Not exactly the most desirable topic however a very important one none the less, especially considering we will have a few night without facilities on our trip. As previously mentioned, we would normally make use of a chemical toilet when camping, however as these use a lot of water, they become impractical in the desert. […]
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That’s right, there is now only 5 months to go until we embark on one of Australia’s most iconic and epic 4WD trips. I thought I’d take this opportunity to to recap on a few important items that need to be locked in prior to hitting the road. As we all know, heading off into
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Sand recoveries will, unfortunately, be a reality when travelling across the Simpson Desert. If we’re lucky, and the sand is hard, then it could be all smooth sailing, however if luck goes the other way, we could be in for quite a few recoveries. With that in mind, I thought I’d put up a post
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Water, an essential ingredient for life on earth as we know it and one of the biggest challenges that we have when venturing into the desert. As you may or may not know, there is no drinking water available in the Simpson Desert, so we must take all of our water with us. While the
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After my last post, Mum (Jenny) sent through the following insights from our Cape York trip. After reading your last instalment concerning the Simpson adventure and the discussion Re: photography, I thought I would remind fellow travellers that you can, in fact, have too many cameras. Those on the Cape York trip may or may
Image source: https://thelongwalkhome2012.wordpress.com/2012/01/ One of the experiences I’m most looking forward to during our trip to the Queensland Outback and Simpson Desert, is the concept of Big Sky Country. Where the land rolls on endlessly to the point where it crashes into the horizon exploding in a vertical wall of blue that towers overhead. The pleasure
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Just a quick update on Satellite Phones. If anyone was considering purchasing one, the I can recommend the people at Pivotel. They are based on the Gold Coast, but have resellers around the country. The offer a casual Thuraya Satellite plan for $15 per month, with calls costing approximately $1 per minute. The other benefit
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After recently checking out the Sand Flag that Peter purchased, featured in my last sand flag update, I decided to bite the bullet and order a flag. I ordered a completely different style of flag from an eBay seller who I’ve used a few times in the past. This shot just has the flag sitting
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Image from: snowys.com.au I came across this great blog series on crossing the Simpson Desert from Snowy’s. There are 3 articles, which cover preparation, challenges and a retrospective review of their trip. Check out the links below for some really great info. http://blog.snowys.com.au/crossing-the-simpson-for-beginners-part-1-who-can-do-it/ http://blog.snowys.com.au/crossing-the-simpson-desert-for-beginners-part-2/ http://blog.snowys.com.au/crossing-the-simpson-desert-for-beginners-part-3/ One interesting point in the last article is the actual
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Safety is a major concern on any long distance trip and we all want to make it back home safely. To ensure we have the best chance of doing that there are a few things to consider. Maintenance It is critical to ensure we are all travelling in well maintained vehicles. Around town there is
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Peter, one of our fellow Simpson Desert travellers, sent me some info this week relating to his Sand/Safety Flag purchase. Check out his comments below and some pictures of his flag. Last Friday whilst out on Beaudesert Rd, Coopers Plains, I dropped into ARBand then TJM to see how many more $’s I have to
Similar to travelling in most national parks and some state parks, travelling through to Simpson Desert requires a permit. This is actually pretty easy to obtain and they last for 12 Months. You an pick up the pass from Mt Dare before we hit the desert, you could also get it online just before we
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Along with water and shelter, reliable communications in the outback is essential. This article will focus on short range communications as well as long range and emergency communications. During our trip out to and across the Simpson Desert access to regular cellular communications networks will be quite limited. There may be patches of coverage from
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As everyone should by now be aware, Sand Flags are a requirement when travelling in any part of the Simpson Desert. These are required as a safe guard against having a head on collision with a vehicle heading the opposite direction up the other side of a sand dune. The idea is the person will
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We’ve settled on our accommodation needs for the Simpson Desert crossing. We’d originally thought we would be taking our roof top tent, but in an attempt to keep as much weight off the roof as possible we’re made the decision to go with an annex room which is much lighter than the roof topper and
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Cooloola National Park is situated between Tewantin and a Rainbow Beach on the eastern coast of Queensland. Roughly 3 hours drive north of Brisbane, Cooloola beach, also known as Noosa North Shore, is like a miniature Fraser Island with a beautifully long sandy beach on the shadow of a lush green ridge that follows the
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We departed Polignano at around 10 and headed to Bari airport. We topped up with fuel along the way which was much less painful than the first fueling attempt thankfully. We arrived just in time to drop the car off at Avis and walked into the airport. There was a massive line up for
The drive from Matera to Polignano was very short but as we couldn’t check-in until 3pm, we took the scenic route through never ending fields of wheat and other crops. We planned to stop just outside of Polignano to give the hotel a call, as they had requested, and also for a comfort stop and
The drive to Matera was largely uneventful apart from me having an argument with the petrol vending machine. We arrived in Matera pretty much on schedule and found our way to the accommodation which is at one end of the Sassi. The Sassi, Italian for stones or rocks, is an area of Matera where people
We are off the ship! It’s been a long 36 days and while we’re glad to be back on land, we’re not sure how we will be able to function in society without someone cleaning up after us, cleaning our room, telling us what to eat. Mind you, we are going to a lovely little
