Tuesday, May 30, 2006 at 23:13
Doug & Willie (- and maybe Phil G)
Yeah, the charm of
the desert!
Here are some snippets of what JW
Gregory thought of the deserts. He was a Scottish geologist who traveled around L Eyre by camel around 1906, and reported on artesian waters, aboriginals & geology. It was he who coined the term "The Dead Centre"
" The source of
the desert's fascination is puzzling. The yearning to discover the secrets of the unknown, which leads one man to spend his life in the chemiical laboratory, sends another to explore the pathless desert. But even after the pioneer shall have discivered all of its secrets,
the desert will still have a charm as irresistible to those who feel it, as the spell which the sea throws over its lovers."
"No other silence is as absolute as that of
the desert..............At times this perfect peace is gently broken by a faint, barely perceptible humming, caused perhaps by the wind rustling some distant scrub, or the trickle of blood through the capillaries of the brain."
"No other conditions present death in a more attractive guise."
"The simplicity of desert life, the uniformity of its conditions, the merciless severity of its forces, awaken in us the primative man, lying beneath the carefully built up fabric of social obligations."
"Certainly one of the main charms of
the desert is the sky."
I personally often feel at a loss to explain to acquaintances the attraction of the deserts, and maybe these passages from
Gregory go close.
What do you think?
Cheers, boys,
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