We are now heading south over the border into South Australia. We follow the Diamantina River as it skirts along the edge of the Strzeleckie Desert...
This year the harsh red desert hues are softened by the patch work of green vegetation, growing in the hollows and along the watercourses where the water has accumulated, and sprung to life...
Somewhere as we head south the Strzeleckie Desert becomes the Sturt Stoney Desert. We are coming to realize that this north western corner of South Australia is just one big desert. Sturt Stoney Desert is an expanse of rocky "gibber" plains stretching from horizon to horizon...
Perched on the edge of this Sturt Stoney Desert escarpment is the homestead for a property called "Clifton Downs". The east-west and north-south airstrips form a cross which marks the spot of the homestead. To the east and south beyond the homestead, the inhospitable Sturt Stoney Desert stretches into the distance...
From the photo above you can get an inkling of why the homestead is where it is. To the west of the homestead lays a huge flood plain called Goyder Lagoon...
Goyder Lagoon the end of the line for the Diamantina River. Goyder Lagoons main source of water comes from the Diamantina and Georgina River catchments in far western Queensland. Goyder Lagoon is a mass of channels that fan out across the flat plain...
In flood the channels merge into small inland sea...
When the flood waters recede the result will be a garden of Eden for nature and the graziers for many years to come. They had to suffer 10 years of drought before the good times returned; such is the lot of the graziers in the arid regions. As they say there is money in mud...
The water that makes it through Godyer Lagoon forms a new watercourse called the Warburton River. We follow the Warburton's path to the south-west towards its mouth at the top end of Lake Eyre. But before we can reach Lake Eyre we like the Warburton river need to traverse another desert; this time the Tirari Desert...
The Tirari is a classic sand dune type desert. This year though the valleys between the dunes are all filled with water. In the foreground of the photo above you can see the Warburton scything through the desert. The excitement is building; then in the distance, far out on the horizon in the top right hand corner of the photo is today's holy grail; Lake Eyre...
Now for the serious sightseeing...
