Girl in love with rocks

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.

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!

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……

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…..

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……