Last weekend I gave the cart (and myself) the biggest test yet – hauling 135kg over 5m high dunes in the northwest Simpson Desert. No punctures despite the thousands of centimetre-long burrs. It was good to feel the strain of ever-so-slowly climbing the sand ridges, the feeling of walking without any weight on the flats, and the almost out-of-control rapid descents. It is certainly thigh and calf bursting terrain and I feel that my legs and shoulders have grown even bigger.
With only days left before departure, I am busy packing and doing all of those last minute things. Thanks so much everyone who has helped to make this expedition a goer – especially Ross Engineering, Ultimate Ride and Adventure Airsports for the cart; Lone Dingo, Desert Dwellers and Sea to Summit for specialist equipment; Endura, Woolworths, Carmans and Vacuseal for food and packaging; Mt Dare Hotel for the sat phone; Hainsnet for the website (which is now ready – check it out!); 783 ABC for media; and several companies and individuals for financial support: Oz Group, Jan & Trevor Howie, Sandra Murphy & Mick Mirovic, Cath Tenni & Alan Dyer, Vicky & Jim Dinas, and Nicole McIntosh.
Thanks to recent sponsors Hagemeyer (polarising sunglasses), Solarsuit (sun-protective clothing), Tourism Central Australia (fuel) and Harvey Norman (discounted camera), and hello and thanks in advance to those well-wishers who will see me off in Bedourie on Monday 23 June. Then 24 days to Mt Dare on 16 July.
The website is finally up and going. Check it out! www.michaelgiacometti.org
Follow my progress via weekly interviews from the desert with 783AM ABC radio at about 4.15pm every Tuesday, and the daily blog and location update on the website.
Yours truly,
Michael Giacometti
Friday, June 20, 2008
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Media Release 002
Alice Springs adventurer to attempt the first east-to-west foot crossing of the Simpson Desert
The winter school holidays are a time for Territorians to go bush: camp, relax and fish. But not for Alice Springs adventurer Michael Giacometti. On June 23 he will commence a 485km solo and unsupported walk across the Simpson Desert from Bedourie (Qld) to Mt Dare Hotel (SA). The walk is expected to take 24 days. ‘I wouldn’t call it a holiday,’ Mr Giacometti said, ‘it is going to be recurring Hell.’
Mr Giacometti, 42, will tow a 23kg custom-designed aluminium cart loaded with up to 140kg of food, water and equipment behind him. The cart was built in Alice Springs by Ross Engineering, with over-size mountain bike wheels from Ultimate Ride, and aircraft-grade aluminium hauling shafts (sourced from broken hang gliders) supplied by Adventure Airsports in Torquay, Victoria.
‘The biggest unknown about this adventure is whether it is possible,’ said Mr Giacometti. ‘No one has previously tried to cross the Simpson Desert from east to west because the steepest face of every one of 1000 sand ridges has to be climbed.’ So why is he going to try?
‘I like the way Jon Muir (Australia’s greatest living adventurer) puts it: that the ‘question mark’ – the unknown – propels us forward, and if we aren’t challenging ourselves, pushing the envelope of our existence and being further, then we are like the living dead.’
The winter school holidays are a time for Territorians to go bush: camp, relax and fish. But not for Alice Springs adventurer Michael Giacometti. On June 23 he will commence a 485km solo and unsupported walk across the Simpson Desert from Bedourie (Qld) to Mt Dare Hotel (SA). The walk is expected to take 24 days. ‘I wouldn’t call it a holiday,’ Mr Giacometti said, ‘it is going to be recurring Hell.’
Mr Giacometti, 42, will tow a 23kg custom-designed aluminium cart loaded with up to 140kg of food, water and equipment behind him. The cart was built in Alice Springs by Ross Engineering, with over-size mountain bike wheels from Ultimate Ride, and aircraft-grade aluminium hauling shafts (sourced from broken hang gliders) supplied by Adventure Airsports in Torquay, Victoria.
‘The biggest unknown about this adventure is whether it is possible,’ said Mr Giacometti. ‘No one has previously tried to cross the Simpson Desert from east to west because the steepest face of every one of 1000 sand ridges has to be climbed.’ So why is he going to try?
‘I like the way Jon Muir (Australia’s greatest living adventurer) puts it: that the ‘question mark’ – the unknown – propels us forward, and if we aren’t challenging ourselves, pushing the envelope of our existence and being further, then we are like the living dead.’
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Sponsor & Supporter Update 002
Last Saturday morning, on the last day of May, I picked up a present that I’ve been waiting months for. It was like an early Christmas. Yes! I shouted with glee. The cart was finally complete. Within a week of supplying the wheels (built by Ultimate Ride) and 2.25m long aircraft-grade aluminium-alloy shafts (from Adventure Airsports in Torquay) to Ross Engineering, out came a shiny 23 kg cart.
The first field test with 80 kg on top produced a puncture in one of the unlined tyres. They have since been lined with burr-proof materials, ready for the next challenge. On the first cart walk I noticed how the weight really needs to be well forward of the wheels so that the front of the cart does not rise up. At any rate, hauling the 100 kg weight uphill was okay. Now to test it with an extra 50 kg up sand dunes.
While waiting for the cart to be made I have continued the big hill walking. A couple of weekends back I led a group up Mt Giles, the third highest peak in the Territory.
There are still a few potential sponsors I am waiting to hear back from (PowerWater, Tiger Airways). Their lack of involvement does not hamper preparations one bit, but it does add to the financial burden of running the expedition.
The website will be updated very soon (http://www.michaelgiacometti.com.au/) to include more details of the expedition and the water conservation aims. I will let you know when it has been updated – should be sometime next week.
So, with less than three weeks to go before the expedition departs, things are go go go. The remaining days will be filled with food preparation and packaging, media releases and interviews with radio and print media, checking the website content before it goes ‘live’, finalising equipment and sponsorships, and really testing the cart out.
Come and see me training in the dry Todd River bed. I’ll be the crazy guy pretending to be a mule, hauling a heavily-laden cart to nowhere.
Yours truly,
Michael Giacometti
The first field test with 80 kg on top produced a puncture in one of the unlined tyres. They have since been lined with burr-proof materials, ready for the next challenge. On the first cart walk I noticed how the weight really needs to be well forward of the wheels so that the front of the cart does not rise up. At any rate, hauling the 100 kg weight uphill was okay. Now to test it with an extra 50 kg up sand dunes.
While waiting for the cart to be made I have continued the big hill walking. A couple of weekends back I led a group up Mt Giles, the third highest peak in the Territory.
There are still a few potential sponsors I am waiting to hear back from (PowerWater, Tiger Airways). Their lack of involvement does not hamper preparations one bit, but it does add to the financial burden of running the expedition.
The website will be updated very soon (http://www.michaelgiacometti.com.au/) to include more details of the expedition and the water conservation aims. I will let you know when it has been updated – should be sometime next week.
So, with less than three weeks to go before the expedition departs, things are go go go. The remaining days will be filled with food preparation and packaging, media releases and interviews with radio and print media, checking the website content before it goes ‘live’, finalising equipment and sponsorships, and really testing the cart out.
Come and see me training in the dry Todd River bed. I’ll be the crazy guy pretending to be a mule, hauling a heavily-laden cart to nowhere.
Yours truly,
Michael Giacometti
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