Red Dust

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Red Dust...

Australia is known
for its red centre
But yesterday
high winds
swept tonnes of sand and soil
off Lake Eyre Basin
in the heart of Australia
and sucked it 3km into the sky

the dust storm
swept up through three states
dragging up millions of tons of soil
the plume grew to 1500km long
and 400km wide
and overnight it
painted Sydney red

Harbour and air traffic
came to a stand still
and road traffic
was severely compromised

By the middle of the day
the now lightened clouds
had travelled over 1000km
to my capital city Brisbane

At 3pm
in my home town of Noosa
120 km north of Brisbane
the hot North winds
were replaced by the South Eastern
dust laden clouds

This is a rare phenomena
but not unknown

Australia has experienced
the second driest winter on record
soils were loose
and flew off the land
at 140,000 tonnes an hour

We closed all windows
and taking these pictures
the dust filled by nostrils
and made me smell
and taste dirt
for the remainder of the day

it sent the Brahminy kites
into a bit of a frenzy

By 4pm the dust pall
had thickened

what can you see from up there

my views became
sepia coloured

overnight the clouds blew
over the coast
and out to sea

heading for New Zealand
I will ring my Mother later
and see if they arrived
as scheduled

today the skies
were pristine clear
and the ocean still
and gently glistening

It was a glorious day
to set out early for a walk
before the temperatures reached 29*C



It was a day of
whales
dolphins
a great grandaddy goanna

and dead batteries



ah well...
It was still a blessed day




Australia is certainly
a land of contrasts





the first four photos come from Ninemsn


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