Planning Tips for a Trip to the Simpson Desert
Planning Tips Simpson Desert
In this blog post we take you through our planning process for a trip to the Simpson Desert, hopefully providing you with tips for your own desert adventure. Most of these points are relevant for most Australian adventures, be it to the Outback or even to Fraser Island. If you have any comments or questions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this post or send us a message on Instagram or Facebook.
For a two-week trip to an isolated location as the Simpson Desert there is a fair bit of planning required. This is always a fun part of adventures, working out where you are going to go and what you need to do in order to be as well prepared as you can to ensure you have the best time possible. So, let’s get into it.
We have been working on our setup specifically for trips like this, so we are fairly prepared. Our storage setup is pretty good creating lots of usable space, so packing is easy. Suspension, recovery gear, fuel protection, navigation and coms are all great. Mechanically we have ensured that we have had a pre-trip vehicle check done with air and oil filters replaced a month before departure. Tools and spares have all been sorted. We do own a fairly new 4WD and it has been checked by reputable mechanics, so we do not carry a large number of spares. If we have any major issues occurring, then an expensive tow it will be. All permits have been organised, paid for and received. As part of our planning for this Simpson Desert trip we also needed to ensure we had organised border passes to allow us to cross the Queensland and South Australia borders due to Covid-19 border restrictions.
Cooking dinners is one of the duties we volunteered for, so a meal plan is always prepared to make this easier. We will go into more detail about meal planning later in this post.
Key Things to Consider
Key points and tips when planning a Simpson Desert trip. In our opinion these are the key things you should consider for such a trip; these are in no order of importance:
• Fridge setup
• Meals and creating a meal plan
• Water
• Fuel
• Permits
• Travel requirements such as a sand flag
• First aid and a fire extinguisher
• Communications
• Navigation
• Storage
• Compressor
• Tyres and tyre pressures
• Tools and spares
Let’s get into each of these in more detail.
Fridge Setup
We are of the opinion that you need to have a 12V fridge in your setup. Look you can get away with a really good esky that keeps your ice frozen for many days, but this is super risky in the event you get isolated waiting for assistance. If you are going to have a fridge then you need to ensure it is well maintained, you have a second battery and you understand the wiring setup in the event there is an electrical issue. We won’t go into any more detail on the electrical setup of our 4WD as this requires several other posts to cover this. But you need to ensure you have a good 12V setup and that your second battery will be able to maintain its charge throughout the trip. If touring this won’t be an issue as you will be doing a fair bit of driving every day or every other day.
Back to the fridge setup. Depending on how long your trip is this will determine how much food and drink you are taking but this is how we prepare our fridge.
Vacuum Seal & Freeze Your Meat
We choose to freeze all our meat beforehand, in the correct portion sizes. This makes packing your fridge easy. We have a Waeco CFX 50 fridge that can also be used as a freezer. In order to keep the meat frozen we ensure we pack the meat correctly. Firstly, we set the fridge to around minus 3-5 degrees. We then ensure we pack all the frozen meat at the bottom of the fridge. Try and pack it in a way that is easy to get to without having to unpack everything. The secret here is to vacuum seal everything first. When vacuum sealing your meat, we try and vacuum seal it in a rectangular shape rather than square.
Pack Your Fridge Correctly
We then stack the meat upright with the longer side on the bottom of the fridge. This allows you to easily grab the meat you need for the meal you are cooking. By storing all the frozen meat at the bottom of the fridge, this should keep the meat frozen. Then pack on top of the meat other things like bacon, salami, ham and so on. The sort of items that are usually prepacked. This acts as a barrier between your frozen and non-frozen items. Then pack your other cold items that you don’t want to freeze such as butter, cheese, beers, soft drinks, milk and so on. If packed correctly and your temperature is set around minus 3-5 degrees, the meat should stay frozen and your other cold items should not freeze. As the fridge starts to empty over the time of your trip, you might need to increase the fridge temperature to ensure that everything else doesn’t freeze. This might be a bit of trial and error with your fridge setup, but this should give you a good indication of how to get started and then make the necessary adjustments on your trip.
With beers and other drinks, don’t pack loads of drinks all at once. This is a waste of fridge space. Try and pack four to six drinks at a time. When you have a beer, replace the cold one with a warm one that you are storing somewhere else in your 4WD. This will ensure you always have enough cold drinks when you need one but aren’t wasting space by filling it with a case of beers that you won’t be drinking all at once.
Meals
There are some really good meals that you can cook with simple and similar ingredients using different cooking methods. Corned beef fried rice is a great one. Using canned corned beef this way is actually really good. A super simple recipe that you can read here. This recipe uses all dry ingredients that are all easy to keep for long periods, not in your fridge and don’t take up a lot of space. Other meals like a beef stew in a camp oven taste great and are simple. If you can have a fire, super easy meal and again uses mostly dry easy to store ingredients. Curries in the camp oven are also great as they can use pretty much all the same main ingredients as the stew with the addition of a curry paste and some coconut milk. If you can’t have fires, which will occur in some locations, these same meals can be cooked over a gas stove. Lunches we usually choose to have wraps and two-minute noodles. However, in this Simpson Desert trip we also had pies for lunch as Rick who was travelling with us has as camp buddy oven in his Land Cruiser. For breakfasts we usually have cereal, fruit and a few bacon and egg wraps.
We always try and create a meal plan for what meals we will cook and the ingredients we need to pack. Check out our post here for a detailed post on the meal plan we created for this Simpson Desert trip. Basically, we list all the meals we plan to cook and for each meal we list the ingredients required. As we are spreadsheet gurus, we do all this in Excel in order to summarise the ingredients for a shopping and packing list. As highlighted above, we try and choose ingredients that store well and don’t need to be kept cold. Choosing meals that use vegetables that are also easy to store dry is another good idea (we try and take a lot of hard vegetables). This includes potatoes, onions, carrots, pumpkin and so on. Creating a detailed meal plan is also great as it ensures that you don’t carry more than you need. Remembering to always have a few extras in the event you get isolated somewhere and need food for a few more days than planned.
Water & Fuel
Other things you will need to sort out are water and extra fuel.
Water
For this recent Simpson Desert trip, there were two of us in the Cruiser. The longest amount of time we were completely isolated was planned to be for three to four days – it ended up being four days. In the event of something going wrong it could have been five days or more. We hadn’t planned on using our water for showers. For cleaning between showers, we always use baby wipes and depending on your route there will be the option to jump in a hot spring or two. So, we allowed for 5-6 litres of water per person per day. We did this by carrying two 20 litre jerry cans for a total of 40 litres of water. This provided cover for four days comfortably, and if something unexpected occurred we would have rationed ourselves. After the four days we still did have about 5-10 litres of water remaining. We had purchased a few 1.5 litre water bottles at Birdsville before we entered the Simpson Desert which led to us having a bit of water leftover. But for planning purposes, allow for 5 litres of water per person per day and use it sparingly. When cleaning up after meals, wipe out any scum with paper towel so you don’t need to use too much water. When we did this trip it was fairly cool, so we didn’t need to drink as much water. If you are doing a trip somewhere else in the middle of summer, take this into account as you will probably use more water.
Fuel
When it comes to fuel, we already have a 130-litre tank stock standard on the 76 Series Land Cruiser. It is a fairly big tank that comes standard, so this will depend on your 4WD setup as well as your fuel consumption. During normal driving conditions, we average around 13-14 litres of diesel per 100 kms. In thick sand, off road, lots of low range driving and towing we average anywhere from 17 to 20 litres per 100 kms. When planning for the Simpson Desert trip, we knew we would be required to get through lots of sand dunes and many rough and corrugated roads that would generally be slow going. The longest section between fuel stops was 500-600 kms. When planning we worked out that if we average 20 litres per 100 kms our range would be 650 kms. We also did a calculation on a worst-case scenario at 22 litres per 100 kms. This reduced our range from 650 kms down to 590 kms. As a result, we decided to only carry an additional 20 litres of diesel. Rick, who travelled with us was carrying 40 litres in the same 4WD, so we knew we had a little extra as backup. If something unforeseen happened, we know it wouldn’t be a great distance to the next fuel stop so one of the 4WDs would have used all the fuel to get assistance. If we had a jerry can holder on our rear bar (which we are working on currently), we probably would have carried 40 litres of diesel. If we had done this trip on our own, we would have carried 40 litres for that added security. For this trip we wanted to limit our payload for several factors, so we decided to only carry the 20 litres.
We will be adding a detailed blog post on our fuel consumption for this trip so keep posted (blog post detailing our fuel consumption has been added, view it here). In summary though we averaged 17 litres of fuel between Birdsville and Coober Pedy; this was through the Simpson Desert via the QAA Line, French Line, Dalhousie Springs and Oodnadatta. We ended up filling up at Coober Pedy when we had planned to fill up at Oodnadatta. For the rest of our trip we average 14 litres per 100 kms. Remembering that we drive a V8 Land Cruiser that is not great on fuel economy, so make sure you do these calculations based on your 4WD. But this should give you an idea of the fuel consumption differences between the desert and other road conditions.
Fuel Pre-Filter
On the topic of fuel, one consideration that you should make is installing a fuel pre-filter. We have a detailed blog post about how we went about fitting one to our 76 Land Cruiser – check it out here. It is a simple self-install that can be done in under an hour. This should be one of the first additions to any 4WD in our opinion, it is a low-cost solution with a huge amount of benefits. We won’t go into too much detail here as you can read the blog post we have linked above. But basically, we would recommend fitting one before any trips to safeguard your 4WD from any contaminated fuel. Especially if you are filling up at service stations that have underground tanks that are not well maintained and if you are going to be adding additional fuel from jerry cans. It is easy to get dirt and water into your fuel lines so having a pre-filter installed protects you from this. In our recent Simpson Desert and Outback Australia trip, Rick who travelled with us got unlucky on the drive home from some dodgy fuel that was full of water. His fuel pre-filter saved him big time. Also carry a spare filter and ensure you have it replaced before you leave on your trip, unless it was only recently changed.
Permits
When entering the Simpson Desert, you will need to purchase a Desert Parks Pass from South Australia Parks. This permits costs approximately $180 and is valid for a 12-month period. It is called the Desert Parks Pass. It allows you to enter multiple parks and includes entry for one vehicle as well as camping in the parks. Some park campsites still require you to book a spot however on our recent trip this was not required in the sites where we camped. You need to try and ensure you book your pass well in advance so that you have enough time to receive your Desert Parks Pass handbook. It is a requirement of your permit that you carry this handbook with you. By ensuring you obtain this handbook well in advance it does provide you with additional information to help you plan for such a trip, however we have included most of the useful information in this post.
The Desert Parks Pass allows you entry and camping in the below parks:
• Witjira National Park
• Munga-Thirri (Simpson Desert)
• Innamincka Regional Reserve
• Malkumba-Coongie Lakes National Park
• Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre) National Park
• Wabma Kadarbu Mound Springs
• Tallaringa Conservation Park
On our trip this pass was the only permit we needed to acquire. If you are going into the Northern Territory there are other passes and permits that you will need to obtain, which we will update when we do a trip into this area. Having the handbook is super useful as it provides you with a bunch of useful information in regards to where you can and can’t camp, what you can and can’t take with you, where you are allowed to have fires and a whole lot of other useful information. One useful piece of information is the estimated travel time chart which gives you a really good idea on distances between key points on certain tracks and the time it takes. Travelling on the desert tracks is slow going so it is a useful table when planning your trip route.
This is where you can purchase a Desert Parks Pass – scroll down until you see the 12 month pass for somewhere near $180.
Sand Flag
When travelling in the Simpson Desert you are required to have a compliant sand flag. This should be either 3 metres long if secured on your bull bar or 2 metres long if secured on your roof rack. You also need to ensure that the actual flag is compliant, meaning it needs to be a bright colour and has reflective tape. Unfortunately, some people try to save money and make their own. We have seen people travelling in the Desert with homemade fabric flags that do not reflect light in the dark and are also not a bright colour so can be difficult to see. You can pick up a compliant sand flag for under $100 so just get the correct type and store to use on your next Desert trip. We picked ours up online through Catch of the Day discounted from $150 for $69, this one is super strong and comes with a spring base like what you see on an UHF antenna.
First Aid & Fire Extinguisher
We always carry a good 4WD’ing first aid kit and maintained fire extinguisher. We also ensure that we carry a bunch of different medications and antibiotics in the event these are needed. Simple things like getting a cut, ensuring you have an antiseptic and band aids makes a big difference. Hopefully you won’t need to use any of this gear but when you do you will be glad you packed it. Make sure you have these stored somewhere within your 4WD where they can be access easily, and let any other passengers know where these are in the event you aren’t around and there is an emergency. We have both our first aid kit and fire extinguisher attached to the side of our drawers that can easily be access from one of the rear passenger doors not matter how we pack our 4WD.
Communications
You need to ensure you have your communications in good working order for a trip such as this. As a minimum you need some sort of a UHF, be it a fixed radio in your 4WD or as a minimum, a pair of handhelds. Remembering though that with handhelds, your range might not be as good depending on the brand and features. We have both for a few reasons. Firstly, when in the Simpson Desert you need to be on channel 10 the whole time. Everyone in the Simpson should have channel 10 turned on so that you can call up before going over a sand dune to ensure that there is not another 4WD coming in the opposite direction. On the QAA Line there are call up markers before steep sand dunes so that other travellers can determine where you are. We carry handhelds so that we can have these set to another open channel to communicate between 4WD’s. This ensures other travellers don’t have to hear our chit chatter. The final reason for having a couple of handhelds allows us to use them if we need to have a spotter to get us through a treacherous spot.
Using Your UHF in the Desert
When it comes to using your UHF in the Simpson, here are some helpful tips. Ensure you are on channel 10. When heading off first thing in the morning, jump on the radio and let others know that you are on a particular line or track and what direction you are travelling. For example, “two vehicles west bound on the QAA Line”. If anyone else is within range, then they will pick up that message and can respond if they are heading in your direction. You can then communicate with the other party to determine whereabouts they are to ensure that you or they can wait at the bottom of the sand dunes to let you pass. This ensures you don’t have any issues coming over a sand dune into the path of another vehicle coming in the opposite direction. We had an issue with another traveller in a new Land Drover Discovery. We could see them in the distance, a few sand dunes ahead. As a result we got on the radio to let them know we had a visual and would wait for them to proceed over the next dune. No response. So we radioed again, and again no response. We then walked up the track to try and determine what they were doing. The Discovery then came over then dune. We asked them if they heard our radio calls, to which they responded, “no, are you on channel 40?” So for some reason they thought this was the channel you needed to be on. Ensure that you are on channel 10!
Going into the Simpson also means you will have no cell phone reception, so it is highly recommended to have another device that allows you to contact someone in the event of an emergency. Currently we do not have such a device but Rick who will be with us has a Garmin GPS (Inreach Explorer) device that allows you to send messages and works as an emergency beacon in the event of a problem. This is something that is on our list to purchase for our solo trips. Having a device that allows you to send either a text message or email is a great idea, every night we would send a message to loved ones letting them know we were ok and on track with our pre planned route. Another bit of advice let someone know what you route is expected to be and that you’ll touch base once a day or every second day. In the event they do not hear from you in 3 to 4 days, alert someone as there is likely an issue. If they are aware of your route, then emergency services will have an idea of where to find you.
Installing an UHF in your 4WD is easy, can be a little time consuming running all the cables, but too see how easy it is, read our blog post here that takes you through the self-install process when we fitted one to our 76 Series Land Cruiser.
Navigation
You also want to have your navigation gear in place well before leaving on any trip. We use the Hema Maps app on our iPad and pre download the areas we are visiting to ensure we have our navigation sorted. We also choose to carry paper maps of the areas we are visiting in the event something goes wrong with the iPad. Paper maps are also great tools to have for sitting around the fire and working out where you are going next in the event you want to make changes to your pre planned route. One other app we use is Wiki Camps. We pre download an area so we have access without any mobile signal as well as saving a few potential camp spots before we leave. Wiki Camps is awesome when touring as it shows you so many camp sites around the country, free and paid, as well as images and reviews of certain spots.
Ensure that you plan your intended route and calculate distances and times so that you have a good idea of where you are going to be on what day. The estimated travel timetable in the Desert Pass Handbook is a super useful tool in assisting with this. For example, we average around 100 kms per day when driving within the desert. That is 20 kms per hour, so what might seem a short route on a map, can take several days compared to driving on normal dirt roads.
Storage
So, for us this is one of the most important areas when touring other than fuel and water of course. You don’t need to have the best storage setup to get out there and adventure, but believe me, it makes a massive difference if you get your storage setup right. Nothing worse than having to half unpack your 4WD to get to something that you need. You want everything to be easily accessible so that it is quick and easy to get setup and pack all your gear away. If you are setting up and staying somewhere for a few days, then this is not a big issue. But when touring and you are setting up camp almost every night, having your storage setup right makes a big difference. As a minimum you will want to have items stored in crates or containers that can be strapped down or secured in some way. You need to ensure you do this and secure your gear, as you are going to be driving through some pretty rough tracks as well as some full-on corrugations. If your gear is not secured, you will see wear and tear on the inside of your vehicle as well as have items getting damaged from all the movement they will experience.
You can see several blog posts that we have done our drawer setup here. This gives you a really good idea on how we have setup the back of our Cruiser. Even this setup has a few teething issues that we are going to change, but it mostly works really well. In our Drifta rear drawers (we have two of them), the bottom drawer is a lot higher than the top. When touring we use the top drawer (as it is shorter) to store all our pantry items like canned foods, herbs, spices, long life milk, jars and so on. We then use the bottom bigger drawer to store more bulky pantry items, Uni Flame cookset, collapsible tub, jet cooker, cutlery, knives, windshield for gas cooker, foldable chopping board and so on. This gives us really quick and easy access to most things that we need with our fridge slide out beside the drawers. We have modified our drawer setup to have a top shelf where we store in canvas bags, our crockery (plates, bowls etc), spare gas cannisters, toilet paper, single butane gas cooker, compressor hose and camera tripod. Again, this gear is all easily accessible without the need to remove anything from the back of the Cruiser. On top of the drawers we then store three crates which we can secure with tie down straps, so they do not move. In one of these crates (at the back as we hopefully won’t need to access as often) we store all our spare parts (see the list of spares below). In the crate in front of the spares which is easy to access without having to take out, we line in cut out foam mats and in the bottom store cans of beer and then above the beers we store our dry veggies such as onions, potatoes, carrots and some fruit. In the other crate that we store beside the spares we have our camp oven and a few other little bits and pieces. In front of the camp oven crate we store our tools in a canvas bag. It does mean that we need to take the tools out to get the camp oven, but this is fairly easy to do and takes less than 30 seconds.
As you can see in our drawer setup, we added a couple of barriers on either side of the drawers. This allows us to store our two Snow Peak light weight chairs in a canvas bag, a lightweight large Uni Flame table and a shower ensuite tent (which we did not use on this most recent trip). All this gear is secured in place with a simple shock cord that has been mounted to the side barrier.
On the other side of the drawers we have a shelf. This shelf has 12V charging points as well as our 240V power board. In here we store our fire extinguisher, first aid kit and medicine bag that are all easily accessed from the side passenger door. We also then store all our camera gear in a large canvas bag that fits perfectly in this shelf. Under the shelf we then store all our recovery gear and compressor pump up kit. Again, this gear is secured in place using shock cord.
We then use the back seat for our bags, so driver’s bag on the driver’s side of the back seat and the opposite for the passenger. In the foot well we store our three jerry cans. Two jerrys for water and one for diesel. The diesel we store in the middle as this will be accessed far less often than the water. As we haven’t finished our rear bar setup with a double jerry holder, at the moment we store these inside the wagon. For the water we have modified a hand pump that can be screwed onto the top of the jerry allowing you to pump out the water really easily.
The final bit of storage is on our roof rack. Here we try and keep as little as possible on the roof in order to keep our weight nice and low. So, all we store up here is the two swags running down the centre, our sand flag, two recovery tracks and our shovel.
We have done a detailed YouTube video below which takes you through our 76 Land Cruiser once fully packed for this particular trip.
Compressor
You need to ensure you have a 12V compressor. To see how we have installed our compressor in our 76 Series Land Cruiser, you can read this blog post here. Our compressor has been fitted as an on-board setup which is easy to get to and use. Before our 76 Land Cruiser build, we used to use a stand-alone compressor that we would have to connect to our starter battery. There is nothing wrong with using a compressor in this way. But just ensure you have a compressor as you will be driving through different track conditions and will need to adjust your tyre pressure many times.
Tyres & Tyre Pressures
Tyres are an important part of any 4WD and Outback travel. Most issues people face is tyre related. Blowouts, poor tyres and incorrect tyre pressures are what lead to most tyre issues. If you want to ensure you have a great trip, make sure your tyres are in good condition. Do not do any isolated travel with tyres that are coming close to their use by date. Even if you still think you have another 10 to 15 thousand kms to get out of them, replace them with a good set of all terrain or mud tyres. You can always swap back the older ones when you get back and then when they need to be replaced, put the newer ones back on.
Tyre pressures are also super important here. Make sure you run the correct tyre pressure for the conditions that you are driving. This is not difficult and makes a huge difference to how your 4WD will handle in different conditions. As soon as we leave the hard top (bitumen) we drop our tyres from around 40 PSI to anywhere between 30 and 32 PSI – this is on dirt roads that are corrugated. In the sand we drop our tyres all the way down to somewhere between 15 and 18 PSI. Running too high tyre pressure can lead to blowouts and the increased chances of getting bogged. Constantly check your tyre pressures as well due to the changes in pressure from hot to cold. We made the decision to install wireless tyre pressure monitors so that we can see the tyre pressure of each individual tyre. We can also set warning alarms on the low and high sides. This means that we will know if we have a flat, so we can stop, change or repair the tyre before we do any damage. This is a cheap modification and can be fitted in under 30 minutes.
Finally, with tyres we would highly recommend having a tyre repair kit. We always carry a tyre repair kit in our rear drawers. They are easy to use, and you can repair a puncture quickly. If you have a kit and have never used one, watch a YouTube video to familiarise yourself with how they work. These cost less than $40 so make sure you get a good kit – not a good idea to buy a cheap kit. With a good kit you should also get a few spare valves which are handy to have.
Tools & Spares
Tools
This should be a given, that you need to carry some tools. We won’t go in to too much detail here as everyone will have a differing opinion on what you should carry. There are a few basics that you must ensure you have in your 4WD on any trip that we will list below. You could carry a bunch of other tools as well but remember that everything you carry adds to your weight, and weight is evil. So, don’t carry tools that you don’t need just because you have them in your shed. Only carry the tools that will be useful if you have a problem.
These are the tools we choose to carry:
• Sockets for the bolt sizes we need (we don’t carry every socket in our tool set).
• Socket wrench and bar.
• Socket extension.
• Spanners for the main bolt sizes we need.
• Adjustable spanner.
• Multi grips.
• Long nose and regular pliers.
• Wire cutters.
• Screwdriver set.
• Box cutters.
• Hammer.
• Hacksaw.
• Set of allen keys.
• Shovel.
• Axe.
• Tyre deflator.
• Multimeter.
• Exhaust jack.
Spares
We have a new 4WD, so we do not carry many spares. Some people carry spare CV’s and all sorts of things, so this will depend on your 4WD and the issues your vehicle faces. But for us we ensure that our vehicle is well maintained by reputable mechanics and has a pre-trip check done by a mechanic at least one month before we leave. This ensures your fluids are all checked and correct, filters replaced if needed and a good check over everything else. We also check all the bolts around our 4WD. This includes bolts on the bull bar, rear bar, wheels, spare wheel, roof rack, spotlights, UHF antenna, suspension and winch. Checking all your bolts are nice and tight is recommended, as driving for long periods of time on rough roads will test how well your bolts have been tightened. As you travel, make sure you do a quick check around your vehicle each morning before leaving.
Here are the spares we choose to carry:
• Fan belt.
• Radiator hose top and bottom.
• Electrical wire.
• Fuses making sure they are the sizes you need in your setup.
• Spare filters: oil, fuel, fuel pre-filter, oil catch can filter, and air filter.
• Range of spare nuts, bolts and washers.
• Oil.
• Radiator coolant.
• WD40
• Tyre repair kit.
• Compressor fittings for on board compressor setup.
• Range of spare hose clamps of different sizes.
• Tie wire / fencing wire.
• Cable ties.
• Ratchet straps.
With all the spares you choose to carry, make sure you know how to replace them. If you haven’t replaced a fan belt before, then try and find a YouTube video for your make and model 4WD of someone changing the fan belt. Nothing worse than having a problem and then taking all day to try and work out how to replace it. Also, if you do have a problem and don’t know how to replace something, then RTFM! Read the manual. You will save yourself all sorts of time and problems by reading the manual of your 4WD, you will be surprised how much information there is in there.
We hope you have enjoyed these planning tips for the Simpson Desert. There should be enough information here to ensure you have a great Outback adventure. If you think we have missed anything or have any questions please comment below or send us a message on Instagram or Facebook.
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Thanks for reading legends.
The thoughts of Peter.
11/02/2022 @ 1:32 PM
Great read, thanks for the detailed post and great tips! I couldn’t help notice a sprinkling of a few items that a South African might take camping… The Boerwors, Pronutro, tennis biscuits… 🙂 As an Aussie who is married to a South African, I find these on our camping trips now!
12/02/2022 @ 6:57 PM
G’day David,
Thanks for the feedback, glad you’ve found it useful. Let us know if you have any questions re the Simpson. We’ve done a few trips and have more planned so happy to help where I can.
Yes the African blood still flows through the veins. Haha. We are originally from Zimbabwe so we do still enjoy some good old African treats on our adventures.
Thanks for reading mate.
Cheers,
Peter
17/01/2021 @ 1:05 PM
Peter….FYI we towed a 2011 Tvan
mark
18/01/2021 @ 10:16 AM
That’s a good effort mate. How many recoveries did you need to do to get over the dunes? Or did you manage them all ok?
17/01/2021 @ 1:04 PM
Yes Peter, we all read Cecils words and read between them.
Also what was of value was Griselda Sprigg’s book..”Dune is a four letter word”
regards mark
05/01/2021 @ 4:07 PM
Another great blog. Try the Madigan but don’t blog it please? (best kept quiet, if you know what I mean:-)
05/01/2021 @ 4:24 PM
G’day Mark,
Haha we will try not to. It is actually on the list for 2022! Need to do a few more upgrades on the Land Cruiser to be setup perfectly for that track. Have you read the book “Crossing the Dead Heart” by CT Madigan? It is a good read about how they crossed the Simpson back in the day with camels. Hence the name “Madigan Line”.
Cheers,
Peter