The Simpson Desert

For those of you who haven't been to this amazing place let me try to give you a picture of what it is like. It is a sandy ridge desert, its most obvious characteristic being the remarkable system of parallel dunes which can rise up to 40m and can stretch for up to 200km. We calculated we crossed perhaps 2000+ of these!!! Then there's the solitude.  During the trip at one stage we didn't see a car for 30hrs. We camped beside the road every night - a glorious sunset followed by a sky filled with more stars than you can remember seeing, the fire crackling, the flies disappear and the moths take over for the night shift and not a sound otherwise - you really do feel you are the only ones there. The temperature at night got down to 0deg but we were snug and warm in our sleeping bags and little tent house.The day times bring an equally magnificent sunrise and then about half an hour later hordes of flies back again. This is the signal to be getting on the road again.
When you start out over the dunes it's hard to believe that they stretch ahead of you like waves on a choppy sea. I must confess at first I thought - well I've done 10 of these (Including Big Red, the first one and the highest of all), that's enough I ve seen them, but knowing there are hundreds more you get into the rhythm of them. We took several different tracks across the desert. We started off on the French Line, then went down the swales on the Erabena Track and finished the crossing on the Rig Road.  The changing colours of the dunes is very interesting to note from a tomato red in the east to a light sandy almost white colour in the west.
We had a few different experiences in the desert - a dingo ate our Esky - while we were sleeping one night. Luckily we heard it and chased it away. The pics will tell of the chomping. After that we were on the qui vive when it came to dingoes and our food. (We are on a 30 day improve your vocabulary kick and this French phrase has become a fav). Two wild camels were startled by our vehicle ( we have a pic of their disappearing rumps to prove it) but they were fat and healthy.
The astonishing flora which you don't expect and the variety of wildlife were for us some of the highlights. If you can't see all the animals that are there you can certainly see their footprints in the sand. I hope our pics can start to tell how beautiful they were.
We lay on the roof of the truck and watched the stars and saw meteorites, satellites and heard jets - probably about 6km high -  they were warm and cocooned as we were below but in a slightyly different setting.
At the western end of the desert we stayed at Purni Bore and had a hot shower straight from the artesian bore. It was luxury

Big Red in the distance and up close in this one and the next

Our first camp

Dingo damage

The footprints to prove who the perpetrator was

Atop a dune and what lies ahead

Sunrise

The start of some of the unique vegetation

The famous corner that links 3 states and Kerry in those 3 states and also in state of deshabille

Some of the amazing shapes in nature

The Lone Gum Tree growing in the southern part of the desert - still a mystery how or why it grew here in the first place

Pure isolation

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Some of the amazing prints in the sand

I love this small insect's tracks against the huge tracks of our tyres

Prickles and burrs love this country

Which path do you take? Right hand one looks a bit trickier!!

Sunrise coming to warm us

Purni Bore

The lovely shower

Dalhousie Hot Springs - end of the desert

The only time we got stuck. Tried to winch it out and in the end drove over it on another track. Kept these till last to show it wasn't all easy

 

Almost forgot those disappearing camel rumps