outback – Pelican Yoga

Grand sands (#47 in series: Lake Eyre Basin [2 of 2] + musical bonus)

Published February 14, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#47 in series: Lake Eyre Basin [2 of 2] + musical bonus)

Many millions of years before any words were spoken on “our” planet, it was already being “adorned”, “painted” and “sculpted” by the greatest of all “abstract artists”.

Relative to a human’s lifespan – or an empire’s or a civilisation’s – some of Nature’s creations are “permanent”.

Others are “ephemeral”, even fleeting.

Uluru is “permanent”, a crisp morning’s hoar frost is “fleeting”.

In an arid landscape, the interactions between sand, wind and water can produce particularly beautiful “abstracts”.

Most of these “artworks” are ephemeral or fleeting.

Grand sands (#46 in series: Lake Eyre Basin [1 of 2])

Published February 13, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#46 in series: Lake Eyre Basin [1 of 2])

Even a flat, harsh, arid landscape – the kind some humans regard as “ugly” or “boring”, when they experience it only at ground level – is likely to prove “amazing” and “beautiful” to the very same humans, if ever they fly over it.

This “revelation” is very nearly an inevitability if the relevant aircraft flies when the sun is “low”.

One winter morning in 2023 my beloved and I flew over just such a landscape – the one in which sits Australia’s most extensive lake.

Grand sands (#45 in series: idyllic beach, sans ocean)

Published February 12, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#45 in series: idyllic beach, sans ocean)

Desirable qualities in a beach:

1. A glorious, entirely natural setting, not ruined by “development”.

2: Uncrowded, clean sand.

3: Unpolluted water in which to swim.

4: An abundance of sunshine and shade.

5: A location within two hours’ 2WD driving distance of comfortable accommodation and decent dining.

In this instance, all five qualities are present, notwithstanding the fact that the nearest ocean beach is more than 1,5000 kilometres away.

Grand sands (#12 in series: paradoxical sands)

Published December 23, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#12 in series: paradoxical sands)

By their very nature, sandy soils are “poor” – low in nutrients and unable to retain much moisture.

Yet in some places where rain often falls and the sun often shines – including some of Amazonia and parts of the world’s largest sand island – rainforest flourishes.

That island is Australian. (Queensland’s Fraser Island/K’gari)

So too is this post’s sandy, “desert” location, which is circa 900 kilometres distant from any ocean’s shore.

Even an ignoramus would never mistake the Simpson Desert for rainforest, but s/he would almost certainly be hugely surprised to discover just how beautifully vegetated is so much of it. (as are a great many other sandy, “arid” Australian places)

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“Landscape” view/ much closer view (#12B in series: Painted Desert)

Published May 20, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Landscape” view/ much closer view (#12B in series: Painted Desert)

This post’s “much closer view” involved almost the very same vantage point as the previous post’s “landscape” image.

You may recognise the particular bush which is present in both photos…but to very different effect.

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“Landscape” view/ much closer view (#12A in series: Painted Desert)

Published May 19, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Landscape” view/ much closer view (#12A in series: Painted Desert)

South Australia’s Painted Desert has to be seen to believed.

It takes some effort to see it; access to this spectacular, very fragile place is restricted, and the Painted Desert is on private property.

Arckaringa Station handsomely meets any reasonable definition of “remote” – more than 960 kilometres from Adelaide, it is more than 100 kilometres north of Coober Pedy.

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MacDonnell Ranges (final episode in series: Mt Sonder & surrounds)

Published October 14, 2023 by Pelidoug

MacDonnell Ranges (final episode in series: Mt Sonder & surrounds)

As previously noted, Mt Sonder is relatively modest in altitude and bulk, but it is particularly beautiful, especially when the sun is not too high in the sky.

What makes it even more beautiful – and this true of almost every mountain, hill, gorge and creek in and around the MacDonnell Ranges – is the fact that it sits within such beautifully-vegetated country.

Almost anywhere you look, it just gets better and better, the more closely you look.

You should never fail to look closely at all layers of whatever landscape you find yourself within – foreground through to horizon.

If you look at the watercolours painted by this region’s most famous artist, you can see that Albert Namatjira (1902-1959) understood this very well.

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