Unusual Simpson Crossing

Willem,

And lets' not forget a 100 Series with a Kimberly Karavan in tow ;)

Cheers Kev

Some friends just did the Simpson this year in kombis.
Other group went to cape york in kombis.
Came across an old bloke in a nissan 2wd ute at the cape.
Just took his time.

You could drive anything to the Cape via the PDR and Bamaga road.

In 1975 a mate came across a mini heading to the Cape on the OTL, now that would have taken some guts in 75.

Most of Australia was explored in 2wd vehicles. Its nice to have hae the front wheels pulling you along but you dont need it in sand if you can get your speed up

Hmmmm ross, where do you get your info from?

Most of Australia was explored on foot, on horseback and on camel. Going back to the early 1900's some epic feats were achieved with 2wd vehicles but not without some help along the way in the form of camels or bullocks.

Doing sand driving over trackless sand(if it is firm enough) can be done in a 2wd vehicle up to a point(dune buggies etc). This I have seen in the Kalahari Desert in southern africa, where antelope catchers use V8 utes shod with aircarft tyres on the rear to run their prey down with speed.

Driving the Simspon along the French Line it is difficult to get speed up as there seems to be a 'bump' tr the bottom of each dune. Most 2wd's which have completed these runs had 4x4 back-up for when a snatch was needed.

Maybe I should have explained it better.
While its obvious explorers on horse/camels were the 1st to explore the interior and cross the continent,it wasnt until cars were capable of doing the same thing did we get a much clearer piture of what was out there.
The early explorers were limtied to what they could see from hoseback with little time for excursions off the main path.
The airline industry here owes much to early explorers in cars who travelled to remote areas to find sutable areas for landing and refuelling in an attempt to set up regular cross contenental flights

Even a model T ford could probaby do 3-4 times the klms in a day than a pack animal(barring breakdowns and flat tyres)

sorry about the spelling,glasses here somewhere,somewhere.

Gday,
Not just the 60/70/80's
There would be a greater percentage of old 2wd's still doing the bush tracks around Australia.
Still makes me laugh around Finke time...
Quite often on the way back we get caught up behind a convoy of 4WD's with there huge lift kits, tyres and spotlights for Africa.
All doing about 60kmh hitting every corrugation on the road.
Then out of the dust behind you apears an old commodore full of blackfellas, no suspension, no windows and no seat belts fly past the whole convoy doing about 100kmh.

just what your used to I guess.

Cheers

Hi Hairy
Had that happen to me up the cape on Frenchmans track only it was a 1979 corolla with mum dad 5 kids and 2 dogs (that's 9 occupants) As we were on the track he was about 25m off to the side dodging logs trees and ant hills at about 80 klms/hr
made me feel as if I'd over capitalised on me 4by
Kev

I drove from Mokari airstrip to Birdsville and back in a Land Rover in 1968 and did not have any problems. I think we are a little spoilt now.

I was doing about 90kmh on the BMW R100GS Motorbike in 1999 heading east to Warburton on the Central road when into my side vision, scaring the poo out of me came a ford LTD with a blackfella with wild hair (windows down) at the wheel,he was in control and gave me a wave. No worries.
Stuart

Its all fun!!!!