Dorothy Mackellar’s classic poem ‘My Country’, comparing the landscapes and weather of England and Australia are a synopsis of this trip at present. For my three friends who have flown halfway across the world to spend six weeks in second-hand swags, the change from ‘ordered woods and gardens‘ to the ‘wide brown land‘ is what this trip is all about.
Mackellar goes on to talk of a sunburnt country, of wide and sweeping plains, of ragged mountain ranges and, of course, she talks of rains.
This week’s news headlines sum it up, “Water flows on Uluru (Ayres Rock), access roads blocked after heavy rain across Central Australia.” “Flood Disaster in outback Queensland.’’
We are planning a desert crossing. Yet roads in the Northern Territory to get there are marked either ‘Closed’ or ‘Impassable’. Western Queensland has flood waters visible from space. Crossing the Simpson this year may not be possible.
So, what to do? I estimate we have about five weeks before we enter the desert proper. Then we’ll face the 722 kilometres and 600-odd sand dunes of the Madigan Line without fuel, water, or support beyond what we carry in the two vehicles. We haven’t reached the ‘go-around’ point, to use an aviation term, yet. We’re not yet on ‘finals’ and so are still committed to landing this challenge. We’ll go on planning this adventure.
And I suspect it’s what Madigan would have done. Cecil Thomas Madigan, whose footsteps we are following, was an Australian geologist, meteorologist, explorer of both Antarctica and the central Australian deserts – and a British Army officer.
In 1939 he set out to cross the northern section of the desert which he named after Alfred Simpson, then the president of the South Australian branch of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. He achieved his northern crossing by camel in just under 4 weeks.
His journey – hopefully like ours will be – was without drama. In his words; ‘No high adventures, which are usually due to incompetence or invention’. You might question how we’re doing on ‘incompetence’ but as for invention, what you read here will be the unvarnished facts, so judge for yourself whether we’re following his example!
Please also judge the importance of why we’re attempting this crossing; to brighten the future for youngsters and veterans who need it the most. The charities we aim to support, Combat Stress, The Smith Family, Onside and Mates4Mates, do fantastic work in both the UK and Australia. The generosity you’ve already shown will make a huge difference to the lives they support and to the families of those people. So, please share the link with others and let’s see, together, if we can make an even bigger difference.
Dorothea Mackellar was right back then (and has often been since then) , is right again now, and, I’m sure, will be right yet again in the future. We will never beat Mother Nature, but sometime we can negotiate our way around some of what she gives us. We “negotiate” with Mother Nature with the two tools to which Mike alludes – “competence” and “invention” – they usually go hand-in-hand.
The “invention” part was done decades ago in the design of these particular Australian spec Land Rovers and, more recently, in the updates/modifications/additions Mike has listed earlier in this blog.
The “competence” part speaks for itself in the assembled team and is represented in the planning and preparation – even down to “Where are we going to Go” – that Mike and his team have done in the lead-up to this particular adventure.
Dorothea did not mention “luck” on her poetry, but if you can get some, then we should all take some with us. I’ve always noticed that the better I plan, the luckier I get, and I’m sure this will follow the team as they set forth on their great adventure!