A newbie crossed the Simpson Desert solo east to west :-)

Hello Stephen and Vesko,
Ah....so you were the lone traveller in the Freelander.
Ok...well not to rain on your parade or anything, we came across you between Poepells Corner and the QAA line. We were in a party of 3 cars led by a 75 series cruiser. Just a bit of desert ediquette for future trips.

1. Ditch that 0.5 watt hand held UHF. Get something better and actually use it. The reason for a lead vehicle to call "Party of 3 travelling from West to East along the French Line" is so you can gauge proximity of where others are and acknowledge their position in relation to yours and avoid a head on. That means actually replying on a radio that can be heard over at least one dune.

2. Speaking of head on.... our lead vehicle was not too pleased about firstly almost wearing you as a bonnet emblem and secondly having to reverse up a dune, back over the crest and back down the otherside to allow you passage when you were only half way up. Common courtesy would have been for you to back down.

3. You mention highway pressures.... I didn't see much bagging out of your tyres. I did see many failed, rutted out attempts along the dunes. I'm sure not all your doing but it does serve as a reminder to lower pressures BEFORE you enter the desert.

Vesko, I understand that as a first timer, it is a steep learning curve. Use this forum and many others like it to prepare yourself better. You'll never prepare yourself fully until you're actually out there doing it....it was my first time too. But some of the silly oversights almost ended your first crossing before it even began. Yes this might seem harsh but I want to use the fact you're getting so many views to educate others. Your Freelander would have been no match for the solid steel bullbar of a 75 series cruiser. Lucky my guy saw you in the nick of time and did a stall stop to narrowly avoid the head on.

Please take my advice, the advice of others and learn by it. Don't be put off by what might seem like harsh criticisim....LEARN....we're all still learning everyday.

Fab. :)

Yea, Fab - I'm listening :-)

Hello Vesko,
Well done on completeing the crossing. There are many people with a lot more experience than you that would only dream of doing what you did.

It's great to see and prove that you don't need a big four wheel drive with thousands of dollars of accessories to get out there and have fun.

I think we both learnt a few things on our crossings. Glad you made it safe and well. Enjoy your future adventures and stay safe.

Take care.... Fab. :)

Certainy brings back memories doesn't it Bob.

Good on you Vesko.

For the 5000km trip it held average 9.1 l/100km, but in the desert it seemed to consume a lot more. I realised that the sand program uses more diesel (made the mistake to keep it on all the time in the first day), but later, when I relaxed a bit, I switched it on only on the more serious dunes and consumption dropped to about 10l I recon.

You are right. My main problem was the clearance under the FL2 belly. Very often I encountered deep ditches, dug by heavier vehicles and if I followed the track, I would've been always stuck, like it happened at the beginning...

I resolved to aim at clever angles, avoiding the slip into the deep ditches, brushing sometimes the surrounding shrubs. At the time a few scratches on the paint seemed less important.

Hey, I also find that I am at my best, when I travel solo :-)

You are saying it was his fault and he came within 3 seconds of killing you. As I understand it he was going up the dune and and you came over the top of the dune.

Another way of looking at this is that you came within 3 seconds of killing them by not stopping on top of the dune and not making sure there was no one coming up.

I would say that if an incident did occur you would have been just as negligent - maybe more so.

I think that maybe you holier than now attitude was a contributing factor.

Garry

seriously Brian?
You came over the top of a dune without physically checking what was there, placing total reliance that
a/ he had a radio
b/ it was working
c/ that he heard and fully understood you
d/ he was in the car and not outside digging or broken down

and it would have been completely his fault, pretty funny only because noone was hurt

Hey Brian,

That was fun, wasn’t it. When I saw that massive vehicle of yours coming down at me with such a great speed, I was properly terrified!

But then I was amazed by the skilful way you had the situation under control and was very impressed by your generosity to reverse and let me through. I really wasn’t sure what to do in a situation like this, but mind you – I would’ve reversed myself if you just stood there for a second.

At the beginning I simply didn’t know how to use my UHF radio. Afterwards I kept it switched on and learned how to establish early contact with the incoming driving parties. I found that my 5 watt UHF radio was pretty adequate – I could talk to people some 5 or even 10 kilometres away and over numerous dunes.

Mate, I hope our next encounter to be at a more relaxed place, like Birdsville pub for example (the drinks are on me).

Hey Garry, sorry for not coming back on the forum sooner. At the places we stayed, there wasn't reliable internet connection and also everything else was so interesting - we were constantly exploring around and were dead tired each end of a day.

I've learned a lot from all of the comments here and really appreciate how people wish me well.

Thank you for your support and encouragement.

Glad your back and happy.