A nursery by the sea

Crossing the desert and the outback of Australia to see one of the most gentle and beautiful animals on this planet. My excitement was overwhelming; my heart beat faster with every kilometre. I had left the cold winter of Victoria behind, and as I crossed into South Australia, I felt the warm sun on my face for the first time in weeks.

There’s something strangely captivating about crossing the outback. A landscape that feels both empty and alive at once. The road unwinds through a vast, ochre-coloured land, where time seems to stretch and bend. Low shrubs cling to the red earth, the heat dances above the asphalt, and every now and then, I could see through the window of the car a wedge-tailed eagle circles overhead like a silent guardian of this untamed space. Occasionally, a flash of movement breaks the stillness. A lone kangaroo, half-hidden in the shade of the bush, resting through the heat of the day. It lifts its head, alert and calm, then disappears again into the rustling scrub, as if the land itself had blinked.