Surfing the Spinifex - What it's like to make your own tracks across the desert. - Video

If you’ve ever wondered just what it’s like to lead and travel through a desert environment without tracks, these video snippets taken by Gaby of our trek across the Gibson and Little Sandy Deserts might give you an idea. If it’s following impenetrable tracts of mulga until you find an opening, pushing through old growth spinifex (the worst), picking your way through wash-aways and rocky terrain or avoiding, paralleling or traversing sand dunes you should see it here.

It’s countless hours at little better than walking pace in low range or first gear wrestling the steering in the soft sand on a twisting and turning course while constantly on the look-out for stakes, rocks and other obstacles and watching the GPS & computer, monitoring the tyres and the radio. It’s getting out to walk along impassable barriers looking for a way across, cleaning spinifex from the undercarriage and of course changing tyres and mending punctures. All this and you might get between 20 to 30 kilometres for 8 hours of travel if the going is good. 3 km per litre is not unexpected in the fuel economy stakes.

How you dream of reaching a burnt out area because at least then you only have to watch for the stakes. Sounds like a great holiday doesn’t it?

All video’s & commentary by Gaby of Canada. Tojo driven by Scotty (the other Canadian & husband of Gaby). Fearless leader (me) in legendary & unstoppable Patrol out front & taking the punctures for the team! Apologies for the often shakey picture but it’s rough out there and…….she drinks a lot! ;-)

You can find a lot more at our vimeo log.

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