Ford Engineer Counts 797 Sand Dunes in the Simpson Desert
Counting Sand Dunes in the Simpson Desert
During testing of the Ranger Super Duty, a Ford engineer decided to count the sand dunes crossed on a 590 km route from Birdsville to Mount Dare. The task proved harder than expected: many crests are ambiguous, and the team had to interpret what counted as a defined ridge. They tallied roughly 797 dunes, using a pen-and-ceiling method, while also completing the crossing east to west with a single tank and four nights of camping.
It’s extra humps and bumps, like the dune forgot where it was going and changed its mind mid-sentence.