The desert that is beyond Dubai, from the 86th floor of Burj Khalifa

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Australia

Close encounter of the Gold Coast kind.

At Kanyaka Station north of Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1860 by the Phillips family and abandoned in 1880 after years of drought. The post office here handled 23,000 letters in 1862.

Goanna on the highway to Arkaroola in central South Australia. There is a lot of road like this, and a lot even worse.

On the runway near the Innamincka Hotel in the Outback of South Australia and close to where Burke and Wills died. You can see why.

The runway at the opal mining town of Andamooka, South Australia where people prefer to be underground in their diggings. Makes sense, it's cooler down there.

The road to . . . somewhere? In the Strzelecki Desert near the border between South Australia and Queensland.

The road to Arkaroola from Hawker in the Australian Outback, this is the 16km long straight bit. There are winding bits as well -- and then it repeats itself, but it's dirt the rest of the way.

Menu at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna, South Australia. First, catch your roo.

The North Blinman Hotel in Australia. There is no South Blinman, in fact there's barely a Blinman at all. The town's population is 15, in the "greater area" it is 22.

Near the Andamooka opal fields in the desert around Lake Torrens -- which isn't a lake, but an enormous patch of salt, half a metre thick in places. Take your own water, there ain't none anywhere around here.

At the Mungarannie Hotel in the Sturt Stony Desert. The pub is by the Birdsville Track, a 520km dirt road through the desert. The pub gets 45,000 visitors a year because, according to the owner John, "there's bugger all else around here".

Motel on the Gold Coast, Australia. A beacon at night.

If you are in the middle of nowhere -- in this case near the William Creek Hotel in the Australian Outback -- you might as well make yourself comfortable. On the world's largest private property: a "farm" bigger than Belgium.

The South Flinders Range near Arkaroola, taken from Sillers Lookout from which you can see the white salt of Lake Frome on the horizon through the haze. Hasn't had decent rain here for years.

Morning at the Birdsville Hotel in the desert in west Queensland.

The runway at Innamincka in northern South Australia. The Innamincka Hotel has an outdoor bar called, of course, the Outer-Mincka. It was 37 degrees this day. And dry. Had been for a couple of years.

The road to Arkaroola in the southern Flinders Ranges, South Australia. Straight bits were 20 kms long. And there were a lot of straight bits. See Travels in Elsewhere.

And on the pub crawl by plane through the Australian Outback -- or more correctly one large, but small corner of it -- I met the whole population of William Creek. See Travels in Elsewhere.

The bar at the Birdsville Hotel in the Australian Outback. The most remote pub in the world apparently.

Aquarius apartment complex, Gold Coast of Australia

At the Mungarannie Hotel in the Australian Outback, about halfway along the famous Birdsville Track. The nearest "town" was about 250 kilometres away.

Pool table at the Williams Creek Hotel in Outback Australia

Hotel accommodation in Melrose, South Australia, a beer-stop on the way to the arid Outback

Sunset at the 130-year old Prairie Hotel where feral food -- emu, kangaroo and so on -- makes up the menu. Near the South Flinders Range and just across from the broken-down railhead of Parachilna

Drifting a few thousand metres above the tableland in north east Queensland you see a landscape of Aboriginal dot paintings. The more you see the more you respect the culture.

Dawn above the Atherton Tableland in Queensland, Australia. From a balloon drifting above the cloud cover.

Mathematical mango plantation in Queensland, as seen from a balloon.

From a balloon above the Atherton Tableland in Tropical North Queensland, Australia. It looks like the rigorously geometric Malevich I have at home, a never-ending source of delight, mystery and inspiration. Each to their own songline?

Which would be why they call it Coconut Beach?

At the Mossman Gorge on the Daintree River in northern Queensland. These are the very attractive, if croc-exalting, women's toilets. The mens was less appealing

Mannequin in the local museum at Mareeba in the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland, Australia.

Frosted glass at Freshwater Station near Cairns in Queensland, Australia.

Milla Milla Falls in the Atherton Tablelands, northern Australia.

She's an old US military plane which was, for some reason, dragged to Kuranda in the mountains outside Cairns, Australia. They named her Geronimo.

Algal currents at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

Window display in the famous Miss Gladys Sym Choon shop in Adelaide, Australia.

To say "only in Australia" seems trite. But . . . This in the town of Kuranda in the mountains outside Cairns, where they also have Geronimo (see later pix).

Possibly boredom, possibly that fifth glass of shiraz while waiting around in the poolside restaurant at Peppers Beach Club in Port Douglas, Australia.

Even paradise has its problems, as witnessed by these signs at beautiful Coconut Beach in northern Queensland. But who knew stingers (jellyfish) endorsed vinegar?

Mango grove in the Atherton Tablelands in Tropical North Quuensland, Australia. Best seen from a balloon like this.

A couple of unloveable Papuan Frogmouths, birds found in a small area of the north east of Australia. They mate for life -- and I guess there's a reason. Further evidence that birds don't understand mirrors.

Algae in the currents at the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Fruit bats just hanging around on the banks of the Daintree River which runs through Daintree National Park in North Tropical Queensland, Australia.

This somewhat difficult piece of maths kept Australians guessing (at 55cents a call, 65cents from mobiles) for hours one night. I watched a movie then came back to the channel -- and people were still calling in. A trick question? Hope so.

Aboriginal dolls for sale in the market at Kuranda, northern Queensland. The guy selling them - an aboriginal - also had throwing spears. But the dolls in the front row here -- who look like Chucky to me -- were much more scary.

A tiny but typically photogenic part of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia.

At which time the zoom lens is very welcome. Crocodile near the Daintree River, Tropical North Queensland in Australia.

The geometry of sugar cane plantations in northern Queensland, as seen from a hot air balloon.

The somewhat alarming face on a "mannequin" at a "museum" in the Atherton Tableland in Tropical North Queensland, Australia.

A waterfall of light at Pebbles Hotel in Port Douglas, Tropical North Queensland, Australia.

Symmetry --- and then the suburbs. In the Atherton Tablelands of Tropical North Queensland, Australia. A balloons-eye view.

Dawn at the historic Australian Hotel near the the southern off-ramp of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At 3am a fire alarm rang and we fled, dragging the sole other occupant -- an old lady-- with us. The staff weren't on the premises said burly firefighters.

House on the outskirts of Perth, Western Australia. About 1998

Poetic algae trails at the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Tropical North Queensland, Australia.

Imposed geometry of trees in the Atherton Tablelands of Tropical North Queensland. From a balloon.

A lightplay in Elsewhere: the calligraphy is in the details

The calligraphy of light in Port Douglas, Australia.

Signpost in the Outback, South Australia. Nearest traffic lights about five hours away.

Fresh water crocodile in a creek near Cairns.

A greeting card in the desert about 180kms south of Alice Springs.

In the arid desert you get strong hints of what happens when the rains come.

Another roadside attraction between Alice Springs and Uluru

The road to some meteorite sites south of Alice Springs. Take water.

Dry, seemingly empty and astonishingly beautiful. The desert north of Uluru

Striated rock some 600 million years old, near Glen Helen west of Alice Springs

Up close at Uluru at dusk. See Travels in Elsewhere

Uluru dominating the landscape in the big red centre

Up close at Uluru at dusk. See Travels in Elsewhere

Uluru at the end of another day

On an abandoned building in Darwin, Australia

Skeleton of a DC-3 which crashed short of a runway in 1945 killing all six on board. Near the tip of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland's far north

A typical field of termite mounds, Queensland's far north

And the road goes on forever, in Queensland's far north on the way to Cape York

Sign advertising the charms of "Wepia -- Paradise in the Cape", Cape York Peninsula in Queensland's far north

The bar of The Lion's Den Hotel in Queensland's far north

Aboriginal artist at work in remote Wajul Wajul on York Peninsula, Queensland's far north

Possibly the most gratuitously rude tree on Queensland's far north

The tip of the top of Cape York Peninsula, the furtherest northern point of Queensland's far north

Yep, that's a 9 metre high termite mound (termite tower?) on York Peninsula in Queensland's far north.

Where the sealed road ends and the rugged driving begins, Queensland's remote far north

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