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A new quick link to this blog is currently in action.  For easier navigation please see http://www.ryanmclean.org.  A new website is currently being developed for this site so... and I've always wanted to say this.  Watch this space!

Photos from Mum, Dad, Laura, Paul and Max's Visit to Alice Springs

Max hiding behind the television

Max and me standing outside the nocturnal house at the Alice Springs Desert Park 

Laura and Max watching the bird show at the Desert Park

Me at Simpsons Gap

Family at Simpsons Gap

Max running on a train at the Old Ghan Museum

Max playing on a tractor at the Old Ghan Museum

Climbing Mt Gillen

This afternoon I went up Mt Gillen. Didn't get to the top but got most of the way. Up the rock face and to the tip. We didn't walk along to the cairn as it was getting dark. Even so the 4.3km was a nice round trip. I haven't ever come down in the dark before. The moon was a little late in rising so it didn't help much on the way down. I'm glad I had my head torch.

The view from the first look out.

The view going up the hill.

View of the first valley as the sun goes down.

Posing for a photo as the sun goes down.

Spraying and frogging

Before heading off to Tennant Creek tomorrow I thought I'd post these taken by one of the immunisation nurses from the last trip.

Me posing for a photo while spraying a house.

Packing up the car after a long, hot day.

A frog that was found in one of the drains. This guy received a face-full of spray. I washed him off kept an eye on him for a few hours afterwards. Later on that evening, as he seemed to be fine, I let him go.

Trippin' in Tennant

Once again it is another entry about me going up to Tennant Creek. I've been going up quite a bit lately and next week will be heading up again. It's getting easier and moping up the few properties that weren't done due to people not being home means most afternoons, at the hottest part of the afternoon, has a large component of it in the air conditioning of the car.

From house to house we went spraying, tipping and sweating through the yards of the houses. The neat, the messy, the clean, the putrid. We went through them all with a smile. Sometimes people were happy to see us, other times they were not. While we could only speculate on the reasons, (usually drug related as people didn't really seem to worry about any mess) and that was why we weren't allowed to enter.

This last trip up was different from the others. Only because on the way up and back I had to drive through flood waters. It was a stormy week in Central Australia and there were several large downpours over the week. When I was driving up the dark clouds were ahead of me. The blur in the sky told me that there was rain. I had now idea how much. One storm on the way up lasted maybe half an hour. That's half an hour of torrential rain, not being able to see out of the windscreen as the rain was falling so hard. On several occasions the rain lifted slightly but for most of the time I was driving blind. It became particularly hazardous when the floodways started to flow. I passed through several some relatively shallow, some not so. The deepest was probably around 40 cm deep (found out by the depth signs on the side of the road). I made it through but several car could not, and were pulled up on the side of the road waiting for the waters to subside.

Me driving into the storm

On the way back I left Tennant Creek early. The road was closed at Aileron (400km from Tennant or 100km from Alice Springs). It would take 5 hours to get there so I just hoped that the waters would have gone down by the time I got there. Despite the rain falling pretty much all the way back to Alice Springs, the water at Aileron was only around 10-20cm deep as I passed through. It certainly made for a more interesting drive.

Murdering Mozzies

I’ve just come back from a week in Tennant Creek torturing and murdering poor defenseless creatures. It’s just a normal week for me. The Dengue Mozzie (Aedes aegypti) has returned to Tennant Creek and therefore an eradication program is now in place. For this program the Medical Entomology branch is required to check and spray every house in the town. Environmental Health volunteered my services to help out. I don’t mind going up to Tennant Creek apart from the effect that has on my karma!

While up at Tennant Creek this time I did something that I’ve never done before. I went for a swim in Mary Anne Dam. The dam is situated just outside of town and is a peaceful spot on a hot afternoon. The dam is surrounded with trees and has barbeque facilities. We went down there after a hot day wandering the streets of Tennant Creek and it was nice and relaxing sitting there. Well worth doing if you're up there.

Stockholm

I was up with the sun this morning and headed up to the top deck to watch the sun rise. There were no waves as we wound our way through the mass of small islands that surround Stockholm. As the city itself is built across several islands it is no surprise that it is also surrounded with islands. The boat arrived around nine-thirty and we drove into town and had a quick tour of the town. I then went on the 'optional' tour of the Vasa Museum. The Vasa was a warship that sank in the harbour on her maiden voyage. She was discovered in 1961 raised, restored and is now on show for all to see. It ship was very impressive and really big too. The city itself was nice with winding streets and old buildings. There were a lot of people however which made moving through the small streets a little more difficult. That evening we had our last dinner with the group. Said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

Helsinki

I liked Helsinki. It was a nice city and one I could quite happily go back to. Clean with friendly people. We had a tour of the city and this time it wasn't rushed and took in all of the major sites. The tour ended at the Senate Square and we were given the rest of the afternoon to have a look around the city centre. I did just that. I walked down the mall, around the harbour and a had a good look though a couple of the department stores. We were catching the ferry in the afternoon to so I stopped at a pharmacy and got some sea-sickness tablets, just in case. It was good to see that English is spoken in more places here otherwise my trip to the chemist would have turned out to be a bit harder. The weather was cool but bright and sunny and it was the perfect day.

Everyone met up back at Senate Square where, after a group photo, we climbed back on the bus and were taken to the ferry. The ferry was another big one. Inside there were around 14 levels. Three levels of shops and the rest were rooms. I had to share a room with four other people. It was small and didn't have a window. After taking my tablets I went down to join a few others from the tour in the bar. As we departed I went upstairs to watch the city fall into the distance. Up on deck it was very windy, just outside the harbour you could see the waves and their white caps. It looked rough. Once we got out past the surrounding islands, it was. Soon the rain started again and the waves seemed to get bigger. I was glad that I took my sea-sickness tablet but I took one more just to be on the safe side. They did their job and I spent and enjoyable evening back in the bar below decks. Even when I went to bed the tablets were still doing their job. I could feel the boat lift off with every wave and a second or so later crash down before the cycle started again.

St Petersburg to Helsinki

It was an early morning the next day as we headed back into the city centre. We had a quick (and I do mean quick) tour of the Peter and Paul Fortress. The fortress is home to the Russian Mint, the place where Peter the Great is buried and was even used as a military prison that help famous prisoners such as the writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The guide raced us through some of the different sections, not waiting for photos or for the group to come in close before giving his spiel on the fortress. At the end of the tour we were given some time to browse the overpriced souvenir shops before getting on the bus again and heading north-west towards Finland.

We drove through horizontal rain to the border where we had our passports stamped by guards with stern expressions. We entered Finland at Soumi and as soon as we were there, the differences between the two countries were obvious. The towns were neater, the cars were clean, the roads were good and I could read and understand some of the signs.

We drove through lakes, forests and more lakes. Everything was very wintery and even in the pouring rain looked magical. We arrived at the Scandic Hotel in Helsinki in the evening. It was a nice hotel and good to get back and relax after rushing around Russia.