Outback calling...

I'd nearly forgotten that the name of my blog was Outback Views, and yet I hadn't really told an outback story for quite some time. In fact, over 12 months considering the various gaps in writing...

But the outback is rarely far from my mind. I have a few projects on the go at the moment that relate to the outback. For a start there is the outback tour we are planning for next September - YOTO4. Then there is the book I am attempting to get finalised about the YOTO1 (or just YOTO as it was called then!). But the more interesting ones are the two outback trips I am working on in the back of my mind. One is an 8-week tour of the west coast of Australia which might be on the cards for a couple of years time, while the other is a much shorter, much quicker trip through to Alice Springs.

This shorter quicker trip is presently a real frustration. The main aim of the trip is to drive around the Mereenie Loop. This road departs from Alice Springs and heads west, out along the line of the MacDonnell Ranges, and eventually loops back around to Kings Canyon. The route is not significantly shorter than driving down the highway to the Uluru road, along there and back up north to Kings Canyon. But it does go through a significantly different area and makes a fabulous round trip. Using this route would go a long way to addressing the key problem of this area for tourists - you have to keep driving in and out along the same road to get places.

But there is a trade-off. The Mereenie Loop is not sealed road. As its condition is often poor, and that there is virtually no facilities along it, you virtually need to fully kit up your 4WD to take it on. Through a combination of factors, I have never done this.

However, in the news for the last few years has been that the NT government recognise the tourism potential of the road, and have decided to seal it. I made the decision a year or so ago to hold off my next visit to Alice Springs until the Mereenie Loop was sealed, and then incorporate it into my travel plans.

Unfortunately, this is where it gets strange, because it seems that no amount of digging will show up for me the details I need to know about how they are going with sealing this road. NT seems to lack the comprehensive roads web site that other states have, and even the general government pages will only tell me how much money they have spent on it and not what they have done and when it will be finished.

I rang the tourism people in Alice Springs a couple of weeks ago to see if they could help me. This is not the first time I have tried this tactic, but after being passed around through various hands and/or placed on hold for long minutes while racking up STD charges, I have generally given up. This time, I don't know if I fared better or worse. The lady I spoke with was fantastic, and very helpful. She offered to call me back when she had some updated information, but when she did call it fell a bit flat, because she told me work had not commenced.

How, I wondered, could you have spent the tens of millions of dollars that has been spent, but so far not actually built any road? Or was someone telling me fibs? If so, who?

It remains a mystery, and I remain frustrated, and have a little trip north sitting on hold waiting for a resolution. I'd welcome input if anyone knows anything!

If you only ask...

In a curiously good week, I have been blessed with three special gifts I was not expecting, simply because I asked for them. You know the sort of thing where you think to yourself - "I'd be great if this happened" but you don't take it any further because you don't want to be a nuisance? Well - I guess the moral of the story is that (so long as you remain polite) it does not hurt to ask...

We have a week at a timeshare resort at Mulwala on the Murray River each year. The resort management decided to adopt a different interpretation of when my usual week at the resort ought to fall in 2008. I only found out by accident, but it meant we were booked to go away in a week that was really inconvient. For a while I felt very upset about this - but then I realised an interesting point - the week I thought I was going away was even worse for me than the one I was booked for. A closer look at the diary showed that the following week would be better than both of them. Now it came down to purely a favour - would they please exchange my weeks around at this late stage even though it had been set months ago? They were perfectly within their rights to say no, and I expected this outcome. But they rang around, found someone else who had a change of plans, and asked if they would mind swapping with me. This other person agreed, and yesterday they rang me back and told me the happy news. Wow!

Have I mentioned I collect maps? It has got a little out of hand - I actually have a room for my map collection now. I heard through some friends that Shell (the fuel supplier) used to have a mapping service, which closed down in the 1970's. In the decades up to then, they provided all sorts of maps, strip maps, road condition updates and so on. It crossed my mind - there must have been a lot of documentation behind that service once - I wonder if they kept any of it? I decided to call them up. Soon I was chatting to their archivist, and yes, they have lots of historical stuff, and he reckons he can get me access to it in a few months time when they move it to a better facility. Again, the benefits of asking! As I was about to hang up, he asked me if I had a map collection myself? When I said he did, he asked for my address because he had a few old books he was about to throw out. They arrived on Tuesday, and they are beautiful!

I have certainly mentioned my interest in Lake Eildon in this blog before. I do a weekly statistical report at lakeeildon.com, on the current lake levels and what it is doing compared with the lake's history. To produce these stats, I have a spreadsheet with weekly observations of the lake for the last 25 years. It has often occurred to me it would be good to have the same stats right back to when the lake was built in 1955. But who would have such a thing? In the middle of another conversation late last week, I suddenly realised who would have the stats. As soon as I thought of them, I realised they would not want to help me, so it probably wasn't worth asking. But - why not - I went ahead and asked anyway, in my most polite of styles. And back came an excel spreadsheet with weekly lake observations from 1955 until 1986, then daily observations from 1987 onwards - 9,000 observations in all. It was statistical heaven!

I've come to the conclusion it's always worth asking. If they can, people by and large are happy to help.

It's just not cricket

Hah - Sunday was a big day in the world of cricket in Australia. In one of the more extraordinary overs of test cricket, Australia's part time bowler Michael Clarke took three wickets to close the Indian innings with only one over of play available, and the team recorded its record-equalling 16th consecutive test victory. Or at least - that ought to have been the headline story. Instead, we got something quite different. The match was marred by ongoing perceived errors in the umpiring, a key Indian bowler was accused of racist remarks and dragged before a hearing and banned for three matches, claims and counter-claims of poor sportsmanship, and within 24 hours, the threat of the cancellation of the rest of the Indian tour of Australia. All of which left me, an "average" cricket lover, quite puzzled.

For some reason, we seem to be thinking that its all "not cricket" - a expression meant to imply that fair play is at least as important as winning. In every respect of the phrase - I agree, it isn't. But why does that surprise anyone? Cricket's total support of tradition no matter what was smashed in the 1970's by Kerry Packer's World Series Cricket if indeed it had not been rendered shaky forty years earlier by the Bodyline tactics of a visiting English side. Does anyone still think that international cricket is a gentleman's sport? It's serious business and there are big dollars associated with winning. Australia's had its time in the 1980's at the bottom of the sport and it is not a nice place and no-one involved with it wants be back there. From the late 1980's onwards, Australian cricket got its act together, and for almost 20 years, we have come to dominate the global game. It's not luck and its not through being devious either - it's been a lot of very hard work. Congratulations to all involved - it is brilliant to see how the transformation has taken place.

By a curious twist, I will forever be able to say I was at the MCG to see Michael Clarke bowl that last over. Now - the savvy ones amoung my readership might be saying "but the match was at the Sydney Cricket Ground, not Melbourne." Quite right. I was at the MCG to see an interstate 20-20 game between Victoria and New South Wales, but the first 20 minutes of the game was hardly seen by the spectators thanks to the television coverage of the last rites of the test match in Sydney being broadcast around the ground. The overwhelming impression I got was that the cricket fans willing to put up their cash and go to a game were more than impressed with the Australian effort to win a game that had just about eluded them - myself included. Sure they play hard - that's part of the reason Australia is the top team. Sure - they reacted out of sheer joy and perhaps could have been better sports - but please! It was an incredible win. Sure the opposition needs to earn their respect, but good players are respected - including the bloke who has been charged with racism.

That said - there are rules for fair play, and a code of conduct that ought to be complied with. I support their existence in cricket. If someone (anyone) steps over the line of these rules, then take action against them. If the umpires are biased - take it to the ICC and let them chuck them out! If the Aussie players appealed frivilously, bring the charge to the match referee and have it heard. If they used bad language or intimidated the opposition inappropriately, take action and have them face the consequences. But if someone does it to the Australians, don't be surprised if the same rules are applied in reverse. You cannot get away with being inappopriate to a player just because they are better than you - it's not a defence. And for goodness sake, don't go crying through the media that you are being bullied - use the process that is there.

My disappointment at the response of the Indians leads me to wonder where the poor sportsmanship applies. My disappointment spills over to the media. The claim is that 11 bad decisions were made in the match. 3 favoured the Australians and 8 favoured the Indians. Of those 8, 3 of them do not have clear evidence of being wrong, they were simply questionable. You could look at this and say that 5 bad mistakes in 5 days of cricket is not all that bad, or you could say that 3 back the other way sort of makes up for them. I'd rather have no mistakes, and I would favour the use of technology to clear up some issues. The current system recognises there are imperfections of the umpiring, but hopefully not bias. The players make a lot more mistakes than the umpires do - and we have to accept that everyone is trying to do the best they can.

I hope we can all get over it, and get back to playing cricket. This carry on is disappointing and sad. And most of all I feel disappointed that a great achievement by a truly remarkable team is being ignored in favour of the controversy.

Welcome Back

"Due to circumstances beyond our control, transmission has been interrupted, please stay tuned..."

Yeah, ok, true. The circumstances weren't weren't out of my control at all. But transmission was interrupted. Sorry about that. I am going to get back into this business...

The main reason I have not been blogging is that I have been writing. I actually finished a fairly significant piece of work, around 160,000 words, to a level where I was willing to let other people read it. At the moment, it still has only seen a limited audience, because it is autobiographical and does make mention of a number of other people - some in a good degree of detail. So I wanted them to at least have the opportunity to tell me what they think before it goes out into the world more generally.

But then! What do I do with it next? Surely publishing is expensive! I have no idea. A friend of mine recently published a book on-line. Maybe I should do that! I might follow that up, it seems like a better idea, although it would mean that I won't ever see any money from it. Yes, you're right... I wasn't going to see money anyway, was I?

Ok, so I have a bit of a plan for the next couple of months then. Get the ok from my friends, and then publish the book online. Wow, sounds a bit frightening, but it might be good...

Which raises one more little issue. What if one of my friends says they don't like what I have written? Ought I change it? I've already made it quite clear its only my opinion... But then again, I really don't want to upset people who I do have genuine respect for. So where does that leave me? Oh well, I will talk to them and see...