Changing Visions of Desert

At this point, I am in Warburton, half way across the desert crossed by the Great Central Road, a desert known as the Great Victoria Desert.

When I left Laverton, there was a sign that signified that I was entering the wider expanse of the desert: Welcome to the Outback Way.

For the next 5 days, I see no house. I see maybe 20 cars at most each day. After a brief stop at the Tjukayirla Roadhouse (a small truck stop/campground with only the desert around it), I head off toward Warburton, with another 4 days of nothing but desert around me. After a while the desert starts to look the same. One day, I start to feel a bit of deja vu, feeling like I’ve been here before, looking at the same trees, riding the same dirt, turning at the same bend. My mind is playing tricks. Only logic tells me that this is not the same place. Only technology, via my bike’s GPS computer, tells me that I am in a different location than days before. But to my eyes, it all looks the same.

When riding the deserts in southwestern United States, I always saw the arid regions as a rich place of variety– multi-faceted nature with its geology and bountiful fauna and flora. This time, I felt like maybe, there is not much, as day after day, the Australian desert terrain looks the same

But I was later to learn how wrong I was. I’ll keep you posted.