Journey to the Red Centre

January 4 we departed the familiar and safe rolling hills of Roleystone for a five day road trip to Alice Springs through the Gibson and Great Victoria deserts.
Without laboring over it suffice to say it's a long, hot and dusty road, isolation being a familiar companion by the end of the second day. The width and breadth of Western Australia is incredibly vast, for readers not familiar with this state I'd suggest a quick visit to wiki to familiarize yourself. It's a four day journey at about 100kms per hour to reach the Northern Territory from Perth via the Great Central Road which is mostly unsealed.
You don't drive after dark here unless you're mad or in a large truck or tank. The nocturnal wildlife is numerous and often large. Camels run wild throughout the outback, donkeys and large red kangaroos make up the most weighty of the possible road encounters at night. Emus are also numerous and pose a risk for vehicles.
Anyway, we arrived in Alice Springs as planned on Thursday 8th.
Have not had time to do much painting but have a few drawings or sketches.
We have several hundred photos so I will post a few here for the record.
Kalgoorlie is the last major town before venturing into a much less comfortable environment.
It's a gold mining town from the 1860s and still retains much of the architecture and atmosphere of an earlier time. Kalgoorlie is a beautiful old town that boasts the largest open cut gold mine south of the equator. The "Superpit" has to be seen in real life to be appreciated. It's too large to photograph from the ground. Google Earth is a good way to see it's massive scale.
The photo I've attached here shows small oblong shapes at the bottom of the pit, these are regular 4wd vehicles, the larger dump trucks making their way up the ramps are carrying 100 tons of ore per load. Takes them an hour to reach the top.

I'll add more photos in the same format in coming days.

Gone are The Blues, this is the country for seeping in the landscape, flora and fauna as well as the culture here.
The town of Alice Springs has numerous galleries. Many of the local artists here paint in the galleries, the New York and european gallery buyers can come and browse and purchase direct.
More on that later.
It's a life changing experience.

This small slideshow shows a little of the early "western" architecture of Kalgoorlie.
For the American readers, Kalgoorlie was the home of Herbert Hoover for a period in his younger days he worked here as an engineer, later he went on to become a President I believe.