Simpson - East to West or West to East?

Having travelled both ways in two trips in the last 8 months I don't think it really makes a great deal of difference. The French line has had a lot of traffic recently and has lots of rough spots heading up the dunes. Birdsville has more supplies to start your trip but is also a nice place to finish. The fuel is the same both ways so I suppose you mean just fuelling at Oodnadatta on the way in. Mt. Dare is a friendly place to visit as part of the overall experience though. Dunes are dunes and last September it was actually easier from the East . Two weeks ago it seemed to be about the same either way. As long as you let your tires down and leave the trailer at home it is good travelling. Have a great trip. Chris.

Most people say west to east is easier but I have heard a few people say the contrary. I plan to do west to east next year....
NickR

The swim at Dalhousie is good to get the blood flowing again at this time of year.

Some are saying that the Rig Road is best East to West this time of year, although I tend to want to do it West to East for other logistical reasons.

I think West to East is more fun as you get to navigate the vertical faces on the Eastern end of the Rig Road.

Cheers
Andrew.

If your towing , make sure you go west to east. Not towing , flip a coin

Hi i just did a west to east crossing 3 weeks ago via Waa line ,lone gum,rig rd,knolls track,Qaa line.
To me now real difference either way,in difficulty in the track.
May be if you are towing a trailer east to west would be easer as the dunes
have a longer run up.
I chose west to east as not to be driving into the afternoon sun.
But as u you say Dalhousie would be something to look forward to after a few days in the desert.

Rob.

We did it west to east and it was great but that did fit in with the timing we had for the trip.

It was part of a bigger trip when we did it and we did it on the way home.

Coming from the west you kind of ease into it. Especially as we went down to the Rig Rd at the Collson. From there we zig zagged back and forth along the various tracks to Birdsville.

Mt Dare was nice and Dalhousie wonderful. I did wonder if the swim would be nicer at the end of the trip. But Birdsville Pub did look good when we pulled in.

However you do it low tyre pressures and a light foot on the go pedal will make your trip easier, safer and more enjoyable for you and a lot more comfortable for those who follow you.

Duncs.

p.s. I took the trailer and had no problems, it too had low pressures in the tyres.

Hi Trev, we are going in two weeks and will be travelling West to East - Dalhousie, French, Rig, WAA, Knolls, etc. Might see ya out there:)))))) We are also planning 8 nights Adelaide to Adelaide.

Cheers,

Craig

Trev,
I found on the French Line, many of the dunes had a sharp right and then left turn when cresting over the top. This would make it easier traveling west to east because if you were going the other way, you would have to change direction on the way up.
Chaz

We did a crossing about 3 weeks back.
Brisbane -> Birdsville -> QAA -> French Line -> Knolls Track -> Rig Rd -> Erabena Track -> WAA Line -> Dalhousie -> ... -> Brisbane

On our route, I'd have said it was harder going East to West (with the exception of Big Red that was harder West to East). But overall the East->West was only marginally harder. We certainly didn't have any problems.

We did an East->West crossing so that we:
1) Could finish at Dalhousie for a nice swim.
2) Was guaranteed of crossing the desert in our 3w window. If anything went wrong and we were stuck somewhere for an extended time, we could cancel the rest of the trip but didn't want to miss the desert.
3) Could spend any spare days we had camped at Innamincka at the end of our trip.

We also wanted to do a bit of all three tracks. I'm glad we did, but I wouldn't do the Rig Rd bit again. It was firm ground and quite corrugated in places. The QAA and bits of the French were quite churned up, leading to considerable wobbling/waddling up the dunes (which was interesting with the load we had on the roof :-)). My favourite was the WAA. It was a nice drive, and we hardly saw any other people. We didn't see any camels either (only footprints and a skeleton). Was a bit disappointed about that.

It certainly wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, even loaded as much as we were. I loved it. Would do it again in an instant!

(Spring Creek Track was partly closed when we did it and had to do a detour that added a few kms).

-geoff