Date:	2006-02-10 02:15
Subject:	Rambling's cont-
Security:	Public
Mood:	content

Then they fly you off to Arnhem Land and you spend the next month flying around the escarpment in a chopper doing Electro Magnetic Survey work and your getting paid to do it, get up at a leisurely 7 am in the morning head down to the airport hop in the chopper and fly off to work in some of the most spectacular country in Australia, We were lucky enough that the machine broke down and it took a week for them to send out another, so we spent a week flying all over Arnhem land and Kakadu.
Like I said you got to work with some amazing people to, people with amazing skills not only job skills but in bush skills as well , most times you are hundreds of kilometers from any towns if anything goes wrong you have to rely on your ability to survive , and of those around you, and when you get someone that is not equipped to be out there you can have real trouble ,as happened with an English Geologist. Who failed to drink enough water , then staggered around the bush for several hours with heat stroke , it was only when we came across his compass lying on a rock that we realized the trouble he was in .
It took 4 of us, 2 hour to find him nearly dead under a tree. We found out later that earlier in the day he had lost his water bottle and instead of going back and finding it or going back to the camp and getting another one, he kept on going, not realizing how quickly dehydration can occur in the tropics and how serious heat stroke is. By the time he did it was to late.
Story associated with the the picture. Merry River along the banks of the river we had our camp were we spent three months. The river by the way peaceful as it looks does have crocodiles in it , so to get our water you would dip the bucket in the river then scurry back up the bank, we did this for 2 months till one day a nostril stuck its head out just as one of the Guys was going down to get the water after that we went into town and got a little pump and threw that in the river.
But then again further down stream the water flowed very fast and the crocks won't go near fast flowing water so we used to go swimming down there every sunday afternoon and have a few beers to unwind at the end of the week

cont- later

Date:	2006-02-08 01:11
Subject:	Ramblings
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm

If you have looked at the other photo's I have uploaded then you will see that I do a little bit of traveling . I love it in fact I am addicted to it , ever since I took my first overseas holiday to New Zealand in 1980 , I got on that plane and something clicked inside me and have been doing it pretty much ever since .
I was luck enough to travel around Australia with work , doing exploration for mining companies in remote northern Australia flying round in choppers in Kakadu Arnhem Land the Northern Territory and Western Australia, then being lucky enough to be able to take 5 months a year off when the wet season came around to travel overseas. To be paid great money with great holidays, but then again when you where working, you really where working. None of this 8 hour day 5 day week stuff.
We would work for 4 weeks straight, 4 days off then back out again till then end of the season. An average day would start at 5.30 where you would get out of your swag . For those that don't know what a Swag is it is a bed roll . It consists of a canvas sheet on which a foam mattress with your bedding sits. In the morning you roll it up to keep the insects and snakes out and of a night you roll it out to sleep on. The canvas acts as a ground sheet and keeps the dew off you at night.
Then you go out and walk through the bush all day putting in survey lines talking soil and rock samples, lugging them back to the ute, on average 20km a day getting back around 5 o'clock. You would have lunch out there usually boil the billy where you where, a few sandwiches and then back to it. although I did have lunch in some amazing places , sitting on the banks of the river with the billy boiling under a shady tree really you can't complain. You cook over a fire or the barbie and hope like hell the generator doesn't break down. Like it did at the camp in the photo 4 days before we were meant to leave No one wanted to travel the 100km over terrible dirt roads then another 300km to Darwin to get a replacement and travel al the way back so by the end of the job we were eating green meat. Just meant that it got cooked a hell of a lot longer and the booze that the boss had for the end of the job went down all the better.
In the 10 years of doing it though I never had a pair of boots last more than a month, the rocks would tear them apart, you would go into the stores and buy the newest wonder boot guaranteed by some Everest climber 3 weeks later they be worn out worse than a $50 pair . In one 3 month period we did nearly 1600 km of bush walking.
It is a hard way to make a living but it has it's moments too. You get to see some of the most amazing places. Like the Tanami Desert on the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory , the middle of nowhere. 700km from Alice Springs the closest town of any sorts, yet of a night absolutely stunning , you have never seen the stars until you have seen them in the crisp clean air of a desert nearly 1000km from any pollution you look up and it nealy blinds you. Then you get to work with some fantastic down to earth people make a tonne of money. cont tomorrow

Date:	2006-02-04 01:15
Subject:	welcome
Security:	Public
Mood:	calm

Hi this is the first time that I have used live journal so I will just meander along .
The Picture that I chose to use as my default is of a Temple in Cambodia called Ta Prom which is where part's of Tomb Raider was shot , and it' is also a larger part of the temple complex that is Angkor Wat; and although Angkor Wat was spectacular I found that some of the smaller temples where equally impressive and in the case of Ta Prom out shone Angkor Completely not because they where grander but because there are still parts of the jungle inside the temples, like the massive Banyan tree with it's roots spreading along the roof ,down the walls and some 15 meters along the ground; whereas Angkor has been completely cleaned of all jungle and I believe has lost it's charm; Sure it is a truly impressive structure and a triumph to their engineering skill but there are masses of tourist there the inevitable touts , I know they are only trying to make a living but after having 50 sets of postcards put in your face it can get a bit much but it detract from the experience. where as you can go out to some of the more remote temple and be the only person there. places like Beng Melea which are nearly in total ruin but are amazing to walk around and climb through the remaining structures
If you do plan to go may I suggest you go in August , September, sure it's a little wet but you will find that it is less crowded and cheaper than during the main season and anyway it's a monsoonal climate it only rains for a hour a day but when it rains boy does it rain. Cambodia though is a great place with great people a place that I will be going back to in the near future ,
Well that's a little bit about the picture , I do a fair bit of traveling mainly in Asia , love the Asian people Especially the Laos, Burmese and Thais. This year I went to China and whoa did that place blow me away . I am definitely going back there . Only spent a month there and saw 1 province , took a trip on the Yangtze River to see the three gorges what a shame they are flooding that place , but next time I go back I will spend a year there .
Well that all for now try to keep adding things to it , but am basically a lazy person generally speaking; prefer to be either on the road or in bed , I will probably only add to it when I suffer my bought of insomnia. till then Happy Trails