It’s time to go on another adventure again
A mate came up with the idea of visiting a particular place in the
Great Sandy Desert. So we started the planning of the trek last May. I wrote to a number of friends and acquaintances to see if they would be interested in such an expedition and up to a few months ago, there were eight participating vehicles. Due to a number of unforseen circumstances with this planning there are now only four participating vehicles and the bloke who suggested the trip isn’t coming either!
We had to obtain permits to cross some aboriginal land to our destination and after 3 months of letters, emails and phone calls we were denied access. There may be a number of reasons for this refusal but we feel that there were some politics involved.
Then we had to revise our plans and look for another destination. We were very surprised to be able to obtain permits to traverse the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts from the Dept of Indigenous Affairs in
Perth and were able to obtain the permits within a week. So we will be leaving from
Alice Springs on Friday 16th and heading out on the
Gary Junction Road. Then, once across into Western Australia we will swing north. We are looking at doing around 400km of off track driving and it remains to be seen how the different types of tyres will handle the country. I am running MRF Cross-plies but the others are running radials to my knowledge. There will be quite a bit of Spinifex plains driving and according to the maps, we will probably have to cross over 500 sand dunes with some of them up to 15 metres in height. It is hard to actually visualise the countryside by looking at Google Earth or a variety of maps. Normally cross country driving like this has one travelling between 40 and 50km per day. We have put 14 days aside for trip there and back to the Alice.
I have been prepping the GQ and trailer, tightening bolts and nuts and even changing the oil in the gearbox. Had to replace both the batteries over the past month. Have been packing the trailer so that everything fits in snug and checking that
the springs and wheel bearings are in good order and also looking for weld defects. The trailer has now done around 30,000km of hard trekking and it is still in good condition. The old GQ is making funny noises in the gearbox so I will drop some additive in shortly. Otherwise it is all systems go with everything more or less looked after.
Last week my Laptop came to the end of it’s life, and now, after even more research, I have opted for a PDA with inbuilt GPS, Natmap Raster Maps and Oziexplorer. Will not replace the laptop as what I can afford does not seem to be the best option to buy.
The rising fuel price has hit us all between the eyes and budgets have had to be revised. Will most likely be paying up to $2.50lt for diesel at some remote communities. Nevertheless, this is another trip that HAS to be done to fill in my Been there, Done That Map that hangs on my study wall...:-))))
I will write a trip report for the
forum when I am back
home again.
Cheers