Some people like exploring old churches, castles and the like. Me? Well ..... I guess you know me by now! So ..... here’s me from the Strzelecki Desert.
The arid desert region that we are exploring at the moment intrigues me. You could drive through it for days and continue to discover amazing things. The primary land use is grazing as well as oil and gas production-extraction. But deep below this arid desert is the ancient water of the Great Artesian Basin - the water is from several thousand years old in the north to nearly 2 million years old in the south - wow! but not to be diverted, that’s a whole other intriguing story.
The land we can see sits on top of ancient sediment over 4km thick laid down over 500 million years with some of the deepest sediment containing oil and gas.
We hear about an inland sea whatever that might have referred to, but in fact the sea did invade the region from the north 100 odd million years ago only to retreat a mere 20 million years later. A blink of an eye!
Hard as it might be to imagine, 50 million years ago the Lake Eyre Basin had a warm and wet monsoonal climate. But the lakes dried up and dune fields developed. A continuing pattern of wet and dry saw the climate swing to a wetter epoch 30-40,000 years ago when the lakes filled to overflowing. Since then the climate has become drier and the region today is in a dunes period (geologically speaking). Some of the dunes systems today run 250km for instance the Simpson with its 1000 odd parallel dunes, the largest number in the world. Quite amazing!
Driving through Sturt National Park we passed over deep red dunes through stony tablelands (jump ups) and gibber downs and plains.
I love the gibber. The sun-baked stones have a patina of colour ranging from pale to deep purple brown as iron and other minerals have ‘leached’ to the surface to be glazed shiny and hard in the sun. Ceramics!! These ‘pavements’ protect the land from soil erosion. Across these ‘plains’ one can see drainage lines well defined by trees and scrub.
But the Sturt NP and surrounds are parched. While I know this is part of a long cycling climatic pattern in our interior, it breaks your heart seeing dry water holes and animals digging in dried soaks to get any ‘water’ lurking below the surface. We passed carcasses caught in gruesome postures as tendons and skin shrink and split in the sun. Yet among this desiccation and sadness, my eyes are drawn to shimmering silver as the wind plays with the silver green mulga - the name escapes me if I ever knew it. Suffice it to say it is gentle relief to the eyes.
Every soak and water hole was populated with kangaroos- and ducks! Ducks and sometimes Roos in the water but always sensibly the Roos sought out shade.
But littered around every water hole and soak for 100 odd metres were the carcasses of poor Roos.
Like all pix of these desert areas you need to zoom in to see the detail. Jump ups (escarpment) to the left. I can only imagine some eroding periods where the surface of these escarpments were preserved. But look closer and you can see the drainage lines marked by trees. It’s a subtle landscape but persist and it reveals many secrets to unravel. I love it ...... zoom in and explore!
Ah the dingo fence! Built to protect the productive SE. How effective???? Phyllis the person who maintains this stretch of the fence is a stalwart and came to our rescue (with the local police) when we had a major tyre blow out. She is a champ. Thanks Phyllis x
Don’t ask about the name! There are many gates along the dog fence - Toona, Fortville, Warri, Wompah. It’s a no go zone.
Cameron Corner at the intersection of SA, Qld and NSW. A few time zones at this point which are celebrated at New Years. 500 expected for 2019 New Years Eve so start planning.
The meeting of three States.
My favourite colour - sand dune red. The sand is soft and so beautiful.
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