Judas1.com: Summer in the badlands

Summer in the badlands is: An alien world of drought and indifference, where days are so bleached by light that the land is screen-burnt in my eyes when I close them; An abrasive scrubland of ultraviolet radiation and hot dry winds that rasp the lungs; A tinderbox of accelerants where even gum trees, birthed by fire, shy their leaves from midday's sun.

There in the badlands the Eastern Brown and the red-striped black snake and spider be; There meat ants smell a pungent eucalypt underfoot but can strip a carcass to the bone; There swarms of flies buzz the shade and cicadas sound like sirens of impending danger.

The badlands might well be hell but there is peace in the isolation of a place people do not go. A place people do not go.