The Charles Winnecke trip ended after five days instead of nine — see Part 1 for why. I came out at Windora with time on my hands and a steering box that was starting to give me trouble. Two small national parks I usually blow straight past were sitting right there on the map.
This is the wrap-up of the Simpson Desert Fringes series: Welford National Park, a mechanical that forced my hand, Alroy Station, and an unexpectedly good free camp at Nyngan. If you're thinking about your own Simpson Desert trip, the book that covers it properly is the Simpson Desert Travel Guide.
Welford National Park — River Circuit and Desert Loop
Access to Welford from Windora is easy. Reasonably main roads, lots of gravel, but in good condition. The whole area is flood-prone — keep that in mind if there's any rain forecast. You do not want to get trapped in here.
The western side of the park has two circuits.
The River Circuit runs along the Barco River. I did this one first — a pleasant easy drive along the river, a small jetty rock formation going out into the water, some old shearing sheds. Brownish water, but it looked reasonably fresh. This is the camping side, and there are some good spots.
The Desert Loop is 23 kilometres, one-way, 4WD only. It earns that designation — not because it's technically difficult, but because there are washouts and ditches you'd want clearance for. The track is mostly hard-packed red sand and dirt. If you haven't been to the Simpson, this gives you a taste of what the red dirt country looks like without the dune crossings.
Along the loop: the Adafoote Waterhole (reasonably dry when I was there, water line visible higher up), relics from old oil drilling operations, disused pastoral stock troughs, and one solitary red sand dune standing in the middle of flat country. It's a good-looking dune. If you've just come out of the Simpson it won't impress you, but for anyone who hasn't done the desert proper it's worth a stop.
Allow two to two and a half hours for the desert loop including a few stops.
Navigation — Memory Map
I run Memory Map For All with the HEMA 4WD map pack on every remote trip. In country with no phone signal and tracks that shift after each flood, offline topo detail — station tracks, bore locations, water points — is not optional. Full breakdown in the navigation app review.
Steering Box — Heading Home Early
I noticed the steering box was weeping during a walkaround at the river circuit. I had about a litre of transmission fluid for top-ups, which I used, but it was still leaking.
Two thousand five hundred kilometres from home. No way to fix it in the field beyond keeping it topped up and watching it. I made the call to head home the next morning.
Disappointing — I'd planned to do Hellhole Gorge as well. But a weeping steering box in outback Queensland is not something you ignore.
I used the spare afternoon at the Little Boomerang Waterhole camping area. Good spot. Cleared out a considerable build-up of Mitchell grass that had packed itself between the radiator and the AC condenser during the desert run — hadn't inspected closely enough after the crossing. Worth doing every time you come out of the desert.
Lazer Utility Lights — New Rear Setup
At Alroy, I replaced the rear lights that came with the bull bar. They'd gone yellow and were never that impressive to begin with. In went two Lazer utility lights — one angled each side for camp lighting.
Result: significantly better. Good spread, good output. I'll note the cables are a bit thin if you run both bars simultaneously with other loads — I was seeing a slight drop. Worth upgrading the cable run if you're building a similar setup. But the lights themselves are genuinely good, and the camp lighting is a proper upgrade over what was there before.
Alroy Station — Still My Favourite Stopover
If you travel to the Simpson Desert or through outback Queensland, and you've never stayed at Alroy Station, fix that.
It's about 60 kilometres off the Adventure Highway past Eulo — a working sheep and cattle station with a few camels present — and it's become a proper stopover for me over the years. Beautiful billabong at the back. Firewood delivered daily. Hot artesian baths. And the owners, the Marian Mac, have become genuinely good people to check in with on the way through.
I've made a dedicated video on Alroy — check it out if you're planning a trip through that country.
My timing on this visit couldn't have been better. They were hosting a camp kitchen dinner with friends and invited me to join. Free-range lamb straight off the station. Gidgee wood on the fire — burns hot and long, hardly any wood, and it's still going twelve hours later.
They also now have a new cottage available for those who don't want to camp. Good-sized place, could comfortably fit two families. Kitchen, multiple rooms, artesian access. Worth checking if camping isn't your thing.
Nyngan Weir — A Free Camp I Didn't Know About
I usually stop at the caravan park in Nyngan on the way through. This time I looked it up properly and found the Nyngan Weir — a council free camp just outside town. Didn't even know it existed.
It's a loop track with a toilet in the middle. Reasonable spot, good for a night. One issue: it attracts a few locals who treat the loop as a lap track, and they stir up a considerable amount of dust. I got lucky with the wind direction and copped none of it, but some of the vans got hammered. A couple of speed bumps on the loop would solve that problem quickly.
Otherwise — solid find. Free is free, and it's a decent spot.
The Charles Winnecke series finished shorter than planned, but the country was as good as it always is. Welford is worth stopping at if you're passing through — and Alroy is always worth the detour. See you along the tracks.
