Big Red (Nicholas)

Big Red is a sand dune. It’s the biggest sand dune in the Simpson Desert and was a bright shade of red.

The journey to Big Red was uneventful till the last few kilometres. The recent rain had obviously come through here as well because the road ahead was covered in water. The detour around this unmoving and life filled body of water was long and utterly spectacular. There was a red algae growing on the surface that made the birds that were swimming on and around it stand out vividly, this was especially true of the black swans that we saw there.

 The dune itself was unimpressive by our standards but was still substantial.

Ryan decided that he didn’t trust dad’s driving enough to go down and back up the sand dune in the car. So minus Ryan we all went down the sand dune to the bottom. From there dad first tried going slowly up the biggest sand dune until Ryan came down and told him that the people at the top were saying that you have to go fast up the sand because it’s a matter of momentum rather than traction. So dad rolled slowly down and now minus Jackson as well, went for one of the medium slopes. He went as fast as he dared but to no avail. He still stopped most of the way up.

I said to him that he should try again but go faster this time, while mum was telling him to take the easy way out. Dad being the chicken he is went for the easy route that went sideways up the dune rather than straight up.

The trip to big red was well worth our time because of the views the water body and the dune itself. The wild life we saw included brolgas, cows, egrets and a family of swans.