Our expedition
How are we planning to travel?
We will walk from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Apart from collecting water and purchasing food supplies along our way, we will receive no external support. No motor vehicle is planned to be used, unless in case of emergency. This will be the first time since Burke and Wills that someone walks this entire track on foot, unsupported.
How long is it going to take?
We plan to complete this trip in 282 days, which means 40 weeks or 9 months. We intend to walk an average of 25 kilometres per day for 180 days, another 55 days will be fully dedicated to interviewing, filming and writing. The other 47 days will be used for resting, shopping, cleaning or just as a buffer if we have overestimated our walking pace in some section.
When are we going to walk?
Due to the extremely warm summer weather in the Australian Outback, we must walk through the central desert areas during winter months, from June to August. We are planning to leave Melbourne at the end of November 2009. We should traverse the most arid regions of Strzelecki desert early June 2010, and arrive to the Gulf of Carpentaria early September 2010, before the rainy season, when crocodiles are mating and become very aggressive.
Are we following exactly the same route?
Our intent is not to precisely re-enact the Burke and Wills expedition, therefore we are going to follow the original route and allow ourselves some digressions and deviations in order to visit both, the natural and man made features of the regions we cross. The original Burke & Wills route is about 3200 kilometres. Our planned route is about 4500 kilometres. We will cross Victoria, New South Wales, enter briefly in South Australia and traverse Queensland up the Gulf of Carpentaria. As opposed to Burke and Wills, we do not plan to walk back to Melbourne…
