El Chalten, Argentina

El Chalten is a tiny moutain town at the base of Mount Fitzroy. It was built less than 30 years ago from nothing. The Argentines say it was to accomodate the increasing number of tourists but Chileans say it was to lay claim to land that was being disputed!! Its a strange place as no one lives there unless they work in tourism and it has no natural population.

This is the town....


and this is my new holiday home I plan to purchase...



These are photos of Mount Fitzroy and the surrounding peaks

Valdes Penninsula, Argentina (cont)

Just some more photos from the valdes peninsula

These are Commerson dolphins - the smallest dolphin in the world(possibly - I am sure I was told this about another dolphin in New Zealand!). They are found only around the Southern tip of South America.





This is a tern that I am yet to identify!!

Valdes Penninsula, Argentina

There isn't really much to say except I'm in heaven!

Southern Right Whales










Magellanic Penguins













Guanacos


Seal lions and elephant seals

Following 2cm of rain our house is now surrounded by a 4ft moat and we are unable to go anywhere! Deserts are clearly not designed for rain! I only have 2 weeks left here before heading to Melbourne for the weekend then on to Argentina. Luckily within the next two weeks we have a birthday celebration, Christmas (which we have moved until the 1st of December) and a leaving party so it shouldn’t be too much hard work. My rain/wind/cold dances have been working and we are now having one of the coldest springs in memory which means 40 degrees has become only a rare occurrence. The rain has brought the wildlife out and I found my first echidna yesterday and there are kangaroos everywhere....

some random wildlife photos from australia (mainly taken by james and bec)

Living it up in the outback

So two months after arriving in Australia I have a proper day off. Slightly belatedly I thought I should update the blog on my current adventures. We live at a sheep station 120km outside broken hill (one of the remotest cities in the world according the tourist information office) along a partially tarmaced track. It is owned by the University of New South Wales and run as a sheep farm and research station. There are a five cottages, a computer room, air conditioning and a pool – so its pretty well equipped. About 20 research staff are there at this time of year and about 6 permanent members of staff. Our nearest pub is 80km along a dirt track in a different time zone (half an hour ahead) and is a lone building in the middle of the desert. It is surprisingly busy – I have yet to establish exactly where all the customers emerge from!

The local scenery is beautiful in its vastness. As far as the eye can see it is desert with few trees and virtually no hills. The red sand makes the landscape dramatic in the sun, and the lack of clouds means that sunsets lead to a glow across the landscape, something you’d never see back home. Locally Broken Hill has one of the largest mines in Australian, specialising in Silver, Lead and Iron. Near by White Cliffs is one of the largest Opal fields in Australia and the heat has led the town to be built into the hillsides. I haven’t been yet but the houses (called dugouts) are all underground, like on St Kilda.

View from almost anywhere..

Except the lake which looks like this..

The birds we work on are chestnut crowned babblers and breed in nests about 6m up in trees. They protect their young by building their nests from thorns so our daily job is to climb up a ladder into tall trees and put our hands into thorns. I wasn’t fully informed of this in my job description, but have become almost monkey like at climbing trees which will no doubt enhance my cv.

The climate is strange. The temperature builds from about 11 degrees C to about 35 (will go up to 45 by December) and then crashes after a few days of heat, and so the cycle continues. This photo is from outside my window during a dust storm where we had winds up to 80 mph and made onto Australia national news!

Random facts about Australia and other things:

1. Mullets are no myth
2. There are about 4000 more flies per square cm here than anywhere else on earth but they are strangely trusting so 100 times easier to squash
3. Australia has half hour time zones as they decided it would lead to a better use of light
4. Australia obtains nearly all its glucose syrup from wheat, meaning I can eat virtually no sweets or chocolate!!
5. The second most poisonous snake in the world lives under our computer room
6. Flying doctors don’t actually fly their own planes and are therefore not both pilots and doctors which makes them less exciting
7. Australian wines (ones which we would consider a nice wine) are so cheap here it seems rude not to drink them (less than a third of the price!). Sadly New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc remains at British prices
8. I have learnt more about Prince Williams love life living here than I could ever have learnt at home
9. Australia cannot make humous

The strong winds have now broken the internet so the wildlife photos must wait for another day x

Skomer to Australia

Having finally accepted my new life as a blogger, i'm all set to leave for Oz via New York! The skomer photos have been editted and a best of is below...