Well, this never did materialize after all. Funny that I even came back to this after so long. Really, this was written as much for me as it was for anyone else, and I guess I did myself (myslef too) a disservice by never finishing it. Never even close. There were several reasons, one could argue, but I’d say I never made it a real priority, and once I’d fallen behind, it was too much work to catch up. There’s probably a lesson in there, somewhere…
I started this blog at the behest of my friend, Varun. I thought it was a good idea, and I still think it is. Unfortunately, a combination of laziness, procrastination, classes, and traveling conspired to lead me to put off completing it until well after I had left the country. I still want to get it done, both for my own personal enjoyment, as well as for anyone else who wants to see it (Amelia). When I’ll actually get it all finished up, I don’t really know. Hopefully before I forget to much of what I did. Luckily, I started taking notes, so things should go relatively smoothly. The things I don’t have notes for, fortunately, were mentally scarring, but in a good way. So, here goes.
This feels silly, writing this so late, but, regardless, it needs to get done. So, here goes.
If I remember correctly, I left off with an impending thunderstorm. You could almost smell the lightning and taste the thunder! Well, at the very least you could see the lightning and hear the thunder. And make sure you hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen or the wind is gonna take it!. Even after having scrambled for (kinda) shelter sometime around 2 AM, it didn’t make it any easier to sleep, especially when I woke up under a table and promptly smashed my knee into it. Bad start, and it didn’t help that, once again, we were up before the Sun, my flashlight bulb had burned out, and SHIT, where’s my hat?! You know, the blue Washington Nationals one with the Curly ‘W’ on it? You know the one I’m wearing in just about every single photo of me on this blog?
Yeah, that one! Don't ask why I spend time photographing my hats. And yes, that's Einstein. The one under it is an octopus.
Well, it seems as if I didn’t follow my own advice, and in the wind and darkness, my hat was nowhere to be found. Worse yet, there was no time to look for it, as I needed to shower, eat, and then help load up the bus. So… SHIT where’s my towel?! After showering and drying myself with a shirt (a poor substitute), I angrily ate some breakfast (PB&J baby!) and went over to my backpack to pull out my sunglasses and camera before putting the bag in the trailer. Unfortunately, only 2/3 of those items came out: my camera and most of my sunglasses. Now thoroughly inoperable, I threw them back in my bag. I was angrier than the lightning-filled sky.
Basically, I can cause this to happen.
I wasn’t so pumped about the upcoming hike anymore, what with the loss of my hat, towel, and sunglasses, and my general disinterest in being electrocuted ‘n all. However, I didn’t have so much of a choice, and I got on the bus as we drove over to King’s Canyon. (Ignore the timing implications of the way I structured that last sentence. Or, better still, take it literally, and picture my action-hero-like manner of boarding the bus. Feel free to include some nice lightning in the background.)
By the time we got over to King’s Canyon, the storm had blown through, and while it didn’t seem to actually ever rain, we were left with some beautiful weather. Nice and cool, clear and sunny, with a nice-to-kinda-strong breeze. And while I would’ve like my hat/shades to shield my eyes (as well as the disinterest in getting new ones), thing were looking up.
Speaking of which, that’s how the hike at King’s Canyon begins. Up. Specifically, with “Heart Attack Hill.” It was a few hundred meters up of stairs (for now, let’s just ignore that geological impossibility), and fueled by anger I bolted up the stairs (there wasn’t any real reason to stop anyway, the picture opportunities start at the top). For once, this was my chance to not lag behind the fast walkers! My long legs and previous stair climbing experience (see: inside of William and Mary Hall, 1.5 times around) gave me an unparalleled competitive advantage and I flew to the top.
Clearly, I beat the Sun to the top of the canyon as well.
So, after the beginning, it’s a pretty straightforward hike. Not to many ups or downs (well, at least assuming you don’t step over the edge). We saw some cool geological features, a plant with a sap that is a natural (and better) version of Nu-Skin, and had a generally good time. The day wasn’t so bad as it had started. Though, unfortunately, the battery on my camera died, cutting off my picture taking halfway through. And it was really bright out without my hat. And, like normal, I ended up falling behind a bit towards the end (but not too bad).
So, we clambered (total aside: I misspelled clambered “clambered” on my first attempt, and the spell checker offered “clam-bored” as a potential correction. I considered using it) back onto the bus, stopped briefly for lunch at the campground, had lunch, packed up, and drove to Alice Springs (that’ll be in the next post) and the end of the trip. I had a crazy fun time, and saw some really cool stuff (got a couple of cool rocks too!). I feel like I ought to go back someday. Here’s the best of my photos from Kings Canyon, at least until my battery died.
Note the ripples. Bottle cap for scale.
I think this is the best picture I took that day.
I'm on top of the world!!!
The last picture before my battery died. Jay and BJ.
Just you wait, son, I’m getting here. End of the month is the goal! So much to do!
I woke up dry. Yes! Correct again! We got to sleep in too, until about 7:00 or so. Nice! The itinerary for the day: Drive to the campsite near Kings Canyon. That is all. A day off if you will.
So, we embarked on the 4+ hour drive around 8:30. Nothing special, except for a game of window chess using dry erase markers between me and The Majakero. He won, but, frankly, it was poorly played on both sides.
Disappointing...
We got to the campground and just kinda chilled for the day. There was a pool. Some of us swam. I swam.
Nighttime, however, was where the magic happened. Most folks went to bed fairly early, but a couple of us just weren’t tired yet. Enter Jay, who saved the evening by teaching me, BJ, and Jason (dude from Hong Kong) a Dutch card game called Toepen. A great game. I won’t go into the rules of it here, but let me know if you want to know them. I’ll play with you anytime.
We played for probably an hour or so, maybe more, and loudly. Not sure if we were keeping other people awake, but nobody complained. While we were playing, however, a storm was rolling in, and by the time I got in my swag, I had a feeling that the bullet we had dodged the previous two nights was coming back to make amends.
First, let’s begin with another photo of an insect I took that I think is really cool. Then we’ll continue with more run-on sentences, but fewer butterflies. HINT: I have just realized that I can set pictures I post as link. Just a hint.
So Many Butterflies!
At the pre-sedimentary practical exam behest/nagging of Amelia, I am putting in the hard yards to really get up to speed on this blog. So, I could cut down on detail and quality, but I’m not a corporation! So, I’m gonna put in the hard yards and Git-R-Done! I guess one could argue that I’m like a corporation, in that I’m forcing my employees (me) to work long hours for little (read: no) pay and low benefits. But, I could be doing homework right now…
Larry the Cable Guy Related Aside: Who woulda thunk that Git-R-Done:
a) Has a Wikipedia entry;
b) Passes my spell checker
So, after getting my fix of The Band and quoting Larry the Cable Guy, I now feel American enough to continue. (Thanks for not pointing out that Levon Helm was the only American member of The Band, the rest being Canadian.)
So, after hiking around Kata-Tjuta, we bussed back to the campground just outside the park, had lunch and cleaned up. Much to her chagrin, this resulted in both Miriam and I wearing the same, W&M shirt we got for free back during freshman orientation. Adding further to her displeasure was the insistence of others on taking our picture. Being intrigued by my own new, white socks (all of which are now stained various shades of red. Nice!), I didn’t notice or care. I like me my socks.
She's only pretending to smile.
The Uluru base walk was a continuation of the walk we had briefly started the previous day. It was very different from the trail on Kata Tjuta, as there is no walking on Uluru itself (except, of course, for the climb). There really isn’t any way to walk on Ulury, for that matter. Unlike Kata Tjuta, which is a series of 36 mounds, large and small, Uluru is one big mass. So, you walk around it and gaze up at its splendor.
While most of the walk is open to photography, there are certain portions where pictures are not allowed to be taken. These sections are of particular significance to Anangu, cites of important ceremonies. Unfortunately, that is all we are allowed to be told, as those who are not adults in Anangu society are not told of adult topics like the ceremonies.
The walk itself was hot. While it was fun to walk around the base, gazing up and taking pictures, certain parts were much more enjoyable than others. About half the walk was directly under the Sun, with no trees for shade and on the wrong side of Uluru to stay cool. My water became undrinkably warm. I poured it on my head in an attempt to cool down, but instead warmed up. Luckily, there was a tank where I could refill it along the walk. This time, I managed to stay up with the main group (the rest of The Stragglers had paused earlier), but fell back a bit at the water tank, staying with a couple of folks who were a bit dehydrated. What a hero. Refreshed, the two of them actually ended up walking ahead rather quickly, and it was just me and a Dutch dude, Jay. This time, the peloton would not catch the breakaway. I learned a lot about Dutch politics, among other things.
Where there was respite from the Sun, the walk was truly awesome. There were a couple of water holes, where water levels where high due to the recent rain. These areas were like miniature little oases, with trees and bushes providing shade and keeping the area nice and cool. Being the geology nerd I am, I really liked seeing the channels cut into the side of Uluru where water flows off the sides and into the pond below. These areas have a special species of algae that grow on them, turning the rock black.
After the 3 or so hour walk, we headed back to camp. Dinner and a relatively quiet evening followed. Rain, and lightning, threatened again, more forcefully this time. A couple of folks went to the laundry room, but most rolled out their swags under the little shelter covering the picnic tables, a couple of people being squeezed under the table. Hoping it would stay dry, me, Jay, and BJ (a New Jersian) slept outside. What’s the point of camping if I’m just gonna take shelter?
Tune in to the next post to find out how wet I got! For now, here’s a few of my favorite pictures from the Uluru base walk:
A channel cut into the rock, flowing into a small pool.
David photobombs Uluru.
A heavily weathered face of Uluru.
Kata Tjuta at sunset from the campground.
Uluru at sunset from the campground.
Back and energized by my blog’s newfound respect on Google, I’m a-rearin’ to go!
The rain that was threatening the night before when we all went to sleep stayed away, much to the pleasure to the 1/2 of us that slept outside. Half the group went to sleep in a nearby laundry room in fear of being rained on, and their night was crowded, hot, and filled with bugs (if girly screams from a distance are any indication – which they are). Those of us outside had a nice sky, wonderfully crisp, cool air, plenty of space, and lots of bugs. Or, so I heard. I wasn’t bothered by any.
Saw this little guy at Kata Tjuta. Too cool to not be included.
We had a busy day ahead of us, starting with watching the sunrise over Uluru. I was woken up by an alarm going off next to me, at which point I mumbled hopelessly “Was that your alarm?” knowing full good and well that it was and it was time to get up, dammit! We were off on our way after a quick breakfast to head to the same place from which we watched the sunset the night before. It was nice, but not as cool as the sunset was, as the rock wasn’t illuminated in the same brilliant red fashion.
Still pretty damn cool though.
What was more important about getting up early was to beat the Sun for our hike on Kata Tjuta. Unlike Uluru, where people are only allowed to walk around the base (not counting the ridiculous exception for its one climbing path), there is a hiking path through, and in some parts, on Kata Tjuta. Kata Tjuta consists of 36 separate domes, and at its peak, is slightly taller than Uluru is.
David photobombs Kata Tjuta
It was roughly a 5k hike, but it was nice and early in the morning, so it wasn’t hot at all (until the end of the walk, when it was starting to get warm). For the first 1/3 of the walk we all stayed together Dan guiding us along a little bit, before turning us loose on the trail. Before doing so, however, he discussed the geological history of the area. Yes! Though not the most technical discussion in the world, it seemed like a good explanation, even though he had to cater it a bit to the non-native English speakers of the group – about 1/2 of us. So, (with help from Wikipedia) I’ve touched it up a bit for our next…
Geological Aside!!!! (Read it this time, punkfooligans!)
Like the vast majority of the rocks in Australia, Kata Tjuta and Uluru are sedimentary in origin. In fact, the formation of the two are very similar, dating to about 530-550 million years ago. At this time mountain ranges to the southwest were being uplifted rapidly, an event known as the Petermann Orogeny. Rivers carried weathered material away, depositing it in alluvial fans. Storm events would cause flooding, and the resulting high energy environment would carry the igneous stones downslope. In fact, there is evidence of depositional features like ripples in the rock, which indicate a high energy, fluvial (river) or marine environment (in this case, fluvial).
Though deposited in separate alluvial fans, the two formations have similar origins. While there are slight variations in the rock types, they are generally similar. The rocks are conglomerates, meaning that they are generally large clasts that are cemented together with a fine-grained matrix. In the case of Uluru and Kata Tjuta, the clasts are predominantly made of feldspar, and the matrix is mostly quartz sandstone. The generally rounder and smaller grains at Uluru indicate they they were transported farther.
Finally, 300-400 million years ago, the rocks were tilted on their sides. Thus, the beds that make up the many thin layers in the rock are now vertical. Another indication of the pressures the rocks were under is the presence of epidote, a metamorphic mineral that forms are relatively low pressures and temperatures.
The rocks’ red appearance is due to weathering. In actuality they are a light grey, but any exposed surface is quickly (at least on geological timescales) oxidized and turns red due to the rust. Also, where there are channels eroded into the rock, the surface is black due to algal growth. Lastly, because the rocks in Uluru and Kata Tjuta are so homogeneous, they have be fairly resistant to erosion, allowing the formations to survive for hundreds of millions of years.
I found it funny on the trip how, as a geology major, I was viewed as some sort of geological expert. While I (think I) know more than most folks without any real geological background, I didn’t really know the specifics of the places we went to. However, Dan seemed to always double check what he said with me, and I found his explanations to be pretty good in general.
In any case, we all moved on with the hike, and while I started out near the front of the pack, I stopped often to take pictures and quickly fell to the back of the pack. I had trouble believing that so many people just marched right along through such amazing scenery without taking tons of pictures. What was really great to see were the occasional small creeks and puddles that had formed because of the recent rainfall. (I was actually hoping it that it rained on us so we could get to see water streaming down the sides of Uluru. But, I guess the lack of rain was good, at least for the health of my camera.) Still, it was cool to be able to see signs of fluvial erosional processes in the puddles and creeks at Kata Tjuta. Yeah, I said it!
A pothole! Evidence of abrasion!
Brief Geological Aside:
The little underwater hole in the rock pictured above is called a pothole. It was maybe a foot across and a foot deep (I should’ve included something for scale, clearly). They are formed by a process called abrasion. Small particles being carried in a stream can chip away small bits of the bedrock, forming tiny holes. These get enlarged when eddies form due to the holes, cause water, and the sediment suspended in it to spiral around. The suspended sediment abrades away more rock, making the hole bigger. Eventually, this process gores out a hole like the one above.
Phew! That was yet another fun Geological Aside!
After pausing for an incredibly nerdy time at all the little creeks I saw, I had fallen to the back of the pack with a few of the other folks smart enough to take their sweet dear time. We did briefly catch up with the sprinters where they had paused up ahead for a truly awesome photo op. I managed to sneak in with the Adelaide Uni group just in time. That would be on someone else’s camera, however. Here’s a picture without any of us schmucks in it:
The view from the apex of the hiking trail on Kata Tjuta.
Everyone else marched along while me and three others, a German dude named Steffen, and two Dutch girls name Caroline and Irma, moseyed our way down the trail. Taking our time –and lots of pictures, it was a really fun, scenic hike. The only problem with taking so long is that it did start to get pretty hot by the end of the walk. When we finally caught up to the rest of the group already waiting for us at the bus, we were quite a bit sweatier than they were. But, we were still right on schedule! (But only by a couple of minutes.) So, upon our triumphant return, we all loaded up on the bus and headed back to camp for a quick lunch before the Uluru Base Walk…
The Stragglers, from left to right: Irma, me, Caroline, Steffen
To briefly get at a topic other than the Outback trip, which I am slowly, but surely chipping away at, I tried to purchase peanuts today. I was going for salted-in-shell peanuts. Simple enough. I went to the Central Market, the big, market with all sorts of produce stands, butchers, etc. There are four shops there that sell nuts. One does not have even have them in shell, and none of the other three sell them salted. Nut shops! It’s not like I’m looking for something crazy here.
Oh but I was. At one of the stands I asked, “Do you sell in-shell peanuts.” The young lady behind the counter said “Yes we do.” Me: ”Are they salted.” Her: ”No…” Me: ”Oh…” Her: ”Well, you can’t really salt them if they’re still in the shell, because then they wouldn’t get any salt on the nut itself.” Me: Stunned silence, mouth ajar, eyes wide. Her: ”We have salted shelled nuts.” Me: ”Uh… no thanks.”
So I walked away. Who knew that Australia had yet to develop the technology to salt peanuts still in their shell? I can only dream that one day they will be able to boil their peanuts…
Mmmmmmmmmm
Though embarrassingly slow at getting stuff posted/things done, I do eventually get around to it. Thus, I submit for all to see all the half decent pictures I took on the Outback trip.
http://s790.photobucket.com/albums/yy183/daloss/Australia%203%20Outback%20Trip/
Comments and thangs and thangs always welcome!
Have you ever woken up in a thunderstorm in the desert? Well, remember those bolts of lightning way, way off in the distance from the end of the last post? See about that. If Dan hadn’t woken us up to get us the going about an hour earlier than originally planned (4:30 AM, ugh), the rain would have done it a few minutes later. It started as a light drizzle, but in a few minutes was a nice, steady rain. While that tapered off quickly, it was evident that we needed to get gone, or we were risking getting the (non-off-road-capable) van stuck in the mud when the bulk of the storm hit. We scrambled to load up the van and the trailer, with the only light coming from our flashlights (“torches” here) and the more than occasional flashes of lightning.
These sure didn't seem like storm clouds the night before...
We managed to beat the rain and got back on the road before the storm hit, but as we drove north, we ran back into the teeth of it. We were in the middle of desert – a desert which once went for 6 YEARS without any rain – and we were driving through a thunderstorm! Around us raged a spectacular show of lightning and thunder on all sides, and as we finally out drove the storm and into the clear, the sun began to creep over the horizon off to the east. It was worth toughing it out and staying awake until we stopped in Erldunda for breakfast. While we ate, the storm caught up to us and dumped some more rain, but at least this time we were under shelter until the storm could fully pass by.
A few hours later we arrived at our campground in Yulara, which is a few kilometers (kilometres if you’re one of those people) outside of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. The local Aboriginal people, the Anangu (“on-a-new”), are the owners of the land, and those are their names for Ayers Rock and The Olgas, respectively. Because we had bolted from the CP early, we were at our campground well ahead of schedule. So, after chilling for an hour or so, we headed to the park, where we made an extremely important group purchase. Upon the encouragement of Dan, we all chipped in a buck towards the purchase of a $20 “tub” of fly repellant cream. Now, for a $20 tub, we got surprisingly little fly cream, maybe only about 200-300 milliliters worth. However, that stuff worked! Kinda. You’d put the cream on your face, and while it would keep the flies from buzzing all around ya, they wouldn’t land on your face (your legs, arms, shirt, etc. were all fair game still) which did make for a nice upgrade. Given the high volume of flies in the area (though not quite at Glendambo levels – or maybe we were just more used to them at this point) the cream was a very good purchase. It was also important to be within shouting distance of Astrid on our hikes, as she was the person holding onto the cream.
Our first stop was the cultural center, where we were introduced to Anangu culture. Much of their culture and traditions have been passed down orally for generations through stories, many of which are about Creation Time (the best translation we were offered). These stories often featured giant beings and were used to explain the how the Earth was formed, particularly features like Uluru and Kata Tjuta, as well as to teach people how to live, both in terms of survival and etiquette. There are different levels of these stories, and as children in the eyes of Anangu culture, visitors to the park are only allowed to be told the children’s stories. Several of these stories were written on the walls in parts of the culture center for visitors to read as an introduction to the culture. There were also examples of traditional tools, like cooking utensils, spears, and boomerangs. (Side note: Actual, traditional boomerangs don’t return to the thrower like the toy ones were used to. Some will curve, but they won’t come back. There’s a good reason for this. Boomerangs were used for hunting. One of the keys to hunting is not killing yourself with your own equipment. The return of your boomerang would certainly make it much more difficult to avoid killing yourself.)
The cultural center was a very interesting introduction to the culture, and afterwards we took a brief walk around part of the base of Uluru, during which Dan pointed out some of the more interesting plants and told us a few more Anangu stories that weren’t in the culture center. One was about the creation of Uluru itself, which was made by two Creation Time children who were aiming to build the tallest mud pile that they possibly could. Thus, the tall, mud-cake-like shape of Uluru.
Dan in action!
We left most of the walk around Uluru for the next day, as we headed off to catch the sunset. Uluru is famous for dramatically changing color at sunset, as it seems to glow bright red when the setting sun reflects off of it. There is a large viewing area that was packed with tourists when we showed up. Still, we found some space, set up a little table of chips, vegetables, and dip, popped open some drinks and watched Uluru turn from brown to red. After about about an hour, the sun was down and we headed back to camp. We had dinner and then rolled out our swags and sleeping bags and went to sleep.
The entire tour group in front of Uluru at sunset.