The Simpson desert was an absolute hoot!! We did it all....forded rivers, slid through mud pans, and sank in bulldust. Such a crack up really. Headed East out of Birdsville on a sunny morning covering the 37 odd km out to the BIG RED sand dune and the start of the desert. The track out to Big Red was as challenging as we had seen and we kept saying to ourselves "yeah, some desert". The water at some crossings cascaded over our windscreen as we ploughed through, the mud trying to suck us in if we deviated too far to the sides of the track. It was quite an introduction to this new adventure.
When we eventually arrived at the foot of Big Red we let our tyre pressures down and mumbled to ourselves something about a track that goes around???? Yes of course that's a good plan we said, after all why risk it with a trailer and two little kids? So we very proudly took the more cutious route to the north that we thought took us around the worst of Big Red. NOT SO. In our slightly confused yet dedicated way (there was no way Max was not going up even if it did look rather steep)...this is the easy route right? We gritted our teeth and let the Cruiser do its work. If you haven't guessed we now think the world of our car!!!!
The cruiser didn't miss a beat and ploughed up that sand dune with no worries what so ever. It was literally a breathtaking moment as we hit that crest. The car pointed us to the sky for those final seconds where we were suspended before the momentum finally pushed us over and the sight ahead of us was incredible. As we paused on the dune top, ahead of us lay a sheet of water (from the recent floods) and just one single track megerly making its way over a sandune off in the distance. It was incredible! For a split second your mind goes 'Oh my god'.....before you realize you can probably go around.
Anyway as we know now, we in fact launched ourselves over the main BIG RED dune, not the bypass route. The main track is in fact the easier route and people deviate to take the Bigger Route. Mmmmmm anyway neither of us can say we regret it. In fact I'm glad we can say we climbed it. Pity we can't say the same from the other direction HA!
We drove on through the desert negotiating water and sand like it was as natural as spinifex. Such a strange contrast in one of the harshest deserts in Australia. Great fun though.
We noticed the trailer, but all up the cruiser handled things wonderfully and after each dune we breathed a collective sigh of relief. It was great fun. The desert finally had its way with us when we were stopped by a relatively small dune, angled and highly corrugated. We tried multiple times but couldn't get traction to take us over. Max with his dogged determintion didn't want to give in but eventually we had to admit defeat and set up camp. The camp that night was one of the best we've had so far. Gorgeous skies, vivid colours and just alive with animal life.
Next morning we backtracked to Big Red, closely followed by a couple of Fords. Our attempt at crossing Big REd via the so called easier route was not as successful, with both the F150 and ourselves needing a little tug from a friend (F250) to get us up over the crest. Ahhhh all in a days work................
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