Observing in Australia, #4
March 21-April 6, 2004
One more time to the great land down under -- again
for 4 nights of observing on our 2dF quasar survey. Then, a week of
traveling around South Australia before heading to Melbourne and back home.
I'm not sure why, but the flight down this time went pretty smoothly.
I even managed to sleep a while, which had the side benefit of allowing me to
miss both showings of "Haunted Mansion" (Rottentomatoes 13%). Then after 2 days
in Melbourne, off to the observatory:
Locusts were having their 17 year class reunion in rural New South Wales
during our visit. Here's our rental car for the drive to the observatory,
Dubbo to Coonabarabran. This is after 30 minutes of driving, the car
is coated in locusts...
Kangaroos at the observatory and outside our dorm rooms:
Sunset from the observatory catwalk:
And a view of the famed UK Schmidt telescope, with the Warrumbungles range
in the background
Out of 4 nights, I would say 2.5 were good, with lost
time mostly due to instrument aggravations. Not so good for my advisor, Karl, who got food poisoning on days 2 and 3...
Then it was off to Adelaide
for some sightseeing. Not particularly sure how I came to choose Adelaide
to visit -- maybe because it is the butt of jokes for people in every other
Australian city. It's supposed to be somewhat boring and flavorless. In hindsight, this is kind of true, but only kind
of. :)
Black swans on the bank of the river Torrens
University of Adelaide, which was kind of like the rest of the city -- pleasant, populated, and bustling, but fairly unremarkable, which is sometimes nice.
The Glenelg tram, a sort of classic tram still in use by residents and tourists,
which goes from the city center to the western suburb of Glenelg, a beach
town:
I rode down the tram route all the way to Glenelg, along disused warehouses, empty racetracks, and quiet suburbs, about an
hour's ride. This is what you get to see at the end:
Finally I decided it was time to set off into the great wilderness (ie. wine
country) by bike. After a day of getting collecting gear and warming
up to a 100 pound bike, I was ready:
The view towards Adelaide from the mountains after 1 hour of biking. Ok, maybe more like 2 hours:
I have to say it was very nice landscape to be riding through, although
it felt like I was dragging the Statue of Liberty behind me the whole time.
I passed vineyards and lots (and lots) of cattle country:
Very empty country, and this was a tourist drive. I went
for 20 minutes sometimes before being passed by a car. No other bikers
to be seen the whole time. Is it like Oklahoma, or Iowa, or what?
Camping on the first night -- no one else for 5 miles, I think.
Abandoned farmhouse
And after 2 days of uphill slogging, the most welcome sign ever:
I have to say this was the most beautiful stretch of highway
I've ever seen. Maybe because I was dead tired and grateful not to
have to pedal for those 3 final kilometers down to the sea? Still, it
was really pretty nice:
And the view back up that road from the bottom:
Then, after 2.5 days of biking and camping, back to civilization (or at least
Adelaide). Here are some pictures from the South Australian Museum
of Art, which was not bad at all:
Aboriginal art
Inked woodcuts (?) of Sydney in its early colonial days
non-Aboriginal art...
And some stuffed specimens
from the SA Natural History Museum -- the sailfish and spider crab are about
6 feet across, each! Also, a stuffed tasmanian devil, in case your mental image of one conjures up Bugs Bunny related whirling snarling cartoon creatures:
And after 2 days in Adelaide, off to Melbourne, where the Melbourne
International Comedy Festival was taking place (2 weeks of comedy overload).
The place was hopping, I tell you.
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4/12/04
