A Generation In The Making

Adventure Rider Issue #56

• Fit Out
• Checkout
• ADVWORX
• Suzuki V-Strom 800DE
• Accidents And Injuries with Miles Davis
• Letter To You with Karen Ramsay
• Where Does Fear Come From? with Andy Strapz
• Walcha Motorcycle Rally
• End Of An Era
• A Generation In The Making
• Thinking
• GASGAS ES700
• Ural Adventure Ride
• Should We Ride Alone?
• Ducati DesertX
• Cariboo Chilcotin Coast BC
• It’s what we do

A year on, there’s still part of Andrea Box that can’t believe she crossed the Simpson Desert.

The dream behind this trip really started two decades earlier, and I’d quietly entertained the idea on and off over that time. So much doubt lingered, even after years of riding I still wondered if I really had what it took to ride across Munga-Thirri – the Simpson Desert.

Honestly, I thought it would just remain a bucket-list trip as it has done for so many Australian adventurers.

The Simpson Desert worms its way under your skin, and memories of outback adventures keep calling you back for more.

The challenge

The world’s largest parallel-dune desert has a unique appeal. Its 1100 dunes packed densely into just over 200km, and a rich history had drawn adventurers since the first recorded crossing by camels over 80 years ago. The biggest dune, ‘Big Red’, on the most easterly side of the desert, was named with a distinct lack of imagination. It almost seems to have a personality of its own, and for travellers taking on the desert east to west, Big Red is the first dune to tackle, catapulting you down its steep western slope and straight into the deeper, soft Simpson sand. The view from the top only hints at the task ahead as sand dunes, one after another, disappear into the horizon.