Travel Theme : Grey

This is Western Australia, the climate is brutal. Summer is hot, sometimes reaching temperatures in the 40’s. The wind would blow the fine red dust into every thing and winters are cold. Can you imagine living in this grey corrugated hut, no electricity, no running water, no insulation on the corrugated iron. The nearest shops approx. 20 kilometres away. Life would be very hard. But then imagine spring with the carpets of wild flowers all around you, the stars sparkling in the vast sky, the only sounds those of birds and the wind rustling in the trees. Yes it is hard but I think it would also have it’s good side.

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Another part of life in the pioneer days was the use of camels for transport in this dry and arid land. This was a monument to these beasts of burden created, appropriately, in grey corrugated iron, another material that the pioneers used extensively in the treeless outback.

When I came to these camels, as I dug through my files of memories, it brought to mind Rajah, a magnificent ship of the desert, that I rode for 4 days across the Thar Desert in India. He is not grey but I fell in love with him and his feisty temperament.

It was way back in 1986 and the photo has been scanned from old film. The day pack hanging on the saddle horn is a dark grey so I guess it can just qualify…

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Thanks Ailsa for this weeks theme of “grey“. It has brought back many memories for me.