The notable feature of today is probably the flat tyre we had to deal with. We parked at the campground where the track crosses Cooper Creek and noticed the tyre was going down so was able to change it without driving on the flat tyre; fortunate as that saved us from destroying the tyre.

We started the day with a visit to Birdsville Bakery, just like a lot of other travellers. Thereafter we started the long trek down the legendary Birdsville Track to the town of Marree. The track was in much better condition than we had expected though there was a lot of small scale water damage with most of the small creek crossings being rough. There was also a lot of water still around in the paddocks beside the track and in ponds in the creeks. We only encountered maybe half a dozen pools actually on the track that we needed to cross.

Today was a bit of a rest day, with a few chores like washing thrown in. We did a little sightseeing around the town.

The drive today of nearly 400km to Birdsville was in some ways interesting, in some ways boring and uncomfortable. The road was about half sealed and the gravel half was in good condition. The route is generally flat with long stretches of straight road. It was hot, 33°C, and the flies were pretty intense. That's the boring half.

If you look at the right kind of map of South West Queensland you will see a region called Channel Country. It is an area where largish rivers like the Cooper, the Barcoo and the Diamantina break out into braids of creeks surrounded by flood plains. When the creeks flood (after the wet season in Norther Australia) the creeks overflow and the whole area turns into a temporary lake. Well today we got our first experience of Channel Country. As expected there were many many causeways over creekss and between those long stretches of low lands that were green and lush vegetation due to recent flooding.