Monday. 1720. Now back at he camp and place that has become such a significant part of my life these last few years. Dry airflow still the dominant weather feature. There’s more cloud than in the lead-up to my two day period away, but the clouds have no guts to them and are flattening out shortly after forming. The two days away has given me a good break mentally from the place. On the drive in I was reflecting on the fact that I might well not get these images over the next three weeks or so. There’s a low off Broome but that’s barely expected to develop into a cyclone and I’d be surprised if we see much effect from that out here. I’m happy to be bunkered in here if the weather goes through but I still don’t see much useful coming out of it for me. Then there’s the risk that the system will suck the weather away when it goes past. And with the MJO in the western Pacific that could open up a period of limed weather for the next few weeks. I’ve now spent 60 days over two seasons out here for the grand total of two minutes of the sort of light that I’m chasing. But it’s not in my nature to give up and if I have to come back here next year then I’ll do that. If I leave here without the images the 60 days or whatever it becomes will have been for nought and that’s not how I work. I generally work on seven year cycles in this country - both Kimberley and Pilbara - and we’ve now had essentially three very barren thunderstorm years in the Hamersley. The cyclones bring rain but are hit and miss. They can dump a large amount of rain within the vicinity of their immediate track but not many places else. So the last few days I’ve been working the brain to find ways that the project continues to work financially. And there is, as there always is, more than one option. I’ve just got to refine that to enable me to keep going out here if I need to come back next year. But as much as it’s probably hard for many to understand I have absolute conviction that what I’m doing is the right thing. And i’ve learnt over the years to trust the instinct and intuition even when all the background noise is telling you to pull away and do something else. Even when the outcome is not certain. The persistence i now have out here was not always the case. I used to cover miles and miles for the sake of an image. Always moving. If something wasn’t happening, move onto the next spot. In Brirdsville just over five years ago I went to shoot the big dust storms that often rip through in September. For six days I got literally one image. One frame. A pink Sturt Pea which was unusual. I decided that things weren’t happening and that I’d run through to Mt Isa and try my luck with the Morning Glory. A unique weather event in those parts that comes through for a few weeks each year. So I rolled up the swag, fuelled up at Birdsville Roadhouse, grabbed two bottles of orange juice and my then daily chocolate fix. But something bugged me, and just as I was about to head for Boulia I decided to stay. At least if I didn’t get the image I could say that I gave it a crack. Then, out of nowhere, the following day, the largest dust storm to hit the town in 70 years ripped through Birdsville. My friend, Lou, was a pilot and was sent out to respond to an EPIRB. But the sandstorm turned her plane back. So myself and a friend and the local copper Neale in Birdsville headed out into the middle of the Simpson Desert in a raging dust storm to effect a rescue 200 kilometres to the west. We got lost at one stage because the sand kept blowing the track over and we stood stranded on top of a sandhill for about half an hour while we tried to locate the track. The story went national and it was the same dust storm that rolled into Sydney and Brisbane and cloaked them in red a few days later. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. The only downside was that I left the back door to the laundry open while we were out - the fly screen was still closed - and returned to an inch and a half of Simpson Desert sand in Lou’s laundry. That was a bugger. Things come out of experiences such as these that our minds can’t comprehend at the time and I have a strong belief in that as I stay out here again during this stint. I’m glad I made the detour to my mate’s place in Newman over night to check the vehicle out. I could easily have gone to a mechanic closer by but they are so busy up here that they’re often hurried when checking things over and can miss things. So we spent about three hours this morning going over things. The bushes on the front right and rear right control arms are flogged out and need replacing. The front right spring could be a bit weakened. It’s the heaviest duty OME I could get and that’s only two years old. And there were a couple of minor things that are nothing to stress about. It was more about peace of mind. On fuelling up at Tom Price I went to drop the tyres and was angered to find that the tyre guy had put the rear right one on two days ago at 52psi and the rear left at 45psi. The vehicle had been handling terribly on the drive back across and it’s one of the frustrating things about living and working up here. You pay double city prices for work quality that’s often half as good. Many of the guys working in these parts just don’t give a s#$%. They’re here for the big money but don’t care too much about the rest of things. But the lack of care can have serious consequences. So here we go again. Weather forecast for the nearest major centre for the next few days is: 38, 38, 43, 46, 46, 42 and 41. Add another two degrees to each of those numbers for where I’m located and that’s what I’m in for.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 09:47:08 +0000
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