This year we are going for a drive around the Simpson Desert. The Simpson is a 68,100 sqare mile desert that crosses three Australian states - Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia. This is the largest sand dune desert in the world and is also the dead centre of Australia, an area that we have wanted to visit for some time.

Our tour this year will take us to Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayers Rock) which have been on our bucket list for a long time and to get there we have to go round part of the Simpson Desert. Once there we may as well carry on around and circumnavigate the Simpson so to speak. It would be great to cross it but that is for people with far more experience and far better equipment than we have. We will, however, have a great outback experience, visit some great outback towns and travel several hundreds of miles on gravel tracks.

On our 5000 mile plus tour we will visit Uluru, a massive sandstone monolith at the heart of the Northern Territories arrid red centre which is so sacred to Indiginous Australians. Also Alice Springs, the beating heart of Australia's red centre which is full of Aboriginal art and culture. We also, weather permitting hope to drive the 811km long Plenty Highway, an unsealed outback track that stretches from Boulia to Alice Springs and is known as one of the best short cuts in the world.

So, a great adventure, though quite why you would want to spend 6 weeks driving on dusty tracks in temperatures ranging from 30 to 40 degrees may be a mystery to some. Obviously plans will change as we go along. Follow us on our travels and see what we get up to in our campervan (Geoffrey).