Thread: Simpson Trip

I crossed the Simpson in May East- West in a SIII Landy, with a '92 Defender "Support Vehicle."

We crossed into the Desert at Warburton Crossing, just north of Mungerannie and proceeded along the mainly interdunal corridor to Poeppels Corner, then followed the French Line across.

While at Mungerannie we came across a group of about 30 guys on Postal Bikes, who wanted to cross along the Rig Rd in order to raise money for the RFDS. The publican told them that the Rig Rd had up to 15' drops where the dunes had eroded under the clay top, and would be impassable.

Once in the Desert we came a cross a guy on a KTM who belongs to a club that rides the Simpson Desert. He was doing a recce for the Postal bike group, as some members from his club were providing support vehicles. He reckoned they wouldn't make it, that the Rig Rd was out of the question, and that the French Line, which normally has a smoother approach on the steep East sides, was now chopped up on both eastern and western approaches. He said it was the worst he'd seen it.

Once we were crossing the French Line we came across a group of 5 or so LC Troopies. These guys detoured down to the Rig Rd and when we caught up with them later on, they said that it had been very corrugated. They'd broken a roof rack and had to patch weld it.

A week later we met some of the Postal bike riders at Uluru. They never made it across the Desert. After the recce and the road reports, they planned to cross the French Line, but between Birdsville and the Simpson they had already suffered 5 broken clavicles, 1 broken humerous and 2 knocked out front teeth from falls. They boasted that they's raised $60K for the RFDS, but I suggested their combined healthcare costs would be well in excess of that. Perhaps they should petition the Fed Gov't to grant the RFDS an extra couple of million dollars a year on the proviso they desist from their costly fund raising escapades.

The manager at Mt Dare also drives the Desert almost every week and provides road reports on the Mt Dare web site. Have a look at the site and give him a call.

I know you didn't aks for it, but here are the fuel figures for the Simpson :

From Mungerannie to Alice Springs (about 1,000km).

• Defender 200Tdi with >1,000kg payload used 130 litres diesel.
• SIII 2.25 Petrol with c.800kg payload used 280 litres [210 ULP & 70 LPG].

That's why I now drive a Defender.

Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to get there this year. But I normally do cross it the East-West direction. I must admit that everytime I go there it does seem to be getting worse. The corrugations are downright bloody annoying and really give the suspension a work-out. Although compared to the Finke it is a highway

I like going at this time of year myself, as the majority of the traffic has gone. I did the Oodnadatta a couple of years ago in mid December. Had the time of my life and hardly seen anyone. Yeah the weather was high 40's and there's no air-con in my old girl, but you get used to it. That and drinking a bit helps too.