Here is how to spend a fun three hours. Stuff 450 people into a tin can; make them sit on seats slightly narrower than they are; ensure their knees bang on the seat in front; provide an inadequate number of toilets; make the whole thing vibrate noisily; everyone has to breathe only the air exhaled by everyone else; only show one dreadful movie (but as a redeeming feature make it so bad that it doesn't matter that you can't hear the sound track); serve dreadful food at what feels like the wrong time of day.
So where is the fun? Easy, fly from Perth to Sydney on a clear day so you can see the ground below (if it isn't below there won't be much fun!).
As we left Perth, bush fires had been burning for a while. We couldn't see fires but the land was a complex pattern of browns. Near Perth the countryside is farm land on a similar scale to England with small fields clearly defined from the air. It looked like one of those Paul Klee pictures built up of slighly different shades of the same colour.
As you get further from Perth you can see that in the distance the brown becomes mottled with reddish and yellows where the real outback starts. Nearer in, Western Australia is full of dried up rivers which upset the straight line effect. As the rivers dry, circular shapes are left as the final pools dry up. It looks like a trail of bubbles crossing the land.
Next the scale of farming gets bigger. There are much bigger, oddly shaped pastures with stone outcrops. Rather than a burned grass look this is parched golden. There are darker dots which are probably small groups of gum trees but you can't tell properly any more. At one point we pass over a massive rocky area which from above looked as if it has been intricately carved into patterns of parallel lines which form a giant abstract, aboriginal picture.
About a third of the way into the flight you cross the coast into the Great Australian Bight. Initially their are tiny circular islands looking very similar to the earlier pools but this time inverted as land on water. And the water is just the colour it is in the travel ads. Sometimes it looks as though someone has added a massive "loo blue" block to the Pacific. After a bit, no more islands so watch the car chase on the movie.
We hit land again for the last third of the flight, initially repeating roughly what we saw before but as the East coast approaches the colour changes and we realize the Western Australians must be right. A patterns of greens this varied and lush must signify decadance and softness. Even from the air as the pastures get smaller and greener I'm feeling myself being seduced.
And so to Sydney, my next entry will tell you just how soft and effete a city it is.
Simon
