Simpson Desert Crossing - June 2006

Arunta - The Desert

The Simpson Desert lies near the centre of Australia around the point where the Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland meet. It is the world's largest parallel sand dune desert and has over 1000 dunes that lie along a SSE/NNW axis. It is known to the Aboriginal people who lived in the area as Arunta.

The Trip:

In June I will attempt to walk across the Simpson Desert from west to east. I will do the trip alone, unsupported by any vehicle, carrying all my water and supplies and avoiding wherever possible any vehicle tracks. I'll start the walk near Old Andado Station on the western edge of the desert and will walk east to the geographical centre of the desert and then to Birdsville on the eastern side of the desert. As the crow flies it's about 400km but I'll end up walking further to negotiate the sand ridges and other obstacles. I'm allowing about 20 days.

Has it been done before?

Well, sort of...but not the way I'm planning to do it.

The Aboriginal people have been in many parts of the desert over the past ten thousand years. It's a testament to their extraordinary knowledge of the land and their skill at utilising the precious and sparse food and water that they managed to spend time in Arunta, the name the Aboriginal people gave to the Simpson. They were certainly capable of crossing the desert although it's possibly unlikely that they would have seen much purpose in such a trek. It's more likely that they made forays into the interior areas of the desert from the fringes at times that suited their needs or when water and animal feed conditions permitted. It is known that they would exploit natural occurances that led to an increase in numbers of a particular prey species in the desert.

Since Aboriginal times a few people have wandered around in the desert using a variety of methods and routes. If we just look at human-powered trips there have been a few interesting ones.

Warren Bonython and Charles McCubbin were the first to complete a full traverse on foot in 1973 although others had crossed the desert using camels or vehicles to carry their supplies. Bonython and McCubbin pulled a cart with supplies and utilised two air drops of water and supplies. They started in the north, walked on a route that roughly followed the lie of the sand ridges (in a SSE direction) to Poeppel Corner and then followed the K1 line (a vehicle track) to the Warburton River in the south.

In the early eighties Denis Bartell walked from Alka Seltza Bore on the western edge of the desert to Birdsville walking partly off-track and also using some vehicle tracks. His route took him through the desert at about one third height – roughly through the middle of the southern half of the desert. He pulled a cart with supplies and carried an auger that he used to drill for water during the trip. He met a film crew somewhere in the middle of his journey.

Keith Williams and Peter Treseder walked from the Warburton in the south up the K1 line (a well used vehicle track) to Poeppel Corner and then along a series of rougher vehicle tracks towards the abandoned Beachcomber Oil Well and then alongside the Hay River to Mt Winneckie in the north. They did this trip pulling all their supplies and water although a support vehicle was nearby some of the time.

Robert Pocaro has done a couple of walks in the Simpson. One was a similar south-north trip to Williams/Treseder and a later trip followed Madigans Route through the northern part of the desert using a support vehicle to carry supplies.

Jon Muir has walked in the desert a bit, most notably in 2001 when he cut through the eastern part of the desert, mainly following Eyre Creek and the Mulligan River watercourse (much of it dry) during his incredible epic journey across Australia. This journey of 2500km from near Port Augusta (SA) to Burketown (Qld) was done without support and alone and was a truly remarkable feat. Jon carried or sourced all his own water or food and was self sufficient all the way.

So, the answer is that while some have walked in the Simpson nobody has walked through the centre of the desert across the dunes (west-east or east-west) and most have utilised vehicle tracks for at least part of their trips.

Why do I want to walk across the Simpson?

My main motivation for this trip is to spend time deeply immersed in this beautiful, powerful and slightly daunting piece of Australia. I've driven through the area a few times and have walked among the dunes on day trips from a vehicle camp and have had a small taste of the magnitude and majesty of the desert. I feel humbled by the sheer size of the place - at its narrowest point it's about 400km across.

And I feel drawn to it for reasons I'm not entirely sure I understand. I'm sure part of my motivation has something to do with the feeling of seeing a distant horizon and wanting to walk to it. When standing on a high dune in the desert the endless ranks of parallel dunes stretching in all directions brings on an exploratory urge. I want to feel what it's like to be in amongst all those dunes, to walk across them and to camp night after night in the dune-valleys. I want to know the desert better.

I realise that this one trip will only unlock a few of the secrets of the desert but I hope that spending weeks walking though it will be a start.

I'd like to travel a route that takes me through some parts of the desert that have been rarely visited. Consequently I've chosen a route away from the 4WD tracks, away from signs of man and on a route that takes me through the geographical centre of the desert.

Of secondary importance to me is that I'd like to do the trip alone and without outside help from other people, vehicles or camels to carry my supplies. I acknowledge that these constraints might seem artificial to some, but I suppose that many of the things we do are constrained in some way by man-made limits (why bother climbing a mountain if you can get a helicopter to take you to the top?). I'd like to do this under my own steam as much as I can. I'll set off from Old Andado with everything I think I'll need and will just keep walking until I get to Birdsville. No help, no re-supplies, no food drops, no man-made tracks.

Why this trip is different

Without diminishing the efforts of earlier desert walkers I'd noticed what I thought was a bit of a gap in Simpson walking exploration: all of the walking trips completed so far have spent a lot of time on vehicle tracks. This has two effects that I'd like to avoid: Firstly there's a high chance of meeting vehicles on these tracks (lots of people drive across the desert each year). Secondly, staying on or near a 4WD track takes a great deal of the committment out of such a walking trip. Even when driving these tracks there's a feeling of "If we break down we'll be okay because someone will be along in a day or two to give a hand". I'm sure the same would apply to a walker following these existing vehicle tracks. And of course the other obvious impact is that a route along a 4WD track is not new and there's very little navigation required - it's just a case of following the tyre tracks.

Is it possible?

Maybe. I've researched previous trips, I've designed a great little cart and I've tested a prototype of my cart in the desert to see what weight I can pull over the dunes. I think it's possible but of course on such a trip there's plenty that can go wrong. My dodgy left ankle might finally give out under the strain of pulling the cart over the 50+ dunes a day I'll need to average for the 20-day trip. The cart might break or I might just be exhausted by hauling the load if I've underestimated the task. However, the uncertainty is part of what keeps me motivated to train and prepare for the trip. If it was a sure thing it wouldn't really be worth doing (...would it?).

If things go wrong

I'll take spares for the things most likely to stop the trip. I have experience in some of the world's wild places and I've trained myself so I can walk quite a long way.

I've also taken some precautions to keep me out of real danger if things go wrong. I can communicate with the outside world in an emergency and could ditch the cart and walk to a 4WD track if I had to (although this could be a walk of 100km or more from some parts of my route). As a precaution the police at either end will know my planned route although I don't expect to call on them.

Lucas Trihey

April 2006

simpson main | background | map | paddy wagon | report | trip pics