xmas time ....

Nargkat(SA) and Big Desert(Vic) has a lot of sand but the surface is covered with a unique low mallee scrub. It is quite a beautiful in it's own way and a very isolated part of our country. It may take years to recover.

I just drove 600kms through NE SA for the ecplipse, down through Flinders, the

I just drove 600kms through NE SA for the ecplipse, down through Flinders, the

I just drove 600kms through NE SA for the eclipse, down through Flinders, the Wimmera across the Murray Valley Hwy and over the Snowies, through Namadji NP in ACT and back to Sydney. Total firebans in every state, the Snowies had 2 fires going on when I went through and some roads closed because of it but it is a big place and theres still plenty on offer, they had it mostly under control when I went through but the weather was still forecast to get hotter. Some of these places (Flinders where it rained a day and it was awesome to catch it) havent had a serious bout for more than a year, yeah we live in a drought where if there is a spark about or an idiot or 2 on hand things will burn. You know things do actually grow in the desert, depending on where you are. Malle scrub, saltbush and more, so there aint steep valleeys and more to contain but fires are possible nevertheless.

Good luck with camping areas, and with the animals out west, the road out to Broken Hill an down toward Adelaide is full of water starved roos and more who can be sloppy on the road becasue of it. Luckily I hit nothing in the hj47 Troopy but came across a convoy of Brits van foreigners who wondered why they hit 3 in a matter of ten minutes. Just because you've hired a van that has a beast for an engine and can do 110kms on a lonely road at night doesn't mean it's a wise idea. Three roos fell under them before someone managed to convince them that they should slow it down a bit...

No grief to foreigners meant here but it was another example of the attitiude some take in foregoing awareness of the landscpae and inhabitants of the terrain they're travelling through.

praccus

Truckster, Back in May, flew across to the Alice, along Tropic of C. and a lot of the upper Simpson Desert was burnt out. Like I'm talking hundreds of square miles of country, as bare as a badgers bum. Must have been plenty of wind behind it, as much of burnt country was in long jagged fingers. Wasn't much left in burnt country, just red sand. Happy Christmas..