A camp-fire, such a simple pleasure, second-nature to a lot of us, and yet a whole new experience for some people. Our Emu Run tour arrived in their private camp site near Kings Canyon, Watarrka National Park, towards sunset. We had driven from Uluru for hours along dead-straight roads, flanked on either side by a… Continue reading Tracking in the Ancient Dunes of Kings Canyon, central Australia
Tag: geology
Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
‘Fox-holes’ perhaps? Did snipers crouch in these to fire down on an enemy below? What were these little rings of rocks strategically placed high up along the edges of central Turkish gorges? (see the featured image) How old are they? Fifty years? Five hundred? Five thousand maybe? We geologists all lived in a wonderful house… Continue reading Fifty, 500, or 5,000 years old? Ancient cultural landscape in the hills of Central Turkey
The Amazing Miocene Fossil Leaf Pack of Mata Creek, New Zealand
I was crouched in a long boat somewhere up a rainforest-swathed river in Kalimatan, Borneo, when I saw it – a ‘living’ example of a fossil leaf pack I had once seen in New Zealand. Several years before, I had been exploring down a little stream near St Bathans, New Zealand. I was looking for… Continue reading The Amazing Miocene Fossil Leaf Pack of Mata Creek, New Zealand
Kalimantan, Indonesia – Twenty minutes from death
The ‘high-wall’ of a mine has been the undoing of many a geologist (if an opencast mine is targeting something flat and dipping, like a coal-seam, the high-wall is the side of the pit above the deepest bed you are uncovering). Sometimes the undoing is accidental – the geo slips or the high-wall edge breaks away. Sometimes it’s… Continue reading Kalimantan, Indonesia – Twenty minutes from death
West Timor – Mine of Women and the Palm Wine Bomb
West Timor – Mine of Women, and the Palm-Wine Bomb I never thought to see a mine run by women. By why not? And why? Timor is an island north of Australia, and owes its existence to the geological collision between Australia and Indonesian archipelago to the north. The east side of Timor is now… Continue reading West Timor – Mine of Women and the Palm Wine Bomb
Continental Déjà Vu – the Great Escarpments (Australia, Brazil, South Africa)
Most Australians and many tourists will be aware of a prominent topographic feature not too far from the east coast. For example, the Blue Mountains are a nice day trip from Sydney, while nearly two and a half thousand kilometres to the north, a visitor can pop up to the Atherton Tablelands. Both of these… Continue reading Continental Déjà Vu – the Great Escarpments (Australia, Brazil, South Africa)