Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland: 19. – 25.08.2011

Now it meant off we go thru the middle. Or a bit more accurate the larges parallel sand dune system of Australia the Simpson Desert, as they are in a north south alignment and we headed east we would have to cross about 600 of the about 1.100 dunes that reach up to 40 meters. With a thought to our almost 4 tons in that huge sandbox we started to bet on how many times the shovel would have to be in action. Ultimately both of us have been wrong.

Of course it first meant to eliminate some kilometers again, because in Australia, as we have learned in the meantime, nothing is close by. But already on the second day we made it to Dalhousie the starting point of our Outback-Adventure. In the Witjira National Park we took a last hot bath in the natural springs that are fed by the large artesian basin that lies below the area.

The next morning we mounted our self made Swiss-Dune flag that is mounted high above the vehicle. That is to see oncoming traffic on the other side of a dune crest. It happened and still does that two vehicles trying to climb a dune at the same time crash into each other on the crest because there is just no way to see each other. Traveling from west to east the dunes continuously grow in size, so at the start of our journey the first dunes were hardly more than large speed bumps. But with the constant up and down the track soon felt like a Rollercoaster, just without looping. As we got closer to the center, the dunes grew to a considerable size, but Nisto still managed them all without even blinking with the headlight. Slowly the question arose; where is here the adventure? Nevertheless we really enjoyed the drive thru the very green respectively red sandy desert. As a little twist we always took the steepest and highest path across the dunes, though the shovel remained on its well distinguished place.

While the temperature during the day rose to sweaty heights, they went down just above freezing as soon as the sun went down. So we made it a habit to sneak into Nisto quite early, although Sonja preached Markus all the time to take the shoes in after dark, desert inhabitants seemed to like human footwear for every imaginable cause, they quite regularly remained outside. And who does not want to listen has to search. As Sonja went to the toilets one night there was only Markus’ Flip there. Flop was gone and only after a one shoed search party was sent out, it was found left alone, deserted from by desert rat that dragged it about 20 meters away and started chewing on it. Markus hoped that its belly hurts!

In contrary to our Anne Beadell adventure we regularly met other adventurers. Even a Britz (a rental companies for campers and motor homes) with a team of six crossed our way, the absolute highlight though was a Mini Cooper. We could hardly belief our eyes that we saw a normal road car on a track that is normally only managed by the fanciest Off Road Vehicles. On the question on how far they intend to go he only smiled and said as far as they would get. Ok some vehicles of their bunch were quite sophisticated and later we’ve heard from others that they regularly had to tow the Mini up the dunes. How far the managed to get; unfortunately we do not know. Maybe we’ll read it one day in the Guinness Book of Records.

On day number six we made it to ‘Bid Red’, the, with its forty meters, largest Dune in the Simpson Dessert. For Markus it was clear, after it all went without problem, we are going to climb also this dune at its highest point. We watched from distance a couple other vehicles fail on this track and went along the chicken route, but not with us. Indeed at the fourth try, with 15 psi in the tires and under impressed peeks from the failed drivers Nisto has prepared his track good enough to make it to the top, where we have been baffled to see an enormous lake on the other side.  No map, no person has ever mentioned that one and the continuing track seemed to go right thru it. This lake is the reason why the Simpson Desert has been closed for so long. The enormous rainfalls of the last two summers that converted the desert into a green paradise of flowers and birds, however excessive water decided to rest on the track and a detour first had to be built around it. We spent a few hours on this marvelous place and enjoyed this rare view that barely any Simpson-Adventurer gets to see before we took the last smaller dunes under our tires and reached Birdsville without using the shovel once.

But the next adventure is already at the doorstep. To this more in the next report

Windy greetings

Sonja and Markus

Here it goes to the pictures...