2013 #14 Heading across the Nullabor plain towards home

We left behind the West, Nullarbor, The Barossa Valley and headed out cross country toward Victoria.  We travelled via Mildura and headed down some dry and dusty roads in Victoria.  I think we have seen many places in the Victorian outback that most Victorians will never, ever see.  There was a lot of wheat and canola, all heading up, once we got to the cropping areas.  The dusty wind blew hard, but it was in our favour, at our back. Graeme was pleased with his fuel consumption (saving 15% fuel with a strong northerly tail wind).  We stayed in Ouyen and places most of us have never heard of.

In Ouyen I learnt that Mallee trees can have some very large root systems – usually below the ground where most of us never see them.  However, for the pioneers who tried to clear them off the land, they were very hard to move, indeed - especially with the tools they had at their disposal.   One root on view was 24 paces around the base.  Now this is hidden under the ground and you don’t see it.  However, when a fire comes through, or drought, the Mallee root has the ability to continually send up new smaller trees, so that is why Mallee is so persistent.  Usually they nourish about four new trees, about 9 feet high, but sometimes they will carry eight or ten new trees.

We rushed through the wind and dust, and it was much too windy to get some very good once-in-a-lifetime photos – the photographer’s lot – like the big fish that got away!  

We  covered a lot of territory.  This is the last post for 2013.