Lower Cooper South North crossing of the
Simpson Desert and the Hay River
Adelaide to Alice Springs
22-30 May 2011

$3000 per person travelling as a passenger in our vehicles
$2000 per person self drive in your own vehicle

This expedition takes in the wilds of the Tirari Desert and the Lower Cooper from a base at Etadunna Station on the Birdsville Track. It then heads north across the Warburton River into the Simpson Desert. Leaving Poeppels Corner it takes the path less travelled northward along abandoned oil exploration roads to Kilpatha Native Well and Beachcomber Oil Well. From here it crosses untracked sand dunes to the terminus of the Hay River, soaked up by the sands of the Simpson. Heading north the pink sandy bed of the Hay River becomes more obvious, fringed with stands of River Red Gums, one tree blazed by Cecil Madigan when he made his Camp 16 during his 1939 expedition. Further north is spectacular Lake Caroline, a vast claypan. The final camp on the Hay includes a drive out to view sunset on the awe inspiring and remote Goyder’s Pillar, which completes a north south crossing of the Simpson Desert. The expedition then travels via the Plenty Highway to end in Alice Springs. In just 9 days this expedition travels through an extraordinary diversity of desert landscapes, the ideal shorter Diamantina expedition!

Itinerary at a Glance

Flinders Ranges - Marree - Birdsville Track -
Etadunna Station - Lower Cooper - Tirari Desert - Warburton Crossing-
Poeppels Corner - North South Crossing Simpson Desert - Kilpatha Native Well -
Hay River - Goyders Pillar - Jervois Station - Plenty Highway - Alice Springs