I mentioned in an earlier blog that we are booked in for a trip to cross the Simpson Desert on the Madigan Line, the route of the first journaled European crossing of the desert by Dr Cecil Madigan in 1939.
The Madigan Line is an extremely remote trail across a hostile desert environment – parts of the route cross private property and a substantial amount of the Northern Territory section is on land administered by the Central Land Council (CLC) from whom a permit must be issued before you can enter.
To protect remote indigenous communities from COVID19 exposure the CLC is not issuing permits to allow access recreational access to their land, a move which is understandable. Their web site explains that this decision is not planned to be revisited until mid March 2021, which is too late for our planned crossing.
So… the Madigan Line crossing is off the cards for us this year. The Moon Tours group we are booked to travel with are planning to cross the Simpson Desert using one of the southern tracks, most likely the K1 and Rig Roads. We won’t be able to skip chemo to allow a second chance at the crossing later this year, so we’ll try again in 2022.
A bit of a let down but we’re still excited, any trip as epic as crossing the Simpson Desert will be a good trip and our plans are well laid out for the original dates. Bring it on!! 😉