AERIAL VIEW SPECTACULAR (right) as the scenery looked even more glorious from above the Flinders Ranges. Folks really enjoyed the opportunity to take helicopter or small plane flights over some of Australia's outback as optional extras to see the rugged red outback Oz landscape being quickly clothed by green due to the blessings of the first abundant rain in 10 years.

EXCITING TRIP-ULATION (left) as floods cut the Birdsville track before we left on our August bus tour. Then as we were driving more rain cut access to the Strezleki track forcing us onto a new route. Nine hours later a muddied to the roof 16 tonne bus with several dead roos attached staggered into the very tiny town of Tibooburra. Next day Cameron's corner track had 2k section under water, so reroute again. We spent church in the bush on the bus that Lord's day wondering what direction to try next. We finally decided to reroute the trip and do it in reverse as we praised the Lord for the fabulous rains God was providing to Australia after 10 years of drought. The land glowed with magnificent wildflower rainbows on a vast carpet of green, portending a superb season for cattle and sheep properties outback.

YES - we did make it to Wilpena Pound, Brachina Gorge and Arkaroola and YES - the roads were often dirt tracks (above left), and YES - we did see the evidence of the so-called oldest fossils and the bottom of the Cambrian Precambrian section and YES - most people noticed, the worms, shell fish, jelly fish and stromatolites (above right), don't seem to have evolved at all.

NORTH PAST LAKE FROME heading to Lake Eyre .... was hindered only by the fact that we had to dig our 16 tonne bus out of deep sand washed in by recent flood waters. Baggage had to be totally unloaded as our bus sank into the, by then, very dry sand.
The hole we dug ended up being some 20 m (60') long as well as one metre (3' deep). Some people called it a compulsory picnic on a huge beach with great hymn singing session by our elder members as the diggers slaved for hours with joy and blisters. And as our Australian soldier said; we couldn't have asked for better - golden red sand, beautiful wild flowers, big Aussie gum trees to sit under and nobody shooting at us!.

 

OPAL HIGHLIGHTS TO THE GREAT AUSSIE OUTBACK trip at Lightning Ridge where even the local commercial tour guide conceded he could no longer believe opals took vast quantities of time to form, as one of their own residents Len Cram (who has published much on making artificial opals) has convinced him opalisation can happen really quickly.
There is abundant evidence that not only the opals, but also the rocks can form rapidly. In our collection from Lightning Ridge, we have some beautifully preserved mussels and clam shells (below left). Not only are they beautiful opals, but they are great evidence because they are preserved as shut shells. These are fossils of the Lamellibranch family which in today's world begin to open up the minute they die, so our shut shells are evidence they were buried alive. More than that, we know today these shells do live in muddy environments and are used to being covered with moving mud and well able to dig their way out. Observations tell us they can dig their way out through up to three metres (10 feet) of mud that's dumped on them, so when you find fossil clam shells and mussel shells are buried shut, they were covered quickly AND deeply. One other supporting factor is that the majority of clam shells in the Lightning Ridge area have been buried horizontally, yet clam shells tend to live vertically in the mud to allow the water to be sucked in one end then filtered and pushed out the other.