Well didn't that Toyota drivers face change as a Jeep had conquered
what his Toyota couldn't and when I said I would let his work mate know that
owned a Jeep also, he had a dummy spit 
and we
broke our friendship of 18 years up a few days later as it burned him up even
though I had let it rest and hadn't brought it up again. The only thing that
really hurts is that the video footage of first his failed attempts and then me
flying through the air was never to be seen by me even a few years later when we
tried to patch things up. 
So after 500 kms, 1,100
sand dunes and in low range for two and half days we had crossed the Simpson
Desert. And as you can see below 'Big Red' was 90 metres or 295 feet high which
is like driving over a 30 storey building made of sand!
The sign on the other side says it all and ends our desert crossing
Hit a lonely strip of tar for the first time in nearly a week and celebrated by having a counter dinner in the only pub in town and ate our coat of arms by enjoying a nice Emu steak and Kangaroo stuffed with sun dried tomatoes. Called up Jeep Assist and was directed to the only work shop in town to get a new bolt for the caliper to get the Jeep whole again. He and the locals were most interested in the XJ as never has seen one before let alone one that had come across the Simpson Desert to get there. I had taken 145 litres of fuel with me in the car and trailer tank plus a small 5 litre one that I use to transfer the fuel across and still had some in reserve. I have heard since then of XJ's getting across with just two jerry cans extra in better conditions when it has had more vehicles over and the sands harder due to lower temperatures and or rain which makes it much easier. From here we continued across west through Betoota to Haddon's corner for another state corner post before heading down south.
The famous Birdsville hotel and yet another state corner post
The track south of Haddon's corner was pretty good condition and a lot better than the one past Cordillo Downs which was badly corrugated at the time with large washaways. It also leads you past the Burke and Wills Dig Tree which should not be left out when visiting the area and know about the fateful end of these explorers who tried to walk from one end of Australia to the other and back. We hit a very bad dust storm while driving down to Innamincka and had to pull off the track as could not see more than 10 feet in front of us!
A Corella chick and a Wedge Tail Eagle in flight
After checking all around the Burke and Wills sites our party
broke up due to Jeep envy 
but not before
they took the maps and our spare fuel they had been carrying and left us along
out here with not a soul in site. Fortunately I had been here in 1975 and my
honeymoon in 1987 and had a idea of where to go along with a road atlas which had laughable detail.
A carving of Bourke near the Dig Tree plus one of the oil pumps