I'm back from the NT late on Saturday night.

We drove back in two days so about 2500 kms done in shifts.

Interesting was the green "Red Centre" as they have had good rains recently, and in fact we drove through rain from about the SA border to several hundred kilometres North of Alice Springs on the way up.

Then on the way back about seven days later we encountered heavy rains again North of Alice Springs, so heavy that visibility was very low for some of the time on the "desert" highway. Good for the cattle stations in the area. Most of SA was also wet, and down South the roads often had water on low points, and signs of recent water flows, and branches having been cleared off the roads - branches blown down in storms.

At home a lightening strike had hit a gum tree in my backyard and had split the tree blowing wood shards - up to 3 feet long - up to 30 metres away. But little other damage. Along the creek a whole gum tree had fallen over, and the river was in flood overnight but since has dropped. Good to see some late winter/early Spring rains.

The hunt had mixed result, but a fair number of donkeys taken plus a number of pigs. But lots of hard kilometres on rough unused cattle station tracks needed with the Landcruiser plus lots of foot kilometres as well.

Story and photos to come.