​Watti Watti/Munga-Thirri Survey 1

12 Day Survey - May 15 > May 26, 1 day flight/1 day 4WD/8 days trekking/1 day 4WD/1 day flight

Survey price: $7050 Fully booked - waitlist only

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Watti Watti/Munga-Thirri Survey 2

9 Day Survey - May 25 > June 2, 1 day flight/1 day 4WD/5 days trekking/1 day 4WD/1 day flight

Survey price: $5800 Limited places available

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Both surveys depart from and return to Brisbane. The survey price includes return flights Brisbane > Birdsville

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Survey Grade:

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​We resume our Songlines & Shared Stories program with two short surveys walking in the dune fields and swales of the eastern Simpson Desert, west of Birdsville in Queensland. The landscape consists of towering red/washed out white dunes and includes the floodplain of Eyre Creek which fringes much of the eastern side of the desert. We may pass through large stands of coolabah and gidgee (trees) interspersed with vast open sky country that is perfect for our benchmark studies and for desert bushwalking.

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You walk alongside our team of packcamels accompanied by 5 cameleers who are your crew for the duration of the survey.

Our cameleers are not 'tour guides', they are experienced and seasoned stockmen/women who are specialists in handling and working with camels, and have a wealth of experience in walking the desert and knowledge of its flora & fauna, and are respectful of our First Nations people who call the desert home.​

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Walking in this landscape is on firm sand and occasional claypans and gibber (small stones) flats. If the eastern Simpson receives good soaking rain in late March/early April, there may be a profusion of yellow flowers such as poached-egg daisy & 'Yellowtop' covering the landscape, and supplying our camels with fresh feed.... however it's not until we actually get out there in April 2023 that we will know the extent of any rainfall.

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May, June and July is ideal walking weather in Central Australia and over the course of a 5 to 6 hour walking day you would walk approximately between 8 to 10 kilometres.  Our pace of travel is determined by the camels and their ability to negotiate the dunes or other landforms in the landscape. They carry all your personal gear, and all you have to carry is your day pack. We will of course be stopping as required depending on what we see as we walk along.

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This is a very real, very Australian desert experience, and camels are the perfect cross-country vehicle and so we don't follow roads or tracks, and there is no vehicle back-up: we don't need it! Camps are chosen for the availability of camel feed, and we never camp in the same place twice. And in addition, as we are Australia's only scientific organisation that also specialises in remote desert travel, you won't 'bump into' any other groups of trekkers.

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