The scenery changed on this 576-km. drive from the Great Barrier Reef, from rolling hills to cotton fields, and then to flat nothingness. The only sound was silence as the car cut through the wind. Smells varied from earthy, to a dusty dry, to fragrant desert flowers—with a few unpleasant stretches of aromas from kangaroo road kill.

I also passed remnants of emus, kangaroo, feral pigs, foxes, and a few cows. The huge road trains that pull up to three trailers behind the cab ran the buggers over as they can't slow down to avoid them. The drought was so bad that the ranchers were mustering the stock on short grass adjacent to the roads and at one point I was surrounded by a herd of cattle grazing along this main highway and I could have touched the cows from inside the car. Bullwhips were cracking, horseman and horsewoman were cursing the beasts and dust was everywhere.

"People say that you either feel welcome or very uncomfortable out there—there’s no in-between."

Passing towns called Gogango, Blackwater, Emerald and Dingo, I arrived at the tiny crossroad that led to the Gem Fields. In the towns of Sapphire and Rubyvale, I witnessed scenes straight out of the Wild West with mining camps piled high with rubble, rusting digging rigs strewn everywhere and characters with bent-up hats and bow-legged swaggers wandering their claims.

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