I ONLY brought one memory card for my camera on this trip, and it was almost full of images from my last big adventure when I arrived in South Australia on the weekend.
Not very professional, I know, and I have spent the past couple of days deleting images from my time in the UK two months ago to make room for pictures from up here in Outback SA.
It occurred to me today, when I was deleting some photos from my visit to Scotland, that I couldn't have had two more different travel experiences in this first third of 2011.
In January I was exploring Scotland, rugged up against the sub-zero temperatures in my bright red coat, and now, just weeks later, I'm hiding under a sun hat while exploring Australia's burnt red heart.
Here's a couple of photos so you can see what I mean...the top three were taken in the Sottish region of Ayrshire towards the end of the north's frigid winter, and the bottom images were snapped today near the Flinders Ranges settlement of Beltana at the end of a scorching summer.
Beltana is, by the way, an interesting little spot.
Beltana is, by the way, an interesting little spot.
It was established in 1870, with the development of the Overland Telegraph, and boomed when copper ore was discovered at Sliding Rock 20km from town.
Reverend John Flynn, who went on the establish the Royal Flying Doctor Service, was stationed at Beltana for a while and it was during his stay he realised there was a need for some medical service to help the people of the Outback.
Beltana boomed for a few years but the decline started when coal mining started in nearby Leigh Creek in 1941, and the final nails in the town's coffin came in the 50s when the original Ghan and main road were both moved further west.
Today the once-great settlement is basically a ghost town, with just a couple of the buildings still occupied by stoic residents, and signs placed around town paint a picture of what the hamlet once looked like.
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