мая 31, 2006
Adventure at Last
5/31 20:49, Perth time
A morning call forced us to postpone our sightseeing until later this afternoon. But as it happened, that turned out fine. As follows:
At breakfast, S B suggested we head north of Perth to take a look a "The Pinnacles" -- a formation-on-sand near the coast that seemed from the brochure to be termite mounds. Reception told us that the trip from Perth would take maybe 1.5 hours. So, even after we had been called back to the shop and didn't get onto the northward road until after three this afternoon, we decided to continue with the trip. Further, S B -- who has been driving while in Perth -- figured that the half-tank fo gas we had remaining after three days would be more than sufficient to get us out and back. Heh heh.
So we drove north on highway 1 (the same 1 that goes north and south of Brisbane and in fact loops all the way around Australia) through the greener-than-Queensland but still desolate bush, over hill after hill, after hill. The sun sank lower, and no sign of the ocean left us worrying a bit when we hit a service station maybe 200 km outside of Perth, to be told that we were on the right course, and that the turn-off road was a mere 30 klicks further ahead. So we pressed on. At the turnoff road another sign indicated that Pinnacles was still 50km yet ahead, but that gasoline was available in that direction as well. So still we headed on through the hills and bush, finally topping a rise with a glimpse of the ocean then shortly after turning onto yet another cutoff with yet another sign indicating an even further 17km to thed Pinnacles park. By this point, the sun had touched the horizon behind the clouds, and our fuel remaining gauge indicated just barely enough to return to the main road, yet still on we went.
Entering Pinnacles park, it became immediately obvious that we had misinterpreted the photographs. Though still impressive -- perhaps not so much in the gathering dusk as if we had arrived in full day... -- the mounds were a natural standing stone formation covering several square miles, through which a crude track had been marked. We drove in a bit of a ways, took some shots, then decided that the late hour (it was past 5:30) should be our cue to turn back for Perth. As S B started the car up, the fuel light came on, and the fuel remaining gauge read "20km".
Uh-oh.
After once briefly losing the track in the failing light, we exited the park, made it back off the Pinnacles park road, and, showing hardly any fuel ramining, headed away from Perth, but towards the fueling station indicated by signs as being 2km up the road. As we pulled into the station (5:56, full dark out now, as middle-of-nowhere as one can be on a paved surface) I noticed the unlit interior, while R B spotted the clerk locking up the last island of pumps. It took no convincing to get fueled up, but the owner explained that the station closed at 6 (five minutes before we arrived by his watch) and that, had he not forgotten the keys to the pump locks in his office after locking it up, we would have ended up spending the night in our car out front of the station. One extra picture or wrong turn and we would have been totally screwed. And now all that remained was a 2-1/2 hour drive through the pitch-black, 2-lane wilderness, inhabited by large animals which show a distressingly regular predisposition to run across roads in front of moving vehicles. Needless to say, R B and I sat a very stressful roo and emu watch while S B piloted past and around the 37-meter "road train" semitrailers that, having spent the daytime in depots being loaded and unloaded, start their runs primarily at night. Luck favored us, though, and the wildlife kept to itself and the heavier traffic was well-operated, and I can now sit in my hotel room in the teeming-metropolis-by-comparison of Perth, pecking away at my keyboard.
I absolutely have insisted that we get to the Indian Ocean tomorrow before leaving. I will not get this close and miss my opportunity.
A morning call forced us to postpone our sightseeing until later this afternoon. But as it happened, that turned out fine. As follows:
At breakfast, S B suggested we head north of Perth to take a look a "The Pinnacles" -- a formation-on-sand near the coast that seemed from the brochure to be termite mounds. Reception told us that the trip from Perth would take maybe 1.5 hours. So, even after we had been called back to the shop and didn't get onto the northward road until after three this afternoon, we decided to continue with the trip. Further, S B -- who has been driving while in Perth -- figured that the half-tank fo gas we had remaining after three days would be more than sufficient to get us out and back. Heh heh.
So we drove north on highway 1 (the same 1 that goes north and south of Brisbane and in fact loops all the way around Australia) through the greener-than-Queensland but still desolate bush, over hill after hill, after hill. The sun sank lower, and no sign of the ocean left us worrying a bit when we hit a service station maybe 200 km outside of Perth, to be told that we were on the right course, and that the turn-off road was a mere 30 klicks further ahead. So we pressed on. At the turnoff road another sign indicated that Pinnacles was still 50km yet ahead, but that gasoline was available in that direction as well. So still we headed on through the hills and bush, finally topping a rise with a glimpse of the ocean then shortly after turning onto yet another cutoff with yet another sign indicating an even further 17km to thed Pinnacles park. By this point, the sun had touched the horizon behind the clouds, and our fuel remaining gauge indicated just barely enough to return to the main road, yet still on we went.
Entering Pinnacles park, it became immediately obvious that we had misinterpreted the photographs. Though still impressive -- perhaps not so much in the gathering dusk as if we had arrived in full day... -- the mounds were a natural standing stone formation covering several square miles, through which a crude track had been marked. We drove in a bit of a ways, took some shots, then decided that the late hour (it was past 5:30) should be our cue to turn back for Perth. As S B started the car up, the fuel light came on, and the fuel remaining gauge read "20km".
Uh-oh.
After once briefly losing the track in the failing light, we exited the park, made it back off the Pinnacles park road, and, showing hardly any fuel ramining, headed away from Perth, but towards the fueling station indicated by signs as being 2km up the road. As we pulled into the station (5:56, full dark out now, as middle-of-nowhere as one can be on a paved surface) I noticed the unlit interior, while R B spotted the clerk locking up the last island of pumps. It took no convincing to get fueled up, but the owner explained that the station closed at 6 (five minutes before we arrived by his watch) and that, had he not forgotten the keys to the pump locks in his office after locking it up, we would have ended up spending the night in our car out front of the station. One extra picture or wrong turn and we would have been totally screwed. And now all that remained was a 2-1/2 hour drive through the pitch-black, 2-lane wilderness, inhabited by large animals which show a distressingly regular predisposition to run across roads in front of moving vehicles. Needless to say, R B and I sat a very stressful roo and emu watch while S B piloted past and around the 37-meter "road train" semitrailers that, having spent the daytime in depots being loaded and unloaded, start their runs primarily at night. Luck favored us, though, and the wildlife kept to itself and the heavier traffic was well-operated, and I can now sit in my hotel room in the teeming-metropolis-by-comparison of Perth, pecking away at my keyboard.
I absolutely have insisted that we get to the Indian Ocean tomorrow before leaving. I will not get this close and miss my opportunity.
The Pinnacles
мая 30, 2006
Rainy Days
5/30 16:11, Perth time
It has rained at least a few times every day since I landed in Perth. The weather is mostly overcast, almost chilly, and very, very windy. My ears having become attuned to the accent, I could almost be in Florida -- except that, unlike the US, you don't see a whole lot of flags around here.
The interesting talk today concerned the natives, and was initiated by my inquiring to a driver about the deep scratch running down the side of his otherwise-pristine nearly new rig. He answered that an aboriginal threw a rock at him as he drove past; that they do that -- throw whatever's at hand as people drive past their settlements or reserves. Granted, I get a biased perspective from the company I keep, but I really begin to get the impression that the "racist" Australians may not be so far off the mark. Driving (or walking for the bold or foolhardy) through aboriginal areas -- not the tourist ones, fo course, but the ones out a good ways down the roads -- one is presented with the evidence of uncivilizable (the word 'feral' is used to general assent), uncontrollable, dangerous wild men. What is so different between the natives of the Americas and the natives of Australia (or between the ways that each was addressed by their respective colonizers) to end up with such a result? Unlike most Aussies I've talked with, I'm inclined to doubt that the difference represents some sort of inherent defect in the aborigines; rather perhaps (and in this, too, the Aussies tend to assent) the ethically corrosive effects of being Officially Protected from, among other things, the consequences of actions and/or disinclination to take action. Though the oppression was certainly a bad thing for all involved, one could easily argue the the American (in particular the South- and Central-) natives were subsumed by cultures in which competence and achievement represented genuine -- perhaps even the only -- means of advancement, assimilation, and at some level, simple survival. In Australia (though of course, the different sides would dispute), the oppression shifted immediately to the Dole, without any intervening period whereby the old natives could begin to absorb the beneficial aspects of the now-dominant sociocultural paradigm. How to fix it? Could it be corrected?
?
As with my disinclination to attribute the current state of affairs to inherent deficiency, I am similarly dissatisfied with the common Australian solution of "doing what we did in Tazzie". That seems unreasonable. I'd like to think that such things damage a culture.
It has rained at least a few times every day since I landed in Perth. The weather is mostly overcast, almost chilly, and very, very windy. My ears having become attuned to the accent, I could almost be in Florida -- except that, unlike the US, you don't see a whole lot of flags around here.
The interesting talk today concerned the natives, and was initiated by my inquiring to a driver about the deep scratch running down the side of his otherwise-pristine nearly new rig. He answered that an aboriginal threw a rock at him as he drove past; that they do that -- throw whatever's at hand as people drive past their settlements or reserves. Granted, I get a biased perspective from the company I keep, but I really begin to get the impression that the "racist" Australians may not be so far off the mark. Driving (or walking for the bold or foolhardy) through aboriginal areas -- not the tourist ones, fo course, but the ones out a good ways down the roads -- one is presented with the evidence of uncivilizable (the word 'feral' is used to general assent), uncontrollable, dangerous wild men. What is so different between the natives of the Americas and the natives of Australia (or between the ways that each was addressed by their respective colonizers) to end up with such a result? Unlike most Aussies I've talked with, I'm inclined to doubt that the difference represents some sort of inherent defect in the aborigines; rather perhaps (and in this, too, the Aussies tend to assent) the ethically corrosive effects of being Officially Protected from, among other things, the consequences of actions and/or disinclination to take action. Though the oppression was certainly a bad thing for all involved, one could easily argue the the American (in particular the South- and Central-) natives were subsumed by cultures in which competence and achievement represented genuine -- perhaps even the only -- means of advancement, assimilation, and at some level, simple survival. In Australia (though of course, the different sides would dispute), the oppression shifted immediately to the Dole, without any intervening period whereby the old natives could begin to absorb the beneficial aspects of the now-dominant sociocultural paradigm. How to fix it? Could it be corrected?
?
As with my disinclination to attribute the current state of affairs to inherent deficiency, I am similarly dissatisfied with the common Australian solution of "doing what we did in Tazzie". That seems unreasonable. I'd like to think that such things damage a culture.
мая 29, 2006
The West
5/30 05:43, Perth time
It rained quite a bit yesterday, at least by local standards. They say that outside of the wintertime I would think differently, but from what I've seen so far Perth is hardly the sun-baked desolate hellhole that I sort of figured it would be (or even the tiny oasis in the middle of said hellhole). It's in fact quite pleasant even out of town a ways.
Apparently -- according to the travel map I studied -- Perth with suburbs holds more than half of the state's 1.5 million residents. Allow that to sink in. The rest of Western Australia (I would venture to guess it at half the size of the continental US) has a total population of 750,000 people. It makes the road to Charleville seem positively cosmopolitan.
We spent Monday meeting with a series of irritated heads-of-transport-companies (and -- surprise -- actually leaving most of them feeling better!) and driving around in their rigs. Conversation was mostly not as illuminating as I have come to hope for on these jaunts. Aussies don't seem to be, in the main, as philosophically loquacious as some of the other types I tend to hang out with. It makes for poor journaling, and I've yet to really spend any time outside of the built-up or near-built-up areas to give my travelogue alternative to interesting conversation. My apologies.
It rained quite a bit yesterday, at least by local standards. They say that outside of the wintertime I would think differently, but from what I've seen so far Perth is hardly the sun-baked desolate hellhole that I sort of figured it would be (or even the tiny oasis in the middle of said hellhole). It's in fact quite pleasant even out of town a ways.
Apparently -- according to the travel map I studied -- Perth with suburbs holds more than half of the state's 1.5 million residents. Allow that to sink in. The rest of Western Australia (I would venture to guess it at half the size of the continental US) has a total population of 750,000 people. It makes the road to Charleville seem positively cosmopolitan.
We spent Monday meeting with a series of irritated heads-of-transport-companies (and -- surprise -- actually leaving most of them feeling better!) and driving around in their rigs. Conversation was mostly not as illuminating as I have come to hope for on these jaunts. Aussies don't seem to be, in the main, as philosophically loquacious as some of the other types I tend to hang out with. It makes for poor journaling, and I've yet to really spend any time outside of the built-up or near-built-up areas to give my travelogue alternative to interesting conversation. My apologies.
мая 28, 2006
Perth
5/28 20:32, Perth time
So. Perth.
Today started fairly early; I needed to get my mobile phone garbage straightened out, so I woke quickly and made my way out the door, walking down the Great Eastern Highway to the city center of Perth (having purchased a road map first). The walk was about 8km and just before 9 in the morning, I strolled up to the front of the local Telstra shop in the 'mall' part of the city. Of course, as is the case with most everything around here on a Sunday, it was closed. The girl at the cafe next door -- unusual in being open at the time -- told me that the Telstra shop would be open at noon. So, having a couple more hours to burn, I ended up hiking first to the waterfront, then to the war memorial in King's Park, at the top of Mount (like Maunganui, an appellation given perhaps more from politeness than from any real justified reason) Eliza, to the west of the city center.
The ground here, once you get through the fairly thin layer of organic duff, is a bright yellow in color. I am led to understand that a large quantity of the world's known urnaium reserves are in WA, leading me to suspect that this may be part of the cause of the coloration. I certainly hope that either some other mineral is to blame, or alternatively that the color of uranium ore is so very intense that a very scant amount is adequate to dominate the other constituents of a particular soil. Otherwise, I begin to worry. I took pictures, but am in not much shape to post them now; once I do, it will be possible to share my worry...
Regarding the mobile phone, once noon had arrived, I discovered that my existing Telstra number had been deactivated a mere four days ago for lack of usage (and/or lack of credit -- I must talk with my colleague, to whom I lent the phone and simcard in March). What's more, when a phone number is deactivated here, Telstra puts it for a month on "quarantine" (for what reason, I was unable to discover) before it can be reactivated by application of dollars. The end result: I am effectively without my old number for the duration of this trip. So, I bought a new number, which has been distributed through the usual channel.
S B and R B arrived while I was getting the bad news at the shop, checked in, and picked me up on the waterfront. We then headed to see a customer who has some particularly difficult issues -- and who also happens to be the president of one of the major biker gangs (excuse me -- clubs) in WA. Needless to say, it is fairly important that this guy be kept happy. We hopped in his problem rig and drove about 80 km out of town and back and perhaps came up with a solution. Conversation wsas fairly mundane, though we did get to talking about odd foods, and he mentioned that an a boriginal tribe up north has been given the rights to catch dugongs, and that they ar equite willing to share the meat when they get it. Another guy who enjoys eating indigenous animals! We compared food stories (I think the bowl of bees in China won the contest) for a fair chunk of the ride.
Afterwards, drinks and pasta, and now here I am back in the hotel again.
So. Perth.
Today started fairly early; I needed to get my mobile phone garbage straightened out, so I woke quickly and made my way out the door, walking down the Great Eastern Highway to the city center of Perth (having purchased a road map first). The walk was about 8km and just before 9 in the morning, I strolled up to the front of the local Telstra shop in the 'mall' part of the city. Of course, as is the case with most everything around here on a Sunday, it was closed. The girl at the cafe next door -- unusual in being open at the time -- told me that the Telstra shop would be open at noon. So, having a couple more hours to burn, I ended up hiking first to the waterfront, then to the war memorial in King's Park, at the top of Mount (like Maunganui, an appellation given perhaps more from politeness than from any real justified reason) Eliza, to the west of the city center.
The ground here, once you get through the fairly thin layer of organic duff, is a bright yellow in color. I am led to understand that a large quantity of the world's known urnaium reserves are in WA, leading me to suspect that this may be part of the cause of the coloration. I certainly hope that either some other mineral is to blame, or alternatively that the color of uranium ore is so very intense that a very scant amount is adequate to dominate the other constituents of a particular soil. Otherwise, I begin to worry. I took pictures, but am in not much shape to post them now; once I do, it will be possible to share my worry...
Regarding the mobile phone, once noon had arrived, I discovered that my existing Telstra number had been deactivated a mere four days ago for lack of usage (and/or lack of credit -- I must talk with my colleague, to whom I lent the phone and simcard in March). What's more, when a phone number is deactivated here, Telstra puts it for a month on "quarantine" (for what reason, I was unable to discover) before it can be reactivated by application of dollars. The end result: I am effectively without my old number for the duration of this trip. So, I bought a new number, which has been distributed through the usual channel.
S B and R B arrived while I was getting the bad news at the shop, checked in, and picked me up on the waterfront. We then headed to see a customer who has some particularly difficult issues -- and who also happens to be the president of one of the major biker gangs (excuse me -- clubs) in WA. Needless to say, it is fairly important that this guy be kept happy. We hopped in his problem rig and drove about 80 km out of town and back and perhaps came up with a solution. Conversation wsas fairly mundane, though we did get to talking about odd foods, and he mentioned that an a boriginal tribe up north has been given the rights to catch dugongs, and that they ar equite willing to share the meat when they get it. Another guy who enjoys eating indigenous animals! We compared food stories (I think the bowl of bees in China won the contest) for a fair chunk of the ride.
Afterwards, drinks and pasta, and now here I am back in the hotel again.
мая 27, 2006
Landed
5/27 19:51, Perth time
I'm back on the ground and checked into my digs-for-the-week, and just about ready to start Discovering Perth. I've already learned that, like Hervey Bay and Maryborough in Queensland, in Perth your chances of finding an open shop (say, for example a Telstra shop to get your mobile phone straightened out) after 6PM on a Saturday are nil. Further -- and even more amusingly from my perspective -- I am assured that on Sundays only the city center, such as it is, is open for any kind of business. It's a two-dollar bus ride there; I'm not terribly certain what time S B and R B are getting in tomorrow, but the original plan was that it didn't matter; they could call my mobile once they were checked in and come pick me up wherever I was. Now I'm going to have to wing it and hope not to screw up our coordination too badly. I see on Qantas' website that the earliest they could be here is noon. I suppose I'll have to exert effort to ensure that I am either reconnected via mobile or back at the hotel by that time.
As far as Perth for now, It was dark when we landed. The roads look much like roads in the other Aussie states I've seen. Tomorrow will be more interesting.
I'm back on the ground and checked into my digs-for-the-week, and just about ready to start Discovering Perth. I've already learned that, like Hervey Bay and Maryborough in Queensland, in Perth your chances of finding an open shop (say, for example a Telstra shop to get your mobile phone straightened out) after 6PM on a Saturday are nil. Further -- and even more amusingly from my perspective -- I am assured that on Sundays only the city center, such as it is, is open for any kind of business. It's a two-dollar bus ride there; I'm not terribly certain what time S B and R B are getting in tomorrow, but the original plan was that it didn't matter; they could call my mobile once they were checked in and come pick me up wherever I was. Now I'm going to have to wing it and hope not to screw up our coordination too badly. I see on Qantas' website that the earliest they could be here is noon. I suppose I'll have to exert effort to ensure that I am either reconnected via mobile or back at the hotel by that time.
As far as Perth for now, It was dark when we landed. The roads look much like roads in the other Aussie states I've seen. Tomorrow will be more interesting.
мая 26, 2006
Layover
5/27 11:51, Auckland time
It's been around five hours I've sat in the Koru Club lounge at the Auckland airport. With another three or so to go. My idea of renting a car for another jaunt up the peninsula was dashed when I discovered the minimum rental rate of NZD$100 (too lazy to look up how much that comes to, but it suffices that it's well more than the US$20-30 I was aiming for). So instead I get to shower and screw off on the Internet.
The flight out was decent, though fairly bumpy for the second half. ANZ has implemented a new cabin style that leaves me torn between they and Singapore Airlines as to my favorite. Apparently all long-haul 747s in the ANZ fleet now have the one-person-row lounge seating that I saw on my last hop from Brisbane to Christchurch. I can only hope that the 767 I'll be taking from here to Perth is similarly outfitted.
Otherwise? Airports and flying. I have discovered that my Telstra simcard seems to have been deactivated since the last time I was in Australia. Hopefully I can retain the number and merely stock up the minutes, othewise I'll need to distribute a whole new Aussie-number as soon as I get to Brisbane -- there's certainly no point buying a WA account, as I don't anticipate more than this one trip there.
Airports and flying
There's really not much to say.
Everywhere the same.
It's been around five hours I've sat in the Koru Club lounge at the Auckland airport. With another three or so to go. My idea of renting a car for another jaunt up the peninsula was dashed when I discovered the minimum rental rate of NZD$100 (too lazy to look up how much that comes to, but it suffices that it's well more than the US$20-30 I was aiming for). So instead I get to shower and screw off on the Internet.
The flight out was decent, though fairly bumpy for the second half. ANZ has implemented a new cabin style that leaves me torn between they and Singapore Airlines as to my favorite. Apparently all long-haul 747s in the ANZ fleet now have the one-person-row lounge seating that I saw on my last hop from Brisbane to Christchurch. I can only hope that the 767 I'll be taking from here to Perth is similarly outfitted.
Otherwise? Airports and flying. I have discovered that my Telstra simcard seems to have been deactivated since the last time I was in Australia. Hopefully I can retain the number and merely stock up the minutes, othewise I'll need to distribute a whole new Aussie-number as soon as I get to Brisbane -- there's certainly no point buying a WA account, as I don't anticipate more than this one trip there.
Airports and flying
There's really not much to say.
Everywhere the same.
мая 25, 2006
5/25 14:15, Portland time
Another airport checkin after long hiatus. The clerk lady hemmed and hawed and made generally unreassuring noises over my passport. For long enough to make me get a little worried; but all is well – the ETA (Aussie Immigration) system was refusing to confirm my welcome into their country. Just a hiccup, and eventually resolved. And here I sit in the mediocre business class lounge at PDX, waiting for a call to come to get onto the first, most unpleasant leg of my flight – to Los Angeles.
I’m still as yet undecided about what I’ll do in Auckland. I know that I’ll likely be totally beat and ready for nothing more than a pleasant crash upon arrival to Perth. Three days from now, as the calendar goes.
I’m still finding it a bit difficult to get hyped up about this trip. I’m going to the wrong hemisphere (and in the wrong direction!) from where I really want to be. It’s something new, but hardly has the edge of all of my past adventures.
Oh yes; a silly person announced that the world will end on the sixth (6/6/06). So that might be interesting. I’ll be sure to let the folks on the other side of the date line know how that turns out…
Another airport checkin after long hiatus. The clerk lady hemmed and hawed and made generally unreassuring noises over my passport. For long enough to make me get a little worried; but all is well – the ETA (Aussie Immigration) system was refusing to confirm my welcome into their country. Just a hiccup, and eventually resolved. And here I sit in the mediocre business class lounge at PDX, waiting for a call to come to get onto the first, most unpleasant leg of my flight – to Los Angeles.
I’m still as yet undecided about what I’ll do in Auckland. I know that I’ll likely be totally beat and ready for nothing more than a pleasant crash upon arrival to Perth. Three days from now, as the calendar goes.
I’m still finding it a bit difficult to get hyped up about this trip. I’m going to the wrong hemisphere (and in the wrong direction!) from where I really want to be. It’s something new, but hardly has the edge of all of my past adventures.
Oh yes; a silly person announced that the world will end on the sixth (6/6/06). So that might be interesting. I’ll be sure to let the folks on the other side of the date line know how that turns out…
мая 17, 2006
Off Hiatus
Not that it hasn't been eventful (and how!), but my seemingly long travel hiatus -- more than six months! -- is coming to an end in another few days. This upcoming will be a short one:
May 25 leave home for Perth
June 3 leave Perth for Brisbane
June 9 leave Brisbane for home
Looking over it, it hardly seems a major trip at all (except for the nearly 10-grand for the plane tickets). And yet all of three or so years ago, my first two-weeker to exotic St. Thomas (Canada, not Bahamas) seemd to drag on forever.
The ways in which the horizons of our normalcy expand...
Anyway, look for more in this spot on the 25/26th. I'm unsure what the situation in Perth may be as far as Access goes, and I have been told that we will be trekking seven or eight hours east of Perth into the orange outback, where I am almost certain Access will be hard to come by.
-sigh- we adapt. At least I will try to get some good pictures.
May 25 leave home for Perth
June 3 leave Perth for Brisbane
June 9 leave Brisbane for home
Looking over it, it hardly seems a major trip at all (except for the nearly 10-grand for the plane tickets). And yet all of three or so years ago, my first two-weeker to exotic St. Thomas (Canada, not Bahamas) seemd to drag on forever.
The ways in which the horizons of our normalcy expand...
Anyway, look for more in this spot on the 25/26th. I'm unsure what the situation in Perth may be as far as Access goes, and I have been told that we will be trekking seven or eight hours east of Perth into the orange outback, where I am almost certain Access will be hard to come by.
-sigh- we adapt. At least I will try to get some good pictures.
