Lizard Man's Travels

Return to Darwin

2008-01-24T20:41:00.000+09:30

Well, I won't offer the usual apologies for the long delay in writing here. I just got back to Darwin from a trip to the US, and elsewhere. It was quite a trip. I'm still pretty jetlagged, so it might take a couple of days to get through the trip, but here goes. I started by going from Darwin to L.A. Actually, I'll back up and say that I went to the US because of a conference in San Antonio. It was cheaper to buy a round-the-world ticket than to go round-trip, so I had a few extra stops to make.

Back to L.A. Well, Sydney anyway. I had a 9 hour layover, so... went to the beach. Yup, hopped the Manly ferry and had a look at the beach. Nice, but a bit cloudy and cool. When I got back to the airport, I was surprised to find that I'd been upgraded to business class. Very nice. Once the seatbelt sign was turned off, they flight attendants started passing out stuff. First, an 'overnight pack' (mostly a toothbrush and some socks. Then they asked, 'do you want pajamas?' Yup, apparently Qantas gives out pajamas on the trans-Pacific route, nice grey, sweats-looking things with some designer's signature on them. Very comfy, and very silly when most of the business class cabin wears them. I recommend Qantas business class - I got 7 hours of good sleep on that flight.

In L.A., I stayed with my Aunt Lucy and Uncle Clyde in Manhattan Beach. That was fun. I also met up with Trai and David up in Santa Monica. They're doing well. And thinking of moving out of L.A. Trai's applied to graduate schools, and in yet another parallel between our careers, she's applied to several of the same universities where I applied for jobs this year.

From L.A. I went on to Denver, but that will have to wait for another night because jetlag is starting to catch up again.

Litoria bicolor in pandanus

2007-11-17T22:21:00.001+09:30

Litoria bicolor in pandanus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

A little Northen Dwarf treefrog hanging out in a pandanus.

Cyclorana australis funny

2007-11-17T22:20:00.001+09:30

Cyclorana australis funny
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

This guy was out taking part in a big breeding chorus of giant burrowing frogs. Have a look at the vocal sac on this boy

Magnetic termites

2007-11-17T22:19:00.001+09:30

magnetic termites
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

A friend is studying these magnetic termites. We went to put little tents over a few mounds to see the effect on the mound temperature. Just over the hill, there was a pretty impressive storm. We managed to avoid getting wet. It's been a wet build-up season this year, with a lot of rain so far. Most days have seen a storm, and a few have been quite heavy (>50mm or 1 inch).

Story of a puppy

2007-11-17T22:18:00.001+09:30

left puppy
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

This little guy just sat there, eagerly awaiting the return of his owner. Every time a person walked past, he jumped up eagerly. It was cute, in a sort of sad way.

more good news

2007-10-12T22:13:00.000+09:30

Hmm... Well, it's been quite a few weeks. Not only did Keith and I get both of our ARC grant proposals funded, but now, it looks like some of my research on chuckwallas (a Mojave desert lizard) has been highlighed in a recent Ecology textbook (M. C. Molles. Ecology: Concepts and Applications, 4th Edition, McGraw Hill). Very cool stuff. Looks like he actually compares my work to one of the classic and foundational experiments in plant ecology from the 1940s. That is, he compares my work favorably, not that he's saying my work is very old science.

Otherwise, things have been pretty hectic around here. I've been trying to wrap up the project on rock slime, but it is going very slowly. Partly, that's because a big chunk of that research is on fairly sophisticated plant physiology, which is a bit outside my realm of expertise. The guy who actually did most of that has moved down south, so he's a bit hard to get ahold of. The really tricky bit is that Keith, Karen and I are supposed to present this research in a public lecture at the NT Museum in a couple of days. Could be interesting. The last time I gave a lecture there, it was on frogs, and the house was packed. There's a lot of interest in frogs around here. I doubt there will be as much interest in the green slime that grows under rocks in the middle of nowhere. Oh well.

I'm also in the thick of applying for jobs. Craziness there too. So far, it looks like there is a western bias to the jobs available this year, with a disproportionate number in San Diego. Actually, looks like there open jobs in 5 different California cities, and about 5 more western universities. Not bad for a guy who'd like to end up in the western US. Wish me luck.

More good news

2007-09-28T07:13:00.000+09:30

Well, it seems that ARC is being generous to CDU folks this year. On Tuesday, Keith and I found out that ARC is going to fund our project on crocodile digestion. On Wednesday, we found out that they are also going to fund our project on frog water balance. Amazing! When we were wrtiting the grants, we sort of joked about the 'problem' of getting two different grants funded, and now we've got that 'problem'. To be honest, it's a problem I'm happy to deal with at this point. My main reaction is relief (after jumping around the room for a few minutes), because now I don't have to worry about finding an income in January. And I won't have to worry about getting shipped out of Australia because of an expired visa. Very nice.

The other big news this week is that Sarah has get engaged to Nudge. They were away in Alice Springs last week, and she came back with a ring full of diamonds. Looks like I'll have to find a new roommate soon.

Busy week

2007-09-26T07:11:00.000+09:30

The last week has been quite hectic. I spent most of last week trying to figure out an obscure problem with one of th experiments I did on frogs about two years ago. We were looking to see how good a burowing frog species is at sucking water out of dry soils. Dealing with real soil is a pain, so we used water with some stuff dissolved in it to make a solution that acts like soil of various dryness. Normally this works just fine, but we used a weird molecule that does weird stuff - PEG.

For most molecules, it's easy to calculate their effect when they dissolve in water - if you double the concentration, you double the effect. Not so with PEG. Not only that, but it turns out that the effect it has depends on the temperature of the solution. Originally, we tried calculating the water potential (sort of like dryness) of the solutions we used. That gave weird numbers, but they weren't totally unbelievable, so we put them in a manuscript that was sent to several journals and eventually got accepted.

Recently, we got two different machines that measure water potential. I won't bore you with the details, but one looks at the freezing point of the solution, and one measures the temperature of dew point in the air at equilibrium over the sample. So, we decided to measure the PEG solutions we'd used before because we are about to start a new series of experiments. Of course, we got different numbers - ones that made more sense than the original ones we calculated. Unfortunately, when we measured in both machines, we got different numbers, which, because PEG is so weird, are probably both correct. What a pain.

So, over the weekend, I sent a letter to the editor of the journal where our manuscript was accepted, explaining all of this, and explaining that the numbers we'd used in the accepted manuscript were all wrong, and begging to change the manuscript before they sent it off to the printer. Well, turns out that they were just working on typesetting the paper this week, so I just got the changes in to them on time by a couple of days. So, no worries on getting the paper fixed. This could be one of the few times that I'll ever be happy with having a very long delay between having a paper accepted and having it actually printed.

That was the big, frustration of the week. The big news is that yesterday we found out that one of the big grant proposals we submitted in July has been accepted and will most likely be funded (the parliament still has to approve the budget, but they almost never change anything - they're too busy worrying about wars, health care, jobs, and getting re-elected to bother with individual science grants). So, looks like I will actually have an income after the 1st of the year. That's a huge relief!

Kimberley art 1

2007-09-11T22:29:00.001+09:30

Kimberley art 1
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

One of the paintings I bought on the Kimberley trip a few weeks ago. No, it is not an electic avocado, nor is it an alien landing craft. Apparently, it is a stream that becomes a big waterfall during the wet season. These paintings are made with natural ochres by artists at the Warmun art center.

kimberley art 2

2007-09-11T22:26:00.001+09:30

kimberley art 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

One of the paintings I picked up on the trip to the Kimberley. This one depicts a landscape, actually a river where there is always good fishing.

prehnite

2007-09-11T22:20:00.001+09:30

prehnite
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

This is what's been keeping me busy this week. I've been working on our paper on the algae that grow under translucent rocks. One type of rock that supports this growth is prehnite, which is apparently used insome jewelry. You can see why - it polishes up nicely.

El Questro-boat chase

2007-08-20T23:30:00.001+09:30

El Questro-boat chase
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

We swapped duties on the way back downstream. Mark put it in high gear, and we left the girls in our wake (notice the huge wake behind out boat). Serious power boating on this river. We thought about skiing behind the boat, but weren't sure if the boat would actually move if it had to drag a person behind. That and neither of us wanted to be the bait for the 4 meter croc.

El Questro-Chamberlain river

2007-08-20T23:28:00.001+09:30

El Questro-Chamberlain river
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

We did get out of the boats and walk around a bit. The river was quite low in parts, so easy to walk around in. Very beautiful spot.

El Questro - rock art

2007-08-20T23:26:00.001+09:30

El Questro - rock art
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

There is some amazing rock art in the Kimberley. This wall had some great Wanjinnas (the big, spaceman-looking figures) and some Bradshaws (the strange, dancing stick-figures in the lower left). Some of the bradshaws in the region have been dated at over 20,000 years old. The wanjinnas are much newer - a few hundred years old. These were about 4 feet tall. There was a sign below these saying that El Questro was in negotiations with the traditional owners about access to these paintings, so we weren't allowed to get close to them. Too bad, because you could see a lot of interesting figures through binoculars, and I bet there were dozens of interesting paintings hidden behind the rocks.

El Questro - Chamberlain gorge

2007-08-20T23:22:00.001+09:30

El Questro - Chamberlain gorge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

El Questro boating

2007-08-20T23:21:00.001+09:30

El Questro boating
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

At first, Mark took photos while I drove. Turns out it was a lot brighter with Mark behind the lens.

El Questro boat ride

2007-08-20T23:20:00.001+09:30

El Questro boat ride
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

On our first morning at El Questro, we hired a couple of boats to cruise up the Chamberlain gorge. Actually, we hired the little electric motors and a couple of car batteries - the boats were just waiting at the river. We divided into a guy's boat and a girl's boat, and headed upstream. the morning was beautiful - still, cool, sunny. The reflections off the water were amazing.

It wasn't until after we'd paid for the boats that we found out about the 4 meter saltwater crocodile that had taken up residence in the gorge. Apparently, that one was a replacement for a 6 meter croc that had been there earlier in the dry. We looked, but never saw either of these, which was a good thing - both would have been bigger than our boats, and those tiny little motors would never have outrun a big croc.

El Questro lookout

2007-08-20T22:16:00.001+09:30

El Questro lookout
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

After picking up Mark in Kununurra, we headed to El Questro, a former cattle station that has been turned into an outback resort. I was really impressed with El Questro - it had every level of outback adventure, from relatively primitive camping and bushwalking, all the way to a 5 star resort. In fact, two weeks before we got there, Nichole Kidman had been visiting after she finished shooting for the film Australia, in Darwin, and near Wyndham. We camped on the river.

This photo is up on a lookout overlooking the million acre station (basically everything you can see from this big hill, and then some). The road up to this lookout was quite interesting - definitely a 4WD road. Very steep, and with switchbacks so tight that if you didn't hit them just right, you had to back up and make a 3 point turn out of them. Unfortunately, also a popular place to drive for the sunset, so we ran into a bit of traffic. The view from the top was worth it though. And we finally got to have the sunset wine and cheese we'd been planning to have for nearly a week.

Five rivers sunset

2007-08-20T22:10:00.001+09:30

Five rivers sunset
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

There's not a lot to see in Wyndham, but it does have a big hill in the middle of town that looks over 5 major rivers. And it has a commanding view of the sunset.

Wyndham croc

2007-08-20T22:08:00.001+09:30

Wyndham croc
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

The welcoming committe in Wyndham. There's a big crocodile farm in Wyndham, which is most famous because it is a shipping port for live livestock on their way to the middle east.

The Grotto

2007-08-20T22:05:00.001+09:30

Grotto
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

After leaving the Bungle Bungles, we headed to Wyndham for a night, then on to Kununurra to pick up Mark (Katja's husband) for his weekend off. On the way to Wyndham, we came across the Grotto, a lovely place with a nice swimming hole and a very peaceful... well... grotto. The water was at the bottom of what would obviously be a huge waterfall in the wet, but it was just a dry, bedrock riverbed at this time of year.

Bungles afternoon

2007-08-20T22:03:00.001+09:30

Bungles afternoon
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

After my long walk, I was treated to some amazing, late afternoon views, like this.

Bungles reflections

2007-08-16T00:15:00.001+09:30

Bungles reflections
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Picaninny creek wasn't flowing, but the late rains were heavy enough to leave some nice pools along the stream bed. They made for nice reflections, and a few animal encounters. There were a number of little fish in each pool, and one pool even had a couple of Merten's water monitors in it. Doesn't get much better than coming across a big lizard with a spectacular rock formation in the background.

Bungles formations

2007-08-16T00:13:00.001+09:30

Bungles formations
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

I love these formations. I'm ready to go back and spend several days exploring around the side canyons. Turns out that there is an endemic species of lizard (a skink) that lives on top of the Bungle Bungle range. It's both rare and recently discovered, so it has never been photographed. Unfortunately, it's not only rare, but also burrows through the spinifex, so it would be a real challenge to find. I might decide I need to spend several weeks looking....

Bungles beehives

2007-08-16T00:10:00.001+09:30

Bungles beehives
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

While the girls went on a helicopter ride, I went for a 6 hour walk up Picaninny creek. It was truly a highlight of the trip for me. The formations on this side of the Bungle Bungle range were amazing. The red and black alternating layers made for a visually spectacular setting. And the contrast between the rocks and the bright green of the spinifex grass was beautiful.

The trail up Picaninny creek is unmarked - you're just supposed to walk upstream. It also gives a lot of freedom to explore up side channels. I wandered up a few side streams and had some great solitary moments among the formations. There's something magical about being by youself in a remote and spectacular area like this. At least mostly alone. Every 30 minutes a helicopter tour flew overhead, and every hour a fixed wing plane also came by. I saw the girls go by, but they didn't wave...

butterfly

2007-08-16T00:03:00.001+09:30

butterfly
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

The blue on the wings of these butterflies was striking, particularly since it changed to a dull grey under most angles. Only when the wings were fully open did the true color show up.

Bungles lunch

2007-08-16T00:01:00.001+09:30

Bungles lunch
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

A nice lunch spot along a walk in the Bungle Bungles. It was quite hot during the day, but down in these gorges, the temperature was very pleasant. Unfortunately, lunch wasn't so pleasant - it was leftover chicken satay rice from the night before, wrapped in a tortilla. Not awful, but the kind of thing you'd only eat on a camping trip.

The camp spot in the Bungles was really nice, in part because of the funny mix of people there. We came in quite late, well actually, we started down the 4-wheel drive road into the part about 1/2 hour before sunset. It's a 53km road, but it takes about 2 hours to drive it, and it really does require 4WD. We'd been warned about the first stream crossing - it was a bit deep because of the late season rains this year - but the guy neglected to tell us that under the 60cm of water were 30cm boulders you had to bounce over. At least we got to that crossing before dark. The rest were a bit more mild, but a lot more moon lit.

When we rocked up to the campground, we found a lot of people. In fact, the 'quiet' campground was full, so we had to go to the 'generator' campground, which was mostly empty. There was one group, which we met the next night, of 5 retired couples (5 vehicles) travelling around the Kimberley, along various 4WD tracks. Turns out that the Kimberley in the dry season is chockers with 'gray nomads' - those retired people who take their caravans on epic journeys into the wildest parts of Australia, camp there, and have a cup of Billy tea.

Turns out the 'generator' campground had a lot of advantages, including the lack of people - the tour groups all descended on the 'quiet' camp, making it about as quiet as an Aussie rules game at the MCG. Generators, it turns out, had to be shut down by 9pm. We also had fire rings (fires were prohibited in the 'quiet' camps), with wood supplied daily by the rangers. We even had our own toilet (just our group, the other folks had 2 or 3 of their own also). The only drawback was the bore water we had to boil (actually, the rangers told us later that it was really okay, bu I was the only one in our group brave enough to try it).

On the second night, we were more social, and joined the 'oldies' (that's what they called themselves) at the fire. One guy, Laurie, was an old bushman, and soon had the fire so big and hot that we had to sit several meters away or risk melting the soles of our shoes. This was much appreciated, as the temperatures were dropping to within a few degrees of freezing. We had a nice bit of conversation. It's really interesting seeing the difference between generations in how Americans are viewed. I've seen this several times now. People old enough to remember WWII still have a positive opinion of Americans, and the younger generation is fed up with them. It's very striking.

Anyway, the oldies proved to be much better prepared for camping than we were. We managed to run out of fuel for our stove, most food, and even boiled water. We did have some marshmallows left over for the final night's campfire. Somehow, we managed to cook some soup on the fire, and some leftover rice and tuna. The oldies whipped up a huge damper loaf. Although Laurie managed to make another blast furnace that burned the damper, we managed to rescue it with the last dregs of some maple syrup we had along.

Palm at Echidna

2007-08-14T23:42:00.003+09:30

Palm at Echidna
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Echidna gorge

2007-08-14T23:42:00.001+09:30

Echidna gorge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

One of the gorges at the Bungles. It narrowed so much, we had to walk sideways for a while.

Bungles walk

2007-08-14T23:41:00.001+09:30

Bungles walk
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

One of the walks at the Bungle Bungle National park, also called Purnululu.

China wall 2

2007-08-13T23:03:00.001+09:30

China wall 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

China wall

2007-08-13T23:02:00.001+09:30

China wall
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

his seam of quartz is near Halls Creek. It's about 3-4 meters tall and a few hundred long. And it's all natural. It reminded me of the area around Jerusalem, only no human buildings. Just a seam of quartz. Amazing.

Tunnel creek

2007-08-13T23:01:00.001+09:30

tunnel creek
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

At tunnel creek, the stream has actually cut its way entirely through the limestone ridge, creating a 750m long tunnel. During the dry season, you can walk all the way through, though the water is bloody cold. The cave/tunnel is full of typical cave features - stalactites, bats, etc.

Winjana cliffs

2007-08-13T23:00:00.001+09:30

Winjana cliffs
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

They said we'd see blood red cliffs...

Winjana sunset

2007-08-13T22:59:00.001+09:30

Winjana sunset
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

The west facing cliffs made for amazing sunsets.

Winjana phone

2007-08-13T22:56:00.001+09:30

Winjana phone
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

The campground at Winjana gorge had all the modern conveniences. The guys camped next to us were watching the footy match on satellite TV. Unfortunately, there was no hot water, and it was bloody cold while we were there. Nights got down to about 5C (about 40F). The ladies were brave enough to try the showers one night, but I held out for a bit more comfortable water temperatures (about 5 days later).

Orienteering weekend

2007-08-12T23:34:00.001+09:30

This weekend I tried something I've been meaning to try for a while - orienteering. Apparently it has become quite a serious sport. This weekend was the NT championships. I went with a friend from soccer (Antonella), and the mother of another friend from soccer (Patricia's mother, Emilia). There were supposed to be more of us, but Steve and Marianne backed out. When I packed, we had decided to camp out on Saturday, and be ready for the Sunday event, but then Antonella and Emilia decided to get a cabin at Lake Bennett resort. They offered me the floor, but when we got there, the rooms had more beds than we had people, so no camping this weekend.

My (basic) understanding of the sport is that someone goes out an puts a bunch of checkpoints around the bush somewhere, and plots them on a very detailed map. You get a map, and are timed for how long it takes you to go around the lot of them. The maps are pretty amazing - the ones we had included marks for rocks, termite mounds, water tanks, general rubbish piles, slow moving insects, etc. amazing. There were also some very serious competitors - padded gaitors, lycra warmup suits, specially designed wrist band map cases, etc. I'm always amazed at the gear that serious competitors have, for any sport. Specialized everything. I had on a pair of old hiking shoes, a t-shirt, and some jeans.

There were a range of courses, ranging from the very easy one for a 12 year old novice, to the very hard, long ones for the grizzled veterans. We did a "medium" course, which was pretty easy. By far the hardest part was that there were three of us, and some had a tendency to pay more attention to their own voice than to where we were going. Even without running, I figure I could have covered the course at least a half hour faster (we took almost 2 hours), and that's not including the 15 minutes we spent trying to find one lost member. How it's possible for 3 people to lose each other in open savannah, where the grass had been burned off, is beyond me.

In the end, we finished first in our division - 3-person novice team. Of course, everyone else did it alone and in faster times, but hey, it was a nice walk in the bush.

Actually, the best part of it was the location. The whole course was on a piece of property near Lake Bennett resort, owned by a French-Italian guy name Enrico. Really nice guy, who invited us into his "shed". He had a very nice, simple home, made from an old bush shed. He and his French wife have lived in Darwin for almost 40 years, and a while ago, bought this property, with some mangos on it. Very nice place, and a very generous couple. They invited us for coffee (good, Italian coffee), and even invited us to come visit them again whenever we wished. I might take them up on that.

Winjana trail end

2007-08-12T23:33:00.001+09:30

Winjana trail end
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Funny thing about the end of this trail - it just ended. You walk 3.5 km up the gorge and get to this sign. That's it. No obvious reason to end it there, just a sign, with a barbed wire fence behind it. So we turned around and walked back, a bit disconcerted.

We spent a couple of days at the campsite at Winjana gorge, so I'll continue this story next time...

Winjana gorge 2

2007-08-12T23:31:00.001+09:30

Winjana gorge 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

There was a very nice walk up the gorge - about 3.5 km each way. Nice scenery, great boab trees, but quite exposed and hot.

Winjana freshwater croc

2007-08-12T23:29:00.001+09:30

Winjana freshwater croc
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

A freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni).

Winjana croc hunter

2007-08-12T23:28:00.001+09:30

Winjana croc hunter
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

This guy was still a bit cold, and couldn't be bothered moving when people came up to take photos. He was alert, but wasn't interested in moving, as long as you didn't get too close.

Winjana gorge croc

2007-08-12T23:27:00.001+09:30

Winjana gorge croc
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Turns out Winjana gorge has a lot of freshwater crocodiles, that come out and bask in the morning.

Winjana gorge

2007-08-12T23:26:00.001+09:30

Winjana gorge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Next, we headed up to Winjana gorge, which saw us on our first dirt roads of the trip. About 20 minutes after turning onto the dirt road, we pulled over to take some photos of boab trees. When we got out, we noticed that one rear tire was going flat very quickly. About 2 minutes later, it was flat.

First problem: finding the jack in a rental 4WD. It took us a good 20 minutes to figure out where the thing was (half of it was under the back seat, half was in a hidden compartment in the back cargo area). And another 10 minutes to unload the entire car to get to the jack.

Second problem: with the tire flat, there was not enough room under the jack point to put the jack. So, I started digging into the hardpacked, gravel road (without much success). At this point someone drove past. It would have made a good image, I'm sure - a blokes legs sticking out from under the car with dust flying, one woman sitting on the spare, reading the manual, and two other women standing around a huge pile of camping gear laid out neatly on a tarp at the side of the road. I explained the problem to the family that drove up, and they pulled over to help. The father and his two beefy sons came up to the car, and on three just lifted the back end enough to get the jack under. It's useful to have 3 farm lads around sometimes. After a nervous bit when we discoverd that the jack was at an unstable angle, we got the spare on. Fortunately, these guys were very well prepared - they'd just come up the Tanami road from South Australia - and they had a repair kit so we wouldn't be entirely without a spare.

That was our last major incident.

Geike gorge 2

2007-08-12T23:12:00.001+09:30

Geike gorge 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

During the wet season, the Fitzroy river gets quite full. Apparently it becomes the largest river in Australia during the wet. The water scours the limestone walls, exposing the natural white color. The greys and reds are from various weatherings, oxidations, etc.

Geike gorge

2007-08-12T23:10:00.001+09:30

Geike gorge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

Day two saw us in the historic Fitzroy Crossing, one of a very few places where it is possible to get across the Fitzroy river. We took a short cruise up the river into Geike gorge, which is a very nice limestone gorge, and a good introduction for us to our wanderings in the Kimberley.

Kimberley Trip, part 1

2007-08-12T23:07:00.001+09:30

Gang at Halls Creek
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard

I've got a huge number of photos from my recent trip to the Kimberley (541), and because of the trip, I'm a bit far behind on everything else, so I'll post them in installments. Here's the first batch...

The trip started with Susan, Katja, Marianne and me driving west from Darwin. The first night saw us in Kununurra, in a caravan park called "Kimberleyland". Not a bad spot, as such things go, but not terribly exciting. We had decided to head west quickly, and then work slowly back toward Darwin.

This is the group on day two, in Halls Creek, a real outback community. Apparently, the police were advising tourists to spend as little time here as possible because of some unrest in town. Halls Creek is a big launching pad for trips into the outback - into the Kimberley, and also down south along the Tanami road toward Alice Springs and the central deserts. Going that direction, it's about 800km to the next services, along a rough, dirt road. We went the other way.

slack blogger

2007-08-03T21:21:00.000+09:30

Right, so I guess it's been almost two months since I posted anything here. Mostly, that's because it's been a very hectic few months. My Dad came in June for a couple of weeks, and somehow we managed to get a grant proposal submitted before the mid-July deadline. Somewhere in the middle of his trip, I did the mountain bike leg of the Katherine Ultra Challenge. Then immediately after submitting the grant proposal, I went to the Kimberley region of northern Australia for a two week vacation. This week, I've been trying to catch up on all of the things that have been put off for the last eight weeks or so. Tomorrow, I'm off to Wave Hill again to check on our dataloggers there. But, I'm hoping to get back into the swing of posting again soon. I did manage to take over 500 photos of the Kimberley, so I have plenty to post. I won't subject you to all of them, particularly since many were the same shot with different camera settings. I did get my Canon camera back from it's $500 warranty repair just in time for the trip, so I did some things to figure out what the thing is capable of doing. I'll post some of those when I get back on Monday.

East Point coral with sponge

2007-05-23T23:45:00.001+09:30

Lee Point coral with sponge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I went on a midnight, low tide reef walk last weekend. The tide was particularly low (0.2m), so the reef off East Point was exposed and the NT Field Naturalists had a bit of a guided tour, complete with experts in sponges and various types of marine invertebrates. Very cool stuff. We walked out onto the reef and found stuff like these corals, with sponges. We also found lots of flatworms, nudibranchs, sponges, corals, octopi, toadfish, Darwin jawfish, brittle stars, and a lot of mud. Incredible diversity. Apparently Darwin has the highest diversity of sponges in the world (or second, it was nearly 3am when they shared that tidbit of information, so I'm a bit unclear on what was actually said). Here are a few photos of what we saw. Who needs diving gear?

long-armed, drop-arm octopus

2007-05-23T23:39:00.001+09:30

long-armed, drop-arm octopus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This species was just described a few years ago, from Darwin harbour. Very cool little guys. The arms are incredibly quick and inquisitive. They also have a tendency to fall off (hence the 'drop arm' part of the name).

crab

2007-05-23T23:38:00.001+09:30

crab
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

can you find the crab in this photo?

northern blue-ringed octopus

2007-05-23T23:37:00.001+09:30

northern blue-ringed octopus
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Apparently, the northern blue-ringed octopus is a bit more deadly than the southern one (which is will kill you in a few hours, without you feeling the bite), and it has a pointier mantle (the head-like bit).

Lichen

2007-05-15T16:55:00.001+09:30

Lichen
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Lichen and autumn leaves from the bottom of Leg of Mutton lake in Mt. Gambier.

Great Ocean Road trip

2007-05-12T23:31:00.000+09:30

Okay, The next several photos are of my trip to the Great Ocean Road, on the southern coast of Victoria. I recommend reading them in order, starting way down the page at the apostles, and reading up (in other words, don't read down the page from here).

koala 2

2007-05-12T23:27:00.001+09:30

koala
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

... turns out the koalas in this spot were really dense. There was one in a tiny little tree, at about head height. There is no zoom on this photo, in fact, I think it's a bit wide angle to get the fuzzy guy all in the frame. He was a bit scruffy, but so close I could smell him. Very cool.

koala

2007-05-12T23:23:00.001+09:30

koala 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

That fuzzy blob in the tree is a koala. I'd never seen a wild koala before, so I went to a spot that apparently had a lot of them. I walked up the river a ways and spotted one way up in a tree across the river. (This one is actually along a different river but you get the idea). I was watching the koala through binoculars, when I heard a rustling sound next to my head...

puzzling sign

2007-05-12T23:21:00.001+09:30

puzzling sign
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

There were some interesting signs along this highway. About every 100m or so, there was a sign reminding you that Australians drive on the left-hand side of the road. I'm still puzzled by this sign. Apparently, some quirk of physics in this part of the world makes it possible for a guy on a motorcycle to make parallel skidmarks, as long as he's leaning to the left (presumably because that's the side of the road he's supposed to be driving on). Unfortunately, May is not the tourist season along the Great Ocean Road, so there wasn't enough motorcycle traffic for me to witness this amazing feat.

cattle spot

2007-05-12T23:15:00.001+09:30

cattle spot
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The hills at the coast were unbelievably green, except for the tiny spot where all these cattle seemed to be gathering. I though it was a funny sight.

offshore winds

2007-05-12T23:12:00.001+09:30

offshore winds
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

There were some nice offshore winds this day, so the waves (only about 2m this day) had a spectacular spray off them. Very scenic.

reflection

2007-05-12T23:11:00.001+09:30

reflection
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Erosion through the limestone creates some interesting formations. Thsi was a collapsed cave, that left an arch overlooking the coastal cliffs.

magpie & coast

2007-05-12T23:10:00.001+09:30

magpie & coast
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

An Australian magpie, and a particularly nice part of coast. I think this was at Port Campbell.

woodman

2007-05-12T23:09:00.001+09:30

woodman
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Right, not doing well on the sequence. This guy was at the bottom of one of the craters at Mt. Gambier. It was in Leg of Mutton lake, which has no water in it any more.

penguin beach

2007-05-12T23:07:00.001+09:30

penguin beach
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This was next to London Bridge. There was a penguin colony down there, but they were all off getting brekkie. Lots of penguin footprints, though.

London bridge

2007-05-12T23:05:00.001+09:30

London bridge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This one is called London Bridge. Apparently it used to have another arch to the left, but it fell down in the 1990's.

Larry lobster

2007-05-12T23:03:00.001+09:30

Larry lobster
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Oops, forgot Larry. This guy was back before I got to the coast. Not sure how much a lobster this size costs, but I bet the tail is tough.

Arch

2007-05-12T23:02:00.001+09:30

Arch
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

A bit farther up the coast, you get formations like this. The seas got progressively calmer as the trip went on - the swells this day were only about 2.5m, though I was getting sprayed way up where I took this photo.

Australian fur seals

2007-05-12T23:00:00.001+09:30

Australian fur seals
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

More fur seals. I couldn't get decent photos of the New Zealand fur seals because they were mostly around the point. In the cove, the water was pretty calm, but around the point, the swells were around 4 meters. Made for some tough photography. When we got back at the end of the tour, the tides had come in a bit, so getting out without getting soaked was a bit tricky. Most of us failed at this. I was standing on the jetty when a wave came in - it was about knee high. It took 3 days for my shoes to dry out.

Australian fur seals

2007-05-12T22:53:00.001+09:30

Aussie fur seals
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

From Portland, I went to Cape Bridgewater, where I went on a short boat tour to see fur seal colonies. These are Australian fur seals, but a bit farther around the bend were New Zealand fur seals.

Lighthouse- Portland

2007-05-12T22:50:00.001+09:30

lighthouse_portland
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The little lighthouse in Portland.

Mt Gambier

2007-05-12T22:48:00.001+09:30

Mt Gambier
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Me at the highest point on the crater. This is the other crater lake.

Blue lake

2007-05-12T22:47:00.001+09:30

blue lake
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Oops, skipped a bit. Before getting to the coast, I stopped in Mr. Gambier, and had a look at the Blue Lake. The town has some volcanic craters that have filled up to form some very scenic lakes. The water is incredibly clear, apparently because it is filtered through the limestone bedrock. The town uses this as it's water supply (that's the pumping station in the photo). The crater is interesting because the base is actually below ground level outside the crater. That's why the lake filled in - it's below the water table.

ducky

2007-05-12T22:43:00.001+09:30

ducky
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

In Portland, I stayed in a cute little B & B, the Victoria House. The shower had this little guy to keep me company.

more coastline

2007-05-12T22:40:00.001+09:30

coastline2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

After the fog cleared a bit.

coastline

2007-05-12T22:37:00.001+09:30

coastline
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

When I finally got to the coast, it looked like this. None too shabby, eh?

Keith

2007-05-12T22:36:00.001+09:30

Keith
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Along the way, I passed this sign for Keith - the town, not the guy I'm working with. He's a lot farther away, though the sign does point in the right general direction.

Coorong

2007-05-12T22:35:00.001+09:30

coorong
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The next stop was the Coorong, which is a strange penninsula of coastal dunes. It's separated from the mainland by a narrow strip of water that's as little as 100m wide, and something like 40 miles long. Very strange. This is the narrowest part.

Murray Bridge

2007-05-12T22:30:00.001+09:30

Murray Bridge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The trip started with me flying in to Adelaide, and promptly driving out. I made it as far as Murray Bridge the first night. The town is cleverly named after the bridge over the Murray River - apparently the first one to span this important river.

12 Apostles

2007-05-11T00:24:00.001+09:30

apostles
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I just got back from my trip to the south of Australia, driving along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. I haven't had a chance to filter the photos I took (over 300, I think), but will be posting a bunch here soon. This one is a teaser for what's to come.

The 'highlight' of the Great Ocean Road is the 12 Apostles, a series of limestone stacks in a bunch along this strech of road. There are only 6 that you can actually see (7 if you count the rubble pile in the foreground, which apparently collapsed several years back). To be honest, I didn't think this spot was the most impressive of the trip, but it is pretty speccy nonetheless. This is one of the iconic viewpoints in Australia, right up there with Uluru (Ayres Rock) and the Great Barrier Reef.

I'll post more about the trip, and more photos, in the next few days.

Deckchair update

2007-04-29T22:41:00.000+09:30

A few words today, instead of the daily photo. I've been having a hard time with the daily photo this weekend because my nice, new digital SLR camera is on the fritz... again. You may remember that it died a few days after I got it, while I was in Namibia. Well, it seems to be having the same problem again. I'll phone customer service tomorrow and see what's up with the bloody thing. In the meantime, I thought I would just use the old Nikon point-and-shoot, but of course all of the rechargeable batteries I've got for that one are flat, and no longer seem to hold a charge. I'm very close to giving up on rechargeables for that camera. Anyway, I think I've got a couple in there, but have to get some new batteries to see what I've got, so it will be a couple of days.

Tonight was my first trip to the Deckchair cinema for the year. They were playing Psycho. Great flick. And it had a truly Deckchair cinema moment, right about the time that Norman's mother was killing the PI (I hope I'm not giving too much away by saying that). Anyway, I was watching the movie, minding my own business, when a possum came by and bit me on the toe. (For the North Americans, I'm not talking about an opossum, but one of the Australian possums, which are quite different, and usually a bit cute. Usually). It had been hanging around looking for leftover Indian food (they serve Indian food at this outdoor theater, and booze, or you can can bring in your own food), and apparently decided to go for some fresh meat. A bit surprising, particularly because of the movie we were watching, but no lasting damage. Only in Darwin...

26 April - New Terrirory bus service?

2007-04-26T23:53:00.001+09:30

26 April - New Terrirory bus service?
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I've seen this thing around town the last week or so. Must be dry season again, because there are some strange vehicles showing up. A lot of people come to Darwin for the dry season, and sort of camp out in vehicles like this. Many of these people work in the tourist markets selling crafts or performing various acts. This vehicle seems to hang around the pub in the background.

25 April - fishing

2007-04-26T23:51:00.001+09:30

25 April - fishing
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

A father and son fishing trip on Anzac Day afternoon in Nightcliff. Not a bad way to spend the public holiday. Anzac Day celebrates the day that the Anzac (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) troops landed at Gallipoli in WWI. There is a dawn service to remember the Anzacs, and a day off - a bit like Memorial Day in the US, only with more focus on the rememberance part and less focus on the barbecue part. I managed to squeeze in a much needed day off from work. I went for a long bike ride, took some photos along the coast, and went to a friend's place for a barbecue. Very invigorating.

25 April - fence

2007-04-26T23:48:00.001+09:30

25 April - fence
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The fence along the Nightcliff foreshore.

24 April - Lophognathus temporalis

2007-04-26T23:47:00.001+09:30

24 April - Lophognathus temporalis
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Slow photo day today. I had to really work to get this one, that isn't all that great.

23 April - rainspout

2007-04-23T22:46:00.001+09:30

23 April - rainspout
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

It's starting to feel like dry season around here now. The humidity is way down, the wind has shifted from the south, and the fires are starting. We had the first grass fire on campus yesterday and I could still see some glowing bits tonight. But the weather is very pleasant now.

Over the weekend I went for a nice bike ride with my new (to me) road bike. It was about 50km (about 30 miles), but that nice, dry season wind was not really so nice for the first half. Actually, it was pretty brutal - steady at about 20-25 kph directly against me for about 20km. Ugh. The ride back was fun though.

22 April - overexposed

2007-04-23T22:41:00.001+09:30

22 April - overexposed
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This is part of a cool playground set at a local primary school. It looks like something the aliens left behind. This thing has a seat that spirals up and down this pole for about 3 meters or so. As you push the seat around, you go up - very cool.

The photo was actually a mistake - I forgot to change the exposure from a previous photo, so I got this overexposed shot. At first, I was disappointed, but then I thought it turned out kind of interesting. It almost looks like it's been photoshopped, but really it was just completely overexposed. You can see what it is supposed to look like at the flickr website.

22 April - shade cloth 4

2007-04-23T22:38:00.001+09:30

22 April - shade cloth 4
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The schools in Darwin have the usual collection of outdoor play areas, but the basketball (and netball) courts all have big shade cloths over them. Australia is pretty good about protecting its school kids from UV during outdoor activities and this is a bit help. They're kind of interesting - sort of a giant tent. Nice and cool though, compared to the soccer and football fields. The kids are also required to wear wide brimmed hats (or baseball caps with trailing shade cloths over the neck and ears), and probably have to wear sunscreen too, though I'm not sure about that one. Anyway, this particular shade cloth had some nice patterns on a sunny, dry season day.

22 April - shade cloth

2007-04-23T22:33:00.001+09:30

22 April - shade cloth
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

The shadecloth over the basketball court at a local primary school.

21 April - frog models

2007-04-23T22:32:00.001+09:30

21 April - frog models
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Frog models we're using in the wind tunnel (what I was doing over the weekend).

20 April - galah

2007-04-20T22:09:00.001+09:30

20 April - galah
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

These pink and grey parrots are real characters. They're quite common around Darwin, and across most of Australia.

19 April - sunset

2007-04-19T22:02:00.001+09:30

19 April - sunset
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Another part of my commute. This spot is tidal (this is high tide), so it's surrounded by mangroves, with heaps of crabs running around. At sunset, this part of the ride is pretty amazing.

18 April - Rapid Creek bridge

2007-04-19T21:34:00.001+09:30

18 April - Rapid Creek bridge
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This was a weird day. I had two appointments for Wednesday 19 April... except that April 19 is a Thursday. Very disorienting.

17 april - computer frog

2007-04-17T22:57:00.001+09:30

17 april - computer frog
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I spent most of the day in front of the computer today. This is what I saw.

I also have a bit of a rant about the news coverage of the shootings at Virginia Tech, but it's late, so I'll rant another day.

14 April - sunset

2007-04-14T20:10:00.001+09:30

14 April - sunset
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This is out at Lee Point, and is about as Darwin as it gets. People walking along the beach at sunset, with Casuarina trees (left), Pandanus trees (right), and speargrass (bottom).

14 April - shell

2007-04-14T20:08:00.001+09:30

14 April - shell
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Shell on the beach (unposed). I'm not sure whether I like this photo, or the next one better. This one is the shell where I found it - the next one is it moved to a flatter spot, with the sun a bit lower in the sky.

Shell at sunset 2

2007-04-14T20:06:00.001+09:30

14 April - shell 2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

Shell on the beach (posed)

Ibis tree at sunset

2007-04-14T20:04:00.001+09:30

14 April - Ibis tree at sunset
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

This tree seems to have Ibises instead of leaves.

Rapid Creek sunset

2007-04-14T20:03:00.001+09:30

13.5 April - Rapid Creek
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

I came across this view in the mangroves on the way home last night. I like the way the photo turned out.

13 April - window

2007-04-13T18:21:00.001+09:30

13 April - wall2
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

13 April - wall

2007-04-13T18:20:00.003+09:30

13 April - wall
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

13 april - shadows

2007-04-13T18:20:00.001+09:30

13 april - shadows
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.

13 April - flume paddle

2007-04-13T18:19:00.001+09:30

13 April - flume paddle
Originally uploaded by wandering lizard.