I've been formally asked by the director of our research group to move my office to the adjacent building by the end of the year. My new space is part of a cluster of desks where they send students who are ready to write up their PhD thesis. I still have a little more research to do, but it's minor stuff. I expect to begin full-time writing by February, the latest. Most of that time, I'll just write from home and save myself the commute. Writing will take about two months, and revisions another 2-3 weeks from that.
I plan to have my thesis ready for submission by May, which is when our first baby is due. The timing of all this is working out nicely. I'm finishing my PhD and setting myself up for a real career, coinciding with starting a family. We don't yet know what we are having, boy or girl, but we will find out next week. More details to follow soon...
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
2009 NSW State Championship Rogaine
My partner and I placed 3rd!
The event was held near Mt. Werong, slightly southwest of a town called Oberon, in the Blue Mountains National Park. It's a very rugged and remote area. The planners were hanging up the targets the weekend before, and it was snowing then (with accumulation). It was still cold for the event, but with heavy drizzle rather than snow. So everything was wet, muddy, and cold. Although normally I prefer to camp the night before these events to avoid car fatigue from driving up on the day, in this case, I'm glad I didn't camp.
As this was a championship event, the allotted time was 24 hours (12 pm - 12 pm; but there was a 15 hour version offered). Once we arrived and registered, the remaining time was spent preparing: laminating the maps, studying the course, scarfing down some food and water, and idle chit-chat. Since we were not moving much, I was wearing all my layers to keep warm. I was grateful to have my raincoat that I bought spur-of-the-moment at REI before coming to Australia.
Once the event kicked off and we began moving, layers got shed within an hour. We got a lot of the low point targets nearby, then headed east for the higher point targets in much more difficult terrain. By hitting the difficult terrain early before you are worn out, you can score higher. The lower point targets don't require as much navigational or physical skill, so you can pursue those in zombie mode.
The difficult terrain certainly didn't disappoint. It was very tough, made moreso by the rain and thick fog. The creeks in these areas not only had water in them, but also stinging nettle -- loads of them. For the uninitiated, Australia's stinging plants are notorious. The leaves have thousands of stingers on them which are like tiny hypodermic needles. They puncture the skin at the slightest touch. The affected area will have recurrent stinging sensations followed by numbness for up to a month afterwards. The worst is the stinging tree. Stinging nettle is not as bad. In my case, the numbness only lasted about a day or so. The nettles compounded the difficulty in this area, because the ridges were very steep, and your instinct would have you grab things as you climbed out of the creeks. But you couldn't grab anything, because there was this nettle all around!
The difficulty didn't stop once out of the creeks. The ridges themselves were like giant piles of loose rock, covered with the debris of a living forest (fallen trees, tree branches, bark). Combined with the steepness, it was often slow going in these parts. On the positive side, since the terrain was so well defined, it made for easier night time navigation (whereas flatter terrain can be more confusing at night). The fog got thicker through the night. We had to be extra careful with navigation, and checked our bearings every 200-400 meters or so.
We continued with no breaks until we reached the all night cafe (a pit stop in the middle of the course) at 4:30 a.m. We warmed up on soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, hot tea, and a roaring fire, and ended up resting for about an hour. The sun was starting to come up as we headed off again.
Our route took us back the the start (so we could assess our condition and decide if we had time to get more targets), and we got another six or so targets along the way. Finally, as we were down to the last two before reaching the start, my blisters were really starting to bug me. So we wrapped up the final two targets and checked in, having another hour and a half to spare before the end of the event. Our score was 1330 points (the winning team had just over 1800 points, so we wouldn't have caught them if we had stayed out on the course longer).
The stinging nettles and overall soreness was gone within a day, but the blisters have taken a few days to heal. I'm ready for the Australian Championships in March 2010!
The event was held near Mt. Werong, slightly southwest of a town called Oberon, in the Blue Mountains National Park. It's a very rugged and remote area. The planners were hanging up the targets the weekend before, and it was snowing then (with accumulation). It was still cold for the event, but with heavy drizzle rather than snow. So everything was wet, muddy, and cold. Although normally I prefer to camp the night before these events to avoid car fatigue from driving up on the day, in this case, I'm glad I didn't camp.
As this was a championship event, the allotted time was 24 hours (12 pm - 12 pm; but there was a 15 hour version offered). Once we arrived and registered, the remaining time was spent preparing: laminating the maps, studying the course, scarfing down some food and water, and idle chit-chat. Since we were not moving much, I was wearing all my layers to keep warm. I was grateful to have my raincoat that I bought spur-of-the-moment at REI before coming to Australia.
Once the event kicked off and we began moving, layers got shed within an hour. We got a lot of the low point targets nearby, then headed east for the higher point targets in much more difficult terrain. By hitting the difficult terrain early before you are worn out, you can score higher. The lower point targets don't require as much navigational or physical skill, so you can pursue those in zombie mode.
The difficult terrain certainly didn't disappoint. It was very tough, made moreso by the rain and thick fog. The creeks in these areas not only had water in them, but also stinging nettle -- loads of them. For the uninitiated, Australia's stinging plants are notorious. The leaves have thousands of stingers on them which are like tiny hypodermic needles. They puncture the skin at the slightest touch. The affected area will have recurrent stinging sensations followed by numbness for up to a month afterwards. The worst is the stinging tree. Stinging nettle is not as bad. In my case, the numbness only lasted about a day or so. The nettles compounded the difficulty in this area, because the ridges were very steep, and your instinct would have you grab things as you climbed out of the creeks. But you couldn't grab anything, because there was this nettle all around!
The difficulty didn't stop once out of the creeks. The ridges themselves were like giant piles of loose rock, covered with the debris of a living forest (fallen trees, tree branches, bark). Combined with the steepness, it was often slow going in these parts. On the positive side, since the terrain was so well defined, it made for easier night time navigation (whereas flatter terrain can be more confusing at night). The fog got thicker through the night. We had to be extra careful with navigation, and checked our bearings every 200-400 meters or so.
We continued with no breaks until we reached the all night cafe (a pit stop in the middle of the course) at 4:30 a.m. We warmed up on soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, hot tea, and a roaring fire, and ended up resting for about an hour. The sun was starting to come up as we headed off again.
Our route took us back the the start (so we could assess our condition and decide if we had time to get more targets), and we got another six or so targets along the way. Finally, as we were down to the last two before reaching the start, my blisters were really starting to bug me. So we wrapped up the final two targets and checked in, having another hour and a half to spare before the end of the event. Our score was 1330 points (the winning team had just over 1800 points, so we wouldn't have caught them if we had stayed out on the course longer).
The stinging nettles and overall soreness was gone within a day, but the blisters have taken a few days to heal. I'm ready for the Australian Championships in March 2010!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
More Miscellaneous Updates
My PhD work is reaching the really stressful part now, where I have to tie it all together into a cohesive thesis. I have an idea of what I need to do, but due to the nature of my overall project, true scientific characterization is a bit of a trick. My project has been mostly a series of engineering problems up to this point. I haven't done much real science. I was tasked to print materials beginning with an inkjet printer. I quickly ran into frustrations due to the materials I was asked to print. Inkjet printing simply did not work reliably or very well to begin with. When I checked with other researchers in the field, I found out they had already done much of this work in the years prior. This added to my frustration. Why was I asked to spend a significant amount of time unknowingly repeating other people's unpublished (i.e., failed) work? I would have liked a project that was truly new.
Anyways, through the course of events, I got some inspiration to build a custom printer based on a CNC milling machine. Leave the milling bits off, and connect a syringe or inkjet cartridge, and you have a printer. So I solved the problem of setting up a system that was far more flexible with a wide variety of materials, with no need to modify the materials themselves in order to print them into a repeatable structure. Now I can make all sorts of structures, but other than an optical microscope or profilometer, we don't really have proper tools to scientifically characterize them. Without the characterization, I don't have a thesis, and this has left me feeling once again frustrated with my supervisors.
In all this, I've learned that the title of supervisor is a misnomer. There really is no supervision, particularly for a PhD. The supervisor(s) will be more than eager to jump in the spotlight and take a share of the credit if a student does something noteworthy; but if anything fails, it's all the student's fault and the supervisors claim immunity. It's a very frustrating position to be in, and I am eager for it to be done. Maybe once I have the PhD, I will be treated more professionally.
Books have been a great solace, and I've been going through many of the ones I shipped here back when all this began. Additionally, having a couple of good digital cameras has given me another outlet, which, in such a beautiful country, is a perfect hobby. I've been sorting through some of the nicer photos and turning them into artwork. Awhile back I read about the site RedBubble, where people can sell their art. I finally set up an account for myself today, and I've posted the slideshow widget on the blog for those interested. There are only 3 photos at the moment, but I've got lots more I'll be adding over the next few months.
Anyways, through the course of events, I got some inspiration to build a custom printer based on a CNC milling machine. Leave the milling bits off, and connect a syringe or inkjet cartridge, and you have a printer. So I solved the problem of setting up a system that was far more flexible with a wide variety of materials, with no need to modify the materials themselves in order to print them into a repeatable structure. Now I can make all sorts of structures, but other than an optical microscope or profilometer, we don't really have proper tools to scientifically characterize them. Without the characterization, I don't have a thesis, and this has left me feeling once again frustrated with my supervisors.
In all this, I've learned that the title of supervisor is a misnomer. There really is no supervision, particularly for a PhD. The supervisor(s) will be more than eager to jump in the spotlight and take a share of the credit if a student does something noteworthy; but if anything fails, it's all the student's fault and the supervisors claim immunity. It's a very frustrating position to be in, and I am eager for it to be done. Maybe once I have the PhD, I will be treated more professionally.
Books have been a great solace, and I've been going through many of the ones I shipped here back when all this began. Additionally, having a couple of good digital cameras has given me another outlet, which, in such a beautiful country, is a perfect hobby. I've been sorting through some of the nicer photos and turning them into artwork. Awhile back I read about the site RedBubble, where people can sell their art. I finally set up an account for myself today, and I've posted the slideshow widget on the blog for those interested. There are only 3 photos at the moment, but I've got lots more I'll be adding over the next few months.
Friday, June 26, 2009
2009 NSW Paddy Pallin Rogaine
On the 14th of June, I participated in the 2009 NSW Paddy Pallin Rogaine, held this year at Coolendel, a wildlife preserve west of Nowra. I didn't have a partner for this event, so I just put my name up on the partner finder page. Just before the deadline, I got an email from a girl name Olga from Queensland. We chatted a bit on the phone, and seemed to be a good match as far as ability, competitiveness, and tolerance of scrub. The day before the event, I picked her up in Nowra, where she was rock climbing all day. I've ended up meeting a few interesting people via the partner finder services of rogaines. Olga happens to have immigrated from Ukraine, so of course we talked a bit about some Russian experiences, as well as Australian experiences. Good conversation is a great addition to a good rogaine. This rogaine was on a really pretty course, right on the Shoalhaven River, and there were over 600 people participating in the event.
Camping the night before was quite nice. The park had proper toilets and showers, and a local Scout troop provided dinner. As it is early winter here, the temperature dropped off once the sun set. We pitched the tent and set everything up for an instant crash after dinner. The nice thing about camping next to the car is that a person can carry along whatever comforts desired without regard for weight. The next morning, I was up at 5:30 a.m., so I quietly set up the table and chairs (so as not to wake anyone else). Around 7 a.m., I began cooking breakfast. I woke up Olga, and in short order we went to get our maps. While I made the last part of breakfast, one of the male peacocks on the reserve decided to take a closer look at what I was cooking, but I gently brushed him away when it appeared as if he was going to start pecking at the contents of the fry pan.
We plotted our route, which included a couple of river crossings. It was a last-minute scramble to finish getting ready by start time, and we ended up starting about 10 minutes late. The first river crossing was early in the route, so it wasn't even worth removing shoes (although numerous competitors did). Our second target was on an island in the middle of the river. This part of the course was quite fun. We got the target, then finished crossing to the other side for the rest of our route.
Overall, we covered a decent distance, about 25 km, in the six hours. We did end up skipping 3 high point targets, simply because of time constraints. At the final river crossing, we had to scramble through a few hundred meters of dense scrub to reach the clearing where it was shallow enough to cross. (The winning team did a successful swim across and likely saved a great deal of time by doing so. But the river was quite cold.) We did one last sprint for the home stretch, and finished with about 8 minutes to spare. In the end, we got 800 points, which was still a very respectable score. We were both exhausted. Before grabbing lunch, we took down the tent and packed up the camping gear. Lunch consisted of a couple of homemade soups and hot dog sandwiches -- modest, but still very satisfying to exhausted people. While everyone finished their meal, the awards were handed out amidst random prizes and routine camaraderie. I'm looking forward to the next rogaine, and will likely partner with Olga again as opportunity permits.
Camping the night before was quite nice. The park had proper toilets and showers, and a local Scout troop provided dinner. As it is early winter here, the temperature dropped off once the sun set. We pitched the tent and set everything up for an instant crash after dinner. The nice thing about camping next to the car is that a person can carry along whatever comforts desired without regard for weight. The next morning, I was up at 5:30 a.m., so I quietly set up the table and chairs (so as not to wake anyone else). Around 7 a.m., I began cooking breakfast. I woke up Olga, and in short order we went to get our maps. While I made the last part of breakfast, one of the male peacocks on the reserve decided to take a closer look at what I was cooking, but I gently brushed him away when it appeared as if he was going to start pecking at the contents of the fry pan.
We plotted our route, which included a couple of river crossings. It was a last-minute scramble to finish getting ready by start time, and we ended up starting about 10 minutes late. The first river crossing was early in the route, so it wasn't even worth removing shoes (although numerous competitors did). Our second target was on an island in the middle of the river. This part of the course was quite fun. We got the target, then finished crossing to the other side for the rest of our route.
Overall, we covered a decent distance, about 25 km, in the six hours. We did end up skipping 3 high point targets, simply because of time constraints. At the final river crossing, we had to scramble through a few hundred meters of dense scrub to reach the clearing where it was shallow enough to cross. (The winning team did a successful swim across and likely saved a great deal of time by doing so. But the river was quite cold.) We did one last sprint for the home stretch, and finished with about 8 minutes to spare. In the end, we got 800 points, which was still a very respectable score. We were both exhausted. Before grabbing lunch, we took down the tent and packed up the camping gear. Lunch consisted of a couple of homemade soups and hot dog sandwiches -- modest, but still very satisfying to exhausted people. While everyone finished their meal, the awards were handed out amidst random prizes and routine camaraderie. I'm looking forward to the next rogaine, and will likely partner with Olga again as opportunity permits.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Musings and Mumblings...
I've only managed to publish a new post every couple of months, so it must appear as though perhaps there's not much I would care to write about. However, the truth is I have much to say, and many experiences I'd love to share. The final year of my PhD is proving to be very challenging -- mostly because I feel left in the dark by my supervisors as to the real status of my work. I have no choice but to focus on each day at the lab, and one project at a time. I'm still confident of reaching my goal here, but I just don't have an accurate pulse on my progress meter. I suppose I'm doing just fine in my work, but I wish it felt a bit more significant.
Additionally, the regular exercise schedule, while thoroughly revitalizing, requires commitment, too. Sometimes I wish I had the time to train like a professional athlete. On the positive side, though, I do have far more time for fitness here than I did back in the States. Exercise is a fantastic distraction from the rigors of everyday life. At least when I finish a decent run with improved timing, I feel a sense of accomplishment, which makes up for not feeling that way about my research. Honestly, I never realized how out of shape I had become until we moved here (and I was still in better shape than many of my peers).
We have also been doing much more cooking from scratch, nearly every night. Those meals are always the best, but preparation does take time. Even so, it's become more of a ritual for us, a transitional period from our day to winding down to a television show or two. On the weekends, we usually buy some bulk vegetables and fruit, then make some large dish that we eat all week. Given the space constraints of most homes here, meals from scratch with fresh food is the only way to go. There's simply not enough space to store lots of processed foods.
The weather of the subtropics is very easy to adapt to. We often have picture-perfect days where it's a given that we must get outside for awhile, whether for leisure or fitness. With pleasant weather being such a regular occurrence here, we will be very hard-pressed to go anywhere else.
That pretty much sums up the pattern of our lives, which won't change much for at least the next six months. We are fortunate that despite all the turmoil in the modern world, we have little to complain about, and life is generally good. Post-PhD, I expect to write far more often here, and may very well take the blog to further levels.
Additionally, the regular exercise schedule, while thoroughly revitalizing, requires commitment, too. Sometimes I wish I had the time to train like a professional athlete. On the positive side, though, I do have far more time for fitness here than I did back in the States. Exercise is a fantastic distraction from the rigors of everyday life. At least when I finish a decent run with improved timing, I feel a sense of accomplishment, which makes up for not feeling that way about my research. Honestly, I never realized how out of shape I had become until we moved here (and I was still in better shape than many of my peers).
We have also been doing much more cooking from scratch, nearly every night. Those meals are always the best, but preparation does take time. Even so, it's become more of a ritual for us, a transitional period from our day to winding down to a television show or two. On the weekends, we usually buy some bulk vegetables and fruit, then make some large dish that we eat all week. Given the space constraints of most homes here, meals from scratch with fresh food is the only way to go. There's simply not enough space to store lots of processed foods.
The weather of the subtropics is very easy to adapt to. We often have picture-perfect days where it's a given that we must get outside for awhile, whether for leisure or fitness. With pleasant weather being such a regular occurrence here, we will be very hard-pressed to go anywhere else.
That pretty much sums up the pattern of our lives, which won't change much for at least the next six months. We are fortunate that despite all the turmoil in the modern world, we have little to complain about, and life is generally good. Post-PhD, I expect to write far more often here, and may very well take the blog to further levels.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Easter Weekend Hiking Trip
Last weekend, Keith and I went to the Budawangs for a nice, long, camping trip. We had a 4-day weekend, which was perfect for camping multiple nights. Since Keith is moving back to the States in June (his wife has nearly finished her PhD and has accepted a post-doc position already), we opted for the Budawangs, to do one last hike up The Castle.
We started at the Mt. Owen carpark, the same place where Phil and I started our hike in June. The intention was to follow the same route. In order to get an early start Friday morning, we opted to drive down Thursday night and camp at the carpark. To save packing in the morning, we just folded the back seats down in the station wagon and slept in the car.
The morning began with a nice breakfast of soft tacos with eggs and cheese. At about 7:30 a.m., we were off. The initial trail was reasonably easy to find, and got us to the base of the Mt. Owen ridge by about 10. We found a spot to climb up, and ended up needing the rope to drag the packs up. Once on the ridge, we had a nice view of the valley, and I could see the chimney where we intended to climb up the mountain. The hike had been relatively easy to this point.
After a short break, we began the trek toward the mountain. I could not find the trail, so we had no choice but to bush bash. This area had some of the worst scrub to bash through, particularly shoulder-height trees that had clusters of dried thorns all over. These shrubs don't budge easily, so we both got pretty scratched up in no time. It didn't take long before we started getting more impatient, and we began moving more forcefully in hopes of exiting sooner. During that time is when I nearly stepped on a brown snake. I happened to see the shimmery brown coil just before I put all my weight down, and I quickly shifted to my other foot and took an additional couple of long strides afterwards. I warned Keith about the snake, but fortunately it was gone. This would have been one of the worst locations to get bitten, as it is very infrequently traveled. Getting help would have taken over 24 hours.
We were more alert the rest of the way to the mountain. The scenery along the side looked different than from a distance, so I wasn't sure of the location of the chimney. We walked along the side for awhile, and passed what I think in retrospect was the chimney, but since the bush bashing wore us out a bit, I thought walking along the ridge to the campsite would be easier. It ended up being more bush bashing, though not quite as bad. It took us another 3 hours to get to the campsite -- far longer than I expected. This was more due to me not properly comprehending the distance rather than navigation errors. The bush bashing slowed us down considerably, too. At any rate, we made it to the campsite around 4:30. Just 30 minutes later, some other people came by hoping to get the same site, but it's first come first serve. The other nearby caves were packed, so we agreed to let the visitors stay at our site. But we got the prime spots for our tents. This particular cave is probably one of the nicest in the area, and it's very close to a reliable water supply.
The next day, we planned to go on a westward trail for what should have been an easy trek. Ha! We lost the trail early on, just a short ways down the ridge, but we thought we should be able to find it again fairly easily. We ended up spending another 3 hours bush bashing through salt grass (the edges are like razors and cut), waist-high piles of ferns, rotting logs, and the occasional leech. Fortunately, we cut our losses and decided to head back to camp rather than press on for a whole day of what would surely have been more torture. It's much easier to make really bad navigation errors when one is tired. We managed to get back to the camp around 1:30, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing. I had a cold shower at the nearby waterfall, and read a book for awhile. Keith carved a spoon.
The next day, we packed up camp, as we were going through Monolith Valley and on to The Castle. The plan was to spend the next night camping at The Castle. We followed the trail around the ridge, expecting it to lead straight into the valley. When it didn't, we debated a bit against the map, but neither of us managed to work it out in a satisfactory way. We were lucky enough to meet another couple of hikers, who were looking for the trail we came from, and knew the trail where we wanted to go. So we hiked back up to a creek junction we passed a few times, which turned out to be our route into Monolith Valley. We gave the other hikers the directions they needed and parted ways.
Monolith Valley was a nice change of pace. Being recessed and more of a rain forest meant it was pleasantly cool. Since I had the waterproof camera with me, I was able to get many more pictures here this time. The trail was easy to follow most of the way through, but there were a couple of junctions where we had to think carefully. We stopped for a snack at the Seven Gods Pinnacles. The Green Room was impressive, as always, but we missed the Natural Arch. I'm sure we just walked right past it without noticing it. We continued on and made our way out of Monolith Valley to the saddle of The Castle. We hiked a short way further, ditched our heavy packs, and climbed to the top of The Castle. Rather than just turn right around and go back down, we walked all the way to the end of the mountain this time -- where the log book was supposed to be. The scenery all around was breathtaking, and a nice finale to the day and the trip overall. We found the metal box that was supposed to house the log book, but someone had taken the book. There was a stack of post-it notes for visitors to write their names on, so we at least did that.
We got back to the packs, wormed our way through a short cave to save some time, then as we were hiking, we both agreed we should just finish the trip and get back to the car instead of camping another night. Water in this area was a bit more scarce, and we were both really tired. The rest of the trail was easy as far as navigation was concerned, and since it was only about 3:30, we were confident we could make it back to the carpark by dark.
We hiked as fast as we could on the final stretch, and made it to the carpark for The Castle around 5:45. There was a short cut that would have taken us directly back to the Mt. Owen carpark, but it would have involved more bush bashing and navigation, neither of which we wanted to do at this point. So we had to walk about another 40 minutes on the road, a good portion uphill, to the Mt. Owen carpark. We were glad to get back to the car, and looked forward to a stop at McDonald's on the way home.
Despite all the bush bashing and navigation blunders, it was still a rewarding experience. Having the chance to do that route a second time means that it will be more familiar to me next time. I still consider this area one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and the ruggedness is certainly a part of the experience.
We started at the Mt. Owen carpark, the same place where Phil and I started our hike in June. The intention was to follow the same route. In order to get an early start Friday morning, we opted to drive down Thursday night and camp at the carpark. To save packing in the morning, we just folded the back seats down in the station wagon and slept in the car.
The morning began with a nice breakfast of soft tacos with eggs and cheese. At about 7:30 a.m., we were off. The initial trail was reasonably easy to find, and got us to the base of the Mt. Owen ridge by about 10. We found a spot to climb up, and ended up needing the rope to drag the packs up. Once on the ridge, we had a nice view of the valley, and I could see the chimney where we intended to climb up the mountain. The hike had been relatively easy to this point.
After a short break, we began the trek toward the mountain. I could not find the trail, so we had no choice but to bush bash. This area had some of the worst scrub to bash through, particularly shoulder-height trees that had clusters of dried thorns all over. These shrubs don't budge easily, so we both got pretty scratched up in no time. It didn't take long before we started getting more impatient, and we began moving more forcefully in hopes of exiting sooner. During that time is when I nearly stepped on a brown snake. I happened to see the shimmery brown coil just before I put all my weight down, and I quickly shifted to my other foot and took an additional couple of long strides afterwards. I warned Keith about the snake, but fortunately it was gone. This would have been one of the worst locations to get bitten, as it is very infrequently traveled. Getting help would have taken over 24 hours.
We were more alert the rest of the way to the mountain. The scenery along the side looked different than from a distance, so I wasn't sure of the location of the chimney. We walked along the side for awhile, and passed what I think in retrospect was the chimney, but since the bush bashing wore us out a bit, I thought walking along the ridge to the campsite would be easier. It ended up being more bush bashing, though not quite as bad. It took us another 3 hours to get to the campsite -- far longer than I expected. This was more due to me not properly comprehending the distance rather than navigation errors. The bush bashing slowed us down considerably, too. At any rate, we made it to the campsite around 4:30. Just 30 minutes later, some other people came by hoping to get the same site, but it's first come first serve. The other nearby caves were packed, so we agreed to let the visitors stay at our site. But we got the prime spots for our tents. This particular cave is probably one of the nicest in the area, and it's very close to a reliable water supply.
The next day, we planned to go on a westward trail for what should have been an easy trek. Ha! We lost the trail early on, just a short ways down the ridge, but we thought we should be able to find it again fairly easily. We ended up spending another 3 hours bush bashing through salt grass (the edges are like razors and cut), waist-high piles of ferns, rotting logs, and the occasional leech. Fortunately, we cut our losses and decided to head back to camp rather than press on for a whole day of what would surely have been more torture. It's much easier to make really bad navigation errors when one is tired. We managed to get back to the camp around 1:30, and the rest of the day was spent relaxing. I had a cold shower at the nearby waterfall, and read a book for awhile. Keith carved a spoon.
The next day, we packed up camp, as we were going through Monolith Valley and on to The Castle. The plan was to spend the next night camping at The Castle. We followed the trail around the ridge, expecting it to lead straight into the valley. When it didn't, we debated a bit against the map, but neither of us managed to work it out in a satisfactory way. We were lucky enough to meet another couple of hikers, who were looking for the trail we came from, and knew the trail where we wanted to go. So we hiked back up to a creek junction we passed a few times, which turned out to be our route into Monolith Valley. We gave the other hikers the directions they needed and parted ways.
Monolith Valley was a nice change of pace. Being recessed and more of a rain forest meant it was pleasantly cool. Since I had the waterproof camera with me, I was able to get many more pictures here this time. The trail was easy to follow most of the way through, but there were a couple of junctions where we had to think carefully. We stopped for a snack at the Seven Gods Pinnacles. The Green Room was impressive, as always, but we missed the Natural Arch. I'm sure we just walked right past it without noticing it. We continued on and made our way out of Monolith Valley to the saddle of The Castle. We hiked a short way further, ditched our heavy packs, and climbed to the top of The Castle. Rather than just turn right around and go back down, we walked all the way to the end of the mountain this time -- where the log book was supposed to be. The scenery all around was breathtaking, and a nice finale to the day and the trip overall. We found the metal box that was supposed to house the log book, but someone had taken the book. There was a stack of post-it notes for visitors to write their names on, so we at least did that.
We got back to the packs, wormed our way through a short cave to save some time, then as we were hiking, we both agreed we should just finish the trip and get back to the car instead of camping another night. Water in this area was a bit more scarce, and we were both really tired. The rest of the trail was easy as far as navigation was concerned, and since it was only about 3:30, we were confident we could make it back to the carpark by dark.
We hiked as fast as we could on the final stretch, and made it to the carpark for The Castle around 5:45. There was a short cut that would have taken us directly back to the Mt. Owen carpark, but it would have involved more bush bashing and navigation, neither of which we wanted to do at this point. So we had to walk about another 40 minutes on the road, a good portion uphill, to the Mt. Owen carpark. We were glad to get back to the car, and looked forward to a stop at McDonald's on the way home.
Despite all the bush bashing and navigation blunders, it was still a rewarding experience. Having the chance to do that route a second time means that it will be more familiar to me next time. I still consider this area one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen, and the ruggedness is certainly a part of the experience.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Commencing the Final PhD Year
It's somewhat hard to believe this is actually the final year of my PhD. The past two years have been extremely eventful in so many ways, and the time has just flown by. I've learned so much. January was spent writing the draft for my second paper, and doing a few followup experiments to complete certain sections of the work. The first two weeks of February were occupied by seminars and a symposium (ACES Electromaterials Workshop). By the end of February I had finished the draft of my paper and handed it over to my supervisor for final polishing. About that same time, my supervisor notified me that my first paper had finally been accepted for publication. The printer robot parts had mostly arrived, enough that I could begin assembly. I was lucky to find an unused lab bench on which to set up the new printers. After a couple of weeks, I had built all I could, and was waiting again on a few other parts to arrive. The first half of March was a bit slow because of this.
Meanwhile, we had a delegation from the Federal government come by to officially open our new labs. I got to be part of the lab tour.
I have only about seven more months of research left before I will be writing my thesis. I know that time will fly by, too, but it still feels strange to be close to the end of this journey. By the end of March next year, I will be submitting my thesis. That's also when I will apply for permanent residency here in Australia, and begin searching for a post-doc position somewhere. The thesis takes roughly six months to undergo revisions before being accepted, and that's about the amount of time for the residency application to be approved and for me to get a few leads on a post-doc.
Meanwhile, we had a delegation from the Federal government come by to officially open our new labs. I got to be part of the lab tour.
I have only about seven more months of research left before I will be writing my thesis. I know that time will fly by, too, but it still feels strange to be close to the end of this journey. By the end of March next year, I will be submitting my thesis. That's also when I will apply for permanent residency here in Australia, and begin searching for a post-doc position somewhere. The thesis takes roughly six months to undergo revisions before being accepted, and that's about the amount of time for the residency application to be approved and for me to get a few leads on a post-doc.
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