Finishing up at Work

Hard at work looking up rental vehicles for the impending Trans-Australia Expedition.  Zach had just arrived in the country after a direct flight from LAX.  He kindly took this picture.

A prototype created by some friends at USyd to help me with my research.  It was… less than effective.  But quite fun nonetheless!

All of the Legos that we got to play with.

The course we had laid out.  It was a brilliant idea but didn’t quite work out the way we had intended.  At least the lab has a bunch of toys now!

Blue Gum Forest Bushwalk

From the lookout we headed down onto the first leg of the Grand Canyon Track.

Then we switched tracks to an old horse track.  The Grand Canyon Track had a large landslide that took out part of the trail to where we wanted to go.  The other track was not recommended for amateurs and those not familiar with the area.  That sounded perfect to us!

Looking down into the canyons.

Cliff-side overlook.  No guardrail necessary!

Dallas wasn’t so sure about going over to the edge.

Down into the jungle!

Trying to read a sketchy topo map, looking for a trail that is barely marked on the map and is only faintly visible on the ground.  Good thing I’m experienced at getting lost!

One of our many fun obstacles.

Somewhere near here we stumbled across a group of Aussies from Sydney who were very lost.  It was rather fun to give some natives directions on how to get back to the car park.  They were rather ill equipped.

The sign where the horse track joins with the main track at the bottom.  The horse track is in the opposite direction of the arrow.

There is a river around here somewhere.

Hi ho hi ho it’s down the trail we go!

Through the bush!

Have tree: will travel.

At a rise of rock in the jungle where you can get a view of the whole canyon complex.

Lots of scrambling was involved.

In the Blue Gum Forest.

Our campsite.

Dawn over the forest.

An annoying bird.

A massive blue gum tree.

On the way up and out toward the train.

It took quite some time for the mist and fog to burn off from the jungle.

We had to cross this river many times.

We climbed up this sheer cliff along a blasted-out route.  There would have been more photos but Dallas is rather afraid of heights and I was pretty tired from all the climbing.  Needless to say, it is an exciting route out.

Almost at the top and off of the worst of the cliff-face.

At the top. We went from very hot to very cold quite quickly. As we started walking up the road we bumped into the same gentleman who had helped us redirect our route the day before. This time he was in a car and offered us a ride into town. What a wild coincidence!

Blackheath to the Grand Canyon Trail

On this fire road we met a nice older guy who told us (in a great Australian accent) that the trail we were going to do had washed out and wasn’t passable.  He gave us some advice to get around the washout and still get to our destination.

Looking down toward the Blue Gum Forest in the bottom of the canyon.