The Hay River Track - Simspon Desert by 4x4

[Music] g'day folks Pat Kalinin here what an incredible start to a 4x4 adventure I'm at the top of big red the biggest sand dune in the simpson desert and our wonderful and hauntingly beautiful bagpiper is playing his tunes to wake up the campers below it's our final day at the big red bash because tomorrow we're heading off across the mighty simpson desert joining me on this epic adventure is my good mate and colleague where's Whitworth who's on assignment for our publications my older son Bill is also joining us for what will be his fourth crossing of the semo not bad for an 18 year old well where's it's your first time out here in the desert what do you think so far he was hoping that you'd believe it was me this time we're traveling from south to north along the Hay River track if you're contemplating a desert crossing don't move a muscle because you're about to see Australia like you've never seen her before this track is a formal driver's dream come true the landscapes the sunsets the wildlife characters vegetation and campsites are all five-star gold-plated perfection cancel that holiday Europe cash in your tickets to the tropics the best adventures are right here in our very own backyard our journey kicks off from Birdsville and tracks Northwest to poeple corner where we had North past the Madigan's camp intersection and onto dingo well then we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn on our way to Baton Hill camp just short of the plenty highway [Music] four-wheel drive adventures can be dangerous especially when you cross deserts in a moment I'm going to show you how I prepare but first let's hear some stories from our fellow for wool drivers halfway across the SEMO we found that the tank had actually been dropping on to the top of the diff housing on the bounces and had take ruptured a hole in the top of the deer there's more mufflers on the ride than you've ever seen in your lifetime than that are records but the rocks the rocks were like footballs stupid Mercedes having one of those hidden tires there's a spare wheel our cars still out there we have at this point no idea how we're going to get a pack we've never thought we're gonna see humans again let's break that sand get done anyway so um we tried our best and visually we got out and three days later we got back to build [Laughter] things got tanks in the car I can tell you if you're wondering what one of the major problems people have on the tracks around Birdsville look no further this is three days worth of tire carnage we're looking at a pile of over 80 tires and where do you come to get them fixed here and the birds will rotate so Sam what are the most common problems that people have when they're traveling across the desert they're all overloaded they will advertise too tight with a predetermined tire pressure and they just try anything different once you get out there but the most of the damage is snapchat sees caused by airbags tolling things there's probably a reason why it's recommended you don't tell anything out there everyone thinks they have the superior rib and it's all the other people who have an issue but I tell them maybe you are the average and the whole rear suspension fell out of the back of the Caribbean and bloke pulled me over you got something dragon over your ban so any I'll end up and they look and or me Springs are broken cross to some Sun last year I'm the tow for 200 cases we popped a hole in the tank and got them Dallas and repaired it up now the team at the birdsville Roadhouse will do everything in their power to get you back on the road and driving your vehicle but sometimes that just doesn't happen you could be mid desert and your vehicle will need to be tilt trade out of it so how do they do that with this big beast 265 horsepower of two-stroke diesel on coil springs if someone is stuck you know roughly in that in that center line of the desert there what what would that cost um or their insurance coming day you're never quite on anything but I mean I don't think we've definitely never had a job breach 10 grand but people need to have that 10 grand in the back of their head for worst-case scenario for sure don't go out there if you can't afford it because it's not my fault you went out there unprepared I didn't build it by it or bugger and so basically we were up to about $9,000 now everywhere where he thinks mother-in-law won't go we'll go [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] preparing you for wife or for desert remote travel is an art and it's an art that I don't know if you ever get completely right it's always that delicate balance between taking too much and taking not enough so what sort of modifications do you need for your four-wheel drive and what sort of spares do you take for these journeys well let's start off with the vehicle first you want a thorough mechanical service before you head off paying particular attention to suspension electrical items mechanical linkages and tires but what sort of modifications do you need to make to your vehicle that'll help it cope with those arduous conditions you're gonna find in those remote areas of Australia upgraded suspension to carry the loads and lift your vehicles belly off the ground is important as to our tires and while the tread is important for traction it's actually the construction of the tire that is even more critical a strong puncture resistant tire that is light truck rated is really important if you want to cross the desert in one piece you never know when you're gonna get a bad dose of fuel so in my Amarok I've fitted what's called a pre line fuel filter now what happens there is I get an early warning through a buzzer in my cabin of my vehicle that tells me if I've got water in my fuel another form of preventative maintenance is an oil separator or catch-can this will help keep your intake manifold clean and your engine running at peak efficiency spare filters are also really important and most football drivers know to take spare oil air and fuel filters but in recent years with my more modern vehicles I've started to take a spare cabin filter as well and I want to show you why this is one of our old cabin filters and you can see just how filthy that is so that stops all this horrible stuff coming into the cabin now I want to show you what a new one looks like so if that doesn't convince you to take a speck have filter I don't know what will but look this really is a big topic so I've compiled a free downloadable checklist that you can use for your next adventure to know that you've got all the right spares that you'll need out in the deserts check it out now mr. 4x4 Comte you sunrise day one camp one just on the inside of the edge of the SEM oh it is final preparation time for our trip into the desert now you do need to have a sand flag it's very least on the lead vehicles of your convoy and we do that because the Simpson Desert is a one lane track and you don't want to collide with another vehicle at the top of a sand dune it has happened before particularly with motorbikes that come racing over the sand dune so this is a bit of an early warning system for vehicles coming the other way another early warning system is to set your vehicle's UHF CB radio to channel 10 everyone on the Simpson Desert should be running that same channel so our convoy can talk to other convoys along the track and of course you need to lower your tire pressures as well we're running 20 psi in the Front's and between 24 and 26 psi in the back depending on the loads of those vehicles are carrying obviously if it gets a little bit softer further into the desert and drop some more air out as well the Simpson Desert was formed over 270 million years ago at one hundred and seventy six thousand square kilometers it's the world's largest sand dune desert and this is the eighth time I've cross that it in my four-wheel drive won't be the last because this massive Great Australian wilderness never fails to surprise and delight all who dare to venture inside but not everyone chooses to cross the Simo in a 4 B we bumped into this hearty group of modern-day adventurers taking a camel train into the centre of the desert not as damaging to the environment as some people might think okay Matt initially as an ecologist it's my background and just love the camels so much that I wanted to keep coming their family oh I think that in the cities when there's lots of people around you get on a high horse about what your importance is in the place but when you're out here and there's not there's nothing around you and it's just you you realize that like the world is so big and the the land is so important to us and you're just such a small part of it such a small part which is left quite a incredible thing to realise I think so where's Lee this is your first crack at the Simpson Desert what do you think so far Matt I was honestly expecting you know being the the D word for desert I was expecting it just to be there rolling sand and just nothing absolutely nothing yes I think photographers and videographers a pretty pretty sneaky in that they will find you know the the one or two bare crested sand dunes and they will shoot the hell out of them I might make that my mission of this sir this trip is to capture as much the vegetation and foil is that we're seeing you as possible the feeling as we drive through here is quite incredible the pastures you could be in dairy country they are so vibrant and so green just about as vibrant as the red sand that is right next to us as well what you're looking at here are floodwaters that started there 1700 kilometers eetu Lake Eyre five months ago in tropical North Queensland this is the one and only water crossing that you will find in the simpson desert but just like in the high country it's a great idea to pull up and let your vehicle components cool down and buy those components I'm talking about the brakes and the Deaf's those sort of things that are very hot they kick ice-cold water they just might contract really quickly and suck that water into those components and they tend not to like that so we're gonna let the vehicles cool down while we have a bottle lunch and amazing on a cross [Music] this section of the Simo is relatively busy it's where several different routes across the desert converge near Birdsville so be cautious of oncoming vehicles like these guys so what are you guys throw at the top of the dunes do you go off to the side or you just take it easy over this part of the desert we normally stick the track but as we get to the French line you attract to us you go sideways and we actually just that's right the flags are very visible you see a pink flag you know slow down or just peel off let them come over we can stop on the side of the hill are you guys really can't [Music] when you are cruising across the desert and you don't want to hit someone at the top of those sand dunes you want them to know exactly where you are so we have these wonderful little signs here and it's pretty simple this is called a call point so what call point six right now so we would simply say on our CB radio on channel 10 party of three heading westbound at core point six and then the other vehicles in the vicinity know which direction you're traveling and roughly how far away you are from them butts the heck out of mentioning your entire latitude and longitude the key to a safe and comfortable desert journey really does all start before you leave home what you pack in your four-wheel-drive is absolutely critical do you have the right communications equipment do you have enough water for your journey have you packed the elf oil for the spuds and do you have that little security locking nut for your mag wheels in case you get a flat tire all these little dilemmas and many more can be sorted out with a well thought-out packing list now having been on the road for the last 20 years or so often with the family I've created my very own special packing list it's worked for me over the years and I reckon it'll work for you too [Music] [Music] as you drive up and over these simpson desert dunes you will notice very very quickly that there are big holes and corrugations sort of oversized corrugations to be honest the sand in the desert is a different consistency to the sand on Australia's coastline generally on the coast you'll have steep sand dunes and you really need to floor it to get up and over them it's not the case on the simpson desert the sand is easier to drive on it seems to be kind of more compact it's got a little bit more soil in the sand as well it's really important in these locations to have what we call mechanical sympathy for your 4x4 you want to understand how it all works and you want to make it as easy as possible on that vehicle to get across the sand dunes and in this case it means driving at a pretty slow pace to allow your vehicle that smooth ride across the desert and that should eliminate things like bent Shaz ease busted shock absorbers and general overall wear and tear on your 4x4 the slower you go happier your four-wheel drive will be the simpson desert were so named in the 1930s by Explorer and geologist Cecil Madigan in honor of the South Australian president of the Royal Geographic Society Alfred Simpson many of the more popular routes across the simpson follow his surveys and travel attitudinally over hundreds and hundreds of June's but on this adventure we're turning right at Papa Lake to follow the Hay River track which most of the time runs parallel with the June so les jeunes to cross and almost no traffic it's a totally different experience now around these parts dr. Cecil Madigan gets most of the credit for being the first European to cross the simpson desert but he wasn't the first not by a long shot it was Charles winocki that trekked this desert on foot up the Hay River in 1883 and he certainly did it on foot literally you say you got halfway along he lost one of his boots so the dingos so he was a one-footed trekker for the rest of the journey the midday Sun and flies can make desert crossings hard work but out here there is little to no shade so I'd recommend buying a good quality 270 degree warning before you leave this is where we break from driving have some lunch and where-where's continues his photographic essay of life in the Simha which includes a fried egg Daisy and that rather amorous beetle the desert suppose to do it if you'd like to see more of where's its photo-essay pop over to unsealed 4x4 comm Dada you and subscribe it's absolutely free and packed with great articles tips and advice to inspire and guide you towards your next four-wheel-drive adventure [Music] and so we head north from poeple corner and for the first time in all our desert crossings together I hand over the will to my eldest son Bill funny you say that just to forget did someone forget to hit the button yes I totally forgot to hit the off-road mode and turn the traction control off that's why that gene was a bit difficult in funny you say that because I just match the same button let's go there we go should be a bit easier now [Music] out here you can set up camp pretty much wherever you want but a lot of this mo is a national park which means you can't collect firewood so bring your own or here's a great alternative for cooking the Snow Peak charcoal grill they might also note that I'm wearing a big goofy glove well that glove happens to be quite fireproof they are really handy around any campfire scene the last thing you want to do is to get some serious burns when you are out in the bush now one kind of eight kilo bag of charcoal will probably last you around about possibly eight days so that's a pretty good trip across the desert that's because after cooking you put the coals into water so they can be reused the next day while these steaks are cooking beautifully I'll give you another couple of tips important to carry some of this hand sanitizer on your travels the problem is when you're camping you often don't have good fresh clean water to scrub your hands with this stuff does pretty much the same job and it'll stop you having a case of the trots while you are on the road check out my swag over here this is another tip that I really like it is having some sort of a ground sheet next to your swag you see the ground in the desert is often full old bindis cats eyes all sorts of nasty stuff but if you have one of these ground sheets set up right next to your swag you can climb out of your swag at any time throw your shoes on and off you go speaking of shoes dingoes are all through the desert and they love shoes it's like I don't know beef jerky to them so always pack your boots or your shoes inside and then I'll still be there in the morning no sooner had we finished our master chef quality dinner and turned in and a surprise visitor dropped by looking for some shoe flavored beef jerky not a dingo but just as hungry no doubt [Music] first light and with all our boots still intact we pack the vehicles and head further up behavior of the track towards the northern end of the simpson desert and along the way bill shares his first impressions look desert driving something i've picked up on driving these outback tracks is how you need to scan the road in front of you I got into a really bad habit of only scanning right in front of the bull by right under the tires and it meant that I was flying into all these obstacles and wash away sand stuff like that way too fast and I didn't have time to slow the car up I'll put it in the right position so a tip that I've learned something I'd recommend is scanning the track in front of you sort of 1020 meters in front of the car about a third of the way between Popples corner and Baton Hill Camp is where the Madigan line intersects with the Hay River track and Cecil Madigan arrived here as this camp camp 16 he actually said I would be much interested to see who next sees this tree well Cecil there's a book load of them right this is where you inscribe your name these days for the modern Explorer it is a rather beautiful link back from that old 1939 exploration to the modern explorer that comes through here today although you still have to cross the occasional sand dune on this track mostly the landscape is very different to what you experience on the other more popular crossings and just look at this for a little slice of heaven in terms of the botanical beauty in the area it is just spectacular not to mention the colors in the sand here it is significantly rarer sand than you will find on the QI a line but you also find these gorgeous gum trees it is no single big trunk to them it tends to be multiple trunks that just sort of pop up but it's this endless struggle for survival that always amazes every single traveller that comes up the haver of the track it only takes the tiniest drop of rain to transform this dry riverbed into a lush meadow the soil is rich and full of seeds this biome appears to be resilient but the opposite is true it's pretty fragile places there there's limited resources so you know after a bit of rain and a bit of feed comes on you don't want to get it from that to get over exploited so that's 15 goats come in as a top-down regulator you know they regulate the herbivores adam o'neill and dr. ourian Wallach a living amongst and studying the wildlife that depend on this desert biome much of their research is focused on one of Australia's most important apex predators the dingo when you go to the boar here you'll see that there's virtually no grazing at the floor that's the effective dingo scaling dingoes you know animals will come in have a drink and then keep moving it's not so much that they're killing a lot of stuff it's just that they're altering their behavior so which is good for the system you know it keeps a million you avoid that idle grazing pressure which is good for all other species you know and for the real little critters if the traditional view probably a bit a lot of Australian do that the Silver Bullet if we knock off foxes or we knock off cats or whatever whatever it might be everything will go back to what it'd be lovely and but that's your researchers family that's just not the case yes no and and and in fact often killing wildlife can increase their population densities so killing a fox doesn't mean that in the long term there's one less fox it can actually mean there's ten more foxes because lots of animals like foxes and others are are territorial and they're social and so what we do is create what is called a sink so that fox may have held a territory that Fox is now dead and then ten other foxes see Malcolm that's the same for a denoising and others to devote your lives out here in the middle of nowhere to this animal there's obviously a you feel it a pretty deep affection for them I've learned to see the world in a slightly different way since I've been studying dingo so I tend to look at everything through a dingo prison they I've had one experience of meeting a dingo in the middle of the desert and that dingo looked into my eyes and I looked into his eyes and it felt clear that he knew that I was someone not as something that there was someone home and I knew that there was someone there there was a recognition of one another and that's such a special experience with with a wild animal in the middle of the desert I think we've gained a lot through our association with wolves and dogs and English the Aboriginal people regard the dingo is a sacred totem you know absolute to boot to kill a dingo there's a reason for that because they must have learnt over 40,000 years that if you start killing animals like dingos is going to come back and bite you you'd be amazed when you're out here in the desert just how slow it is to drive many of the tracks on the Hay River you're probably averaging between 18 and 30 km/h most the time so sometimes you know it doesn't hurt to do a little bit of night driving normally at high speeds we try not to recommend that out on the bush because of animal strikes but when you're driving 18 km/h that is not the issue anymore with a good set of driving lights you can cruise on into the night in absolute comfort and it really is a nice time to drive there's an upside to it as well and that is the fact that you can actually save a little bit of juice when you're driving at these times the cooler density is more oxygenated so your engine will actually burn more efficiently when you're soaking up the night sky that's it just try and avoid this guy over there and I think that will just about do it mate perfect thank you so guys when you are setting up camp or when you drive off the track at all you've got to be very very careful in the desert you see the sandy desert track that you've been driving all day puncture free is just that it sees a lot of traffic and it's very rare that you will get a puncture there however as soon as you get off that track you are dealing with all sorts of fallen debris off the side of the track and often it is trees that have taken a millennia to grow and when they die they are some of the hardest Timbers in the world like let's just check out this little bit here super sharp on the end there that would take out the sidewall of any tire on the market so take care if you're driving off the track out here the night sky is crystal clear you won't find a better place to take Astro Stills find any star that you can see on your screen there's a box with a little joystick over to that 20 seconds is about spot-on so you can go to 25 you really need the light yeah if you go to 30 you take the photo the stars will move enough that they will look blurry even though they're not it's just a very slight star trail you've just shot yeah why I'm famous here we go two seconds there goes the shutters see how he went [Music] it's a relatively gentle 55 kilometers rive over the Tropic of Capricorn past Adam range and on to Baton Hill camp we've long since left the national park and entered Aboriginal lands this land belongs to the your NT people so you do need to get a permit from the central Land Council the bookie family have set up an excellent campground with running water hot showers and long drop toilets and this is the best part they run guided bush tucker tours what were the most common foods bush tucker that you you ate with with your family turkeys parodies my guide Cyril Dixon tells me this time of year is good for desert fruit bananas and coconuts apparently [Music] yeah one there there's one that we have a bush banana folks there Kotb I'm glad I brought a bill the mob at baton hill run what they call my country tours to give you a rare insight into the traditional culture and history people who have lived in this part of the simpson for tens of thousands of years okay so this is it mate that's a beautiful looking little piece of fruit okay the skin and everything the bush banana is known around here as a lencois and apparently it can be cooked or eaten raw so the seeds taste like peas fresh peas I reckon a little further up the track Cyril finds bush coconut that's it hanging up there incredibly this fruit if you can call it that is the result of a female adult scale insect laying its larvae in a goal or growth on the side of the blood would you collect well talk to me about these made I never would have thought that as a food just make up coconut right oh that's beautiful right fantastic grub yeah and that's like a date it's not gonna kill me you promise yeah geez all day inside oh wow nice and sweet [Music] put it in water and make a sweet drink out of it yeah right and that guys that is sweet nectar sweet baton Hill nectar and this is just one of those things you would normally we wouldn't even get to access this land unless you knocked on the door at batten Hill and drove through this region and it just opens your eyes after driving and often to be honest driving up the hay river track and not really knowing exactly what is around you and getting this personalized tour of this area is really something special it just opens your eyes up to an absolutely incredible region of Australia so now I have to work out how best to incorporate this bush tucker into a camp oven recipe and I have a plan well this evening we could not go past cooking a delicious desert den Empire boy oh boy my year right English teacher brother Michael Norton would be proud with my alliteration right now we're gonna cook it all up on our cleaver new kitchen which is a pretty nifty accessory in itself folks and this damper like most of my damp is is dead easy to create there's not a whole lot of measurement in there it is more cooking by feel this recipe begins with self raising flour straight into your mixing bowl along with orange juice a generous amount of brown sugar salt and melted butter then it is time to put our more funky desert ingredients in the first step is to actually infuse this beautiful bush honey in some hot water that has been bubbling away by the fire next is the bush banana which you could substitute with supermarket bananas next up we've got our bush coconuts and you really just need to carve that beautiful flesh out from the inside and desiccated coconut from the supermarket will do as a substitute here folks add in some chopped dates and now for the finishing touches we are going to throw in around about a teaspoon of ground nutmeg and teaspoon of ground cinnamon in goes the bush nectar juice and mix everything together so now this is what I like to call a no need damper what I'm looking for here is a consistency of remember the old Clegg paste now you pour your damper mix into a greased camp oven and you're going to make sure you cook from the top down as well it is an oven and this should take around 20 minutes to develop a nice golden brown crunchy crust okay let's see how this desert damper has fared folks that looks pretty damn good to me and the perfect way to weight this is with a big generous lump of beautiful rich melting butter [Music] I really hope that we've inspired you to do your own Simpson desert crossing it is incredible but probably the first thing you'll do is crack the map open and go that there is an absolute maze of tracks which one should I actually do first well I've been lucky enough to cross the simpson desert nine times now and I've done every single track on the simpson desert so hopefully I'll let you know what you should do first so let's say that this is Birds wolf right about yeah and mount deer is over here on the western side of the Simpson Desert so probably the most common crossing that you will find and the most trafficked is the French line it heads basically in a straight line over 11-hundred sand dunes between Birdsville and mount there with a fantastic stop just around about here of Dalhousie Springs the family will absolutely love swimming in these hot springs at the edge of the desert so the easier tracks across the Simpson are the French lines still very rough mind you but if you want something easier and softer on your vehicle I recommend going further south as well on the rig road and the waa line they sort of head down here and there's some beauty air abena track and Noel's track that head up here as well these ones head in between the sand dunes they're very easy on your vehicle and they're very easy on the eye as well absolutely beautiful tracks if you want something a little bit more challenging though look towards the Madigan line not too far out of birdsville she heads up to the north and winds its way right across the desert it is absolutely beautiful but doesn't see a whole lot of traffic and it doesn't end there this one ends at all and a tow station it is incredible but because it doesn't see too much traffic it is one that you really need to be a little bit more prepared for more fuel more reliance on yourself because getting out of here could be extremely expensive so you need to be very very self-reliant I'd also put the Hay River track in that real sort of medium difficulty as well so it has pretty much normal West up through the desert and finishes up on the plenty highway and because there's so few people on this track and you do need that a little bit more fuel that's why I'd rate this as a medium difficulty track but if you want the holy grail of the Simpson Desert well you want to come around about here to the geographic center of the Simpson Desert this is one of the most difficult tracks on the simpson desert because I guess there is no track you're actually going cross-country you're going over virgin sand dunes and down through the swales and you are simply glued to your GPS trying to find your way to a dot on the map it is extremely difficult and not for the faint-hearted and do not try this if you are our first-timer certainly start off on those easier tracks on the southern end of the Simpson Desert well that brings us to the end of another incredible Simpson Desert crossing one but I really hope that you can do one day yourself and if you want some great resources jump onto mr. 4x4 dot-com do you because we have put on packing list checklist trip preparation tips so that you can get out here in your very own fault driver and explore the real heart of Australia I'm Pat Kellerman and until next time keep this shiny side up and don't miss our next episode as we go from noosa to byron the back way this adventure is just out the back of Brisbane and we have uncovered some incredible tracks some amazing waterfalls and some pretty awesome food challenges so be sure to tune in [Music] you

Channel: Pat Callinan's 4X4 Adventures

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Length: 40min 17sec (2417 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020