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Author: Geoff

Home / Geoff - Page 12
Castelnaud Castle
France

I am Castelnaud Castle

ByGeoff 9 March 201314 July 2021

No one knows when I was first built. In the early 13th century, my lord, Bernard de Casnac, became a…

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Les Baux
France

I am Les Baux

ByGeoff 2 March 201314 July 2021

Les Baux-de-Provence has a spectacular position in the Alpilles mountains, set atop a rocky outcrop crowned with a ruined castle…

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Pont du Gard
France

I am Pont du Gard

ByGeoff 2 March 201314 July 2021

I am Pont du Gard – a Roman aqueduct bridge (Bridge of the Gard River) I am part of the…

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Tower at Uzes
France

I am Uzes

ByGeoff 2 March 201314 July 2021

The title of duke of Uzès is the premier title in the peerage of France, coming right after the princes…

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Roman bridge across the Rhone
France

I am a Roman bridge across the Rhone

ByGeoff 27 February 201313 July 2021

I am a Roman bridge across the Rhone In its lower reaches the Rhone is a big wide river. The…

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Barbegal
France | Road trips

I am Barbegal – a Roman watermill

ByGeoff 27 February 201313 July 2021

I am Barbegal – Roman watermill The Barbegal aqueduct and mill is a Roman watermill complex a few kilometres north…

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Luberon hilltop village of Goudes
France

France 2013 – week 3 – Sorgue

ByGeoff 23 February 201313 July 2021

16 Feb 2013 Saturday. Day 15. Moving day. Up early at 6 in order to leave the apartment before 7…

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Battle of Arausio
France | Road trips

I am the battle of Arausio

ByGeoff 23 February 201313 July 2021

I am the Battle of Arausio – a battle that changed the course of history The Battle of Arausio took…

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I am a Luberon hill-village
France | Road trips

I am a Luberon hill-village

ByGeoff 22 February 201313 July 2021

I am a Luberon hill-village Villages in Provence were often built nestled into the hillsides or on top of hills. …

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I am Provence
France | Road trips

I am Provence

ByGeoff 21 February 201313 July 2021

I am Provence – the Roman Provence Narbonensis So called because the Romans made the region into the first Roman…

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I am a waterwheel on Isle-sur-la-Sorgue
France | Road trips

I am a waterwheel on Isle-sur-la-Sorgue

ByGeoff 21 February 201313 July 2021

For a very long time, the waters of the River Sorgue (east of Avignon) provided many factories with driving force….

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I am Mont Ventoux
France | Road trips

I am Mont Ventoux

ByGeoff 21 February 201313 July 2021

I am a mountain in the Provence region of southern France.  As the name might suggest (venteux means windy in…

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Shield Shrimp

When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).

Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.

It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.

Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.

Acacia peuce

A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.

Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.

 

Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River

Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.

It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.

Mound Springs

Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.

Great Artesian Basin map Great Artesian Basin diagram

 

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