When the outback called, of course I answered by trekking in the simpson desert

I love nothing more than synchronicity and serendipity - particularly when it takes me on a remote adventure to the Australian outback...

If you had asked me two months, two years, or even 20 years ago if I would ever go to the East Simpson Desert to walk alongside camels for a week all for a photography project about Australian sand dunes, I probably would have laughed and said there was absolutely no way anyone would get me to one of the most remote parts of the country.

The first time I ever had any experience out in the bush without any creature comforts at all was when I was about 14. My parents used to camp on a friends property in Bingara which is a small town located about 1.5 hours northwest of Tamworth. They used to go up there in the middle of summer with their good friends for a week. When my parents told me I was going with them this particular year, I had no idea where Bingara was at the time, and I assumed so naively that all towns and cities had the same shops and transport, and I actually asked "is there a Grace Bros. there?" ...a comment that received not only roaring laughter from my parents and their friends at the time, but to do this day I am reminded of whenever we're in need of a good belly laugh (for those of you who are much younger than me and are wondering what a Grace Bros. was, it is what you would now know as Myers....showing my age there aren't I!). As we drove out to the property, reality set in that there was no shower, no toilet, and no tent and I decided immediately that this was not anything I ever wanted to do again.

From that day on, I tended to trend more toward holidays that consisted of creature comforts like hotels or cabins and some tent stays in locations that have all of things we have come to expect from the modern world - a grocery store, cafe, motorised transport and accessibility to running water, showers and toilets. There were two more attempts at camping as an adult which remain etched in my memory - one with an ex-boyfriend around Tasmania which was an absolute disaster (a now very comical story for another day), and the other was with my best friend Tara - coincidentally also around Tasmania - with a number of unfortunate events that you just couldn't make up, but that ultimately made for an experience we'll never forget (again, a story for another day!). At least however, both times there was access to a shower every day or an ocean to rinse myself in, and there was a car to drive into the towns for supplies.

How this desert trek came to be is somewhat a story based around serendipity and synchronicity. A few weeks before I booked this trip, I had mistakenly sent a birthday message to a fellow photographer. I thought I was sending the birthday message to Kerry, when in fact I ended up sending the birthday message to Kerstin - and Kerstin and I hadn't ever conversed online before so I had a laugh at myself, and Kerstin being her lovely self of course thanked me for the message without making me feel like a prize idiot. Then, a couple of weeks after that I caught up with friends in Sydney and was talking to my friend Lisa about the Australian Sand Dunes Project. She asked me how my planning was going for the project, and I talked it through with her and explained that I had no idea how I was going to get out to the Simpson Desert. Logistically there was a lot going against me - I won't go into the particulars here but if you read any article, or talk to anyone who has driven through the Simpson Desert, there is a massive amount of planning that goes into it, especially surrounding safety, and getting in and getting back out safely. Doing tours into such a remote location also comes at an incredible cost, and so I'd flagged the Simpson Desert as something I would work towards planning over the next two years - and I affectionately called it my "Everest". After dinner that evening, I received a message from Kerstin asking about the project, and I'd mentioned that the Simpson Desert was going to be quite a significant undertaking to get out to and back. She mentioned I should look into camel surveys, and I was immediately intrigued - I'd never heard of such a thing. I started researching and checked out the first survey and it looked incredible, but unfortunately out of my price range. Just as I was about to close out of the site, I saw another type of experience they had - a week long trek in the Simpson Desert. I clicked the link, saw the price, read up about the experience itself, saw that there was a spot available in May for this unique and remote experience, and got to work emailing to see if a spot was available...and there was. Within ten days of first hearing about such an experience, I had booked and paid for the trek, the flights and the pre and post trek accomodation. Usually I would wait and consider and procrastinate, but for some reason when the outback called, I answered without question. This is why I love synchronicity and serendipity - if I hadn't sent a birthday message to the wrong person, I'm not sure that I would have found this experience at this particular time. And now as a result, my "Everest" will be the first interstate chapter of this project.

As for the experience itself, it's a true wilderness adventure experience in the Simpson Desert with the camels and cameleers, walking through red dunes, gibber flats and desert claypans. To be clear, it's not a camel riding safari, these beautiful and intelligent creatures are not for riding under any circumstance - we walk, just as the camels do across what I can only imagine will be an incredible landscape. There are no roads where we go, and therefore no support vehicles, and so training was and is absolutely necessary to prepare my body and mind for what is to come. There are no showers, no toilets (no, not even a toilet tent) and no phone service...just a swag and sleeping bag - it's the ultimate back to basics trek, and offers a chance to discover a relatively untouched and magnificent part of this country and also offers a chance to truly disconnect from technology and the suburban comforts I've grown so accustomed to having access too.

Knowing that I'm a little under six weeks out from embarking on this trip that is so far out of my comfort zone and is like nothing else I've ever done...is thrilling. There's a mix of anticipation, a nervous energy, and all the while a steady, quiet calm, and I'm ready to embrace the adventure for what it will be as it unfolds.

Till next time,

Deb