Crossing The Simpson with Kids

Send David at Mt Dare an email...he takes his 2 yo into the Simpson often..

I intend to take my 2 kids West - East in July next year they will be 3 and 6 years old then.

Both of my kids love travelling so it will just be another adventure for them.

Just Do It

Cheers Kev

The 5yr old will most likely remember the trip ,the 3 yr old not as much , took our now 10 yr old to the Simpson and the races in 2002 as a 3 yr old , remembers a fair bit ,especially being bitten by a Centipede and that it took 3 attempts to conquer BigRed .

Hi Aeiou
You will have a ball and the boys will talk about that trip for many years to come.

Make sure that you have very warm sleeping bags, as in can get down well below zero that time of the year and then within a few hours be into the low thirties by late morning.

Enjoy your Simpson trip

Cheers

Stephen

Gday mate

IMHO Do It!!!!!

My boy was almost two when he first went across and now he loves looking back at the pictures of in his words "When I was little".

Since then we have been bush all over the place and last year did another crossing with his 9 month old sister and he had a ball.
I cant describe the look on my little girls face when she saw a camel in the desert for the first time....Priceless!!!!
Sure she probably doesnt remember it now, but it etches a little something into the little minds each time they see something unusual.

My boy is now almost 5 and the little bloke gets so excited If we mention going camping.

Its great character building for little ones to experience travel this fantastic country of ours, they learn so much more about the simple things in life and helps them appreciate the mod cons at home more.

We have the BEST COUNTRY in the WORLD, take em out there and show em!!!

Cheers

Howdy

Our young bloke has been across the Simpson a couple of times, once as a single vehicle and he was around 3 & 4 at the time. We paid particular attention to dealing with an emergency given the remoteness of the area.

Have a very good form of communications and a plan in the case the children have a medical emergency as their condition can deteriorate very quickly. Your choices could be limited, but make sure you have a well equipped medical kit, and possibly consider organising one from the RFDS. Dehydration in young children, especially in the case of diarrhoea or the like is a big issue and one you should go equipped to deal with.

Good luck and enjoy the trip.

aeiou,
I have taken my kids lots of places since they were very young. Mostly they won't really enjoy the trip as much as other things you could do with them, but you have to have dreams fulfilled as well.
They will remember very little. Show them phots and they will think they remember. It is pretty hard with kids.
Take your time, stop regularly when they need to, keep them well watered and entertained and it will be OK. Kids songs, kids dvd, etc. The alternative is misery for everyone.
You have to be realistic, but it is do-able.
Ian

I've taken a couple of my grandchildren across, I have done it three times.

If you are starting at Dalhousie Springs, take their togs and a couple of towels as you can swim there, or you could. No doubt someone can confirm this.

Another thing about Dalhousie is the brown hawks. They are specially trained to take food out of your hands whilst you are eating it. Watch the kids, though these birds are extremely accurate it is frightening, even for an adult on the first occasion you loose your lunch sandwich.

Also at night the bloody dingo's make a noise. They howl, and it will scare kids, I had two trying to get into my sleeping bag.

My lot really enjoyed it, except for the dingo's. If you want a fire I suggest that you take some firewood with you. We had to get ours out of a creek near Hamilton.

It was cold at night, typical desert weather, so decent sleeping bags are the go. On the last occasion we didn't put our tents up and swagged it. They thought that it was great!

We crossed with our then 18 month old and friends had a 4 YO, both had a ball ! so just make sure bedding is adequate for cold nights and enjoy them enjoying it.

if your going to time ya trip to fit in with Birdsville races ,
it will be like Bourke st out there , you,ll have a good time but its not the really big adventure your think ,if ya vehicle is well prepared its easy and the kids will have a ball
mechpete

Spent all my growing years in the bush and wouldn't trade it for anything.
Would only delay it so they might have better memories.Kids adapt really quickly. Maybe a bit of a school project for the older one.
Cheers paul

The kids of Big Kidz and Mad Cowz with another group of kids they hadn't previously met, had a real ball crossing the SD in July. The oldest was 14 I think and probably ranged down to about 6-7.

The kids will have a ball.
Everyone, kids and all will wind right down. You are so removed from the rest of the world its fantastic.
We took ours across last year, 6 & 8. Am going again this year.
Our 2 have been to the Gold Coast twice and rate this a far better trip.
They have camping since 3 months old so its not surprising.
Dean