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DAY ONE – YOUNG DRILLING PROGRAM

After a long break from field work due to a broken foot sustained by falling into a hole (oh the irony!) – the hole being dug by a certain Golden Retriever that I swear was laughing while watching me fall down said hole……anyways…….after a FOUR MONTH break from fieldwork, this Girl In Love With Rocks was very excited to be invited along as an Assistant Geologist for a drilling program in Young, NSW.

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Don’t we look excited?! Yes the dynamic duo of the Long Suffering Mentor and myself began our trek to Young at the crack of dawn! A long drive of excited chatting, educational inserts and lots of laughter……it made an eight hour drive go by remarkably fast! I must say, we live in a truly beautiful country, and travelling along the Hume Highway delivered magical scenery of rolling hills, the Great Dividing Range, and valleys of such lush green paddocks – it all seemed like something out of a picture book! To think millions of years ago this area was under water and being carved by huge amounts of moving rivers. It’s just extreme!

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It always gives me a buzz crossing the mighty Murray River which is the dividing line between NSW and Victoria. It’s just after Albury that the landscape changes and begins to divide and roll……

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Holy moly……just look at the topography……it’s nuts!! Something truly exciting happened here a long time ago and now we get to enjoy nature’s masterpiece! Do I sound a bit poetic……well it’s lucky I wasn’t driving! With conversations interrupted frequently by gasps and cries of “Cor! Look at that slump!”……we made our way towards Gundagai. Which apparently is really famous for this…..

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The photo makes it look awesome……but I kind of didn’t believe the Long Suffering Mentor when she said I would probably be a little underwhelmed by the whole experience. But in actuality, I was more interested in the bloody great big mountain behind the tiny statue! The slumps and terracing on it were just magnificent…..

But in true patriotic form I took a photo of the dog on the tucker box…..and that’s all I will say about it!

We finally arrived in Young and found our accommodation, a lovely self-contained unit with all the trimmings. Having taken our bearings we then proceeded to check out the storage shed which needs to be inventoried and decluttered….

….and I can honestly say the next few days before the drilling starts will consist of a lot of dirt! Just wait for the photos!

I’m in heaven……