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Helen & Geoff

Author: Geoff

Home / Geoff - Page 5
Crich HomeAway cottage Two bedrooms, large lounge, large kitchen (with full-sized fridge, dishwasher, washing machine), garden
England | Road trips

Europe Trip 2018 – week 5 Crich Derbyshire

ByGeoff 1 June 20183 October 2023

Essentially Danish to NE English to SW Monday 28 May 2018. Day 28. Drive from Frodsham (in Cheshire and old…

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Junction of two major inland waterways: Mersey Ship Canal and Shropshire Union Canal Without canals like these - no industrial revolution
England | Road trips

Europe Trip 2018 – week 4 Cheshire Liverpool

ByGeoff 29 May 20189 July 2023

The hydraulic system is hidden in the middle Most of the structure was added for the electrical adaptation Thursday 24…

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THE Ironbridge - the cast-iron bridge built over the Severn River in 1779 that helped kickoff the Industrial Revolution Built by an iron master who was a carpenter - hence mortar & tenon joints. No two spans the same. The cast-iron structure was built first and the brick pillars and road work added later. 
England | Road trips

Europe Trip 2018 – week 3 Banbury Ironbridge

ByGeoff 24 May 201810 July 2021

Thursday 17 May 2018. Day 17. Today begins the real road trip. We have begun with the car. We took…

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London - taken from Royal Observatory Grenwich Declared to be the reference point for world time and longitude Queen's house in the foreground, across Docklands to London city
England | London

Europe Trip 2018 – week 2 London

ByGeoff 17 May 20183 October 2023

Entrance to EuroTunnel Your get the idea Thursday 11 May 2018. Day 11. This was a huge day. Eurostar From…

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Riding up Champs-Elysees
France | Paris

Europe Trip 2018 – week 1 – Paris

ByGeoff 12 May 201810 July 2021

Riding up Champs-Elysees We are embarking on an eight week road trip beginning in Paris, London and then by road…

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On Holy Cow
Resort Telemark | Sun Peaks | Telemark

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 6/7

ByGeoff 9 March 201810 July 2021

Powder in trees Sun Peaks Saturday 24 Feb 2018. Another day off for me. Helen has gone out for a…

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From our window at Nancy Greene's Cahilty Main runs from Sunburst - Blazer, Cruiser, Exhibition & Broadway In front, 'the slope' that is climbed and rolled each day.
cross-country skiing | skate skiing | Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 5

ByGeoff 25 February 201810 July 2021

Thursday 15 Feb 2018. Sunny and cold -13ºC in the village and -17ºC at Morrisey top. We skate skied the…

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First tracks down perfect grooming - Sun PeaksFirst tracks down perfect grooming - Sun Peaks
cross-country skiing | skate skiing | Sun Peaks

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 4

ByGeoff 18 February 201810 July 2021

Tuesday 6 Feb 2018. A change today. Our first day of cross-country skiing. We took the skating skis out for…

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Geoff, Bruce, Helen, Juliet
Downhill skiing | Resort Telemark | Sun Peaks | Telemark

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 3

ByGeoff 18 February 201810 July 2021

Distant snowy peaks Wednesday 31 Jan 2018. A delightful sunny day. We were on the sixth chair for runs down…

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Korea by Michael Pembroke
Book reviews

Korea by Michael Pembroke

ByGeoff 15 February 201810 July 2021

This is a very good read and should be a compulsory read in order to understand our times. Michael Pembroke…

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Getting ready for a powder day at Sun Peaks
Downhill skiing | Resort Telemark | Sun Peaks | Telemark

Sun Peaks trip 2018 – Week 2

ByGeoff 2 February 201810 July 2021

Top of Sunburst Lift Wednesday 24 Jan 2018. Skied 6 runs, 2:30 hours, 2,800 descent, max speed 42.2kph, recovery 30…

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Home Fire
Book reviews

Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie

ByGeoff 31 January 201810 July 2021

This is an excellent book. Extremely well written. Kamila Shamsie tackles a difficult subject with a very light touch. We…

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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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