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Hi all, I bought a Lonely Planet 'Texas' guide book the other day as we are reading up.... trying to decide how we can include a ride into Texas on our big trip..... We just did a quick comparison of the state of Texas to the size of our state here in Oz. Our state is a little bit larger in terms of size...... but the wow factor is the population. The total Australian population is around the 23 million. The Lonely Planet guide says the population of Texas is about 24.5 million..... so more than the total population of Oz.... the state of South Australia has a population of just over 4million.
The population of South Oz is concentrated to the coastal areas as the Outback is quite inhospitable especially in summer (which is now) with extreme temperatures and the lack of available water. You may have heard that the state almost ran out of water after a serious national drought a couple of years ago..
in our recent high temperatures we had a death in the lower part of the outback when their vehicle broke down and they weren't carrying any water or food... and then committed the worst mistake of the outback... they left their vehicle.... daily max out there on those days was 57C (sorry cant work out the fahrenheit, just believe me it is hot!)
Keeping in mind that places with interesting geology are the draw card for us.. The Guadalupe Mtns are interesting.... but after someone posted pics of a ride through Big Ben Ntl Pk, which were awesome, that is a draw card as well... but a bit concerned about its proximity to Mexico..(Eric just said to say he's not carrying... if you get his drift).. and they are a long way from Allen. We think we will just run out of time to see all that we would like. [sigh]
But thanks all those who post photos... Eric always shows me photos which he thinks would interest me... geologically that is..
all the best from Vanessa
The population of South Oz is concentrated to the coastal areas as the Outback is quite inhospitable especially in summer (which is now) with extreme temperatures and the lack of available water. You may have heard that the state almost ran out of water after a serious national drought a couple of years ago..
in our recent high temperatures we had a death in the lower part of the outback when their vehicle broke down and they weren't carrying any water or food... and then committed the worst mistake of the outback... they left their vehicle.... daily max out there on those days was 57C (sorry cant work out the fahrenheit, just believe me it is hot!)
Keeping in mind that places with interesting geology are the draw card for us.. The Guadalupe Mtns are interesting.... but after someone posted pics of a ride through Big Ben Ntl Pk, which were awesome, that is a draw card as well... but a bit concerned about its proximity to Mexico..(Eric just said to say he's not carrying... if you get his drift).. and they are a long way from Allen. We think we will just run out of time to see all that we would like. [sigh]
But thanks all those who post photos... Eric always shows me photos which he thinks would interest me... geologically that is..
all the best from Vanessa