Gerbie on tour 37
Jun. 6th, 2001 12:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerbieThe quiz question in the last letter was a modest succes, many used the internet to find the answer. For those of you who didn't do that and do want to find out the answer:
At Hamelin Pool, the world's oldest organisms can be seen - stromatolites. Stromatolites are the result of primitive life forms that first existed on earth 3.5 billion years ago. The dome shaped structures reach up to 60cm in height and are formed by single celled organisms called cyanobacteria. The process continues today.
To the definiton I can only add that those of you who have seen them will agree with me that they are spectacularly unspectacular, however important they might have been during the evolution, actually they are borderline boring.
Plenty of good and even better answers reached me, even several pictures were mailed (I did see them in real life already, but thanx anyway), so I concluded that interactive is better anyway. So the next quiz question is: To what music did I listen while driving around Australia in a car? The next lyrics come from songs I sang along to:
1. It's been 7 hours and 15 days
2. It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime
3. Way down, below the ocean, where I want to be
4. It's like rain on your wedding day
5. Hey you, don't watch that, watch this
6. Vertel me meer over woorden, waar de mensen in geloofden
7. Did they know he was her only son
8. I believe, love
I've limited myself a bit, but I am curious who recognizes most, every single one of them is a famous tune. I'll give away one hint, I haven't paid more than 3 dollar for any tape, all sale and secondhand, therefore no modern music.
Okay, back to my travels, the very last bit of Australia, south west West Australia, the last extra circle, about 2.500 kilometer, a small distance in this huge state.
Just before Perth the last stop were the Pinnacles, I didn't plan to visit them, but suddenly was very close and took the stand, see what you can see while you're still there, so I drove through the Stalagtite-ish type of rocks standing in a mini-desert. Nice for a picture, but it'll be a while before they are ready, when that happens I'll let you know.
South of Perth is the forest area, several very big trees, that don't grow in other parts of the world or if they do, not in this combination. Or something like that, as I am not really an expert, nor a big fan, but it was a welcome change of scenery after thousands of kilometers of desert. Apart from that it was possible to climb some of them. On top of the Gloucester tree and the Bicentennial tree, height over 60 meter, the views are obviously brilliant. The climb itself wasn't very easy though. The 'great forest trees drive' was very funny, as you could get commentary at several points through the carradio. Unfortunately either the taperecorder or the sender wasn't working on some of the spots, so I gave up halfway through.
On the southcoast in Denmark I visited Marlies and Freerk, some old Dutch friends of mine. We weren't sure how long it was since the last time we saw each other (Wilma's mafiaparty), we assume nearly a decade. They have worked here for half a year, on several locations, as GP's and are now at the beginning of their holidays. We had some good days, plenty to talk obviously and a nice environment to do that.
Via Albany (from Denmark to Albany within an hour, try doing that in Europe) and the Stirling Ranges, a nice road through the hills, past the coast and several dry salt lakes, I arrived in the Goldfields area. In Kalgoorie one could get a real taste of the old fashioned wild west apparently. I wouldn't describe the place as wild though, but three guided tours in a day gave me a reasonable impression about what this town was about. Firstly I went to visit the Flying doctors at their airport base. Not only were they very succesfull on the television, they are also providing a very usefull service to the huge vast outback they are looking after, an area stretching about 700.000 square kilometers, over 17 times the size of my country.
The second tour of the day was in an old goldmine, so into the lift, plastic helmet on my head and twenty meters down into mother earth, accompanied by an experienced goldminer. Interesting and educational, but also enough for me to conclude that however much gold there is left in this area, however soon one can be exaggeratingly rich, this wouldn't be a very suitable job for me, now I'm approaching the end of my journey and can see the end of my money. I also saw goldbars being made.
The third tour of that day was in a local brothel. Before the tour began I was fascinated by seeing what seemed like a job interview. I couldn't hear anything, though I did wonder what kind of questions one gets asked when applying in a brothel. After that in my tour I saw all different rooms in the place, every single one of them with a special theme. "You've got to try everything in life once", Stephen Fry proclaimed, "apart from incest and inline dancing". Visiting a brothel can be scratched from my list now.
Coolgardie was the highlight of the last part of my journey. A beautiful old place, where past glory was apparent all thrugh. Big wide main street, nice old buildings, but also a lot of empty spaces, buildings in several phases of decay and a population one tenth of what it was a century before. Coolgardie was the main center of the goldrush in the 1890's, the first gold was found there and very soon thousands of fortune seekers arrived from all different parts of the country. Obviously water was getting more expensive than gold, the city grew faster than anything. A couple of decennia later the peak is long over, gold is being found in other area's and most hotels, banks, brothels and bathing houses closes their doors for good. But walking through Bayley street, reading all the historical markers that have been put up there, to tell you about the history, you get a much better impression of the wild west, than any number of guided tours in Kalgoorie could give you.
Now I am back in Perth, where I am attempting to sell my car, before leaving the country, but that doesn't seem to be as easy as hoped. In the meantime I am trying to answer all the email I got lately. I thank everyone for the praise of these letters, even though my last letter wasn't about that, I am really interested what is happening in the rest of the world, keep writing therefore.
Until the next Gerbie on tour,
Gerben
At Hamelin Pool, the world's oldest organisms can be seen - stromatolites. Stromatolites are the result of primitive life forms that first existed on earth 3.5 billion years ago. The dome shaped structures reach up to 60cm in height and are formed by single celled organisms called cyanobacteria. The process continues today.
To the definiton I can only add that those of you who have seen them will agree with me that they are spectacularly unspectacular, however important they might have been during the evolution, actually they are borderline boring.
Plenty of good and even better answers reached me, even several pictures were mailed (I did see them in real life already, but thanx anyway), so I concluded that interactive is better anyway. So the next quiz question is: To what music did I listen while driving around Australia in a car? The next lyrics come from songs I sang along to:
1. It's been 7 hours and 15 days
2. It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime
3. Way down, below the ocean, where I want to be
4. It's like rain on your wedding day
5. Hey you, don't watch that, watch this
6. Vertel me meer over woorden, waar de mensen in geloofden
7. Did they know he was her only son
8. I believe, love
I've limited myself a bit, but I am curious who recognizes most, every single one of them is a famous tune. I'll give away one hint, I haven't paid more than 3 dollar for any tape, all sale and secondhand, therefore no modern music.
Okay, back to my travels, the very last bit of Australia, south west West Australia, the last extra circle, about 2.500 kilometer, a small distance in this huge state.
Just before Perth the last stop were the Pinnacles, I didn't plan to visit them, but suddenly was very close and took the stand, see what you can see while you're still there, so I drove through the Stalagtite-ish type of rocks standing in a mini-desert. Nice for a picture, but it'll be a while before they are ready, when that happens I'll let you know.
South of Perth is the forest area, several very big trees, that don't grow in other parts of the world or if they do, not in this combination. Or something like that, as I am not really an expert, nor a big fan, but it was a welcome change of scenery after thousands of kilometers of desert. Apart from that it was possible to climb some of them. On top of the Gloucester tree and the Bicentennial tree, height over 60 meter, the views are obviously brilliant. The climb itself wasn't very easy though. The 'great forest trees drive' was very funny, as you could get commentary at several points through the carradio. Unfortunately either the taperecorder or the sender wasn't working on some of the spots, so I gave up halfway through.
On the southcoast in Denmark I visited Marlies and Freerk, some old Dutch friends of mine. We weren't sure how long it was since the last time we saw each other (Wilma's mafiaparty), we assume nearly a decade. They have worked here for half a year, on several locations, as GP's and are now at the beginning of their holidays. We had some good days, plenty to talk obviously and a nice environment to do that.
Via Albany (from Denmark to Albany within an hour, try doing that in Europe) and the Stirling Ranges, a nice road through the hills, past the coast and several dry salt lakes, I arrived in the Goldfields area. In Kalgoorie one could get a real taste of the old fashioned wild west apparently. I wouldn't describe the place as wild though, but three guided tours in a day gave me a reasonable impression about what this town was about. Firstly I went to visit the Flying doctors at their airport base. Not only were they very succesfull on the television, they are also providing a very usefull service to the huge vast outback they are looking after, an area stretching about 700.000 square kilometers, over 17 times the size of my country.
The second tour of the day was in an old goldmine, so into the lift, plastic helmet on my head and twenty meters down into mother earth, accompanied by an experienced goldminer. Interesting and educational, but also enough for me to conclude that however much gold there is left in this area, however soon one can be exaggeratingly rich, this wouldn't be a very suitable job for me, now I'm approaching the end of my journey and can see the end of my money. I also saw goldbars being made.
The third tour of that day was in a local brothel. Before the tour began I was fascinated by seeing what seemed like a job interview. I couldn't hear anything, though I did wonder what kind of questions one gets asked when applying in a brothel. After that in my tour I saw all different rooms in the place, every single one of them with a special theme. "You've got to try everything in life once", Stephen Fry proclaimed, "apart from incest and inline dancing". Visiting a brothel can be scratched from my list now.
Coolgardie was the highlight of the last part of my journey. A beautiful old place, where past glory was apparent all thrugh. Big wide main street, nice old buildings, but also a lot of empty spaces, buildings in several phases of decay and a population one tenth of what it was a century before. Coolgardie was the main center of the goldrush in the 1890's, the first gold was found there and very soon thousands of fortune seekers arrived from all different parts of the country. Obviously water was getting more expensive than gold, the city grew faster than anything. A couple of decennia later the peak is long over, gold is being found in other area's and most hotels, banks, brothels and bathing houses closes their doors for good. But walking through Bayley street, reading all the historical markers that have been put up there, to tell you about the history, you get a much better impression of the wild west, than any number of guided tours in Kalgoorie could give you.
Now I am back in Perth, where I am attempting to sell my car, before leaving the country, but that doesn't seem to be as easy as hoped. In the meantime I am trying to answer all the email I got lately. I thank everyone for the praise of these letters, even though my last letter wasn't about that, I am really interested what is happening in the rest of the world, keep writing therefore.
Until the next Gerbie on tour,
Gerben
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re:
Date: 2001-06-08 08:44 pm (UTC)