What's Inside the Guide
Planing Your Simpson Desert Crossing
Everything you need to know
Route selection alone can make or break your trip. The French Line, Rig Road, WAA Line, Knolls Track, Hay River Track, and Madigan Line all have different demands — different dune heights, different surface conditions, different levels of remoteness, and different permit requirements. Choosing the wrong one for your experience level or vehicle setup is one of the most common mistakes people make before they've even left home.
The guide walks you through each route honestly — not as a tourist brochure would, but as someone who's driven all of them, multiple times, in both directions, in varying conditions. Which direction to travel. What time of year actually suits your plans. The seasonal closure dates. The permits that people forget about until it's too late. And what early-season travel in March or April actually means in terms of temperature, traffic, and risk.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Fuel and Water
These two things will either get you across safely or get you into serious trouble. There's no middle ground.
The guide covers real-world fuel consumption figures for a range of common 4WD vehicles — not manufacturer specs, actual desert figures from vehicles that have done the crossing loaded. Because a modern dual-cab in soft sand burns nothing like it does on the highway, and if your planning is based on highway consumption you'll be short before you get halfway across.
Water needs are equally specific — not just how many litres per person per day for drinking, but what you need to account for cooking, washing up, recoveries, and the extra days you might be sitting still waiting out weather. The guide covers what to carry, how to store it, and how to calculate it so you arrive at the other end with margin to spare rather than rationing your last jerry can.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Vehicle Preparation
Most 4WDs that roll off a dealership forecourt are not set up to carry a full desert load across 600 km of corrugation and sand. Dealerships won't tell you that. The guide does.
Suspension setup, load ratings, tyre selection, rim size, pre-trip servicing timelines, what to check and when — it's all in there. Including the trial packing process that most people skip and then regret, the weighbridge check that tells you whether you're actually within your GVM, and the pre-trip mechanic visit that should happen four weeks before departure — not four days.
There's also a straight answer to the question everyone asks: do I need a heavily modified rig to do this? The answer might surprise you. But the follow-up — what your rig does
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Tyres and Recovery
Tyre pressure is the single biggest factor in how your vehicle handles sand. Get it right and the dunes are manageable. Get it wrong and you're digging yourself out in 30-degree heat while the rest of the convoy waits.
The guide covers tyre selection, rim sizing, what LT-rated tyres actually mean for desert travel, how to handle a puncture in the field — including sidewall punctures — and what tools you need to carry to deal with it properly. There's also a section on spare tyres: how many, what type, and the honest answer to why carrying an old nearly-bald spare is worse than useless.
On recovery, the guide cuts through the gear overload that plagues most packing lists. What you actually need. What gets left at home. The kinetic rope vs snatch strap question. Why traction boards are overrated for standard desert crossings but still earn their place on clay pans. And the winch debate — do you need one? The answer is nuanced, and it's in there.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Communications and Safety
The Simpson Desert is not the place to figure out your comms setup on the fly. The decisions you made at home determine how a breakdown, medical issue, or vehicle fire plays out.
The guide covers PLBs versus satellite messengers — transmission power, battery life, subscription costs, and why it matters when a rescue coordination centre is deciding how seriously to take your signal. Whether Starlink or your mobile phone are sufficient for emergency communication, and the straight answer most people don't want to hear until it's too late. UHF protocols for convoy and general desert traffic, including the dual-channel setup that keeps your group talking without blocking Channel 10.
There's a full section on Ground Charlies — what information they need before you leave the bitumen, and why someone who doesn't know your route, vehicle, expected arrival time, and who to call is not actually a Ground Charlie.
First aid kits, snake bite kits, and remote first aid training are covered, along with what to do if things go seriously wrong — including the one thing people keep ignoring until it costs them dearly: stay with your vehicle.
GPS Navigation
The main tracks are well-marked — but well-marked and foolproof are two different things. Track intersections, faded crossings, weather-altered surfaces, and the occasional forced detour all create moments where the wrong decision adds hours, or worse, to your day.
Digital navigation has changed desert travel significantly, and the guide covers exactly what setup Stephan uses and recommends — including the right device, the right maps, and how to have everything configured before you leave home. The difference between a properly set-up navigation system and a casual one becomes very clear at a confusing intersection 200 km from the nearest help.
Paper maps have their place too. The guide covers when and why — and what to do if your digital setup lets you down in the field.
For anyone wanting to go beyond the main routes — the Geographical Centre of the Simpson Desert, GeoSurvey Hill, and other remote destinations that don't appear on standard tourist itineraries — the navigation section goes considerably deeper. These places are not signposted. There are no tyre tracks to follow. The guide explains what that actually means in practice, and what you need to have in place before you consider attempting them.
Camping Comfort
Uncomfortable camping doesn't just make evenings miserable — it wears you down over a week-long crossing. Cold nights without the right sleeping setup, wet clay on your boots, the wrong shelter choice for the conditions — these things add up fast.
The guide covers sleeping bags and how to actually read EN 13537 temperature ratings (because the "comfort" rating and the "lower limit" are not the same thing, and confusing them in a Simpson Desert winter is a miserable mistake). Sleeping mats, R-values, why a top-rated sleeping bag on a cheap uninsulated mat will still leave you freezing. Shelter options — swags, rooftop tents, stretchers, ground tents — with an honest rundown of the pros and cons of each for desert conditions specifically.
Clothing is in there too — the layering system that handles the Simpson's 30-degree temperature swings between afternoon and 3 am, why merino wool earns its price tag out here, and a complete packing list for a two-week crossing.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Power Management
Running a fridge in the desert isn't optional for most people — and losing it halfway across because your power setup isn't up to the task is the kind of thing that ruins a trip quickly. There's also cameras, communication devices, lighting, and phone charging to think about.
The guide covers dual battery setups — AGM versus LiFePO4, what a DC-DC charger actually does, where to install it and where not to (a lesson learned the hard way in 40-degree heat with a fridge that cut out mid-desert), and how to make sure your alternator and charging system can keep pace with your daily draw. Starlink, solar, and high-output alternators also get a run.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Travelling the Simpson Desert with Kids
Plenty of people assume the Simpson Desert is no place for children. Stephan has been taking his own kids camping since they were toddlers — including full desert crossings. The guide has a dedicated chapter on it.
What gear kids actually need versus what the big box stores sell as "camping gear" (the short version: don't trust cheap kids' sleeping bags in desert winter temps). Keeping kids engaged on long driving days and during downtime at camp. Giving them responsibilities that make them feel part of the trip rather than passengers in it. Night-time safety in camps where pitch black means actually pitch black — no ambient light, no streetlights, nothing. And why a small handheld UHF radio might be the most important piece of gear a kid carries in the Simpson.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Convoy Procedures
Travelling in a group is safer and more enjoyable — but only if the group is coordinated. An unstructured convoy is just a collection of vehicles that happen to be heading the same direction, and when something goes wrong, that distinction matters.
The guide covers convoy order and structure, vehicle spacing on dune sections, how to handle recoveries without chaos, the dual-channel UHF setup that keeps internal comms separate from desert traffic, corner marking so nobody takes a wrong turn, and what to do when vehicles get separated. Including the one thing you should never do — drive around searching — and why staying put and using the radio is always the right call.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Weather and What To Do When It Turns
Desert weather has become less predictable in recent years. Rain events that used to be rare are happening more often, and the consequences of being caught in the Simpson during or after rain are serious — bogged vehicles, flooded clay pans, stranded travellers, and mechanical damage that goes well beyond what a wash can fix.
The guide is blunt about this: check the forecast before you enter, and if rain is coming, delay. It also covers what to do if you're already inside the desert when a system rolls in — where to camp, how long you might be waiting, how to track conditions with a satellite device, and why the vehicles that come out of bad-weather events intact are the ones whose drivers made good decisions early, not heroic ones late.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
Wildlife and risks
The Simpson Desert is alive in ways that first-timers don't always expect. Dingoes that are bold enough to wander into camp. Feral camels — up to 600 kg, sometimes erratic, particularly males in mating season. Scorpions that like boots and bedding. Thorns that appear after rain and go straight through thongs. Wedge-tailed eagles. Reptiles worth watching for underfoot.
The guide covers what you're likely to encounter, how to handle it, and — importantly — how to enjoy the wildlife without creating problems for yourself or the animals.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com
This is 250+ pages of knowledge that took 20 crossings and 500,000 km of outback travel to accumulate.
No forum thread covers it like this. No generic blog post gets into this level of operational detail. And none of them were written by an accredited 4WD trainer who has actually done what he's writing about.
Also available as EPUB on → Lulu.com