I am currently escaping the rainy day outside, and had to speed walk here through the misty rain because it keeps down pouring ever hour or so. So I'll tell you a little about my field trip this past week. First of all, I didn't bring my camera (kicked myself later for that one) so all the pictures on here are what I could find on google.

So, I just recently returned from my 4-day field trip to the south coast with my geology class which was just a fantastic time. First of all, being surrounded by aussies for 4 days straight was really fun. I didn't know what they were talking about half the time because there slang is such a big part of their language. I think I asked "What does _____ mean?" about a hundred times, and they did the same with many of the things I said. But everyone was really helpful to the token American on the trip which was very helpful.

So the first day I arrived at the bus stop where 2 large coaches picked us up. On the way to our first stop I sat with who I learned later had been nicknamed "the hulk", so I had about 2/3 use of my seat for about 5 hours. I was so excited when we finally reached our first destination, Bombo Quarry, where we saw all sorts of unconformities (when two rocks make contact but are from completely different time periods. You can see the contact in the 2nd photo) One of which had a 160 million year age gap. Woah! We also saw a dyke (when lava protrudes into rock cracks from beneath the surface) which I think was my favorite part.

Before the trip I had booked a cabin for the first two nights at Ulladulla with 3 other girls from my class and stayed there each night (opposed to a tent which most students used).  They were all really nice and we ended up hanging out every night with a group of guys, playing phase 10 and doing homework every night.

On the second day, we drove farther south to Pebbly beach which was my favorite place we went the whole week. First of all, we got there and walked down this hill into our meeting area and all of the sudden like 40 or 50 colorful parrots flew out of the jungle and were walking around us, landing on my head, eating out of my hand. It was heaven.

We walked around a large stretch of coastline for about 8 hours documenting the 30 some layers of rock. The terrain was rough, and it was hot that day but I enjoyed exploring the coast line and saw all sorts of creatures along the way. Altogether I saw a red-bellied black snake (very venonmous) which was sunning itself next to our trail, an echidna which is like a giant hedgehog, a pod of dolphins, king parrots, a huntsman spider which was huge,  and finally a pack of kangaroos (saw them on the bus ride and got really excited and was basically yelling "woah!! kangaroos!!!" at which people gave me some weird looks) That night we went to the Bowling Club for dinner and I decided to try something new. "Chicken schnitzel and prawns.." I pondered to myself, thinking this would be an authentic dish. So it comes out and its just breaded chicken and shrimp, but it did end up being one of the best meals I've had here since my arrival 3 weeks ago.

On the third day we visited Myrtle Beach and saw the lower permian wasp head formation which was the deepest rock formation in the Sydney basin so that was pretty cool. Next stop that day was at Melville Point which was beautiful and had some beautifully folded rocks. I don't have a picture but I did have to do a drawing of it so here it is.

The 4th day was also one of my favorite days. We were given a blank map and were told to map an entire area's rock types, dykes, and special features using a compass. There were about six dykes which is not really a common occurrence so this place held a lot of geological significance. There was also a shipwreck here from 1827 which sits above ground and has been reduced to some rusty scraps of metal.

On the drive back Friday morning, my crew scored the front 6 seats which were the best because the driver is below the passengers and the front windscreen was essentially a giant movie screen as I watched all of the breath taking scenery drift by on the 7 hour drive home. We were very fortunate in picking the bus we did because the other bus broke down 2 hours away and had 3 people chuck on the way. Definitely dodged that bullet!

All in all it was a great trip and most of the people I met were also in all my classes this semester which will be nice. I start school tomorrow which I'm pretty excited for. Wish me luck!

Sunset Yorya--