The original plan was nine days in the desert. We got five.
This is the tail end of the Simpson Desert Fringes series — a trip where I teamed up with the Long-Range Desert Group to loosely retrace the route of South Australian explorer Charles Winnecke through the Australian outback. If you want to understand why the Simpson Desert draws people back year after year, start with the Simpson Desert guide page or grab a copy of the Simpson Desert Travel Guide before you head out.
This video covers our final day and a half in the desert. What we got before the trip ended — a thunderstorm nobody forecast, a camp invaded by dromedaries, and a candid look at gear that worked and gear that didn't.
Storm on the Fringe
Six-fifteen in the morning. No flies yet — which, by this stage of the trip, counted as a genuine luxury. That lasted about forty-five minutes.
There was thunder behind us. No rain in the forecast, but the clouds looked dark enough to make you reconsider camp placement. We moved on. The storm was isolated. In the end we got almost nothing — but you don't ignore that kind of sky in the Simpson.
After a fair bit of cross-country work we were back on the main track and heading deeper into the fringes.
Satellite Communicator Update — Garmin Over Zoleo
I ran the Garmin InReach Mini 2 on this trip with an unlimited plan for the month. The Zoleo stayed home — and will likely be sold.
The Zoleo has a better message interface. That's genuinely true. But I've had too many reliability issues with it to trust it when it matters. The Garmin lets you mark waypoints and has basic mapping built in. When we nearly got turned around on a walk earlier in this series, having a camp marked on the InReach got us sorted. For someone who also does a lot of walking in remote country, that functionality is worth more than a cleaner message screen.
The Garmin beeped away happily all trip. Messages in, messages out. No drama.
Navigation — Memory Map
I run Memory Map For All with the HEMA 4WD map pack on every remote trip. In country with no phone signal and tracks that shift after each flood, offline topo detail — station tracks, bore locations, water points — is not optional. Full breakdown in the navigation app review.
Dromedaries — Pest, Not Postcard
I've never seen so many feral camels in one stretch of desert. What you're actually looking at are dromedaries — the one-hump variety — not true camels, though the names get used interchangeably out here.
They were introduced to Australia in the 19th century, primarily for transport and labour in remote regions. Now they're feral, and Australia has one of the largest feral dromedary populations in the world. They eat native plants like there's no tomorrow, cause significant soil erosion, trash what few water sources exist out here, and damage fences and infrastructure across vast areas.
We now export dromedaries back to the Middle East because Australian bloodlines are considered superior. Think about that.
Cool to watch from a distance. A genuine environmental problem at scale.
Camp Invaders
We set up in one of the Gidgee groves one afternoon. I had a dust bath spot right next to my camp — didn't think much of it at the time.
Around seven o'clock that evening, the dromedaries appeared. They'd been using that dust bath and weren't about to stop because I was parked next to it. They moved through camp. Walked around the tent, around the vehicle. Completely unbothered.
It was one of those moments the desert hands you without warning. Fairly fresh that morning again. Finally no flies. And camels walking through camp in the last light.
The OzTent Bunker Stretcher Problem
More OzTent Bunker issues this trip. The head end sags to the point where your head lies in a hole. You need a thick cushion just to sleep level. That's not a sleep system — that's a problem you're managing every night.
It should not be like that. I paid good money for it and I'm genuinely disappointed with how it performs after extended use. Duly noted for the next trip — different sleeping solution required.
Battery Overhaul — Why I Pulled the DCS Lithium Batteries
If you've been following the channel, you'll know I've been running DCS lithium batteries under the bonnet for some time. The experiment is over.
I pulled the last set in August. One had lost 53% of its stated capacity, the other 30% — after just 16 months. That's not acceptable for what they cost or what they're supposed to do. Lithium under-bonnet is done for me, for now.
What I switched to:
- Two Energizer S110L EFP batteries under the bonnet handling starting and winching duties
- A new Redarc Alpha 150 LiFePO4 in the back as the house battery
- My existing BCDC 1250 charger and Redarc 700W inverter completing the setup
Early days — first trip — but everything performed as expected. One issue: in high heat with the inverter also running, the BCDC limits current and charges at around 50 amps rather than 100. On shorter drives that means the battery doesn't fully recover. I'll look at improving airflow around the BCDC, possibly a fan on top of the inverter.
The Redarc Alpha 150 itself did what it should. We'll see how it holds up over the next few years. At this stage it's a promising start.
A Billabong, Airing Up, and Heading Out
Coming out onto the main dirt roads on the fringes of the desert, we hit a waterhole none of us expected. A decent-sized billabong in country that had no business having one. Those are the finds that stay with you.
I'm still running the J-Mac PEM 1000 for airing up — same unit for a very long time now, and it's earned its place. Auto shut-off at your target pressure, hands-free, move on with your day. Nothing else I've used comes close for efficiency.
The Rod11 signal booster pulled through again too. Messages coming in before the phone was even showing reception. It does what it says.
The original plan was nine days in the desert. Five is what we got, and none of us fully understood why the trip folded early. For me it was a 5,000-kilometre round trip, and spending eight days of that driving to and from for such a short window in the desert is not something I'd repeat.
Chop took a detour through Yawa. Steven and Terry headed for the Flinders Ranges. I thought — why not have a look at some of those small Queensland national parks I usually just drive past?
Next up: Welford National Park, a mechanical issue that forces an early exit, and Alroy Station — my favourite desert stopover in Queensland. See you along the tracks.
