We re all able to name the world s highest place, but how many of us know where the coldest, remotest and wettest places on the planet are located? Even if we re told, we might have problems finding them on a map.
All the world s most extreme places are reachable by adventurous travellers, though few of us might have the skills or patience to get there. Many are a physical challenge, and nearly all are frustratingly located in obscure places that will never feature on mainstream tour itineraries.
But never fear. If you want a taste of the extreme without going the full hog, there are alternatives that will give you a fair taste of the experience.
Found: Oldest bilby and bandicoot fossils
Million-year-old fossils of Aussie icons found in archives of US university.
A bilby. Credit: Jacob Layocan / Getty Images.
A scientist from the Western Australian Museum has discovered the oldest known fossils of two iconic Australian animals – the bilby andthe bandicoot – which had been kept for decades at the University of Washington, US.
Both the bilby and the bandicoot are small, furry, rodent-like marsupials found on mainland Australia and – in the case of the bandicoot – Papua New Guinea and parts of Indonesia.
Three new fossil bandicoots named in the study. Credit: WA Museum.
Previously, the oldest bilby (
Navigate dusty, red roads to unearth deep craters and spectacular gorges, plunge into a real-life oasis in the depths of the outback and marvel at some.
Last modified on Wed 19 May 2021 20.04 EDT
Dude Kiddâs ute barrels between a fence line and a sand dune as eagles circle over some unidentified quarry under the magic light of an outback sunset.
âDid you see anything on the ground ⦠a carcass?â asks Kidd. We reply in the negative. âTheyâll be after grasshoppers.â
Kiddâs Ourdel station, outside Windorah in south-west Queensland, has been in his family since 1906.
Tonight Kidd (his real name is James but nobody, including him, uses it) is checking the progress of rains through the creeks and gullies that snake through the property, which spans 500 sq km in Queenslandâs outback channel country.
Craig Tansley10:00, May 10 2021
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The Classic Safari Company runs five-day “Aussie Outback Pub Crawls” that take you 4000km across the outback encompassing three states and visiting eight pubs.
The outback comprises 70 per cent of Australia – that s 5.6 million square kilometres; half the size of Western and Eastern Europe combined. This back of beyond defines Australia, and Australians, and yet for most of us, it s as foreign as any country. Who among us has ever really seen it, let alone know where it quite begins and where it quite ends? Getting there from a capital can takes days of driving; and once you re there it takes days to get anywhere else. That s why it s largely the domain of adventurous, time-rich grey nomads in four-wheel drives with enough grunt to pull their caravan through the heart of Australia.