Dinner in the outback:
One of the tougher parts of this job is that you often struggle to get a decent meal, take last night for example, I had to settle for the chicken stuffed with semi-dried tomatoes, bacon, brie cheese and herbs... Bloody tough out here in the outback.
MMmm dinner
Homie is my hero too!Where in the world is Agro?
Pics of my office and surroundings. Current location is near Woomera South Australia.
Glad I'm not agoraphobic :)
Sun's almost up
Morning panorama
Nearby homestead ruins
Sunset at the ruins
Ruins silhouette
As above different exposureArrived on site
The survey we are working on now is at a place called Carrapateena, on the edge of Lake Torrens, South Australia. Lake Torrens is dry for most of the time and is a salt lake, the surrounding area is desert to semi-desert with scatterings of salt bush and blue bush (both about 1 ft high).
It is in the driest state of the driest country on earth! (note: I said driest country, not continent as that would be antarctica which is not a country but a group of territories owned by several countries)
Oh and it rained for a few days before we got there. Maybe we should take a second job as rain makers?
OK OK enough talk, time for pics...
The access road (over100km of sand/dirt)
No place for a tree hugging hippy
Erosion can make good sculptures
Panorama of survey area
View from the main office Proof the world is nuts
In Lebanon, men are legally allowed to have sex with animals, but the animals must be female.
Having sexual relations with a male animal is punishable by death.
(Like THAT makes sense.)
In Bahrain, a male doctor may legally examine a woman’s genitals, but is prohibited from looking directly at them during the examination.
He may only see their reflection in a mirror.
(Do they look different reversed?)
Muslims are banned from looking at the genitals of a corpse. This also applies to undertakers.
The sex organs of the deceased must be covered with a brick or piece of wood at all times.
(A brick??)
The penalty for masturbation in Indonesia is decapitation.
(Much worse than “going blind!”)
There are men in Guam whose full-time job is to travel the countryside and deflower young virgins, who pay them for the privilege of having sex for the first time…
Reason: under Guam law, it is expressly forbidden for virgins to marry.
(Finally a job that's better than mine)
In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but may only do so with her bare hands.
The husband’s lover, on the other hand, may be killed in any manner desired.
(Ah! Justice!)
Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England - but only in tropical fish stores.
(Cor BLIMEY!)
In Cali, Colombia, a woman may only have sex with her husband, and the first time this happens, her mother must be in the room to witness the act.
(Kinda leads to the next law...)
In Santa Cruz, Bolivia, it is illegal for a man to have sex with a woman and her daughter at the same time.
(I presume this was a big enough problem that they had to pass this law?)
In Maryland, it is illegal to sell condoms from vending machines with one exception:
Prophylactics may be dispensed from a vending machine only “in places where alcoholic beverages are sold for consumption on the premises.”
(I don't wanna be sorting their trash!)
Banging your head against a wall uses
150 calories an hour.
(Who volunteers for this stuff?)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(Is that why Flipper was always smiling?)
The ant can lift 50 times its own weight, can pull 30 times it’s own weight and always falls over on its right side when intoxicated… from drinking little bottles of ????
(Did the govt. pay for this research??)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(And walk on crap.. Ewww.)
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish don’t have brains.
(I know some people like that, too.)
And, the best for last…..
Turtles can breathe through their arse.
(Do you think they have bad breath?)
Some pics from the commute to work...
Devil's Marbles NT
Pajda getting one last photo
"LIttle John"
Woomera Detention CentreI just added a new feture to the blog, Technorati. I found out about it in an article by Newsnight's Daniel Pearl
Hopefully it proves useful to someone :)
Back to work .
Now that was a commute and a half.
Friday:
Left home at 4:30am for Sydney airport. Flew from Sydney to Brisbane then Brisbane to Mt Isa, the pilot attempted to land but a tail wind (200km/hr) prevented landing, he then tried from the other direction but was unable to get below the cloud to land. We then flew to Alice Springs and landed there. Refuelled, waited for the weather to clear at Mt Isa and then took off again. The pilot informed us that he would have one attempt at landing and if that was a "no-go" we would be going back to Brisbane which was met with dismay by all aboard. Luckily we were able to land at Isa.
Saturday:
Drove from Mt Isa to Barkly Homestead for lunch (Barkly Highway) then through Tennant Creek and down to Wauchope for the night. Wauchope NT pronounced war-cup-ee as opposed to Wauchope NSW pronounced war-hope. Wauchope is the nearest town to the Devil's Marbles, which we had a quick squiz at (I camped there on my honeymoon).
Sunday:
Drove from Wauchope to Alice Springs for lunch and a bit of shopping, then drove on to Kulgera NT for the night. Kulgera is the nearest town to the SA border.
Monday:
Drove from Kulgera to Coober Pedy SA for lunch, the on to Woomera for the night.
Tuesday:
We found a site for the remote and set it up ready to go, then we drove to Pimba (just near Woomera) for lunch. We then headed 88km south to a turn off towards Lake Torrens. Just over 100km of dirt and sand driving later (through desert) we came to Carrapateena which is where we will be doing this survey. We all spent the night here.
Wednesday:
We started to get the line set up and after lunch I set off back to Woomera while the others continued to set up. Spent the night at Woomera.
Thursday:
Finally ready to start work.
So there you have my commute to work.
For those of you who could be bothered, you can have a look at where we went using this map service.
Split Enz and Family Stuff.
Had a rather extended break which turned out to be good as I was home for:
Zoom is handy
Nap time kicked in in the carpark
The Family
Zac and his Pop
Zac having a spin
Giddy up
Howdy Pardner
On the count of 3, draw
Penny and the kids
Zac going for a walkCRIKEY.
Didn't realise it was that long since an update.
Well time to fix that.
All that rain the other month has resulted in a major change out here. The grass is green and the place almost looks habitable!
Green Paddocks
Lake Percol
Frozen fuel
Dan, trying to dig his way out.
