55°C ???

Greetings to all co-sufferers under the heat in southeast Australia,
maybe the following is a consolation. It’s an excerpt from Charles
Sturt’s diary, one of our early explorers. It was the summer of 1844,
and he was on the way to his very own Sturts Stony Desert and the
(then) feared Simpson.
"The thermometer reading 131ºF {55°C} in the shade…the atmosphere was
so dry that the drays all but fell to pieces, every screw in the
various boxes was drawn, the horn handles of the instruments and the
combs split up into fine laminae, the lead dropped out of the pencils,
… the men’s hair and the wool on the sheep ceased to grow, and their
finger nails became brittle as glass… terrific hot wind blew across
the plains, with nothing to break its force. The thermometer,
graduated up to 127ºF {52°C}, burst from the heat, and the ground was
so hot that a match dropped upon it ignited immediately…”
Imagine that poor guy without esky, batteries or phone to complain to
anyone. I have all that and still feel like above pencil with all
sense dropping out of me.
Klaus and Rusty
www.oz-greetings.com.au
Nature, Wilderness & Geology