8/03/2004 - Day 20, Page 2 of 4 - Warburton River at Kalamurina Station to the Sturt Stoney Desert on the Birdsville Track, SA

Strange things happen in the middle of the desert. Just after we took the above pictures, we saw a light plane circle over head and land on the station air strip (all of the outback stations up here have their own landing strip).

Humm, supplies?? friends?? mail?? Of course not! It's journalists!

Here we are in the middle of the desert with a big body of water flowing past - unusual. Then out of the sky drops a bunch of journalists.

Who are you?? Where are you going?? click, click, click... Stand here, click... Look that way, click... Look natural, click... Why are you here?? Who told you to come here?? click... What have you seen, click... Stand in the water, click... You said you saw a stumpy, what's that??? (they're clever souls...) Where are you going from here?? Where's Birdsville and where's the Diamentina River?? Sit in your car and point at the map, click, click, click...

Then they jump back into their plane and WOOOOSH!!! They takes off, and we're once again standing in the middle of the desert all by ourselves, although this time we were looking a little bewildered...

Hummm, have stranger things actually happened?

Anyway, we clambered back into our troopie and drove the 60km back to the Birdsville Track and turned north towards Birdsville and the Diamentina River.

Not far up the track we stopped and took a picture of the gibber plains of the Sturt Stoney Desert. The gibbers are smoothed rocks which coat the top of the sand and prevent erosion. Apparently if you remove an area of them, the land erodes badly. Below is a picture of the track going through the gibber plains.


Here's me - rock doctor Katie - checking out the gibbers. Humm, yes... They're definitely rocks.