Lake Gairdner in South Australia is hard to reach. Seven hours drive from the State Capital, Adelaide, the last two hours of which is on dirt roads in the Outback and the last 25 kms of which is pretty tortuous on corrugated, dusty and treacherous tracks. If you manage to stay on the road and avoid the wildlife (that was one very large and lucky Emu that I am glad I missed), the view as you top the rise and see the dry salt-lake gives one a feeling, as of a small child spotting the ocean for the first time. The excitement makes one want to sing out for joy at the marvellous vista spread splendidly before one’s eyes after the continuous red dust approaches.
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah may have been the Cathedral of speed racing; going as fast as one can in a straight line. In recent years, however, for a variety of reasons, be it weather, a changing (shrinking) landscape, it has been unable to provide consistent enough conditions to create record breaking runs. It would appear from the latest Speed Week held on Lake Gairdner, that the mantle may now have passed from Bonneville to the South Australian salt lake, and that the Americans are now visiting Gairdner.
