Madigan Line

Hi Peter,
Not sure which Amarok you are referring to but mine and all the others I know of are well equipped with an excellent low range and many driver assist electronics
Kev

I would rethink that. We drove manuals for nearly 40 years. Now with the auto 100 series 4.2TD we find it is heaps easier off road. Especially with the super smooth gear changes that doesn't jerk or spin up the tyres in sand and mud.

Phil

Sorry, was getting it confused with something else that didn't have low range.
Agree with Phil, spent most of my life driving manual 4wd's,auto's are heaps better off road especially in sand. When we purchased the Oka it was a right PITA going back to the manual, now it has an auto it is much more pleasant to drive and easily crossed the Simpson last year in a convoy of Oka's.
Quite a few other Oka owners have driven ours with the auto behind the Perkins and gone away mumbling or have threatened to abscond with it ;-))

Well you were partly right the auto Amarok does not have low range but it does have 8 forward gears and the electronics use some of these as low range gears.
I agree that driving an auto in sand is much easier but I don't think is it a challenge and nowhere near as much fun
Kev

Play all you wish but I wouldn't recommend playing on the Madigan Line. Bad mental approach to a very remote and less travelled area.

Phil

Sorry Phil,
I don't understand please explain
Kev

I took this part of your post "nowhere near as much fun" to mean that the Madigan sand would be a good place to have some fun. ie to play.

Also to approach the planning with "fun" foremost in your mind would be wrong.

Phil

Hi Phil,
I think that you have over thought, I certainly didn't mean or say for that matter, that fun should be foremost in any planning.
Safety and success should always be paramount but having said that the exploration should be enjoyable and challenging. If not what is the reason for it. No matter where you travel all things should be taken into account and seeing that my original post was to say that the Amarok is a very competent vehicle I can't see why you would accuse me of complacency.
Regards
Kev

No worries I would like to do it solo myself. Just my wife and I. We are hoping to drive solo down the Canning next year.

Enjoy

Phil

Hi Phil

A very serious safety warning.... The Madigan is nothing like the normal very easy usual Simpson crossing.

Go out on the Madigan solo and you will be putting yourself at a very serious safety risk on not making it through to the eastern side. Many of the dunes out there put the usual Simpson dunes to shame.


Cheers


Stephen

Don't worry Stephen. If you read it again you will see that all I said was that I would "like to do it solo". I like the solitude away from crowds. You may not understand but it is a throwback to those bloody protesters who stopped our mail and beer to SVN.

Haven't you ever wanted to do something beyond your reach. I have. But then I am a bit of a dreamer. One day I will be incapable of even driving to the shops.

I would have liked to stand on top of Mt Everest also. Just imagine the beauty that you would see. I would like to win the lottery as well. And there isn't much hope of that happening. I don't buy any tickets in them.

Phil

Hi Phil

That is what life is all about, and if we did not have "Dreams" to make us think, "what would it be like", then yes things could be very dull.

The Simpson is a great place, but there are still many great areas to travel to that are more remote with many special features.

Over our travels, we have found one such area that we get back to as much as possible and in my personal belief, far better and far remoter with the chance of meeting fellow travellers very slim....The Great Victoria Desert, which is also Australia's largest desert.

We have been out there solo and the solitude is mind blowing.

Like I said, life is what you make it and dreams play a very big part of it.


Cheers



Stephen

The Madigan Line was the attraction. I realise that it is not unmapped or travelled land but the idea of making your own way was the attraction.
But alas I do not think that my oncologist would approve a Madigan drive anyway. Especially a solo one. I had to twist his arm heaps to get the okay for the just French/WAA line.

Eve so a "little" drive down the Canning is next.

Phil

Thanks for that info and the thread.
Cheers
Awest