Category: Where We Used to Live (Australia posts)

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The biggest crystals in the world

I’ve included a picture with ED’s tiny hand. Now want to see something astounding? Check out this website: http://www.ironammonite.com/2009/12/surviving-cueva-de-los-cristales-giant.html In a cave in Mexico where the temperatures soar to 50 Celsius/122 Fahrenheit, there are gypsum crystals that make a grown man look like ED’s small fingernails! You can also check out the National Geographic website: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/11/crystal-giants/crystals-photography I found even the story of how they entered the cave (without perishing) and...

These past couple weeks also included… 0

These past couple weeks also included…

ice skating! Yes, here in central Australia in the middleof summer! We took the kids twice. We also did a trip to the Desert Park (with the nocturnalhouse as everybody’s favorite). I don’t have any picturesof the various animals there, but we always enjoywatching the bilbies, mala, various desert mice and rats,ghost bats, Western quoll and assorted lizards andsnakes. The last picture below is the “thorny devil.”

Tadpoles and Frogs 0

Tadpoles and Frogs

We had some intense rains about ten days ago whichhad the normally dry river bed flowing. The waterhas now dwindled to a trickle, but after the rainswe get a lot of tadpoles/frogs. We’ve spent twolovely mornings collecting (then releasing) tadpoles. LD had well over 20 in his container at one point today.

A quick visit to the science museum 0

A quick visit to the science museum

Today we went to the local science museum. I let mydaughter (4) take the photos. The pictures below includeancient sea life (trilobites, etc.) and meteorites. When we visited the scientist’s lab back in October, hetold us that he and three fellow scientists put togetherthe entire exhibit in just eight weeks (to get ready forsome dignitary’s visit). They worked from early morningtil midnight to put it all together. Here’s the links...

Driving Across the Outback 2

Driving Across the Outback

We just got back from our three week holiday down toAdelaide, South Australia. We drove down. If you’veever wondered what the Australian Outback looks like,here are a few photos that are pretty representative ofwhat it’s like for 1200+km. There are lots of smallshrubs. Sometimes there are occasional hills, but mostlyit’s flat. Every now and then (somewhere between 50 and250kms) there are roadhouses where you can fill up onpetrol/gas. Most roadhouses...

Car Crafts 0

Car Crafts

I had lots of crafts ready for the kids to do in the car. Thepom pom was a huge hit. This isn’t the way I grew upmaking them, so I thought I’d post a few pictures in caseothers of you hadn’t seen this method. It was greatbecause even ED, now 22 months, was able to wrapthe yarn around. Be sure to cut out two circle shapes to make it easier...

Car Entertainment — 2 0

Car Entertainment — 2

The kids also really enjoyed decorating Chinese food take-away boxes (that I got in the local dollar store). I gavethem Christmas stickers and all three kids spent a lotof time carefully covering their boxes. Later in the tripI gave them markers to decorate the box. They also enjoyedcoloring in wooden Christmas ornaments. DD really enjoyed the felt board materials (I added asnowman, Christmas tree and ‘ornaments’, and things likethat. I...

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Coober Pedy, Opal Mining Town

We stayed in Coober Pedy on our way down to Adelaide. Coober Pedy is an opal mining town. It gets very hot (45+C in the summers, 110+F), so many of the houses and hotels are underground. The kids were really excited to do some noodling of their own. They had great luck in the museum noodling pit, but not quite as much luck in the public noodling area.

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Gypsum

We did find a lot of gypsum in the noodling area, a kind of delicate, flaky rock that disinegrates into fine strands. We all thought that was pretty neat. The last picture above is just to try to show how many mounds dot the landscape. It’s quite a strange place!

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Exploring an underground mine

We enjoyed going through the underground miningmuseum. What hard work! When they were digging out the hotel rooms in the placewe stayed in on our return trip (see the next posting fora picture of the room), they discovered nearly 100,000dollars worth of opals including solid opalized fossil shells.Other miners work for 20 years and find very little.