Outback there!

What is the “Outback”? Ask any Aussie and you’ll get a different answer each time. Been to the Cape? Been to the Tip? Been to Kakadu? Been to the Kimberly’s? Been to the Gulf? Been across the "Nullabor Plain" or across the Bite? Been through the Simpson (Desert)? Been to Broken Hill? Been to Kalgoorlie? Been to Halls (hells) Creek? Been to the Channel Country? Been to Mt Isa? And he list goes on. Most will agree that the outback is somewhere away from the coast and cities, somewhere bloody inconvenient, uncomfortable and a long way from where they live (accept those who live in the “outback”).

So I was invited on what I thought was a great out back adventure to Lake Menindee in western NSW, Australia with the intrepid 4 wheel driver, fisho and photo Journalist Howard Spencer (currently of “hoboroad.com - it's a journey, not just a road”). “I’m going out there anyway, never been there or Lake Mungo, should be good. You’ll have a time, I think there a quadrillion species of birds out there!” So with a quick look at the map to assure myself there was this bloody great body of water “outback” near Broken Hill, I joined Howard for what turned out to be “Real Outback” adventure to the Lake Eyre basin which encompasses some deserts that I’d never even heard of before! (There are at least three deserts Strzelecki Desert, the Tirari Desert and the Simpson Desert). The Lake Eyre basin is a drainage basin that covers just under one-sixth of all Australia!