​The silence of the night - 23 June 2017

Sunsets all look glorious but outback they are especially
wonderful against the dark land and silence.

Darkness but for the twinkling of stars AND
the glow of the mozzie candle and Lindsay's iPAd! 

The deafening silence of night on the tablelands. A silence broken only occasionally by the wishful night cry of a mopoke a way off in the dark and the rustle and chirrup of crickets. We sat under deep indigo skies peppered with bright sparkles, like the eyes of the universe and beyond, were looking down on us. How microscopic we must have seemed. All rather humbling but stupendous, awesome, glorious, dazzling and beautiful beyond belief. We were camped in the bush in a pull-off along the Tablelands Highway - which for most of its 370 k is single lane 'semi-bitumen' running between Barkly Homestead and Cape Crawford.

Typical road and one of my favourite parts of the countryside.

The Burketown Bore! An open air stalagmite you think? It's about a metre or more high. The bore was drilled late 1890s but the water was suitable only for adult cattle and there it has remained bubbled for over 100 years pouring out over 700,000 litres of artesian water per day at 68 degrees C - it's very hot.
The flood area is quite a haven for many birds.

By the time we reached Cape Crawford, we'd driven a 1400k loop over 6 days (a leisurely journey) starting at Borroloola and finishing within about 100ks of our start point. It was a marvellous journey.
I so love the plains! Vast unbroken stretches of grasslands where pratincoles flutter and dart alongside the road, and where bustards - those huge stately birds - pose as still as statues, and flocks of brolgas dance - Orana Orana tralala ...... and cattle of course!

Show me a waterhole and there you'll find cattle. Lovely creatures. They amble across the road sometimes stopping to stare at you.

The imperious Australian Bustard. They are huge - taller than a wedgie with a similar wing span of around 2 metres. They freeze pretending not to be there. Usually see them approaching dusk. 

The plains we crossed were covered in golden Mitchell and Flinders grass with patches and fringes of towering native sorghum and spear grass mainly along the northern parts of the road. Great expanses also of Silver Box trees looking in the distance like an enveloping silver-blue mist. As we approached closer to the tablelands, stark white trunks picked out where Ghost gums and Coolibah trees grew. And all along the 100s of Ks were on of my favourite species, Bloodwood trees (eucalypts) of a number of varieties.

Looking up into the laden branches of a desert Bloodwood tree. It was covered in buds and flowers and not a few galls - probably wasps. We broken open one and found some tasty little grubs wriggling around inside