Simpson Desert May 2016 Report

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

G'day all,
Just thought I'd report on my Simpson desert crossing this month. Ended up being just another mate in his Hilux and me in my 150.
Route ended up being Alice- Old Andado via Binns Track - Mt Dare - Dalhousie - Birdsville via French line and QAA.
The weeks leading up to the trip had been very wet causing some interesting driving with the wettest sections being within 20km either side of Mt Dare with some long crossings to negotiate in and out of the pub but on the flip side it made the sand in the Simpson decently hard packed and easy to drive. Only dune that took me a couple of goes was Big Red. To save you all a 3000 word essay on the trip I'll sumarise it in dot points.
- First day Alice - 50k north of Old Andado. Slightly wet but nothing difficult at all. Stopped for a cup of tea and a helicopter decided to make the grass 20m from the car it's landing spot.
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- Second Day Binns-Mt Dare via Waddy trees and Old Andado. Very wet especially around Mt Dare with a 200m water crossing required to get into the pub. Managed to get bogged 3km from the pub (only bogging of the trip). Old Andado is well worth the diversion!
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- Third Day Mt Dare- 5km into the Simpson after Purni. Very wet out of Mt Dare with tyres down to 24 and snatch strap ready to go on the bar. Nearing Dalhousie it began to dry and once at the springs you'd never know it rained. After a nice swim at the springs it was on into the desert. The corrugations on the road shook everything like crazy, glad to get off them and into the sand.
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- Fourth Day. Woke up at 4:30am to a dingo looking into my swag, to say I crapped myself is an understatement. After my heart rate dropped we got going for the first full day in the dunes. Found it easier going than we expected and only came across one other person going the other way. Leaving lunch and go to start the car... nothing. Sounds like a flat battery. Override starter and attempt start off the aux battery... nothing. Attempted again and started normally... weird. After investigation it seems my starter got full of crap whilst going through the water and suffered.
http://s33.postimg.org/9ebz1cqnj/20160520_095707.jpg
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The rest of the days in the Simpson were fairly similar. The sand remained very hard packed and easy to drive and aside from a decent water crossing on Lake Poepell (uuuggghhh salt water). There were several bog holes nearing Birdsville on the QAA but they all had very long and rough diversions around them. Final day we made it to Big Red which was cut off from the west by a big bog hole. This required a large diversion track that ended up at the base of Little Red. Once that was conquered it was via the Birdsville side road to Big Red itself! After some playing on Big Redit was the easiest drive ever into Birdsville and a beer!

The final day of the trip my mate and I split, he went south and I went north to Boulia and back to Alice via the Plenty Highway. I had a plan to do it over 2 days but push-on-itis got the best of me completing the 1200km in one day finally arriving home in Alice at 1130pm that night. It sure was a tough drive over one day and full of some interesting things and sights... lesson learned though... Never driving that far in one day again!!

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[Ghandi Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ghandi]

Awesome trip.. can't wait to attempt something similar!

I'm thinking this trip (and now Finke!) will be quite interesting with the extra rain were copping now!

[kenny5000 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close kenny5000]

Thanks for the write up, I should be heading across this time next month!!

[pradoprime Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pradoprime]

Thanks for the letting us know how it went, really good write up.

[spike69 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close spike69]

Thanks Jimmy, looks like you guys had some fun! Not sure I would have attempted some of those muddy sections.....

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

Thanks Jimmy, looks like you guys had some fun! Not sure I would have attempted some of those muddy sections.....

Yeah we had to weigh them all up and walk them but there was no way on or out of Mt Dare without doing them. There were some solid ruts and soft sides so the ruts were your friend. Where i got bogged went in with a bit too much speed (still less than 10) but set up that bouncing between the ruts, popped out and into the deep mud.

Yeah it's pelting down in central Aus at the moment. I'm in the APY lands til this weekend so hopefully it's not too wet on the way home. The road out here has already been completely ruined by the last rains.

It certainly was the trip of a lifetime but I really want to do it again when it's a bit drier.

[Ghandi Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ghandi]

Yeah... Definitely will make for interesting road conditions over the following days. Still expecting clouds and rain until tomorrow at least.
APY lands eh? It was a bit average weather there today!

Handy road conditions link for those coming this way
http://www.ntlis.nt.gov.au/roadrepor...AL%20AUSTRALIA

[mickwebs Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close mickwebs]

great report thanks love the photo's

[RBJET Member Find all posts View Profile Close RBJET]

Awesome write up mate. Photo's look epic.

[Borec Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Borec]

Same issues with my starter, they sure do not like mud, I guess one should take them apart after every deep water crossing and bog hole. One of the good reasons to try to avoid both if possible

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

Same issues with my starter, they sure do not like mud, I guess one should take them apart after every deep water crossing and bog hole. One of the good reasons to try to avoid both if possible

Yeah luckily we didn't have to pull it apart in the Simpson, we cleaned the terminals (very dirty) and gave it a hardcore spray with Inox. Not sure which one fixed it but one did. According to a mechanic we came across on the track the toyo ones have an easy access end cap you can pull off to check for ingress. He said if there is nothing in there then there is no need to look deeper.

[404pug Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close 404pug]

Just a question re. the muddy starts. If they have an end cap and its removal shows mud etc., will a good squirt with clean water, WD40 etc in there help?

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

Just a question re. the muddy starts. If they have an end cap and its removal shows mud etc., will a good squirt with clean water, WD40 etc in there help?

Only just saw this reply! Should do. You can easily remove the plunger with the en cap off even with the starter still on the car. If you can at least clean that off with some sandpaper/wire brush it should fix 50% of the problem.

[JimmyC Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JimmyC]

Finally got around to uploading some videos of my trip. A few more to come when I get around to it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjzqPM8tyPg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92Y00Skrrso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYxnHSCeYI