Operation: Make legs work for Australia*, update.

[7tree_hugger]

Ran 7k. Did not die. Did walk for a minute in the middle because DEATH wanted a word with me. But still. That will do for today's exercise.

I am now going to celebrate the only way I know how. PJs, Hot Chocolate & Baileys, and some daft film of daft. Possibly Hot Fuzz. Rock on.

*I refuse to die in the desert, damnit!

Comments

[poshlil]

SEVEN? I would be dead in a heap. You're mental. And awesome. And mental. (You won't die in the desert. Are you planning on going randomly hiking in WA or something? I promise you, it's not Sand of Arabia. There's a whole bunch of civilisation there. Possibly even a hospital!)

[7tree_hugger]

I'm doing a seven day hiking tour from Adelaide to Alice. Mountains. Desert. Not wanting to be the feeble "girl" at the back.

[ozdragonlady]

Definitely mental :)

However, there is civilisation between Adelaide and Alice. Possibly not as you know it, but civilisation nontheless. And not desert All the way. And not sand dunes, neither ....

hmmm...googled this. You have no need to worry about being the last girl standing. Sounds enormous fun. You will take thousands of pics.

Be prepared to be absolutely staggered at what you see. And dont freak out at the wildlife >:> (You camping or hostelling? camping now ... swags ... Things That Look for Warm Sleeping Place .... remember to knock out your boots in the morning >:>)

There will be internets. Not much, and likely rather slow, but internets. We expect updates.

You could always come afterwards and do the Bibbulman Track in WA .. Now that would be a hike! Not sure whether there are any tourist groups doing it ....

[7tree_hugger]

It's gonna be AWESOME!!!

And the "mind, she is blown" is one of the reasons high on the list for doing it.

Pictures, yes - I will take them. Updates maybe less so, I'm looking forward to hanging with trek mates over losing myself online. But I have a special Italian Leather bound notebook to write/sketch in, so I'll catch you all up after the fact.

Some hostels, at least one night of camping. Nervous, but excited.

[ozdragonlady]

Eh! we keep our tourists safe. No drop bears in the outback :)

Im thinking as a soil scientist you may get more out of this than the average tourist ... desert soils are supposed to be very interesting (do strange things with whatdoyoucallit when the grains get covered with a surface on drying) also here, think very ancient underlying rocks .. and Lake Eyre, biggest salt lake evah .. although there may still be water in it when you get there ... Coober Pedy has some spectacular rock .. there are massive salt plains .. not sure if you get northeast enough for them .. and Kings Canyon is not just marvellous for its greenery.

Remember to look up at night. Stars like you will never have seen them.

You can tell Im jealous ....

[7tree_hugger]

Heh, you know me too well. I have to confess I can't wait to hold some real Australian Soil in my hands. Oh, to run the texture through my fingers, to really KNOW what it is made from, to hold in my sensory memory the differences between your soil and ours instead of just book knowledge.

I Can't WAIT!!!

And the stars, yus. That was another reason I wanted to do the outback trip. I want to be able to look up into a different world and feel what that's like. To have NO navigation points of similarity. It'll be like walking on a new planet.

[ozdragonlady]

Its sand. Sand and more sand, sand and haematite, sand and zirconium, sand and ilmenite, sand and salt, sand thats ground down granite ... well, thats what it seems like. I understand Melbourne has clay that sets like cement if you arent careful in the garden. But they just want to be a mini-UK :P Sydney should have some ancient volcanic stuff, since many millions of years ago there was volcano there.

To be fair, its not (just sand). We have pea-stone which is amusing. Makes a conglomerate of round red pebbles stuck together with ground down round red pebbles .... we also have background radiation from the granite tops to them tha hills .... dunno what South Aus has. Something similar I think because theyre desert-like also.

In the desert there must be a high concentration of dormant seeds as well, given the way it flowers when it rains. And dormant insect eggs. And estivating frogs .... did you know we have frogs who lay their eggs in tunnels, not water? Some of them live in tunnels, come to that. Nothing like an invisible calling