What drives us to the edge—fame, glory, or something far more perilous?
In the heart of the Australian outback, where kangaroo carcasses bake under a merciless sun, I retraced the doomed journey of Robert Burke and William Wills. In 1860, Burke and Wills set out to become the first white men to cross Australia—a historic south–north traverse from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Often compared to Lewis and Clark, their journey through the desolate Australian interior became legendary, but not for the reasons they intended.
Their quest for fame and glory unraveled into a Shakespearean tragedy of miscalculation and hubris, revealing the cost of ambition in a land as mesmerizing as it is harsh. Join me as I follow their path through the sun-scorched outback, uncover the mysteries of the Dig Tree, and reflect on the price of human endeavor in an unforgiving land.
Left: Dead and dying
kangaroos beside a muddy billabong.
Center: Cattle in the parched Australian outback.
Right: Me walking along the road that Burke and Wills traveled.
Left: The Tibooburra Hotel at sunset. I was the sole guest.
Right: The prosthetic leg hanging from the ceiling of the Tibooburra Hotel pub.
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