Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Another photo of Ormiston Gorge

Not much to report today! I've been playing with a "panorama" generator from my photographs in Central Australia. Here's the result of my first attempt with the view in to the valley near Ormiston Gorge (click on the photo for a larger version).
... and here's one of Uluru at sunset.
... and finally, this is a very different landscape taken from a mountain in Thailand!

Jonathan is walking around saying that he has "worked too much" today! His head is hurting. We're off to Dubbo zoo tomorrow.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

In Parkes

Just arrived back at Parkes with Rutger and Jonathan. We had an enjoyable drive across the mountains. We've just been admiring the Milky Way and the Large and Small Magellanic clouds. I'm almost ready for bed, but Jonathan seems to be keen on getting some work done! The photos were taken as we crossed the mountains!

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Back in Sydney

This was the route that Rutger and I took to the Epping shops. We were rather wet by the end of the walk! On Friday evening we cooked a stunning (and huge) Italian meal that was basically pasta in a brie and cream sauce! We then spent the evening watching the Pink Panther and listening to music.

Yesterday morning I met up with Kate in Eastwood to buy lots of Chinese food for the great feast that we're planning tonight. In the afternoon, Kate and I attended Jessica and Bob's birthday party at Bronte beach. Unfortunately the surf was much too high to allow swimming, but the huge waves crashing into the rocks looked spectacular. Later in the evening I walked to Jessica's house to continue to celebrations. It's a long walk!

I now have to tidy up my house before preparing the Chinese meal for tonight. I'm intending to attempt to cook a "Chengdu chicken" which involved fermented soybeans, crushed chilies and rice wine. I have completely trusted Kate's Chinese (which she and her family have been learning over the last few months) as the bottle that we think is rice wine doesn't have any English characters! I'll also attempt a Gai Lan/oyster sauce side dish. Kate is planning to make something impressive and difficult!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Day 5 in Central Australia

We again woke early, had a leisurely breakfast (with a bird that I still haven't identified - see photo) and undertook two fun, but quite short walks (both about an hour in length) around Trephina gorge. We started with the "Panorama Walk" ("Grade: Difficult") which took us up the side of the cliff. The views were, as always, ........ amazing! In the second photo you can see the gorge that we walked up from. We then undertook the "Trephina Gorge Walk" which was more dramatic. There were some impressive drops that I stood well back from whilst Joris and Christine sat on the edge!

We finished our walks by the early morning and, as we wanted to fit as much in as possible (this was our last full day), we drove back to Alice. We first stopped at the camel park (very interesting) and Christine and I got a ride around on a camel which had been caught in the wild.

We finished back in Alice and checked in at the Toddy's backpackers! Joris and I then made a mistake. We told Christine that it would be a short walk up to the old Telegraph station and that it would be a fascinating experience. errr., the walk was about 5km (and Christine was only wearing flip-flops) along the dried up Todd river. Christine also didn't show a great deal of interest in telegraph poles and therefore this experience was probably not a highlight of her trip! Anyway, we then walked again for a long way (getting lost in the process) to find the Alice Springs school of the Air. Joris decided that he'd had enough of museums at this point and ran back (about 6km) to pick up the car whilst Christine and I looked at the school! Joris is either brave and kind, or completely mad! The school was interesting and brought back lots of happy memories of the Meekatharra school of the Air which I visited last year. Christine asked how you can become a teacher at the school - perhaps she really liked Alice!

About an hour later Joris turned up again in the car (good man!) and drove us back into the town. We spent much of the evening in the "Bojangles Saloon" where, if you had known, you could have watched us on their internet link and "shouted us some beers" (for next time). This was quite a saloon - I ate a medley of crocodile, emu, kangaroo, buffalo and camel, drank a lot of NT beer and chatted with a friendly waitress (who was from New Zealand, but spent all her life in Alice Springs - she had never been to Uluru). She was thinking of travelling to see some friends in a place called Toronto that she thought might be in Canada or Scotland. We talked about the Aboriginal population (none of whom were in the saloon - "we let the clean ones in"). In fact there were plenty of Aboriginal people around Alice, but none of them were working in the shops or chatting with the tourists. The only interaction we saw was a security guard throwing out an young Aboriginal man from the shopping centre. Otherwise .... they ignored us and we ignored them. It was strange.

I'll probably write another blog entry later describing everything that I've forgotten. The last day was short. Christine went shopping while Joris and I went to the reptile park. Another wonderful museum. The lady giving out the tickets was from Shoreham-by-sea in South England (she was about my age and I wonder if we went to the same school). We saw heaps of lizards and snakes (and a large salt-water crocodile), but the highlight was having a 10kg python draped around my neck.

Then we flew home. Joris went off the Melbourne, Christine to Canberra and I took the train up to Epping. What a holiday!

Day 4 in Central Australia

Gosh, I'd better keep writing this blog about Central Australia otherwise I'll be getting distracted by walks in Sydney. I've just been for a stunning (and extremely wet) walk with Rutger (it's ANZAC day today and so we have a day off work). This walk was so different to the walk on day 4 in the Macdonnell ranges. Rutger and I were just now wading through raging torrents (getting soaked up to our knees) and slipping off wet rocks. In contrast, Joris, Christine and I were walking through the driest terrain that I've seen. We walked down the dry river bed feeling very small under the huge gorge cliff edges. We spotted a few birds (such as the heron hiding in the second photograph) and had breakfast sitting on huge rocks in the river bed. As we came out of the gorge the scenery changed to a huge, relatively flat valley surrounded by high hills.

The weather was hot and dry and we needed most of the water that we were carrying! The walk (probably about 4-5 hours in length) took us through the valley and then up the mountain sides. We walked along a wonderful ridge with huge drops on both sides.

Part of our walk was on the Larapinta trail which runs for 230km across the ranges. I'd love to do this walk (anyone want to come with me?), but I'm not sure how we'd carry enough water!

It's basically impossible to try and describe this scenery so I'll just show some photos. I do have much higher resolution images of all these pictures if anybody wants them.

We did share the path for a while with a good-looking parentie (goanna or monitor lizard) that must have been about 1m long. Although we kept a close lookout for snakes we, unfortunately, didn't see any.

My book tells me that the geology as Ormiston Gorge is very complex: "Essentially, gargantuan earth movements have heaved and thrust hundreds of metres of Heavitree Quartzite on top of itself". Some of the rock in the area is "ancient metamorphic rock two billion years old"!

What a day! We finished our walk by the late morning and drove back into Alice. This time we stopped at the desert park. Wow! Another wonderful place. Admittedly (like Bill Bryson) we were a bit surprised that they had put a fence around a bit of the desert and called it a desert park (and charged people to see it)! But, it was great! We saw an informative film around the region and then separated and made our own way around the park (although we did all meet again in the nocturnal house for a tour - with the guide being so emotional about releasing native animals back in the area that she almost burst into tears - and for the bird show).

Not wanting to hang around too long, we had lunch at the park and then continued driving East. We drove through Alice and then out towards the Eastern ranges to see Trephina Gorge. This involved a bit more driving on dirt roads and dodging a dingo that just happened to be sitting on the road. We stopped at another well-maintained (but isolated) camp-ground and again went for an evening walk in the gorge. Trephina gorge is beautiful, but not nearly as dramatic as Ormiston gorge. In the evening we again sat outside watching the moon (now almost full) rising above the gorge edges, but this time we didn't see any animals. The silence was amazing.

Day 3 in Central Australia

We travelled a long way on day 3. We woke early to see the sun rise over Uluru. Unfortunately, we underestimated the time that it would take to get to the sunrise viewing area (and we got stuck behind a tour bus), but still managed to get to the viewing area before the rock became deep red. Sunrise was not as dramatic as sunset. The colour changes were much slower (and it was rather cold - the snowman in the photograph is actually Christine trying to keep warm).

The plan for the day (which we didn't think that we'd be able to do - although we did!) was to drive all the way to Ormiston gorge in the far West of the West Macdonnell ranges. Joris and I mainly drove. We again went past Mt. Connor where we spotted an emu (see photo) and dingo. We stopped at a road house for breakfast and the bloke working behind the counter was Canadian and knew Ottawa well.

Half-way back to Alice Springs, we decided to take our little hire car along a long (30km) dirt road. I had the pleasure of this drive. We went bouncing along and skidding in the sand dunes (hoping that we wouldn't get a punture). Anyway, the reason for this detour was to see the Henbury Meteorite conservation park (I'm not sure how you conserve meteorites!). The meteor that formed the many craters in the area fell about 5000 yrs ago (interestingly, the guy in the road house told us that it fell in the 1960s - he was only out by a few thousand years!)
The two photos of this area are of Joris and Christine on the first, large crater and the second is of Christine walking along the rim between two craters.













We then drove back to the main highway and continued towards Alice. After a short stop to replenish supplies in the town we headed West through the ranges. This was my favourite drive. Christine and Joris were snoozing and so I had the mountainous scenery to myself for quite a bit of the trip. We finally made it to the camp ground by 5pm, set up our tents and went on the "Ghost Gum" walk. Wow! We walked high up the cliff edges and looked down on the dry river bed below. As it was getting dark, I sneaked away from cooking (leaving Christine and Joris to make a great meal) and sat in the gorge next to a water hole and tried to photograph the little rock wallabies that were bouncing around.

This was so stunning that, after dinner, we all took our torches and sat around the waterhole. This is where Christine had a big shock when a dingo came silently up behind her. It didn't seem at all scared of us, but it slowly walked back into the shadows. We also shared our area with a lovely rock wallaby that decided to sit on a rock next to us for a while.






Thursday, April 24, 2008

Day 2 in Central Australia continued

I still cannot think how to describe the walk around Kata Tjuta. I knew at the time that the photos wouldn't even give a basic impression of the scenery. It was a place where you wouldn't want to be claustrophobic or agoraphobic. You walk from huge open expanses to very narrow gorges. The basic colour is red, but the number of shades is incredible. The walk took a few hours and was a great introduction to the area.

After the walk we headed back towards Uluru. We stopped at the camp ground to claim some grass, put our tents up and then headed back to see the rock. We first stopped at the extremely informative visitor centre, before doing some short walks around the base of Uluru. It was, as is getting a little repetitive on this blog, wonderful! The next photo (under the zebra finch) is of Christine and myself just before going on another short walk to see some Aboriginal rock paintings and a permanent water hole.

We then drove all the way around the rock and headed to the sunset viewing platform. Throughout we had an interesting discussion about whether we should climb the rock or not. Clearly, it would be a stunning climb, but the Aboriginal community have put up many signs saying that they don't want you to climb. Luckily(?) the wind was too strong and the climb was closed anyway and so we didn't have to make a final decision.

The colours at sunset was as impressive as I had been told. The colours got deeper and stronger as the sun went down (and the almost full moon came up).

Later in the evening we returned to the camp ground, cooked an enjoyable meal and then played cards.







Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Day 2 in Central Australia

We woke early and headed West toward Uluru. The landscape was stunning - flat open expanses followed by (surprisingly) quite hilly terrain. Our first main stop was the Mt. Connor view point which we, rather embarrassing, thought was Uluru (apparently, this is quite common for "eager travellers").

Mt. Connor was stunning. A huge rock in the middle of a vast open plain. We stood in the red sand feeling rather insignificant in the incredible desert landscape.

It took another 100km or so before we got our first view of the real Ayres Rock! It's spectacular. Everybody that I've met who has been to Uluru was expecting to be disappointed by a huge rock in the desert and they all reported an amazing experience. The same happened for me. The rock really is incredible. I expected it to be in the middle of a vast, flat area, but our first views came from quite hilly areas (with high sand-dunes).

We checked in at the Yalara camp ground (which seems to have a complete monopoly - the only other option being setting up your tent on the side of the road) and drove into the National Park. Instead of being normal tourists and immediately going to Uluru we headed to Kata Tjuta. This blog is going to get very boring. All I can think of saying is "wow", "superb" and "what wonderful scenery". Hiking around Kata Tjuta (we followed the "Valley of the Winds" walk) was outstanding. It was rocky, hot and dramatic. We saw our first zebra finches and a few small lizards. Marta has just written on my facebook account "I left my heart in Kata Tjuta" -- how true! It's a wonderful place.

I've just been out for meal (and lots of drinks) at the Eastwood hotel. I'm ready for bed now. I'll leave you in Kata Tjuta - more tomorrow ...

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Day 1 in Central Australia


How can I even begin to try and describe the adventure that we just had? I'm now sitting back at home. This morning I had a large (10kg) python draped around my neck in Alice Springs. This is perhaps the first holiday that I've had where I have not been looking forward to returning to Sydney. Instead I'd like to be sitting in Ormiston gorge watching the full moon rise over the huge, red chasm walls whilst watching little rock wallabies bounce around and dingoes silently coming up behind us (and giving us quite a fright)!

Anyway, I'll start at the beginning. Of course, the flight was stunning. We flew over the Simpson desert (see photo) - the driest region of Central Australia. Everytime I looked out of the window the desert looked different. It changed from reds to yellows to whites.


We landed in Alice Springs airport in the early afternoon (note: there is a 30 minute time difference between Sydney and Alice) and met Joris who had come in on an earlier flight from Melbourne. We picked up the rental car (which, at that time, was nice and clean) and drove off into the town of Alice (Christine spotting a camel on the way).

Alice is an interested place (and I'll leave more details for a later blog). We ate lunch (see third photo) where Joris and I tried our first camel steaks (very tasty) before stocking up on lots of food and water.

... then the excitement began ... We drove South. As my wonderful new book ("A Field Guide to Central Australia") says: "The route from Alice Springs to Uluru is a journey through time. You drive through one of the most ancient landscapes on Earth. In places you can step out of your vehicle and see fossils of the earliest life forms on the planet". Unfortunately, we didn't see any of these fossils, but we did get confused by a large number of small black stones that stuck to Christine's magnet (more on that later as well). By the way, the rocks that we were seeing are about 1.8 billion years old!

Luckily we could all drive the car and therefore we kept swapping around every 100km or so. This was Christine's first time driving on the left-hand side of the road.

We spent the first night at a road-house in Erldunda where a small red-kangaroo hopped around and allowed us to give it a pat. We spent the evening in the tavern, looking at the giant echidna and watching real emus wandering around.


Sunday, April 13, 2008

Last train to freo

Just finished watching another great Australia film "Last Train to Freo". Highly recommended! What else (particularly as Jonathan has told me to write more on my blog)? We played Aussie-backyard cricket at work today with two dutch guys, an American, a student from China, two English people and a few Australians. After we broke the ball (don't ask!) we moved on to trying ultimate frisbee. That's an exhausting sport!

My code works!!! I can simulate pulsars. Now I don't have to observe them anymore.

Friday, April 11, 2008

A guitar lesson


Just had another fun guitar lesson with Jeff and Joris.

My 101st post

Google decided to tell me that this was my 101st post! The solicitor I saw yesterday was great - he was like the character in "The Castle". He didn't charge me anything. I now have a form to fill in, get M. to sign it, return it to the solicitor and ... all done. Australia has a "no-blame" divorce rule - if both people sign the form then it gets processed very quickly. There are some very interesting questions on the form like "what date did you consider the marriage to be over?" - the husband and wife can fill in different dates! However, in the "do you think it is likely that you and your spouse will live together as husband and wife?" question, only one person can tick the box!

Better get back to work.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

A small step forward

I phoned the solicitor today to organise the divorce stuff. He was amazingly friendly and I'm having a meeting with him on Thursday. I've been putting this off for months and it took for courage to get it organised. After making the booking I had to walk around the office site a few times to relax before trying to discover where I had lost a factor of 2 PI in my Fourier transform.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Another stunning hike

The Blue Mountains are stunning. We had a "work" hike - Dick, Barbara, David, Jonathan, Rutger, Peter and myself - around Wentworth Falls yesterday. We started from the conservation hut and walked the "overcliff-undercliff" hike in the opposite direction to my normal walk, but then we headed down into the canyon. Wow! This involved clambering down ladders, lowering ourselves on ropes, wading through water, trying not to look down, Joris treading on David's head, Jonathan discovering that the ladders were not fixed down very well ...