Simpson Desert Trip July 2010 (2nd Attempt)

[glend]

Michelle & Adam, I am taking a 25Litre water cube. Most of the places we are camping will have drinking water available - Dave correct me if I am wrong about this.

[Jaffas]

Hey, we are taking 2off 20L water jerry's.

I know TJM down here in Wollongong hire sat phones as well. I can ring them up today and see if I can organise to pick it up next week. Will let you know price etc and what the split up cost would be.

[glend]

Jaffas that would be great. From what I can gather from a Net search the cost seems to be between about $266-280 for the two weeks (which seems to be about $2.50 a day for each of the eight vehicles which is insignificant really). The treatment of call costs is slightly different but that should not be much of a concern because we would only use it in an emergency when no one is going to care about what it costs.

Glen

[Dave]

Hi All,

Everyone sounds like they are about ready. Jaffas, it you are willing and able to organise a Sat Phone for emergencies that would be brilliant. I hope TJM is near your place, because everywhere in Sydney charges by the day, so you want to pick up and drop off as you leave town and arrive back. I would think we would all be happy to chip in - should only be $20 or $30 per person...

Regarding water. There will be water at the campsites we are booked in to - so pretty much every second night. There will be no water available at Muloorina / Lake Eyre, none in the Desert / Eyre Creek, and none at the actual camp sites at Mungerannie or Innaminka. Water will be available from Mungerannie Roadhouse and Innaminka town, but not in the campground, so a supply is needed. Note, IF we get stuck at the ferry overnight we will need our own supply there. Re-supply should be easy as we either stay in or pass through a town every second day. On the gear list I noted that Tag Along Operators require 20 litres per person - re supplied to this level when possible, but this is sufficient for a 3 to 4 day desert crossing. As we should not be away from resupply for more than 2 nights, if we get stuck on the B'ville track, we can probably get away with 20 litres per vehicle - as long as we are willing to share if necessary.

I have purchased 4, 4 litre bottles of water from Coles. These fill the front passenger footwell (I have no friends). I also have an assortment of 1 litre and sports bottles, as they are easier to manage on the move. I find these easier than a bulky and heavy (costly) water drum, but everyone should do what suits them and their packing method.

Remember you also need meals. Most breakfasts - we can buy in Copley and Birdsville but not many others. All Lunches except Cameron Corner! Enough dinners at a guess for 7 days. Can buy dinner at Copley, Mungerannie, Birdsville, possible Innaminka and definately Tibooburra. And snacks!

Hope this helps,
Dave

[Heidi]

In case you are not are aware you can use a Telstra Sim card if it is on a plan and has international roaming switched on in a Sat phone. The calls will be quite expensive but might work out cheaper than getting a pre-paid card dedicated to the sat phone, especially if you only put the sim in when you want to make a call.

two water containers are a good idea in case one breaks or get contaminated you still have some with you. On our trip we took 2 x10l in the TJ- one of which was never used it was the ulitmate emergency, the 2nd jerry was for washing up and refilled regularly, did not matter on quality of water. In the other car was a 25l jerry and it was for drinking water, was very carefull where it was refilled to make sure the water was good quality for drinking.

Also for the ladies I recommend some leave in conditioner for your hair as it gets very dry.

[Jaffas]

http://www.landwide.com.au/hire-Irid...one-rental.asp

Guys, TJM doesn't actually hire them, but sources them through Landwide. for 2 weeks, (14days) it is $266.00 + $15 postage each way. Call rate is $1.50/30sec... but ideally we won't be making any calls at all.
I rang them today and all seems fine to go ahead.

Please let me know if you are happy with this arrangement and I will organise it. I might be able to drop it off afterwards, that will save us one lot of postage... but lets just call it $300 / 8 = $37.50 each

[glend]

Yeah Jaffas I'm happy with that. Do you want to be prepaid via direct deposit before we go or can we give it to you at start of the trip?

Cheers Glen

[Dave]

Okay, the update everyone has been waiting for.

I called Mungerannie as promised. The longest anyone has had to wait at the ferry so far is one hour. That said we will be there during school hols, so may increase a bit.

They thought our plan, leaving Muloorina early on Thursday morning should see us at the ferry for a very early lunch, as the Track has been repaired and is reported as "beautiful". So even if we do have to wait for an hour to start crossing, we should all be across by mid afternoon (3 to 4 return trips per hour on ferry), so we should be at Mungerannie during the afternoon for an early camp set up and swim in the artesian pool - it's only 65 k's from the ferry.

They also thought that our plan to head to Birdsville and arrive by lunch, then trip into desert for a bush camp on Eyre creek sounded doable, but check desert conditions when we fuel up in Birdsville.

Jaffas, I'm in for my share of the phone! Thanks for your research.

This time next week I plan to be somewhere West of Mudgee, Dubbo for lunch. Getting excited!

Dave

[Jaffas]

OK, have ordered the phone. Will pick it up on our way out on Friday.

I was given a recommendation that Lyndhurst has a good bakery... and apparently there some ruins just after Yunta that could be worth a quick look. Also, last time a mate from work was out at Wilpeana, he said there was not a lot of fire wood lying around, so they picked some up on the way in. This was a few years ago, and with the rains and whatever, who knows what we will find there this time...

Getting excited, 6 nights till we all meet in Broken Hill!

[glend]

Thanks for the Sat phone action Jaffas. I think the ruins you're referring to is at Waukaringa (about 34kms north of Yunta). Pretty sure its on the intinerary.