Stark Side Of The Moon

When Bush Comes To Shove

Here we are, in Adelaide, capital of South Australia. It's an 800-kilometre drive for us and of course, once you leave Melbourne behind you and get onto the Western Highway, most people think driving through the bush is a pretty boring proposition. But whenever I do this drive, I click (okay, that pun was not intentional) into photographer mode. Yes, ``highway'' is a misnomer because it's really only one lane each way and you don't encounter what a European or a North American would call ``traffic''. And yes, there isn't a lot to see. But I find the stark beauty breathtaking. Flat brown land. Clear blue sky. No clouds. The Wimmera region stretches across the dry land as far as the eye can see. Red shale, powder-dry. None of your European emerald green anywhere. Endless ribbon of highway with heat shimmering across it like the opening scene from `Lawrence of Arabia'. Yup, that's beauty.