by Bob Jardine
When we first got out into the “country” -- not the hard core “outback”, but well out into the rural areas, we started noticing that nearly all of the cars (but not our city-based rentals) had huge double bumpers. That is, in addition to the standard bumper, there was a set of humongous metal bars enclosing the front end of the car like a cage. The locals glibly called these “Roo Bars”. We guessed that the idea is that it isn’t a matter of IF, but WHEN you’re going to hit a Roo. Apparently, they are as stupid as deer about crossing the highway, but there are a lot more of them.
When our host fixed the flat tire on David’s car, we got into a conversation about the wisdom of driving long distances on dirt roads where it isn’t uncommon to be the only traveler on the road for hours. Apparently, the locals normally carry two spares! At first, I was mildly surprised that he was able to fix the flat. Have you ever tried to take a tire off a rim? It isn’t easy, unless you have one of those hydraulic tire-fixing machines that you see in garages. But after awhile, it dawned on me that the average Aussie living in the outback doesn’t have any choice -- he’s got to be his own auto mechanic, and tire repair patches are a normal shopping list item!
All three of our stops (near Hawker, Wirrealpa Station, and Arkaroola) were in and around the Flinders Ranges, a particularly interesting geological area. Some of the oldest rock on the surface of our planet. Marek, we thought of you; you would have gone crazy!
I was very impressed with Doug Sprigg, the force behind Arkaroola, as well as with his father, Reg Sprigg, a geologist who is probably reasonably well known to other geologists, but not widely recognized outside. I’m sure David will tell this story in far more detail.
The only hitch in the trip from my perspective is that I caught a nasty cold -- probably on the airplane on the way there. I started having mild symptoms after the first couple of days, and it lasted the whole trip plus some. Couldn’t have helped that I had spent the last three weeks prior to leaving working "double time" trying to get “bidness” in order. Nor could it have helped that I forced myself to observe nearly every possible hour (except the first night), no matter how miserable I felt. The cold let up a little bit in the last day or two before we left, so I was able to get on the airplane for the flight home, but only barely.
As always, it was a great pleasure to both hang out with and observe with Albert and David.
I filled 59 log book pages with approximately 340 log entries (based on a quick scan & count). Some of these 340 entries represent duplicate observations, as I often did some reading on an interesting object during the day after first observing it and then coming back to it to observe in more detail on a second night. I’d guess that I observed somewhere between 250 and 300 unique objects.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 15, 2005 15:07:14 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Apr 23, 2005 20:23:42 PT