Quarantine Diary 10.2
(The Thin Red Line)
17 September 2020
Okay, here on Google Earth I’ve drawn a red line from my quarantine hotel in Adelaide, Australia, back to my home in Somerset, England.
Across the Earth’s surface, it’s a distance of approximately 10,230 miles, or 16,470 kilometres.
I thought it would be fun to “walk the line”!
First, we leave the hotel in Hindmarsh Square, pass through both the South Australian Museum and State Library, and almost exactly through the centre square of the famed Adelaide Oval. (see below)
Tracking parallel with the arterial Port Road, we pass through suburban Adelaide and into Gulf St Vincent.
We make landfall again at Ardrossan and cross the narrow Yorke Peninsula, then navigate the Spencer Gulf towards the far bigger Eyre Peninsula, making landfall near the town of Cowell.
You can forget about water for a while as we head into the red heart of Australia.
Deep in the middle of absolutely nowhere, we cross the state border, leaving South Australia and entering Western Australia. We have already travelled 810 miles (1300km) solely inside South Australia!!!
Another 710 miles (1140km) through Western Australia, and the vastness of the Great Victorian Desert and the Great Sandy Desert.
Don’t expect to see any humans.
I’ve dropped a yellow pin on the famed Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the heart of Australia, but the red line misses it by 160 miles (260km).
Finally we leave Australian soil, heading seaward near Lagrange Bay, not far from the Bidyadanga Aboriginal community, which has a population of around 600 people.
The departure point is about 100km from the better-known town of Broome.
We travelled over 1500 miles (2455km) in Australia!
Out into the Indian Ocean, it is 900 miles (1450km) at sea until we reach the island of Java, Indonesia. The mightily impressive volcano complex we’re passing includes the peak of Mt Semeru, distinctive in the second picture below.
Off into the Java Sea, we miss Singapore (by about 200 miles) but just graze Malaysia. (Found this interesting as my flight here was via Singapore - so it was close to the direct route!)
Thailand. The red line cuts across Ko Katen (or Ko Taen). The bigger island to the north is the popular Ko Samui.
We hit mainland Thailand, but soon cross into Myanmar.
Out into the Andaman Sea, we graze the land of Myanmar again, before heading into the Bay Of Bengal.
We make landfall again in the delta formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers.
We actually make landfall in Bangladesh, but within 60 miles cross into India, not far from Kolkota.
In India, we pass through the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Bihar - heading toward Nepal and the Himalayas.
Crossing into Nepal (one of my favourite countries). I’ve labelled Kathmandu and Mt Everest.
Passing some big old mountains now. The foreground peak (to the right in the pic below) is Hiunchuli Patan (elevation 6441m). This peak is connected to the mighty Annapurna collection of peaks (highest point 8091m).
The second image below shows Hiunchuli is relation to the highest part of the Annapurna massif.
After more epic mountains, we cross from Nepal into China across this ridge, which I cannot find the name of. It’s near the Tibet town of Nuri.
Crossing through the Tibet Autonomous Region, the scenery is best described as “Magnificent Desolation”, to borrow a line.
You can certainly see which side of the mountains gets all the rainfall!
We’re now straying into one of the world’s hot zones, the India-controlled area of Kashmir.
And then the Pakistan-controlled area of Kashmir.
Now we do some serious border hopping, mainly in the mountains.
It goes: Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan. Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan.
From Tajikistan, into Uzbekistan. And through the human-made Aydar Lake.
I feel like a zoom out might be useful at this point. You can just see the red line crossing the lake in the centre of this image.
Still in Uzbekistan we find our away to the tragic Aral Sea (a victim of human intervention, namely diversion of rivers for irrigation).
We cross in Kazakhstan.
After 560 miles of mainly barren terrain in Kazakhstan, we enter Russia near this salt lake called Lake Elton.
We cross the River Volga, not too far from Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad.
After 580 miles of Russia, we dip into Ukraine. Then back into Russia and into Belarus.
And into Poland.
Lots of trees and lots of towns in Poland, then we cross the border into Germany, about 60 miles east of Berlin.
Crossing the Elbe River, near the German town of Cumlosen.
We enjoy a good 300 miles of Germany.
And now we cross into the Netherlands.
Just missing Amsterdam and hitting the sea in in unison with River Amstel.
It’s a 130-mile hop across to England.
Landfall is made in the English county of Suffolk.
The red line pass through Ipswich and north of London, heading home to Somerset.
And home!
And finally, a video of it all.