Field work in Morawa

So I started my field work yesterday. I am up at a place called Morawa which is around 400km north of Perth. We drove up yesterday, it took about five hours. Today I had my first day out pump testing. Let me tell you, it is FECKING hot here.

42 degrees is not a funny temperature to be manhandling heavy pumps and pipes in. Heat stroke is a real threat and I probably drank about ten litres of water today. Tomorrow is forecast to be even hotter.

On the flip side, last night I slept outside under the stars. The temperature at night was perfect and there was a slight breeze, and after the moon went down the view of the sky way up here was something else. I laid awake for about an hour just stargazing before I went to bed. It's an interesting way of life up here.

On an unrelated note, I decided today that when I get back to Perth and get paid I am going to spend a week taking a kitesurfing course. I saw people doing it in Augusta and it looks like one of the most fun activities you can do on the water. That is definitely something I want to get involved with.

Laters.

Work

So I'm going into Perth on Monday and Tuesday to do a first aid course (paid for by my employer) which is a prerequisite for working on a minesite. Another prerequisite happens to be a four wheel drive course (also paid for by my employer) and I do that on the 19th. Sweet!

On Wednesday morning I am off to a place in the north Perth basin for some fieldwork training. It's gonna be hard work but I'm keen to start.

I had a job offer today out of the blue from a contact I spoke to about a month ago. It's almost a shame I'm committed to work for Don now because this offer looked pretty sweet, but you can't renege on a commitment and the work I have lined up is pretty solid.

I won't have internet where I'm going up north so it will be radio silence that week. I'll update once before I go then let you know how the job went when I get back.

Laters.

Augusta with the family

So for the last four days we stayed in Augusta which is a small holiday town about 300km south of Perth. I still haven't quite got my head around this but apparently it's common in Australia to choose holiday destinations that are COOLER than your home town in the summer. Bizarre thinking.

Anyway Augusta was a bit cooler but still in the 30s so not exactly icy. Ian brought his little boat down and we did fishing, and of course got the surfboard out behind the boat and did some wakeboarding as well. On Tuesday we went to this place called Hamelin Bay which was awesome.

It was a huge sheltered crescent-shaped beach with a lot of rock formations offshore. Along the shallows, stingrays would come up so far in the surf they almost beached themselves before flapping off into the depths again. Some guys were feeding them fish heads so I took the opportunity to stroke some. They felt strange, almost velvety. Joe actually got bitten by one that was somewhat overenthusiastic in grabbing the fish head out of his hand. It drew blood but it wasn't deep. A stingray bite is a pretty cool injury anyway if you ask me.

Joe, Lotti and I swam out about 400 metres to a rocky outcrop. What looked like a tiny rock on the surface was actually huge underwater (like an iceberg) depth was about 7m. The rock formations underwater were incredible, swimming around those was some of the best snorkeling I've done so far, huge crevices, great big leather corals an hundreds of different types of fish. I wish I'd had my scuba gear, my breath holding ability leaves something to be desired at those depths.

It was great spending my new year with my family. They are leaving this evening, I will miss them a bit. Luckily I have plenty of exciting stuff planned for this month to take my mind off it. I am going into Perth for a couple of days Monday and Tuesday to do my first aid course. I'm meeting up with some guys while I'm down there, should be good fun :-D

Laters.

New year's day

Best new year's ever.

On New Year's Eve I did two boat dives off the shore near Rottnest Island. One was a deep dive at 26m, we did some simple maths exercises at the bottom and it was surprising just how badly nitrogen narcosis can affect you. I felt kinda "thick" mentally as well as a bit carefree and giggly. It was interesting.

The second dive was much shallower at about 5-7m. We swam around an ancient sunken wreck, it was once a wooden boat but it had fallen apart into pieces over the years. Lots of life around here, saw an awesome shoal of butterflyfish. I swam right in amongst them and spread my hands and they just parted in this beautiful wave, it was quite breathtaking. There is something dreamlike about swimming with fish under the ocean, I love it. The weather was great as well, 40 degrees outside and 22 degrees in the water, just perfect. My scuba instructor also mentioned going to Rottnest sometime soon for some snorkeling so hopefully I will be able to get that organised.

Then on New Year's eve I met up with a guy I'd never seen before and went to some bars for wild and crazy escapades in Perth ;-). The guy turned out to be awesome fun, it's definitely something I want to do again.

Tomorrow I am going with my family to Augusta for four days to do watersports and all sorts of other amazing shit.

Bring it on Australia. I can take as much adrenaline as you can give me, and more. :-D