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    Tanami by truck
    From: Peter Fogg
    Date: 2005 May 7, 08:48 +1000

    Kieran Kelly mentioned here recently an upcoming expedition. Any who have
    followed his postings concerning the 19th century explorer Augustus Gregory
    (he who used sextant and stars reflected in black tea to map his progress ?
    drinking the tea afterwards!) would not be surprised to learn it leads
    towards the Tanami Desert, in the remote north of the Australian state of
    Western Australia.
    
    They fly to Alice Springs, a town (the only) in the geographic centre of
    Australia, then take a truck to the north west, beyond any tracks. Four of
    them, including a photographer from the Australian Geographic magazine.
    Their destination is Lake Gregory, which for once has some water in it. The
    only habitation is not too far from the lake, an aboriginal community. They
    have the permit needed to go there plus other permits for when they pass in
    the vicinity of sacred sites along the way. It remains one of the most
    isolated places on the planet ? very few white people have ever been there ?
    and one of the most forbidding.
    
    The purpose of the trip is to locate a mountain that is lost in the Tanami
    desert. It was discovered and named Mt Wilson by Gregory in 1856 but is now
    in the wrong place on modern maps, a long way from the explorers? original
    route. Kieran is undertaking to find the mountain and have it located
    correctly on modern Australian maps to commemorate the explorer?s death in
    1905. Kieran will take copies of Gregory?s expedition field books and maps
    as a guide to the position of the mysterious mountain.
    
    Should be quite an adventure. One of the expedition members told me that as
    well as a GPS, he is taking a theodolite for taking bearings. They will also
    use the theodolite to take a round of star sights at night to see how
    accurately they can fix the position of a mountain in the desert using the
    traditional instruments.
    
    Kieran has a passion for Gregory, an apparently meticulously skilful
    navigator who took regular lunar sights to check longitude, whom Kieran
    thinks has been somewhat neglected.
    
    They have probably chosen an ideal time for the trip, mid autumn in the
    southern hemisphere. Daytime temperatures in summer exceed 50 degrees
    Celsius, and winter nights are often below freezing. Its not uncommon to
    have these temperature extremes within the same day.
    
    For those who would like more information, Kieran has written:
    
    "Tanami - On foot across Australia?s desert heart"  ISBN: 0732911885
    
    and also
    
    "Hard Country Hard Men: in the Footsteps of Gregory"  ISBN: 0868067156
    
    Available at http://www.dymocks.com.au/ and possibly elsewhere.
    
    
    

       
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