Liz Swanton

Mention the Australian outback and most people think of the Red Centre, the very heart of the great southern land. But every state in Australia has its own share of outback terrain.

Australia's Finke Desert Race is a legend in its own lifetime. A classic event testing man and machine, taking them through some of the driest and most desolate country of the Australian outback. Well, it's supposed to be dry. Last year it wasn't. This year it was ? very dry. LIZ SWANTON reports?.

For many, it was the long grass and the white ant nests hidden among it, that would spell doom. For others, the swollen river crossings. For some, mechanical problems brought on by pushing so hard for so long.

Australia's Red Centre is inhospitable country. It's dry and dusty, with a scattering of scrub that barely shades a surface baked to an iron crust by an unrelenting sun. In these harsh conditions, a field of buggies, Bajas, bikes and 4WD family wagons will do battle in the 16th running of the Australian Safari.

Alice Springs, in the heart of Australia, is a typical desert frontier town. Set in the middle of nowhere, with surrounds of red cliffs and sand, its winters are dry with clear blue skies that go on forever. Mild days turn into cool nights. Sunsets are spectacular. Rain at this time of year is sparse.

There's an old saying that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. In Australia, they do it in the Outback: rough, desolate, forbidding country which takes up most of Australia's interior.