I suppose we had some preconceived ideas about what the desert might look like and what we might see. In retrospect I guess that we were wrong. Ok, we’d expected sand and dunes but did not expect to see the abundant growth of plants, shrubs and trees. In places the greens were quite vivid indicating new growth, a distinct contrast to the gnarled and blackened trunks and branches of the trees. Even some of the wattle was in bloom (that’s the bush on the right in this picture).
It was not green all the way across the desert. As we progressed further west, the flora became sparse, the shrubs smaller, hugging the ground for protection. But even there we found tiny flowers forcing their way through the sand to display their blossom.
Nearly all the grasses were dry and dead, at least above ground, but they presented interesting shapes whether singly or in clumps.
There’s a sort of tumbleweed that after it has blossomed, dries out, breaks off where it meets the ground and blows about, scattering its seed as it does so. Plenty of these lodged in tyre tracks and some were large enough to be a potential problem as they can hook onto the exhaust pipe and catch fire. Fortunately, we were forced to stop only once to shift one of the larger prickly devils out of the way.
We saw little wildlife. If you look carefully at this picture, there’s a dingo ahead of us, one of only four we saw. A dingo is a ‘primitive dog’, entirely wild and can be dangerous. In the Land Rover we did not need to take any particular precautions and eventually the animal wandered off the track to observe us from behind a bush.
We expected to see feral camels. Apparently, there’s loads of them but we saw not a single one. We did spot a few brumbies (wild horses) and a couple of goats. Reptiles? One skinny lizard, no snakes. Insects? Just bull ants.
Bird life too, was peculiarly absent. Apart from a few Willy Wagtails, some eagles and the occasional small and unidentified bird, the air was absent of life.
There’s something quite magical about the evenings in the desert. The temperature drops rapidly, so does the sun. A sort of twilight takes over for quite a while when the fringes between sky and the land turn shades of pink, red and violet until darkness finally takes over. The sky is huge, lit by millions of pinpricks of starlight. For us the moon was low on the horizon so the stars were brighter. Outback television at its best! It was compulsive viewing.
I must mention sand – we certainly experienced plenty of it. Colour varied from deep red ochre to almost white, with every shade in between. Some of the sand was coarse, large grains that provided a grip for our tyres. At the opposite extreme was the fine stuff, dust like. It blew about, obliterating tracks and heaped up into soft piles that it was necessary to push through. The, at times, gale-force winds created mounds in addition to sculpting the harder sand into weird and wonderful shapes. Loose sand gripped the tyres, taking off forward motion as effectively as good brakes. And of course, it found its way into every nook and cranny. Some days we taped up the back door in an attempt to reduce the influx. It didn’t work.
It’s a popular notion that the track from west to east is easier to travel than the opposite direction. To be honest, I can’t really say that I could see much of a difference. Both sides of the dunes seemed to be equally as steep, or maybe it was the result of the winds at the time we were travelling.
We camped two nights, totally alone and the silence was wonderful. When we turned off our lights, it was not exactly dark and as our eyes became adjusted, it was possible to see sufficiently well. Problems? Well only one really. We’d experienced an oi leak before reaching Alice Springs and thought that it had been fixed. 150 kilometres into the desert, this proved not to be the case. Our old nemesis, metal fatigue, had caused the pipe that carries engine oil from the filter to the intercooler had cracked, right on the point where it should seal. I had no option but to disconnect the pipe and take a look. That’s when the extent of the problem was fully revealed. It was finally fixed by replacing the rubber ‘O’ ring and adding another one on the outside of the joint, clamping the whole lot together. It worked and there’s been no sign of leakage since. Phew!
Overall, we found the experience of crossing the Simpson Desert to be very special and rewarding, although according to Kim, she’s not exactly anxious to repeat it in the short term.
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