The bare brown plains along Bedourie Road start to get a green tinge.
Just to backtrack a bit, here are some pics showing the receding of the floodwaters from the rain in early June, and the green carpet that has appeared, slowly covering the usually red-brown sand, gibbers and dunes. It's taken almost three months for the first of the wildflowers to appear (coming soon), and in the meantime, the roads have been a dodgy prospect. Even after the roads were re-opened to traffic there was still a lot of water around, the Birdsville Track in particular became badly chopped up, and there were quite a few rescues of vehicles stuck in the mud. The cardinal rule is to stay in the middle of the road, no matter how much water there may be on it. Generally the roads have a hard gravel base, and venturing off the road into the soft mud shoulders is much more hazardous.
Gradually the water has been drying out, and the landscape has been getting greener and greener. It's hard to remember how arid and bare it was when we first arrived, but the constant amazement of the tourists coming through the Bakery is a regular reminder.
A small lake formed at the base of a sand dune along the road to Big Red. We saw three black swans near here.
This is the road adjacent to the pic above.
More water along the Big Red road.
These primordal-looking creatures appeared in the water. The locals call them shellbacks.
Dusty from the Bakery in his desert rescue hat. This vehicle burnt out its clutch and had to be towed back to Birdsville.
The Birdsville Track all chopped up from traffic after the rain. It has since been graded.
Ben the baker broke the rule and went round the boggy patch on the road. He had to be pulled out.
A green sprout appears among the gibbers on Bedourie Road.
Green sprouts start multiplying everywhere.
A green strip along the water line out from the Dingo Caves.
The Inside Track greens up.
And this is just unbelievable. This lush meadow is on the normally sparse banks of the Diamantina River south of Birdsville.
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