The Sun shall be blotted from the sky!
The Sun shall be blotted from the sky ... for about two minutes, in North Queensland, on the 14th of November.
I leave tomorrow morning. I will spend four days driving to Cairns, a mere 3,000 km or so.
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After a logistics day in Cairns, I'll head another 250 kms or so to a campground prepared on centre line. I'll be there for several days, there's a bit of a gathering going on.
I really hope for clear weather for the eclipse!
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Afterwards, I will investigate going to The Tip of Cape York Peninsula, but that cannot be done in a mere Subaru Outback.
There are also lots of amazing parks and forest reserves and such in the general area. If the weather is good I could spend a week or two up there.
I am considering returning by a different route, involving the Birdsville Track and the Oodnadatta Track.
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Yeah that does go through the middle of a great big desert. On unsealed roads. At the very end of spring. She'll be right, eh?
So I won't be cellaring much for the next few weeks.
Lots of pictures, though, to share? Pretty please?
And a nice travel blog, you're one of the best. :)
Looks like a fantastic trip.
PDX had a total eclipse several years back.
It was weird, and it seemed to last for a long time.
... maybe because the dimming light came on slowly.
Have a great time and take lots of pics for us.
Even when it comes to total eclipses, without pics it didn't happen.
Man, does that sound like and epic trip. Let the FAWET begin!!
http://cellar.org/showthread.php?t=18196&highlight=fawet&page=2
After two and a half years of mild irritation, I finally found the sodding picture.
I'll see your FAWET and raise you OCD:
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here it is again with the explanatory notes. IIRC this was for a complex hike in late 2007, where the plan was to hike one trail, bus to another, and hike that, with a total of 8 days supplies. The food adds to about 24,000 calories, about 3,000 per day. This was in Japan so water is never a problem.
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ETA there are a couple of lighters in there at the bottom too.
Come on, show us how you don't get eaten by all those creepy crawlies and how you battle your way out of quicksand. I know you're doing it, teach us (or at least me) along the way.
Afterwards, I will investigate going to The Tip of Cape York Peninsula, but that cannot be done in a mere Subaru Outback.
Don't forget your gear.
All that you touch
And All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
And All that you love
And All that you hate
And All you distrust
All you save.
And All that you give
And All that you deal
And All that you buy
Beg borrow or steal.
And All you create
And All you destroy
And All that you do
And All that you say.
And All that you eat
And everyone you meet
And All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
And All that is now
And All that is gone
And All that's to come
And everything under the sun is in tune
And the sun is eclipsed by the moon.
There is no dark side of the moon, really. Matter of fact, it's all dark.
I am now listening to Dark Side of the Moon in my earbuds at work. It's been ages!
remember to be careful of the clocks
Later I'll say:
I was really drunk at the time.
(Vacation day tomorrow! Celebration tonight!)
Ooh, Zen, sounds fun! i went to cairns/port douglas for a week or so when I was in like 3rd/4th grade and remember it was a great time.
and i'm so jealous of your eclipseing! I've only ever seen one solar eclipse and now I want to see them as often as I can. It's surreal.
It was [SIZE="7"]AWESOME!!!!!!!!![/SIZE]
more later*, with some pics that turned out okay but not great.
*like, a week or two. I'm still 3,200 km from home.
Can't wait!
And I just figured/found out what [COLOR="Yellow"]fawet[/COLOR] is. I
also am a victim/enthusiast ... love that thread. Love this place ...
Bring on the pics and travelogue (as soon as you can - safe trip home through that desert)!!!
Zen is back to posting, but there's no pics. :(
No pics, it didn't happen... he, like the astronauts, never even left home.
:lol:
Hang on, guys, I've got a car full of crap to sort and clean, before I even get the pics from the camera to the computer.
Time to start!
Well, the first 1,000 km was exactly the same as the last trip, so you can look at the first two photos in
this thread. For ten hours. I was stingy with photos because I wanted to conserve the camera battery for the Main Event.
I stopped for the night, camping in a roadside rest area. Just on dawn, there was a thunderstorm, and a radio tower about 200 metres away got struck. I was fine in my tent, but in the morning the car was in a puddle about an inch deep.
Unlike my previous trip, from this point I went north, through Bourke, Cunamulla and Blackall, and, as with country driving, began seeing the same few vehicles several times, as we alternately stopped for fuel and passed each other.
Towards evening I saw a small kangaroo bounding along beside the road. Knowing how stupid they are, I went hard on the brakes, and of course the silly bugger swerved across the road just as I got to him, but I "chucked out the anchors" as we say down here, and avoided him with a full panic stop. I took this as time to stop for the night, so at the next area I made camp, and was soon joined by other traveler/campers, who I had seen at a fuel stop earlier in the day, driving from Melbourne also to the eclipse. There were three humans and George. George is quite well known, having been to more than 50 festivals in Southern Australia and spending the entire time on the dance floor at every one. We had our own mini-festival, and these kids hit the :bong: pretty hard. We took this photo of George.
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Next day was more northwards. The roads got worse, since there is no direct Adelaide-Cairns route. I took the Muttaburrasaurus Byway ... really ... which looks like this:
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When two cars approach, we each put two wheels in the dirt and cruise past at about 80 kph (keeps flying stones down) and give each other a wave (it gets lonely out here); but when a truck is approaching the procedure is:
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Get off the road and let them by. You don't want the back end of a road train fishtailing around in the gravel and kicking up stones all over.
And when I say road train I mean one of these.
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Yeah, that's a fuel tanker, I figure 72,000 litres, with 82 wheels, does 100 kph, and has one person in charge. Yes, that is my car behind it, but yes, there is a *bit* of forced perspective. I had passed a few triples earlier, but when I saw this, I decided to stop for the night!
I'll also say I chose not to pass trucks a few times. In one case I was behind a triple with standard shipping containers on it, and the back was getting blown about by cross winds pretty badly. I wanted to do 110, the truck was doing about 100 - but it was barely 20km to a town where I was going to stop for fuel and food anyway. I sat behind it and lost maybe two minutes.
Latish on day three I had to do about 30 kms of dirt road.
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It was pretty corrugated and dusty, and the shaking seemed to cause an electrical fault.
When I push the brake pedal the brake lights come on, but so do the left indicators, steady not flashing.
There was a bit more than that but nevermind.
The fourth day got me to Cairns, about 3100km so far.
As I went north, roadhouse meals got bigger.
Day two, in Cobar, the request for "eggs on toast" got me two fried eggs on two pieces of toast.
Day three saw breakfast in Auguthella, and the eggs were joined by some fried tomato.
Day four was in the tropics, near Charters Towers, and "eggs on toast" produced three eggs, two toast, tomatoes, bacon and a hash brown. :yum:
Coming back, in Townsville, you got all this plus chips.
I spent a whole day in Cairns, shopping, washing, etc.
Then I went North again.
This is the tropics, but only a tiny amount is rainforest.
Most is tropical savannah, of which this is a not-too-well executed panorama shot.
As far as I could tell, the road is the only man-made structure visible from this point.
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The we left the main road for 25 kms of winding dirt, gravel and dust.
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And I finally made it to the festival site.
I found a likely looking spot, but it was just past midday and pretty hot and humid,
so I went and visited the neighbours and hung out in the shade of their domes, as I will mention later.
As things cooled off a little, I made my camp:
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The tarp over the top was because the mid-day sun passes two degrees south of
directly overhead, and this makes the tent much more liveable.
Great travelogue so far, Zen! Love the detail about kangaroo stupidity. Opossums tend to swerve at cars, too, but then they're only about as big as house cats. I imagine if you hit a kangaroo it'd do some serious damage to your car.
Thanks, Zen! Really appreciate the time you've taken to get the photos and post the travelogue, and especially the detail about road trains, the need for tarps over the tents, kangaroos, etc. Looking forward to the next installment, whenever you're able.
Excellent travelogue!
When you pass a road train on one of those single lane paved roads, you have to get off of the paved surface and pass in the gravel? That's amazing!
I don't mind dirt roads so much, but when they get that washboard, or as you say "corrugated," surface, they are terrible. You can try going different speeds to find one where the vibrations don't resonate so much, but that really doesn't work so well. You just have to either slow down to walking speed, which isn't going to happen, or else put up with letting the fillings vibrate out of your teeth. I'm not surprised you had an electrical problem. It's probably about the worst abuse you can give a car. Get me a grader, STAT!
I love it that you just camp by the side of the road. We used to do that all the time when I was a kid, but people in the US don't do that any more. You'll get the cops called on you if you try that here now.
Great pic's and commentary and scenery.
But no pic's with Z, himself
... must have or didn't happen. :rolleyes:
Z is reclusive AND he doesn't show up on film or camera sensors either for some reason.
Zen, you are just adding fuel to my antipodal fire.
Good job documenting, and explaining for those of us unfamiliar with Australia, your trip. Thank you. :thumb:
Those road trains should carry a bumper sticker I saw recently...
IF MY BLINKER IS ON, I'M NOT ASKING PERMISSION, I'M TELLING YOU WHERE I'M GOING
Zen, tis marvelly-ous.
I appreciate you were saving your camera but hey, next time can we have photos of meals?
Then again if you did I'd have cravings for aigs. I fry them to Aliantha's recipe now, with a lid on top of the pan. It's solved the problem of runny whites/ hard yolks but when someone else is cooking I still love a crispy bottom.
Great pic's and commentary and scenery.
But no pic's with Z, himself
Lamp, you must have missed the photo of the tent.
That's actually Zen's shadow. That's
how he's so Zen.
Moar plz...
When you pass a road train on one of those single lane paved roads, you have to get off of the paved surface and pass in the gravel? That's amazing!
Generally, I pull over and STOP. The shoulder is often pretty dodgy.
I'm not surprised you had an electrical problem. It's probably about the worst abuse you can give a car. Get me a grader, STAT!
Keep this part of the story in mind, okay? It has a sequel.
Great pic's and commentary and scenery.
But no pic's with Z, himself
... must have or didn't happen. :rolleyes:
There may be something. ;)
Those road trains should carry a bumper sticker I saw recently...
IF MY BLINKER IS ON, I'M NOT ASKING PERMISSION, I'M TELLING YOU WHERE I'M GOING
Although, if a truckie sees you're looking to pass, and can see the road ahead is clear, they'll give you a few flashes on their right hand indicator to say "clear to pass". As I begin the overtake, I flash my spotlights twice then leave them on as I pass, firstly so the truckie knows I'm passing, and also so any oncoming traffic can see something is going on. I ALWAYS have the headlights on on country roads, so oncoming traffic can see ME.
On the rare occasions when you get passed by a truck, when the back of the truck is clear of the front of the car, flash your headlights. It is a bit hard for the truckie to judge this in the mirrors, and this lets them know it is safe to pull back in. Most will indicate right-left-right, to say thank you. Actually slowing a bit and flashing your indicator so a truck can pass where there is an overtaking lane will get a r-l-r-l-r "thank you very much".
I suspect all of this isn't really necessary, but it gives us something to do amongst the boredom!
Zen, tis marvelly-ous.
I appreciate you were saving your camera but hey, next time can we have photos of meals?
Took one just for you, Sundae, it'll come.
Road train, wow just wow.
snip--
I'll also say I chose not to pass trucks a few times. In one case I was behind a triple with standard shipping containers on it, and the back was getting blown about by cross winds pretty badly. I wanted to do 110, the truck was doing about 100 - but it was barely 20km to a town where I was going to stop for fuel and food anyway. I sat behind it and lost maybe two minutes.
Recreational math? Nope, survival math. good man!
Great pic's and commentary and scenery.
But no pic's with Z, himself
... must have or didn't happen. :rolleyes:
do you know what a singularity is? such a picture would be one less.
snip--
Keep this part of the story in mind, okay? It has a sequel.
--snip
Does it involve a fire extinguisher?
Does it involve a fire extinguisher?
Lol. nope.
Mind you, the car has been having issues with oil seeping through some old tired gaskets and seals and smoking away when things get hot after a few hours of freeway cruising. I had a few leaks fixed before I left, but there were still a few moments when I stopped after a long haul and had smallish amounts of smoke from the engine bay. After a while I decided to consider this "normal" and stop worrying.
I did have a couple of "fire extinguishers" in the form of two cans of mediocre beer. In the event of an engine fire, crack the top, shake hard, use the foam. No worries, eh?
Here are some sights around the festival. There was quite a bit more awesome psychedelic stuff, but that got taken down shortly after the Main Event and I missed the chance to photograph it.
Anyway, here is the dam/lake, with a fairly minimal camp beside it.
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Some folks take "minimal" camping a bit further. Someone lived here for several days.
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Then there were the old-school hippies. Not extinct yet!
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And this was the shade domes of the crew I met and hung out with.
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These folks - six or seven people, it varied - were mostly adults like me, but further from mainstream. The structure in the middle of the domes is a hippie-trap. It is made using coloured wool, twigs, and any shiny or interesting objects that can be found. Wandering hippies get lost in it for hours. Note the sound system on the left.
I'm sure there is evidence of misbehaviour in this picture. How can I put this... I had brought a stash box, a small piece of tupperware, the contents of which would have kept Hunter S Thompson amused for maybe 36 hours. This crew had brought a stash box, a footlocker big enough for two people to use as a chair (not that anyone did, that would have blocked access) that would have had Hunter S Thompson asking them to slow down so he could take notes. Nothing that went up the nose or in a vein, but apart from that ... pretty much everything.
It was pretty warm - 30 to 35 each day - so swimming was necessary.
In Far North Queensland (or FNQ, pronounced Effen' Queue) there are crocs in most waters, but this far inland, almost certainly only freshwater crocs, and they're small(ish) and timid and are not considered dangerous.
Just in case, my neighbours set up this tribal mermaid goddess to warn them off.
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And the day before the eclipse, I got attacked by a wild animal!!!
Possibly NSFW, so look
here.
Dammit, get the tweezers. At least it was only on my belly this time.
That genie must have been hard of hearing. I'm pretty sure I said CHICK magnet. :rolleyes:
Meanwhile, where I had chosen a small gathering of maybe 300, George TheCow was off at a large (10,000 peeps) rave/doof festival nearby, helping DJ a few sets, then getting funky on the dance floor.
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a r-l-r-l-r "thank you very much".
Here they flash all their rear lights off and on... I had a button in my van to do that without affecting the headlights.
Large or small, methinks I'd rather avoid crocks. :unsure:
I love the fact that crocs in Oz are one of the few animals you don't have to worry about. Freshwater ones at least.
Crazy hippy people.
Glad you avoided the trap.
Is that you holding that green hippo, Zen?
Well, no one has ever seen Zen, have they?
In my mind he has as James Franco thing going on. But who knows? ;)
The mullet/mohawk combo with the extensive tattoos on the arm we not what I pictured.
I also kind of pictured James Franco.
But you know what? I bet that IS him!
[COLOR="White"](do you think this will make him post himself? That's what I'm trying to do.)[/COLOR]
I'd always kinda pictured Zen as looking glatt-ish but sounding like Hugh Jackman.
Meanwhile, where I had chosen a small gathering of maybe 300, George TheCow was off at a large (10,000 peeps) rave/doof festival nearby, helping DJ a few sets, then getting funky on the dance floor.
:rolleyes:
Pay attention, people.
Okay, getting close to the Main Event.
Totality was due at 6.37 am.
It was obviously necessary to pull an all nighter. I had strategic naps the day before, then at 11pm had an energy drink, then around midnight started a carefully planned session of recreational pharmaceuticals. I had some :luv: and some :rainbo: and then some :flower: and even some :nuts:, spread out over six hours, so that by dawn, my altitude was at a personal best and may have given Felix Baumgartener a run for his money. :D [COLOR="LemonChiffon"]PM if you want full details.[/COLOR].
So, I dressed warm - temp in the mid teens, I think, but it gets COLD during an eclipse - and went down by the lake side. I found a nice little spot about ten feet back from the shore, with the sky brightening in the east across the lake, and set up.
I had my camera on a tripod about four feet to my left, set to take a picture on automatic every 30 seconds.
Dawn twilight:
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First peep of sunrise:
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The eclipse was already underway by this time, with the moon moving from the top left part of the sun, as shown in this excellent shot by Ben Cooper:
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Soon the sun was little more than a crescent, but alas my little camera wasn't really up to the job:
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Soon, the sun became a slim crescent, a sickle, a sliver :
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Then one last peek of light...
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Then ...
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[SIZE="7"]BBAAANNNGGGGGG!!!!!![/SIZE]
As Someone - my campmates deny everything ;) - let off a 2&1/2 inch firework mortar shell to salute the moment, and this instant was burned into my memory.
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My camera really didn't do too well, here are some other people's photos.
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You can clearly see the pale grey disc of the moon with the fleecy corona streaming out. There was a planet - looked like Venus - above and to the right. The light is strange, soft and silvery.
Words just don't cut it. See one for yourselves.
Back to my camera:
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I was a tad to the right of my camera, so for me the eclipse was perfectly framed between those two dead trees.
After barely two minutes:
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The fire returns!
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Gradually, the sun came back, the warmth returned.
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I sat meditating for a while, then, under the waxing gibbous sun, did the obvious thing.
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Yeah, that's me, enjoy it.
I swam, came ashore, meditated until the eclipse was fully over. I did a fair bit of psycho-magic head work during this time.
Eventually, I took all my gear back to my tent, and wandered through the festival to the beach area, not speaking a word. One chap tried to talk with me "wasn't that great?" etc, but I used signs to show I wasn't in speaking mode due to my mind being totally BLOWN. Another guy saw this and trotted over to give me a hug and a pat on the back. :) He understood. :lol:
I wore bathers this time, and went for a long swim, resting on a platform on the lake made of shipping pallets fixed in dead trees. Clear light, beautiful location, rippling water ... heavenly.
Eventually I swam back to shore and wandered back to my tent, had some fruit, and - having not spoken for about three hours post-eclipse - rejoined my camp mates.
We spent the rest of that day chilling out in the shade, having the occasional swim, and enjoying ourselves. There was :bong: and champagne and scotch-and-coke. They had a watermelon that had bourbon in it, but the bourbon had about 5% hash oil in it! Did I mention one of these crew buys whippits five cartons at a time? (That's 1,800 bulbs, lazybrain :p: ). There was some more :rainbo: and towards dusk four of us went for a stroll up the hill with a cocktail, that was mostly champagne.
Shortly after sunset I went to bed, slipped off into trippy dreams with trance-techno from the sound stage leaking in.
One of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I'm buzzed just writing about it.
You did well, Z, in planning, documenting, and having a memorable trip.
I've only been in one total eclipse, many years ago, but still vividly remembered.
Ours was also in the early morning.
(Do all total eclipses happen at that time of day ?)
We had previously heard that birds stop singing.
But not ours. They seemed to be calling one another even more.
As you say, the lighting is quite unusual, and totality doesn't last long.
So.... Hooray for Z, and with Pic's too ! It really did happen.
Eclipses can happen anytime during daylight hours. I saw one in 2002 that was about an hour before sunset.
Memorable trip
giggles ;)
wow. just- wow.
so cool, all of it-worthy of a DeadHead----actually BEYOND worthy as you had to face actual wildlife (chuh-"timid" or not, I am NOT getting into ANY water with ANY sort of croc or gator anywhere near it. Example: I might take a chance and swim in a lake in Maine but no way am I swimming in any Florida puddle) but I digress----
that was awesome and it seems life affirming for you. Isn't nice when the Universe gives presents like that? and I'm so glad to see the back of your, well....back. But again, I would NEVER get in that water. It looks like it has a very squishy bottom like you're walking on raw eggs. I can only stand sugary-white sands in my lakes. No muck. But see, I"m a wuss. I also would've required an outlet for my blowdryer. ;)
Beautiful country-so wild looking. Now: come on. Let's see your eyes!
PS ---- just to expand on my muck obsession: when I go to maine my uncle dumps a huge truckload of pure white sand into the water around their dock for me. Aren't I the little princess?
PPS - that was also years ago when we actually spent 99% of our time IN the water. What can I say? I just don't like muck.
Zen, you are the gummiest!
wait...Zen, you are the Zenniest!
Just. Wow. Dude.
Yeah, that's me, enjoy it.
Told ya! James Franco! :D
What can I say? I just don't like muck.
I'm with Tribly on this one. I can deal with muck if I have to, but that's not a lake you are swimming in, that's a swamp. You need a machete to swim through that stuff.
Of course, if it's really hot, you don't have much choice.
See, that wouldn't bother me in the slightest. Especially after delving in to the foot locker. :lol:
How did you take that picture, anyway? The self timer on my camera is either 2 seconds or 10 seconds. If you set yours for 10 seconds, you would need to run into the shot, and then there would be a trail behind you in the water of ripples and bubbles, and disturbed plants. It looks like you took a minute or two to get to where you are in the water, everything is so still.
Oh fine. I confess. I was there.
:)
How did you take that picture, anyway? The self timer on my camera is either 2 seconds or 10 seconds. If you set yours for 10 seconds, you would need to run into the shot, and then there would be a trail behind you in the water of ripples and bubbles, and disturbed plants. It looks like you took a minute or two to get to where you are in the water, everything is so still.
I think he said he had it on automatic, taking a pic every 30 seconds
Spex and Infi have it. Auto camera, I'm cool with mud, and yeah, :rainbo: , you know. :D In that photo, I had already been in and under, parting the lily roots with my hands as I went; by this time I was coming back, and turned to face the sun.
Other areas of the dam were much clearer. I think they even did the sand-dump trick at the main swimming point.
How did you take that picture, anyway? The self timer on my camera is either 2 seconds or 10 seconds. If you set yours for 10 seconds, you would need to run into the shot, and then there would be a trail behind you in the water of ripples and bubbles, and disturbed plants. It looks like you took a minute or two to get to where you are in the water, everything is so still.
do you have a canon point and shoot? maybe not... I think I remember you are a panasonic man. chdk is the friend of canon p/s owners everywhere. intervalometer plus beaucoup more
I somehow lost my CHDK card and I'm too cheap/stubborn to go out and buy a new one, but I really miss the features. Maybe I'll go out and get another one.
But it drives me bats that I can't find the other one. Probably got vacuumed up.
Preventive medicine: stop vacuuming.
You can clearly see the pale grey disc of the moon with the fleecy corona streaming out. There was a planet - looked like Venus - above and to the right. The light is strange, soft and silvery.
Words just don't cut it. See one for yourselves.
No, your words completely cut it
I sat meditating for a while, then, under the waxing gibbous sun, did the obvious thing.
A ship an isle a sickle moon
With few but with how splendid stars
The mirrors of the sea are strewn
Bewteen her silver bars.
An isle within an isle she lay
The tall ship anchored in the bay
Don't know the rest.
It just reminded me of your post. I always loved that poem for the words.
Am deliberately not Googling it because I don't even know who it's by (John Masefield?) and don't want to cheat.
Gibbous.
Not a word we hear often enough these days.
I remember a line from Kes - the moon was full, save for a blur on the waxing curve (again this may not be 100% accurate.)
I did not understand it at all and went to my English teacher who first taught me the phases of the moon, then about waxing and waning.
I may have forgotten much of it, but the experience of a whole new language stayed with me.
Now. Where's my photo of eggs?!
The moon is a lock of witch's hair-
golden and tawny and red
and the night wind stops to stare
to see a lock of a witches head.
Well, the next day was all about recovery, naps, journal writing, and swimming.
The day after, I felt it was time to move on. I was a little sad to be leaving, possibly related to the come-down from all that shit I did. :p:
I packed up, gave a hitch-hiker a lift to the next main town, but didn't want to plunge back into the hectic mayhem of a big city, like Cairns with its 200,000 people. ;)
I wanted to go camping in a national park, of which I know there are many in the area, but all the information I got was that the old turn-up-and-self-register system has been replaced by some stupid shit involving an account, pre-booking, internet, phone calls and credit cards. :rolleyes:
So, I found my way to a private nature park where I paid cash and spent a few days. The mountains here are granite, and there was a stream to swim in, although with better pools than this one.
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There are plenty of wallabies here, carefully trained to manipulate tourists into buying bags of wallaby food. I didn't, sod 'em, little buggers should get jobs.
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After two nights here, I went to Cairns, stopping on the way at this touristy waterfall (this is the end of the dry season, give it three months and this would be roaring).
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I also stopped at Kuranda, a village that has become the hippy location of the north. The markets there sell everything with rainbows, every kind of hemp product (except, you know, the real one), crystals, clothing, etc. Even "diet soap" - "the more you wash with it, the thinner it gets!" :lol: They have a mini-golf course in the rainforest.
I bought lunch here, the hippy interpretation of eggs on toast, here named a "breakfast crepe". Ok, Sundae, this is for you:
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With the home-made lemonade it came to $20, a bit pricey, but :yum:!! There's fried mushrooms in there as well.
that's beautiful country!
Yes, some of the nicest pictures I've seen.
At least the hippies put ham on that crepe. That is ham I hope.
If by ham you mean bacon, then yes. Thick chunks of organic free range :bacon:. Mmmmm-mmMMMmm!
Great pics, Zen, thank you for sharing! I have to admit, the organic free range bacon looks :yum:
Even though I don't eat much of that these days, I could be tempted. The parks and swimming spots? Definitely tempted!! Although I'm afraid I'd be a softy and feed the wallabies. :o
Well it's pork at any rate. I've not seen bacon like that. On closer inspection I see the tell tale stripes of yummy fat.
OH, that pool of water with the huge boulders is absolutely lovely (though I thinks I see a croc lurking there) and the waterfall is Goddess showing off.
what a lovely country.
PS: that rocky pool? That I want in my backyard?
It's better than the fjords. And THOSE won an award.
So for today's episode...
I planned to spend two nights in Cairns, but it was stiflingly hot and humid (build up to wet season), and I'd got the shopping and washing all done in one day, so I shot through to a national park on the Atherton Tablelands, the mountains inland from Cairns.
As I got near the campsite, there was an intense thunderstorm, but I sheltered under a roof and met a few old friends, not from the Eclipse festival but from another festival down South I attend regularly.
Turns out that stupid pre-registration system is only being introduced, and you can still just turn up and register on site. :right: :rolleyes: Whatever. A tad over $5 a night.
Here is my small hiking tent, which I use for short term camps or carry-in camps.
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This is about 20 metres from the swimming hole, which was this.
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Nice clear cool water, about five feet deep, with a gravelly bed. Niiiiice.
I did some hiking, but the mountains around here are a bit hard to photograph. I did a hike up Turtle Head mountain, and the view was like this.
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Those clouds spilling over that nearby mountain had me concerned, since the wind was coming from that direction, and there had been an afternoon storm the day before, so I didn't tarry but kept moving to lower ground. I was back at camp when there was some light rain, but that was all.
Somewhere around here I went to another waterfall, where this was the upstream pool:
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It was 32 degrees and humid. OF COURSE I swam here. :D
There was a bit of wildlife about, but mostly invertebrates.
Infi, look away NOW.
There are plenty of ground-dwelling ants, but some have figured a better way to beat the seasonal flooding: live in trees. So they build nests like this.
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Meanwhile, the termites go above ground level, in their fortified bunkers. These can reach five or six feet in height.
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This crittur came to visit my tent, but I was cool with that.
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I was slightly less cool with this visit, though.
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Aww, it's just a harmless little huntsman. And it's missing a leg.
Still, I got out the other side of the tent.
The vegetation is sometimes interesting.
Here are some fairly common Australian dry-climate type trees, with their light-coloured trunks and random branching.
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In the wet forests, there are enormous creeper vines.
These are shiny because they're just above a popular boardwalk and pretty much everyone has a bit of a swing.
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Slightly odder are these yaccas, or grass trees. We used to call these blackboys, but that's not the done thing, anymore.
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And these are, I think, cycads. Perhaps Ali can confirm.
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Stunning!
esp. love the swimming pool/gravel bed.
but I still think I see a croc....there's a ripple in the water....see it?
Oh, yeah, I did take two tents.
I guess I need to relax more, eh?
:drummer:
Zen i just read thru this thread ( Busy work etc,,,)
This looks like an EPIC Trip !!!
Looks to me like that spot is about as far from the equator as Belize, or Montserrat, for North American reference. And it's early summer, only a couple weeks from the longest day of the year. No wonder it's hot. :sweat:
Zen that is all wonderful - thank you.
I've probably seen more of the Australian countryside than your average Dwellar, purely through having rellies there, not anything to boast of, but it's such a diverse place. Oz isn't somewhere on my bucket list, despite this, but I love the idea of extremely long journeys. I'd like to do it by train especially, as I think Bill Bryson did. No huntsmen in his bunk as far as I remember.
But back to the crepe :)
Looks good, but were all the ingredients on the outside?
And if so, is that normal? In Europe we usually wrap them inside.
That egg looks bloody good though, full and runny. And I spose it makes it easier for me to pick the cherry tomatoes off...
You've got me itching for a road trip.
Camping with two tents is not too intense for car camping.
So, after a few days in the bush, I visited the town of Atherton. Partly, I needed to do some shopping, but I also wanted to visit a museum called the Crystal Caves.
The shopping had one amusing moment. Atherton is no hippy village, but a farming town with tourism supplements. I dressed accordingly, to not freak out the normals: thoroughly washed, shirt and shorts, shoes with socks, even! When I went inside the shopping centre I even took off my hat and sunnies, to complete the Polite Young Man disguise. Yet, I still seemed to be getting disapproving looks from the little old ladies of the Country Women's Association. Sod 'em. I did my shopping, and as I was going through the cold-goods aisle in the supermarket, felt that it was bit chilly. Then I realised I had the top FIVE buttons of my shirt undone, down to below my navel. :smack: :lol:
Then to the Crystal Caves, which is in fact a shop in town.
The museum section is done out cave-style, with foam walls and stalagmites and stuff. You get a helmet with a light, partly as a gimmick, but also because you'll bang your head. You are encouraged not just to photograph, but in most cases, to TOUCH the displays.
Some fancy quartz crystals (no touching these)
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Fossils, including trilobites, and the cave decor:
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A darkened room, with a ceiling of thinly sliced back-lit agates.
There was another dark room with black lights to make minerals fluoresce (not shown).
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This artificial fountain, using four tons of rose quartz.
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Backlit trilobites? :tinfoil:
The star attraction, the Empress of Uruguay.
This is an amethyst geode. At 3.4 metres long and 2.5 tons, it's the largest known one in the world.
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This weird geode has quartz stalagmites rather than regular crystals.
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Display cabinet:
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More display cabinet.
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More at
http://www.crystalcaves.com.au/ especially better pics of the empress.
How big is the geode with quartz stalagmites?
Sorry if this is getting repetitive, but then I went camping again.
There was a flat open campground, formerly a special camping area where various Aboriginal tribes would gather to settle disputes - usually by a fight - and then make up and hang out for a few weeks afterwards.
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The swimming hole was this river that had a clean gravel/pebble bottom and perfect visibility. Which was good, because there are
freshwater stonefish (venomous) in it. The area also had swarms of march flies (horseflies, to some of you),
stinging trees, and a lone dingo that wandered through the campground at night. The rangers (who were local Aboriginals) told me with the stinging trees, an untreated sting will cause severe pain on contact with water for up to three months; but "treated" stings only hurt for about a week, and "treatment" is to piss on it. I wonder if that's just a prank they play on tourists?
While I was here I had a few spare hours, so I got the tool kit and had a look at the funny brake-light/indicator thing. I did plenty of probing and jiggling and such, even threatened it with duct tape and WD40, but without success. Meh.
Nearby was a mountain I wanted to climb:
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It is called Walsh's Pyramid (duh, it's a cone) or Banda Djurraga Murgu, Hill of the Scrub-fowl Nest-mound.
It was hot, and I wanted to see the sun rise from the summit, but didn't want to tackle an unknown trail in the dark, so I packed a bit of gear and started the hike at 4.30pm, although the temperature was still about 30. I was soon sweat-soaked, and the sun set when I was about half-way up. I did the third quarter by twilight, the final quarter by moonlight with a bit of torch use.
I made the summit without trouble. There was a strong southerly blowing, and it was moist and cool. I ate, and started to rug up. Two jumpers, extra socks, and a beanie, but I was still cool, and it was only early. I put on my full goretex rainsuit, but was still a bit cool. I got into my survival bag, a large orange plastic bag. This gave me enough shelter from the wind, but being non-breathable plastic, mean all my sweat etc stayed inside it.
Of course, the only real worry was thunderstorms. There had been a few in previous days, and this summit was NOT a good place to be. Granite and lightning play well together. It was a good thing I was too uncomfortable to sleep properly, because every 20 minutes or so I would do a scan of the weather. I've had thunderstorms approach me while camping before; you get plenty of warning with the light flashes in the sky and then the noise. Any warning sign like that and I was OUT OF THERE, dark or no dark.
Well, the night passed uneventfully, and dawn broke. Alas, it was a little cloudy, the views were rather fogged out! Just below the summit I took this shot, showing the shadow of the mountain with it's cloud hat.
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As I descended, I met about a dozen other hikers in small groups coming up. I went south and found a roadhouse for more bacon and eggs.
Meanwhile, George TheCow was off at the beach. It is scenic, but no good for swimming, due to sharks, salt-water crocodiles, and two types of venomous jellyfish.
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Backlit trilobites? :tinfoil:
Backlit agates, blacklit flourides, spotlit trilobites.
This
is going to be in the test.
How big is the geode with quartz stalagmites?
Umm, about 60 cm across, I think.
that shop rocks!
:rolleyes:
Freshwater stonefish (venomous), stinging trees, sharks, salt-water crocodiles, and two types of venomous jellyfish.
But of course. :unsure:
Did I mention the lasers?
I assumed in this day and age, what with Australia being a most modern first world county, they all have lasers. :haha:
All except the march flies, which spit molten lava as they bite. That's what it felt like.
Hm. Fresh and saltwater crocs. Venomous fish; trees that try to kill you; sharks that act like the own the place; lava spitting flies; dropbears....way, waaaaaay worse than Florida.
but beautiful, beautiful. I'm so glad you shared this trip with us. I've never seen so much of Oz! (the real Oz not the bullshit Oz).
And you hiked that? I'm getting a-fib just thinking about it.
Congrats on a superlative vaca.
PS - in pic #97 there is a ripple in the middle of the water.
That's a man-eating croc.
They're everywhere.
PPS- amethyst is my birthstone.
I'd love to have you ship the Empress to me.
I'll PM you my addy.
;)
eta: would also just ADORE the rose quartz fountain. I'll pay extra for shipping.
Just below the summit I took this shot, showing the shadow of the mountain with it's cloud hat.
Awesome! Love that picture.
I'd love to have you ship the Empress to me.
Or, they could send the other half to you.
I'll bet it's just laying around there somewhere gathering dust.
If they still had the lid, some new age sparkly vampyr could use that as a coffin.
You're just lucky you weren't eaten by a drop bear, young man. That's all I have to say.
Well, my foot did get ripped off by a trap-door wombat.
After climbing that mountain and sleeping in my sweaty clothes inside a giant garbage bag, I was desperately in need of a swim. So, I went camping. Again. :rolleyes:
First, drive a little way south along the Bruce Highway. The East Coast has a thin alluvial plain between the sea and the mountains, looking somewhat like this. There's sugar cane here, but often also bananas, lychees, pineapples, and cattle.
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Then to a place called Murray falls, which I remembered from my last time up here. This is probably about 50 metres high. Remember, this is the end of the dry season.
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A few silly drongos had managed to kill themselves here, by jumping off cliffs into the pools at the bottom of the falls, so anywhere near the falls was fenced off with big signs saying VERBOTEN!!!
So I only had to share these areas with about a dozen other people, and all the grey-haired nay-sayers could stare disapprovingly from behind the safety fence. :p:
View from the top, looking out over the valley.
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And past a few more signs, upstream from the falls, was this lovely swimming hole, plenty deep, and since crocs can't climb waterfalls, the only danger here was flying sharks.
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Well, my foot did get ripped off by a trap-door wombat.
Hmmph. A mere flesh wound. Continue with the narrative, m'boy go on, go on.
I had mentioned that I wanted to visit the Northernmost tip of Cape York. So far this year I have done the Southernmost and Easternmost points of Australia, would be nice to box the compass.
Ahh, difficult. Even after you've done 3,200 kms and got to Cairns, it is
still about another 1,000km to the tip. and here's what google maps has to say about the roads:
We could not calculate directions between Cairns QLD and Bamaga QLD.
There
is a road but from speaking to locals, it was clear that you need a high-clearance 4WD with river crossing ability, well beyond what my little subi could do. The car was a bit grumpy already. Also you don't go during the wet season unless you're a masochist.
There were some options from Cairns, either a 4WD tour, or a day trip by plane, but both were well over $1,000 and seemed to miss the point of the adventure. So visiting The Tip has been saved for "some other time".
Likewise, I'd been planning to return via some desert tracks - the Birdsville Track and the Oodnadatta track. While river crossing was probably not a problem, the rough roads take a toll on a car. Worse, the summer heat had started, temps over 40 every day, and that makes it impossible to get out and look at things. It would just be a driving mission. If you're just going to drive, better to stay on black top. So, the desert tracks will also have to wait for some other time.
Instead, I spent another day at Murray Falls.
Dragon flies:
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A cane toad. These are an introduced species and have become one of the worst pests we have. They do a lousy job of controlling cane beetle (since the beetles can climb to the top of the cane, but the toads can't :smack: ) and their poisonous glands make them deadly for anything that eats them. As they spread they leave a trail of chaos through the ecosystem.
Because of their poison, they don't bother fleeing danger. Which means that [strike]BB guns, golf clubs and [/strike] cars are their main threats. This fellow was feeling a bit flat, shall we say... or maybe a bit tired. (Which works better with the American spelling ;) )
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Nearby were some pine trees. Remember
Cyclone Yasi? Pine trees and cyclones do not play well together. This is about 30kms inland, in a valley.
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poor little toad needs
a flag
Freshwater stonefish (venomous), stinging trees, sharks, salt-water crocodiles, and two types of venomous jellyfish.
But of course. :unsure:
These jellyfish:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/12/13/3653150.htm
Australian box jellyfish can cause deadly cardiac arrest within minutes by punching holes in red blood cells and causing potassium to leak out of them, Hawaiian researchers have found.
But, say the researchers, writing today in the journal PLoS ONE, a zinc-based compound could one day be used as a treatment.
"The box jellyfish is the most venomous animal in the world," says lead author, Dr Angel Yanagihara, of the University of Hawaii's Department of Tropical Medicine.
The Australian box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri) inhabits coastal waters from Australia to Vietnam.
The creature is the size of a basketball and has 60 two-metre long tentacles covered in stinging cells. Apart from causing unsuspecting swimmers excrutiatingly pain and other symptoms, being stung also occasionally leads to rapid death from cardiac arrest.
"The fastest deaths have been within 2 to 5 minutes," says Yanagihara.
:eek:
Hooooooooooleeeeeeeeee shite!
basketball sized jellyfish with SIXTY two metre (however long that is) tentacles??????
god gawd man!
Flying sharks!!!!!!
Cane toads?!?!?!?!
how did your ancestors survive all this ruckus?
I loved the waterfall bits, though. Very pretty. Very, very pretty.
Well, in Queensland, they've made it illegal to lick cane toads. I'm sure that helped.
Allegedly, you can get some psychedelic trippy effects from your body fighting the toad's poison. Fuck that, Imma take proper stuff. :)
I could have spent another month cavorting about the tropics, but I felt it was about time to come home.
I drove a few hundred kms to Townsville, and stayed in a caravan park so I could use the laundromat. Worst van park evah, it was between two highways, a freight rail line, a roadhouse with roadtrain break-up pad and a junkyard, with the choppers from the nearby army base adding to the noise. :right:
After this I was pretty much exactly retracing my steps. Which worked well, because I had to drive that same 30kms of bumpy dirt road that caused the brakelight/indicator electrical fault as I came north. This was good, because ... wait for it ... driving south on this road fixed the electrical fault.
I kid you not, it is working as it should and has been for two weeks. :eyebrow: :rolleyes: :right:
I decided to shut up and be thankful.
A little further was this very lonely rest area. This is what they are like: composting toilet, table and bench with shade, a few bins, maybe a place for a fire.
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I had food here, but then kept driving.
Not much further, this wedge-tailed eagle swooped down to the side of the road.
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I stopped for pictures, but I left the engine on and this may have scared the bird off, but I still got this nice shot of it in flight, riding the thermal above the road.
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That night I made another roadside camp, cant really remember where. South central Queensland, roughly.
Next day was just huge amounts of driving. I'd planned to stop at a rest area an hour or so before sunset, but it was too darn hot. The car has a function that tells me the outside temperature, and during the day this got up to 42. If I kept driving, the air conditioning inside was 26. :driving: it was.
Even as the sun was setting (half below the horizon) the temperature was still 39. Glad I didn't try the desert tracks!
I camped for the night not far from Broken Hill, a mining town just on the NSW side of the NSW/SA border. I pitched my tent and made my bed, but after a while it seemed to be getting warmer! I could feel the heat coming from the ground, through the 5cm foam mattress, to me. Ugghhh. Even at dawn the next morning, the floor of the tent was still noticeably warmer to the touch than the air temperature. I was in the car within an hour of sunrise, and the temperature was already 32.
So, final day. Stare at this picture for three hours, hum loudly. You may play music.
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You may recall a pic I posted from the East Coast trip in September, looking like this:
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The same area now looks like this. Summer snuck in while I was away.
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I made it home, tired, sweaty, smelly, but satisfied with one of the best road trips ever.
But if you're thinking of a road trip in Australia, be afraid. Be very afraid. Not so much of the enormous trucks and road trains, but by who they let drive them!
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Applause, applause... great presentation... looking forward to an encore, and will buy season tickets.
Superb. Thanks so much Zen - take a bow.
My only niggle...
You obviously have a good camera.
And are obviously an intelligent man, Doctor.
Surely you can work out how to set the self-timer?
My only niggle...
You obviously have a good camera.
And are obviously an intelligent man, Doctor.
Surely you can work out how to set the self-timer?
He's a teaser. He'll always be a teaser----showing us his shadow or his back or his finger. He'll never come clean and show us his FACE (and bicep area would be nice) because he is a teaser.
A fact we've got to accept.
I've always wanted to visit Australia, but this thread is probably the closest I'll get for quite some time. Thanks for sharing, Zen!
Most excellent report, professor, thank you. You're now prepared to come visit. :cool:
After two nights here, I went to Cairns, stopping on the way at this touristy waterfall (this is the end of the dry season, give it three months and this would be roaring).
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Oh and while I'm here ...
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Unreal. What a landscape.