Olsen's Tours and Training Blog

I am not going to write any text about these two days of travel. I’ll let the photos speak for me.

Another great evening

Our cars parked at the base of the Knolls

Gidgea Tree- Lindsay Junction

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Lake views

Standing in three states

Apporodina Attora Knolls

Come join us in the Simpson Desert in 2012

One for the Girls- 8 Day Simpson Desert
8 Day Simpson Desert

Last night at Purni bore was quite interesting. We were overun by marsupial mice and native rats that had a field day tap dancing on my swag! This year has been a one in a hundred year wet season, and the mice are doing very well. These creatures are not your household mice, but marsupial mice- some of them are quite cute with rear legs for hopping like a kangaroo.

We set off from Purni bore not long after breakfast, and after cleaning up the rubbish left behind by others. Our intention as always was to travel along part of the French Line then detour down to the WAA Line. We usually camp somewhere along the WAA.

At the end of the WAA line there are a number of large “lakes”- claypans really, that are usually dry. This year we knew would be different. Driving across these claypans is very treacherous. It is far better to skirt around the dry shore all the way around the northern end. The lakes fall very very slightly southwards and therefore driest at the northern end. Sometimes it is possible to cross in the northern part of a lake where it is drier, but this should only be attempted by those who know this country very well. It is far batter to skirt all the way around the lake.

We deflated our tyres to the 350mm long footprint required (pressure is irrelevant as long as there is enough to hold the tyre on the rim), at the normal place, before heading into the looser sand dunes. We boiled the billy for our morning tea break at the same time. There was much discussion about tyre deflation over a cup of tea.

The French line was not too powdery, but when we got to the WAA line, it was badly overgrown and washed away by the huge rains experienced earlier in the year. This made for very interesting driving. It was slow, about 10 kph – but why rush when you are in the desert to enjoy it.

When we got to the clay pans, we found them very wet, with large areas of deep blue indicating water in the southern regions. we detoured north a very long way to a point where I have crossed before. The crossing point was very wide, about 2 kilometres in total with a dry island in the middle. The claypan was wetter than in previous years, but all but one car made it across without trouble. The other required the max tracks to back up and have another go. The girls had a ball getting the Patrol muddy.

Our camp site was a lovely swale I used many times before. Another exciting day drew to an end around the campfire after an truly amazing sunset.

Come along on our “Girls Only Simpson Desert Adventure June 7 2012”

WAA Line with more vegetation on it than I have ever seen

We skirted this lake for ages then found a place to cross- still wet though

Girls can do it!

The girls car