Who has done it before?
I am not the first person to attempt a crossing of the Simpson and I am sure I will not be the last. Before European settlement Aboriginal clans concentrated around the watercourses on the fringes of the desert and during good seasons would travel into or through the desert itself.
A number of explorers had penetrated or otherwise skirted the Simpson Desert, beginning with Charles Sturt in 1845, followed by Warburton in 1866, James Lewis in 1874-75 and David Lindsay in 1886 who followed a line of wells across the desert but did not complete a crossing before turning back. Cecil Madigan did an aerial reconnaissance in 1929, but would not explore the desert on the ground until 1939. It was Madigan who named the vast desert below him the Simpson Desert after AA Simpson, his sponsor and President of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia. In May of 1939 Edmund Colson a pastoralist, knowing that good rains had fallen throughout the area decided it would be an opportune time to attempt a return crossing of the desert, together with Peter Ains an Aboriginal man, five camels and enough provisions for two months, they walked over six hundred miles over thirty six days, Ted Colson was credited with being the first European to completely cross the Simpson Desert.
Since then there have been many crossings using camels or by vehicles, however there have been only a few who have attempted a crossing on foot. Warren Bonython and Charles McCubbin where the first to cross the desert by foot, in 1973 they pulled a cart with their supplies and also used airdrops to resupply their north south crossing. More recently in 2006 Lucas Trihey crossed from west to east on foot, followed in 2008 by Louis-Philippe Loncke crossing north to south and in the same year Michael Giacometti crossed from east to west, all alone unsupported and on foot.