Como en esta vida hay que hacer de todo, la semana pasada me fui a plantar árboles con la empresa CO2 Australia.
Se trata de plantaciones de eucalyptus para capturar C02 y vender despues los creditos a empresas que "contaminen", un tema muy de moda en Australia ahora que estna a punto de aprobar el llamado "Impuesto del Carbono"para grabar a las grande empresas contaminantes por tonelada de C02 emitido.
El caso es que surgió la oportunidad de hacer este trabajillo durante unos días y no la desaproveché. Y menuda paliza!! Plantamos 1150 arbolitos cada uno en los 5 días que estuvimos en el campo. Eso supone agacharse hasta el suelo y levantarse de nuevo más de 250 veces al día! Lo bueno es que llovió a mares, asi que el suelo estaba blandito y no fu tan dificil clavar la pala. Lo malo es que acabamos de barro hasta las orejas.
Como experiencia estuvo divertido, pero como bien dice Mihai, no me he pasado toda la visda estudiando para acabar cargando sacos.. :)
La jardinería mejor la dejo para los ratos libres.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Adventures in the Northern Territories
Last week we took some days off and flew to the so called "Top End" in the Northern Territory of Australia.
Once at Darwin we hired a 4WD campervan that would allow us to drive through all the unsealed roads and get to more isolated areas far from the mass tourism. At first the car looked great...but that was just "at first".... Later on the first night we would discover that the car had no mosquito nets in the windows... that meant either you sleep with all the windows closed and you suffocate or you keep them open and be literally eaten by thousand of mosquitoes.... great, isn't it??? After that horrible first night we bought a mosquito net and duct tape and covered the windows so we could be free of mosquitoes and have some air at the same time... bud luck that we forgot to close the small rear windows and so we woke up covered by mosquito bites again!!! ;(
In any case, the 4WD paid back... we drove hundreds of "corrugated" roads where all the car shacked like crazy and we crossed rivers where water raised up to 70cm!!! By the en of the trip, we could not open the side door, we could not close the back door, and we had lost several screws.... but that's why you rent a 4WD!!!
We visited three national parks: Kakadu, Nitmiluk (or Katherine Gorge) and Litchfield. The highlight in Kakadu were the crocodiles: there were both freshwater crocs, smaller and shy, and saltwater croc, very aggressive and really big!! There were many places where swimming was restricted because of the crocs. The park rangers tried to capture them and relocate in other "less turistic" areas. In the places where swimming was allowed it was always "under your own risk" ... creepy!!! Still we managed to swim in amazing places, and many times all by ourselves. Whenever we found a waterfall, we would swim to the base.
We also saw some aboriginal art and had a interesting chat with one of the park rangers about the situation of the aboriginal populations and the future of their culture.
And every night we camped in quiet places, far from the road, where we could make fire (the most effective way of keeping the mosquitoes away!) and enjoy a thousand of stars.
Overall, it was a great trip. Enjoy the pictures!!
PS. There are some videos worth to be seen... check them on the links below!!
video 1. Saltwater croc
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FBhJQWtMq3YXvSveZLRE7Q?feat=directlink
video 2. Swimming at the Jim Jim falls
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/66M6sbJLQO5I1lA-Id9Rnw?feat=directlink
video 3. Crossing the Jim Jim creek
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_XcW_yhklPt8xfiKWH3LAg?feat=directlink
Once at Darwin we hired a 4WD campervan that would allow us to drive through all the unsealed roads and get to more isolated areas far from the mass tourism. At first the car looked great...but that was just "at first".... Later on the first night we would discover that the car had no mosquito nets in the windows... that meant either you sleep with all the windows closed and you suffocate or you keep them open and be literally eaten by thousand of mosquitoes.... great, isn't it??? After that horrible first night we bought a mosquito net and duct tape and covered the windows so we could be free of mosquitoes and have some air at the same time... bud luck that we forgot to close the small rear windows and so we woke up covered by mosquito bites again!!! ;(
In any case, the 4WD paid back... we drove hundreds of "corrugated" roads where all the car shacked like crazy and we crossed rivers where water raised up to 70cm!!! By the en of the trip, we could not open the side door, we could not close the back door, and we had lost several screws.... but that's why you rent a 4WD!!!
We visited three national parks: Kakadu, Nitmiluk (or Katherine Gorge) and Litchfield. The highlight in Kakadu were the crocodiles: there were both freshwater crocs, smaller and shy, and saltwater croc, very aggressive and really big!! There were many places where swimming was restricted because of the crocs. The park rangers tried to capture them and relocate in other "less turistic" areas. In the places where swimming was allowed it was always "under your own risk" ... creepy!!! Still we managed to swim in amazing places, and many times all by ourselves. Whenever we found a waterfall, we would swim to the base.
We also saw some aboriginal art and had a interesting chat with one of the park rangers about the situation of the aboriginal populations and the future of their culture.
And every night we camped in quiet places, far from the road, where we could make fire (the most effective way of keeping the mosquitoes away!) and enjoy a thousand of stars.
Overall, it was a great trip. Enjoy the pictures!!
PS. There are some videos worth to be seen... check them on the links below!!
video 1. Saltwater croc
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/FBhJQWtMq3YXvSveZLRE7Q?feat=directlink
video 2. Swimming at the Jim Jim falls
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/66M6sbJLQO5I1lA-Id9Rnw?feat=directlink
video 3. Crossing the Jim Jim creek
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_XcW_yhklPt8xfiKWH3LAg?feat=directlink
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Sydney
Flash trip to Sydney for work. I had an entire free afternoon but it was raining cats and dogs..In the evening the rain stopped a little bit and I went out....nice city, like it very much, have to go back with Cris.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Our first Australian Adventure// Nuestra primera aventura australiana
Last week, after five months living in Melbourne, we finally went on our first Australian adventure. For this first trip we decided to visit Central Australia.
We flew to Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there we rented a campervan. Despite we had booked a two-persons campervan, the company "upgraded" us and gave us a 4-people campervan... what in the end turned out to be more a punishment than an upgrade: huge car, more difficult to drive and with a huge fuel consumption!!
Our first stop was King's Canyon at Watarrka National Park, 500km south from Alice springs. It was a long way driving, so we decided to take a shortcut through an unsealed road. Because the car insurance wouldn't cover us in that road we asked a couple who had their car stopped at the intersection how bad was it. The lady told us it was ok (at the same time that her husband was changing a flat tyre and fixing some other things on their caravan), but we decided to believe her, ignore the swearing of her husband and suffer the consequences.... what a hell of a road!!! The longest 100km ever!!
We arrived to King's Canyon campground to discover that they had a mice plague. Little mice run everywhere: in the restaurant, the toilets and, according to the noises we heard in during the night, they probably got into our campervan too!!
Next morning we did a 3hours walking loop on the Canyon and in the afternoon we drove further south to the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The Uluru is a huge red island mountain (860m high, 10km circunference) in the middle of the desert. Its colour changes along the day, depending on the sun, from greyish to bright red. It's something difficult to capture with the camera, but it is really impressive and you don't get bored of staring at it. On our first day at the park we saw the sunsrise, we walked around the rock and, despite my guilt feelings for not respecting the aboriginal culture, we also climbed it.
Australian aborigines don't look at as the New Zealanders or the Hawaian aborigines we've seen in our previous trips. While the later descend from the polinesians, arrived to the island by the sea and lived on the coast, the Australian looked very simmilar to the people in Africa, with really dark skin and similar face features. It seems that the Australians are direct descendents from one of the emigration waves that leaft Africa more than 40.000 years ago and reached Australia when it was still conected to the other continents by a land bridge.
The most incredible thing is that these people have not evolved at all since then!!! By the time the Europeans arrived to Australia, few hundreds years ago, they were still living as nomads and hunter-gatherers. Now they fight to preserve their culture, but what do they want... to keep on eating warms and ants? We had long discussions with the other turists we met about the aboriginal people, their culture, and their big social problems (alcoholism, unemployment...), and we all agree that they have an uncertain future.
On our second day we visited the much less known Kata Tjuṯa, another rock formation 50km west from the Uluru. These were 36 huge rock domes that looked like giant heads from far. Surprisingly, everybody knows about the Uluru but no-one ever speaks about the Kata Tjuṯa, despite being as nice as the famous Uluru.
This has been a great trip. We have now added a tick to the list of places we have to visit in these three years. And now that Central Australia is done... which will be the next one??
*********
Despues de varios meses viviendo en Australia hemos podido por fin hacer nuestro primer viaje. Esta vez ha tocado Australia Central, en particular el Kings's Canyon en el parque Natural de Watarrka y el famoso monte Uluru y las menos famosas Kata-Tjuta. Para ello alquilamos una caravana y condujimos cientos de kilimetros a traves del desierto australiano. El paisaje aburridisimo, eso si, y ni una emisora de radio (que te puedes esperar estando en medio de ninguna parte). Pero el camino mereció la pena. Entiendo que el Uluru sea una de las maravillas de mundo, pues tiene algo especial. Nadie lo esperaría, pues en el fondo es una roca en medio del desierto... pero algo hay que no te aburres nunca de mirarla. Y además, descubrimos las Kata-Tjuta, unas rocas que bien parecen cabezas gigantes. Estas no son tan famosas como e Uluru, aunque bien lo merecen.
Ademas hemos conocido algo mas de la cultura aborigen. Esta "gente" emigró desde áfrica hace unos 40.000 años, cuando Australia todavía estaba conectada con el resto del mundo, y no han cambiado mucho desde entonces: hasta hace bien poco seguian comiendo gusanos y hormigas, y recolectando frutos en el desierto.
Total, un gran viaje. Ya estamos planeando el siguiente!
We flew to Alice Springs, a small town in the middle of nowhere, and there we rented a campervan. Despite we had booked a two-persons campervan, the company "upgraded" us and gave us a 4-people campervan... what in the end turned out to be more a punishment than an upgrade: huge car, more difficult to drive and with a huge fuel consumption!!
Our first stop was King's Canyon at Watarrka National Park, 500km south from Alice springs. It was a long way driving, so we decided to take a shortcut through an unsealed road. Because the car insurance wouldn't cover us in that road we asked a couple who had their car stopped at the intersection how bad was it. The lady told us it was ok (at the same time that her husband was changing a flat tyre and fixing some other things on their caravan), but we decided to believe her, ignore the swearing of her husband and suffer the consequences.... what a hell of a road!!! The longest 100km ever!!
We arrived to King's Canyon campground to discover that they had a mice plague. Little mice run everywhere: in the restaurant, the toilets and, according to the noises we heard in during the night, they probably got into our campervan too!!
Next morning we did a 3hours walking loop on the Canyon and in the afternoon we drove further south to the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. The Uluru is a huge red island mountain (860m high, 10km circunference) in the middle of the desert. Its colour changes along the day, depending on the sun, from greyish to bright red. It's something difficult to capture with the camera, but it is really impressive and you don't get bored of staring at it. On our first day at the park we saw the sunsrise, we walked around the rock and, despite my guilt feelings for not respecting the aboriginal culture, we also climbed it.
Australian aborigines don't look at as the New Zealanders or the Hawaian aborigines we've seen in our previous trips. While the later descend from the polinesians, arrived to the island by the sea and lived on the coast, the Australian looked very simmilar to the people in Africa, with really dark skin and similar face features. It seems that the Australians are direct descendents from one of the emigration waves that leaft Africa more than 40.000 years ago and reached Australia when it was still conected to the other continents by a land bridge.
The most incredible thing is that these people have not evolved at all since then!!! By the time the Europeans arrived to Australia, few hundreds years ago, they were still living as nomads and hunter-gatherers. Now they fight to preserve their culture, but what do they want... to keep on eating warms and ants? We had long discussions with the other turists we met about the aboriginal people, their culture, and their big social problems (alcoholism, unemployment...), and we all agree that they have an uncertain future.
On our second day we visited the much less known Kata Tjuṯa, another rock formation 50km west from the Uluru. These were 36 huge rock domes that looked like giant heads from far. Surprisingly, everybody knows about the Uluru but no-one ever speaks about the Kata Tjuṯa, despite being as nice as the famous Uluru.
This has been a great trip. We have now added a tick to the list of places we have to visit in these three years. And now that Central Australia is done... which will be the next one??
*********
Despues de varios meses viviendo en Australia hemos podido por fin hacer nuestro primer viaje. Esta vez ha tocado Australia Central, en particular el Kings's Canyon en el parque Natural de Watarrka y el famoso monte Uluru y las menos famosas Kata-Tjuta. Para ello alquilamos una caravana y condujimos cientos de kilimetros a traves del desierto australiano. El paisaje aburridisimo, eso si, y ni una emisora de radio (que te puedes esperar estando en medio de ninguna parte). Pero el camino mereció la pena. Entiendo que el Uluru sea una de las maravillas de mundo, pues tiene algo especial. Nadie lo esperaría, pues en el fondo es una roca en medio del desierto... pero algo hay que no te aburres nunca de mirarla. Y además, descubrimos las Kata-Tjuta, unas rocas que bien parecen cabezas gigantes. Estas no son tan famosas como e Uluru, aunque bien lo merecen.
Ademas hemos conocido algo mas de la cultura aborigen. Esta "gente" emigró desde áfrica hace unos 40.000 años, cuando Australia todavía estaba conectada con el resto del mundo, y no han cambiado mucho desde entonces: hasta hace bien poco seguian comiendo gusanos y hormigas, y recolectando frutos en el desierto.
Total, un gran viaje. Ya estamos planeando el siguiente!
Monday, April 11, 2011
Finde de aventuras
Como quizas ya sabeis, Mihai y yo nos hemos inscrito en el club de montaña de la Universidad de Melbourne (http://www.mumc.org.au/). Cada fin de semana organizan distintas actividades. El pasado fin de semana había una excursion para hacer escalada y otra para participar en un proyeto de conservación, asi que nos dividimos: Mihai se fue a probar la escalada y yo a colaborar como voluntaria.
El proyecto (http://regenthoneyeater.org.au) busca aumentar las poblaciones de unos pequeños mamiferos, parecidos a las ardillas, que estirando sus patitas pueden planear. Para ello han instalado unas cajas que les sirven de nidos. Nuestro trabajo consistía en revisar las cajas y comprobar si había "alguien" viviendo allí. Eso, claro, supone ir de un lado para otro con escaleras de más de 5 metros, pues las cajas están colocadas bastante arriba.... toda una aventura!
Asi que tuve la oportunidad de ver distintas especies, aprender sobre sus habitos y conocer a mucha buena gente (quién si no pierde su fin de semana trepando árboles gratuitamente??!!)
También me tope -por no decir que me llevé por delante- infinidad de telas de araña... y ojito con las arañas que hay por aqui...(http://museumvictoria.com.au/spiders/detail.aspx?pid=16)
Cuando llegué el domingo a Casa me encontre a Mihai tirado en el sofá... no podía mover ni un musculo de las agujetas que tenía! Un día de escalada y el resultado fue: agujetas infinitas, unos pantalones desgarrados por completo y las rodillas y espinillas llegas de rasponazos y moratones.... esperemos que la proxima vez no sea tan devastadora!
Ahi unas fotillos:
El proyecto (http://regenthoneyeater.org.au) busca aumentar las poblaciones de unos pequeños mamiferos, parecidos a las ardillas, que estirando sus patitas pueden planear. Para ello han instalado unas cajas que les sirven de nidos. Nuestro trabajo consistía en revisar las cajas y comprobar si había "alguien" viviendo allí. Eso, claro, supone ir de un lado para otro con escaleras de más de 5 metros, pues las cajas están colocadas bastante arriba.... toda una aventura!
Asi que tuve la oportunidad de ver distintas especies, aprender sobre sus habitos y conocer a mucha buena gente (quién si no pierde su fin de semana trepando árboles gratuitamente??!!)
También me tope -por no decir que me llevé por delante- infinidad de telas de araña... y ojito con las arañas que hay por aqui...(http://museumvictoria.com.au/spiders/detail.aspx?pid=16)
Cuando llegué el domingo a Casa me encontre a Mihai tirado en el sofá... no podía mover ni un musculo de las agujetas que tenía! Un día de escalada y el resultado fue: agujetas infinitas, unos pantalones desgarrados por completo y las rodillas y espinillas llegas de rasponazos y moratones.... esperemos que la proxima vez no sea tan devastadora!
Ahi unas fotillos:
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