if crossing the desert. It rises some 40 metres above the surrounding plains and is just 35km from Birdsville. Driving 4WDs up and down its steep sandy slopes has become a "must do" for off-road enthusiasts. This image from the east, the PiPs show it across the top and from the west. These aerial views tend to give a flattened impression of it.

Seeing this double rainbow was probably the ultimate highlight for me of the dawn aircraft trip over the Simpson Desert. Second image in the PiP taken a few minutes later, after a slight change of course. Note also cloud shadows on the desert.

This image, with early morning light emphasising contours, gives a good impression of the parallel sand dunes of the Simpson Desert. Also shadows of clouds and a light sprinkle of rain beyond the aircraft wingtip. There's also a 4WD track visible (may need to enlarge to view).

In my ipernity article "Australian Fires" I mentioned that climate change can even bring extreme rainfall events, particularly in the tropics. Such an event happened in the middle of drought in the far north west of Queensland in February 2019, just before our Europe trip. The huge amount of rain resulted in terrible losses of cattle, but eventually some of the water found its way down to Australia's desert centre. As we flew over, on our return in late March, I was amazed by this sight from high above. This image (with haze removed) shows the Simpson Desert sandhills with lakes of water - normally just dry salt pans! I am still shaking my head that we saw this, as it happens only every 40 or 50 years. A more detailed report was in the national news. My second image taken a few minutes later (clickable in the PiP) shows the Diamantina River and the Birdsville Track (a remote Australian road). Explored.

Taken just a few minutes after my "Desert Water" image, this shows (at right) the Birdsville Track (famous in Australia as a remote desert road) and the (foreground) Diamantina River - usually dry but here spreading in flood. This rare event (only every 40-50 years) resulted from a massive rainfall event far away in northwest Queensland almost two months earlier.