I'll maybe lead off with the oddities. The lights in our wash car (showers and toilets) naturally attract a lot of flying insects. Something else came to play tonight though, a praying mantis. He just flitted around up there and nabbed the smaller flyers, pretty cool to watch. I always thought mantis' were bigger but this one was only about 2.5" long. I lifted the seat of one of the toilets and saw the biggest grasshopper I've ever seen. With it's legs out it easily measured 3" long and the body itself was a good 2"..... I used a different stall. Oh and I just about touched a tree frog that was sitting right by the handle to the wash car. I don't know if he was poisonous or not. I didn't lick him to make sure.
One of the cooler things I've seen lately were the wild horses (or brumbies in local speak). I haven't been able to catch them on camera yet but I vow to by the end of my time here. You wouldn't think that seeing horses in the wild would be cool, but it is. You'll have to check out this link for now. It's amazing how fit and healthy they are up (can't believe I just used up, I already consider Sydney and Melbourne down) here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brumby
Something that isn't getting old for me is the landscape. We've been mapping outcrops in hilly areas that overlook vast valleys with sharp cliff walls formed by sandstone escarpments. While not the easiest going it certainly provides some candy for the eyes while you're out there.
"That was a ridiculously steep hill. And about 200+ m high. At least we had a good view."
"Myself and Misty (she went to UofR a few years after me) posing by one of the outcrops that we mapped. The sandstone escarpment is in the background.
Oh right, the big title of the post was about the heat. It's safe to say that I won't be totally acclimatized to this heat by the time I leave. I think it'll get easier, but it will never be easy. I sweat a lot usually from exercise....here I sweat a lot from standing. Muggy air and +30C days just draw out all the moisture you thought you had and leave you feeling like a wet sponge. But, you may say, what about at night? Doesn't it cool off at night? Well sure little fella, it sure does cool off at night.... to +20C. Seriously, it doesn't get any colder than that over night now. I'm using a shitty Walmart sleeping bag (that was a throw in with a tent) that wouldn't work in Sask on a night after our hottest day, but I barely need it here. Something I've found during our little excursions into the bush is that the bush here is very different from home. It's sparse so it's easy to walk through, but there's no shade because even though you may have some trees around you the sun is so damn high (only 11 degrees latitude from the equator I think, Bengough is just above 49) that you have to be right under the tree to get any shade. Top that off with almost no wind and it makes for a difficult trek. So far I have only found 2 things that suck about the bush in Northern Territory: needle grass and green tree ants. The needle grass comes to such a fine point that it pokes through your pant leg and the tip snaps off just under your skin making it itchy and annoying. I've talked about the green tree ants a little bit before but basically they're the most aggressive ant down here and they're all over the place. But I digress.
So if anyone was wondering if they wanted to try out the Northern Territory during the dry season, know this, I've been sweating like a manatee in heat. If you're ok with that kind of sweat, you might be ok. Then again, you probably won't be hiking up huge hills in the middle of Arnhem Land. You'd probably hit up Crocodylus Park in Darwin and stay in an air conditioned hotel room. Basically because when it comes right down to it, you all have more sense than I do.
Tomorrow's forecast is super hot with a mix of hot. However, it's back to camp work so no worries about facing the heat on a big hike.
And if it seems like I'm bitching about the heat, it's only because it's the only thing I have to complain about here. I f@#$ing love Australia. And mark my words, this will not be the last time I come here.
***Bonus pic of the post. I set up my camera to long shutter speed that drew in a ton of light (for those in the know I had it set to 15sec). I wanted to get a view of the stars over my tent for you. The stars here are super bright (as they usually are in an isolated setting). I wish I could sleep with a mesh roof because the view would be spectacular. Sidenote to Tyler, loving the G11.***
"The trees really lit up too from because of the lights nearby in camp, but they definitely didn't look this bright to the naked eye."
No comments:
Post a Comment