The Wide Ochre Land

I’ve heard it famously referred to as the wide brown land, but to me it is an expanse of ochre and red, tones more descriptive of its character. Australia is a rich land, but not overly saturated. Intense, but not glaring. One goes to ground here, becomes part of the earth, lives at a walker’s pace. Immersed in a hot bath of air, the heat fills my lungs, reddens my flesh, soothes my spirit.

Australia is a large space with few beings, especially here in its Red Centre, where the quiet is broken only by the rustle of wind in the spinifex and my own footfalls. My inner silence is broken only by my love for this wide ochre land and, suddenly, one of three vehicles sharing the dusty red road today.