Charley, seriously, if you drive from Brisbane to Adelaide down the "Inland Route" through Broken Hill, you travel for tens of hours thru that sort of country, some of it with occassionally little bits of green stuff that euphemistically is called "plant life". There are signs saying that this is "semi-arid dessert".

The country that "Mad Max" was shot in - come to think of it - the sort of place to shoot anybody! And that country is considered "fertile" compared with placed like Simpon's Desert. Australia is full of places that make "Death Valley" look like a picnic spot! Over 50% of it is worse than the country around Broken Hill.

One of our scientists was heard on ABC Radio National saying it's ironic that we spend so much money and time sending probes to a place that is looking more and more like Simpson's desert.

And now I'm gonna think twice about eating Rock Salt....

Robin