A U turn from Mitchell in Queensland ,where I learnt that mustering budgies is harder than smuggling them as the first I knew of this small flock was when they flew across the front of my car, unfortunately leaving a few behind on the grille.
But running around in the Mitchell Grass chasing small birds is something best done without having a 300 2.8 up to your face on account of the barbed wire fences and rabbit holes prevalent and unseen in the long grass, my next U Turn was heading back to Mitchell with a sprained ankle.

This weeks Mutika was shot while on assignment on the Birdsville Track , the road between Bedourie and Birdsville was flooded so we had to make a 200 km diversion around Lake Machattie which was the only desert lake in the district not to have had any rain.
I was on the way to Birdsville to photograph floodwaters spreading out through the sand hills as the water finds it’s way to Lake Eyre , Thanks to our host and pilot David Brook we managed to get into the air and shoot this once in a life time scene.

But the funny thing about “once in a lifetime” moments is that they can sometimes repeat on you , when I recently returned to the scene of the magic and made an entirely different picture of exactly the same spot in the middle of the Simpson Desert.

The trip back was a bit more strange because my travelling companion was insistant on not using any sort of credit or debit card, suspecting them to be a tracking device of Orwellian proportions, so we had to belt it back to Boulia before the banks closed so he could withdraw cash using his bank book, a journey of over 400km.
If anyone wants to see more of the flood waters coursing through the Channel Country on the way to Lake Eyre, just go to my web site here.

Don Norris over at Photo Review Australia succeeded in deciphering my Northern twang and made me look like I half way know what I’m doing in this months Photo Review, and gave me a real surprise when he put one of my favourite photos from Brunette Downs on the cover. Head down to the paper shop and pick one up.

8 is enough…headlights!