Reading about the heat

I have been listening to my Aussie playlist on iTunes -- Brisbane's Fun Things are blasting out "When the Birdman Flies" right now -- and reading more of Roff Smith's "Cold Beer and Crocodiles."
Smith bicycled the circumference of Australia. I have reached the part of the (really entertaining) book when he was reached the hottest and most desolate part of his journey -- the trek through the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia.
Days passed by Smith in a sweltering blur. His travels took him through an area of Western Australia, between Whim Creek and Marble Bar, that the Guinness Book of World Records notes to be the hottest part of the country. Marble Bar endured 163 consecutive days of daily high temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in 1923.
It's not funny but I had to laugh.
I have just completed a story for tomorrow's newspaper about the Dubuque area's worst heat wave. This area *only* managed 100-degree plus weather for a record 11 days in a row.
As for the Fun Things, they were the high school punks out of Brisbane with the guitarist who would eventually find stardom with Hoodoo Gurus -- Brad Shepherd.