To Coober Pedy

I hadn’t been back in Alice Springs an hour when Stewart said that he’d like to head down to a place near Coober Pedy to look for a legless lizard. We were driving back from the airport and I must say that I didn’t think much of it at the time. A round trip of 1400 kms is a long way to go just for a little lizard, even if it is a legless one. Despite the distance and my initial uneasiness about putting the kilometers on my car, I agreed to drive down there with Stewart.

It’s always interesting to go out with Stewart as you get to see some weird and wonderful creatures that you otherwise would not have even the slightest chance of seeing. These things you need to look for! The drive down there was long and tiring, but the passing scenery and the book on tape kept interested. It’s always amazing to see how the landscape changes. Around Alice Springs it is hilly with a few low trees. As one drives south the scenery changes into sand country with dunes and spinifex dominating the landscape. All too soon though this changes to rocky woodland then open plains with vast treeless expanses stretching across the horizon. Around Coober Pedy though the landscape gets even more unusual. There isn’t a tree to be seen anywhere on the land. Large heaps of dirt (left over from the opal mining) are piled everywhere with new ones being made every week means that it is a continually changing the landscape. These large heaps become the dominant feature. On an open plain with a few rocks lying around the place even a mouse walking across it would be the dominant feature. For that reason, Coober Pedy seems to be another world. The native Coober Pedians make it even stranger.

We stopped just outside Coober Pedy and had a poke around. After a bit of searching and a lot of swearing about the flies, we found the legless lizard that we were looking for. After taking a few photos we were on our way back into town for tea. It was a long but eventful day.

The next day we were up early with the hope of having a look around the town and surrounding landscape. Unfortunately it had rained overnight which made me a bit apprehensive about driving over the roads. We drove out along the main road that heads off to Oonadatta and stopped just after the dog fence. Driving along I could feel the mud sticking to the wheels of the car. When I got out and over to the dog fence to take a photo and then walked back to the car and had grown by two inches. I didn’t think driving to the ‘Moon Plains’ would be a smart idea. Especially in my car that, while I had every confidence in the vehicle, wasn’t equipped for off road travel. That’s the trouble with getting blow outs and being bogged in the work vehicles (which has happened quite a bit over the past couple of weeks). It makes one quite uneasy about taking a two wheel drive vehicle with road tyres on muddy corrugated roads. The high clearance doesn’t help with those sorts of drives. We didn’t get to see the ‘Moon Plains’. I don’t know how moon like they are (apparently it’s just a wide open are with small rocks everywhere) but it will have to be left for another trip. I think that if it hadn’t had rained I would have gone on it. The road wasn’t that bad just sticky. It wasn’t as bad as driving on black soil but it might have been further down the road. I didn’t want to risk it.

In the end Stewart seemed happy enough to carry on and even happier when we found a little dragon on our way back. That was another new tick for him (and me). It was a big drive as we arrived back in Alice Springs just as it was getting dark.

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) 01, originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

Drying itself in the morning sun after going for a diver in a pond at Melbourne Zoo.

Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

Common Eggfly Butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina), originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

This photo was taken inside Melbourne Zoo's Butterfly House. The tip of this butterfly's wing has been broken off which may suggest a run in with some over-zealous tourist who tried to pick it up.

Orchard Butterfly (Papilio aegeus)

Orchard Butterfly (Papilio aegeus), originally uploaded by Ryan McLean.

I went to Melbourne Zoo this afternoon (again) and took this photo in the butterfly house.

Meerkats for my birthday

As I looked out of my window this morning the world was covered in a thick fog. From the spare room at Laura and Paul's apartment I could hardly see the other side of the street. The city, which can usually be seen with the lights still shining, was invisible. As I swung my legs out of bed I sighed. Today was my birthday. 32 today! It seems to have come around so quickly. Feels like only yesterday I was 31. The years just now seem to be going so fast.

This year was going to be different though. I was spending my birthday in Melbourne with Laura. I'd come down a couple of days before and had spent my days entertaining Max and shopping in the city. Our birthday morning started getting up with Laura and Paul seeing to Max's morning needs before we settled down with a cup of tea to open the presents. I received a book on insects and a Bill Bryson book from Mum and Dad and from Laura and Paul I got a meerkat cup, meerkat t-shirt and my photo taken with the meerkats at Melbourne Zoo.

We arrived at the zoo around 10:30 and went straight over to the meerkats to get our photo. We were let into the enclosure through the rear and sat on a log. As soon as we sat down the meerkats came over to us and started to over our laps. To keep them interested the keeper threw mealworms onto our laps. The meerkats loved them and grabbed them as soon as they could get to them. At one point we had all nine climbing on us. It was good fun. The meerkats are cute little things and their fur is surprisingly soft and their claws unsurprisingly sharp. It was something that I'd never really do and was very fun.

Laura and me with the meerkats.

Graduating

I never thought that graduating was a big thing. To me it seemed to be a lot of money to spend for a couple of seconds walking across the stage and getting to shake the hand of the head of the uni whom you have never even spoken to before. For that reason I wasn't going to go to my graduation. That's what I said but I still booked my flight back to Brisbane and paid the money after being told by a few friends that I really should go and do it.

And so this afternoon, me, Mum and Dad drove up to the Sunshine Coast for me to graduate. Before I could walk across the stage I had to get my uniform. It consisted of a cape, hood and a mortar board hat. After about fifteen minutes I was able to get it all on together the right way and looking presentable. With that we started to wander over to the sports stadium where the ceremony would take place. After two hours of waiting around we took our seats and settled down for the ceremony.

It started with a procession of all the academics in their gowns with all the trimmings. Speeches followed. After what seemed like a long while the procession of students getting their degrees began. From my degree there was only me and one other person who received their degrees. The other two people who were graduating didn't attend. Still we walked across the stage and shook hands with the Chancellor, he said well done and we walked off the stage. That was it.

It was all over very quickly but I'm kind of glad that I went. It was good to get my certificate. I feel quite proud of what I've done although I do think that anyone can complete a degree, it was good that I did it.

Me in my graduation gown and hat.

Dad, Me and Mum at the Graduation.

Complaints, complaints, complaints...

The first complaint about me came as a bit of a shock. I’d just arrived at work and the boss comes over to me to say that they have to write a ministerial (a brief for the minister for health which then gets distributed to the local member of parliament) about me. I wondered why. What had I done that was so bad? My first complaint was due to a letter that I had written. The proprietor had seen it as me threatening him and saying that I would close down the place. Where he got this idea from I don’t know. You only have to look at the track record of our program to see that we haven’t closed a place down recently. We haven’t closed a place down in the past five years. We haven’t closed a place down… ever, as far as I’m aware. I received a couple of letters from local members of parliament whom I really would have liked to have written back to. Unfortunately I can’t tell them where they can stick their support and just had to stick the letter on the file with no reply. Just another thing I guess I’ll have to get used to.