After two and a half weeks in Borneo, we headed south to the red heart of Australia - Alice Springs. Think big blue skies, red earth and a Jurassic-like landscape.
It really is like the land that time forgot. I kept expecting prehistoric creatures to amble into the view finder at any moment. We filmed at a sheep station that’s bigger than the British Isles, bigger than New Zealand.
We expected it to be hot but nothing could have prepared us for temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees Celsius in the shade. The locals told us it was the hottest nine consecutive days in Alice Springs in five years. Mother Nature then threw us another record breaker for our travel diaries when we experienced the longest rainfall in 15 years. Talk about a place of extremes. The donwpour was so torrential it caused the dry creek in the middle of town to flow for the first time in 30 years.
Like the wildlife, we also had to acclimatise to the heat so started work at around 5.30am breaking for the hottest part of the day and returning at around 6.30pm. Because many of the local species wisely opt for a nocturnal lifestyle, this routine worked well.
It's probably not to everyone's taste but Australia's Outback made a lasting impression on me - partly for the sheer size of the place but also the rare and unique people and wildlife who have made it their home.
