Meet a man who went on an incredible journey through the Simpson Desert.


ROB POCARO: The dune country, honestly, was like being on another planet, and I wrote in my journal several times, "I actually think I know what it would be like to be on Mars."

MIKE SEXTON: He might not have set foot on the Red Planet, but Rob Pocaro has walked across the next best thing.

On Saturday afternoon, the 44-year-old became the first person to cross the Simpson Desert on foot using the longest and most gruelling route, known as the Madigan Line.

ROB POCARO: I did an average of 30km a day for 17 days straight over 756 dunes.

To think your body can actually cope with that and still get up the next day and do it, it still amazes me today.

MIKE SEXTON: Spread over 170,000 square kilometres of the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia, the Simpson Desert is characterised by its extraordinary sand dunes.

Formed by the prevailing winds, hundreds of parallel dunes lie like a frozen sea.

Some stretch for 500km and are up to 50m high.

ROB POCARO: Climbing each of those dunes you take two steps, stop, regain your breath, and you keep doing this until you get to the top of, say, a 20m dune.

And I'd have to really park myself there for 10 minutes just to recover physically, and then to prepare yourself and get the confidence for running down the, you know, descending the dune.

MIKE SEXTON: Rob Pocaro began by dragging over 100kg of gear behind him in a trailer, but after a week abandoned it, opting instead to carry about half that weight in a backpack.

But the biggest load to carry was the isolation and relentless landscape that made him consider abandoning the trek on a dozen occasions.

ROB POCARO: It was just debilitating.

It was almost mind-numbing, I felt, some days because they all look exactly the same. It was almost visual deprivation. I felt that I was standing still.

I didn't feel like I was making any progress, and that really plays on your mind. That just made everything tougher.

MIKE SEXTON: Cecil Madigan made his crossing with the help of camels, but Rob Pocaro was his own packhorse, so in preparation the Adelaide executive pushed his body to the limit to build his endurance -- along the way creating an unusual sight on Adelaide's beaches.

ROB POCARO: The way that I prepare myself mentally is by feeling confident about what I am about to embark on, whether that's work or an expedition.

And for me that's physical.

MIKE SEXTON: While beach and gym sessions made him physically fit, there was no way of knowing how he would mentally cope with such a demanding and lonely journey.

ROB POCARO: For the first few nights I did OK, I felt I did OK, and then things started to go wrong.

You know, things were going wrong with the support team -- they weren't making the mileage -- and I was worried about getting to a cache point, or them getting new supplies to me.

MIKE SEXTON: Amazingly, less than 24 hours after returning to Adelaide, this morning Rob Pocaro was back at his desk.

Although admitting feeling lethargic, he's already focusing on his next adventure, a solo walk to the South Pole -- a journey he believes he's ready to make thanks to the brutality of the Simpson Desert.

ROB POCARO: It really was the toughest thing I've ever done in my life. I won't be doing the desert again.