Southwest, heading out toward the Great Australian Bight with the town of Ballarat lying out there to the north, we read that dams that serve Melbourne are near record lows and the best guess is that a drying el nino pattern will keep the forecast predominantly dry through the end of October. The least rain ever recorded in a year was 332 mm, the average is 650, and this year to date it's a dismal 200. So they have "stage 3a water resrictions" in place, but they haven't kept Melbourne from losing 900 trees this year, three times average. Nearly half the rest of the trees in town are stressed but water restrictions continue. And summer's coming. ..... The oil rig in the Timor Sea will leak for two more months while they tow in another rig from Singapore to tap the well and stem the leak. They're flying a hercules 45 meters above the sea spraying chemicals to break down the slick, which is now estimated 8 to 15 kilometers long. A fracture in the well more than two kilometers below the surface is believed to be the cause. The well is Thai-owned by a company called PPTEP. ..... The 450 k Tour de Timor kicked off yesterday with 300 riders from 15 countries. Winners will cross the finish line in Dili a couple of days before our arrival. It's part of Timor Leste's commemoration of the tenth anniversary of its vote from Independence from Indonesia.
(Photos from our current trip to Australia and East Timor are here on EarthPhotos.com.)
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