First week roundup

One week has gone quickly and its time for a short roundup.

Establishing the base-camp

First of all, I have settled and finally managed to put my cloth into the wardrobe. As shown above, we have also set up in the lab and lined out what we will do the next weeks.

So far …

On Wednesday we went on the first field trip to Mt. Field national park with the laserscanner (->LIDAR) mounted on the Skyjib UAV (-> platforms -> skyjib) to collect a small strip of topographic data.

SkyJib flying at Mt. Field national park

SkyJib flying at Mt. Field national park

Since we had some time left we went on a short walk to see pandani plants. Apparently, these plants, endemic to Tasmania, did already exist on the super-continent Gondwana (containing South-America, Africa, India, Antarctica and Australia) somewhat 300 million years before today.

pandani plant, survivors of Gondwana

Pandani plant, survivors of Gondwana

In general, the landscape is stunning and I will try to come back for some bushwalking.

Food

As I mentioned earlier, I life with a family with three kids. I think, that they all (or at least the kids) believe that German man life on sandwiches „are you eating sandwiches agaaaiiinnn?“ (since I have mostly eaten sandwiches here), while all German woman are super healthy (since Juliane is a vegan and mostly eats fruits or vegetables).

On my second day I was invited to try some of the food the family prepared after a daytrip to the ocean. So I tried what I thought was some kind of mussels. They really tasted good … some days after Arko mentioned these expensive and rare abalones, a delicacies found here in Tasmanian waters … which I had eaten without knowing. But still, they tasted very good 😉

Abalone- Tasmanian delicacies

Abalone- Tasmanian delicacies

In general people here eat breakfast, small lunch and big dinner as they do in Scandinavian countries, so I think I have to change my eating habits :/

Every Saturday the Salamanca Market is on in Hobart. You can buy lots of local products. Besides, they offer specialties from around the world. Of course, additionally to the „Taste of Persia“ and „Gypsy Rolls“ you can find „Bratwurst – German Sausages“ 😉

Salamanca Market - German sausages

Salamanca Market – German sausages

On the marked I also bought my first souvenir, which I will not reveal yet … and you may have to wait until next winter to see it.

Transportation

Thanks to the super friendly people here, we managed to improve our transportation situation. We improved from „per pedes“ to bicycle (with helmet, which are mandatory here), and from bicycle to car(!).

At least car drivers will notice me with this helmet ... I hope

At least car drivers will notice me with this helmet … I hope

Toyota Carolla - adventures travel utility

Toyota Carolla – adventures travel utility

We borrowed the latter from a very kind geography P.h.D. student for our weekend trip …

Coming up

Since this weekend is a long one (Monday is public holiday) we will go on a trip to the Tasman Peninsula. Since the landscape is supposed to be very nice we will stay there for two days and do some bushwalking (…hiking, see last post). Besides the car we could borrow equipment from several people … I’m quite exited about the first trip into Tasmanian nature 😉

Another thing which I’m quite exited about is a field trip we will do on next Wednesday. Together with Arko we will visit the Warra research site in southern Tasmania. At the site long term forest research is taking place at the same time as they monitor carbon and other fluxes from a 80m tall tower above the canopy of the forest. A researcher from Forestry Tasmania will take us on a tour through the forest … EXCITING 😉

Thats it for now, more is coming up for sure. I will leave you with an impression from Salamanca Marked, have a good weekend 😉

Tasmania – explore the possibilities

After traveling for about 28 hours (Frankfurt -(12.5h, new life record!)- Singapore -(8h)- Melbourne -(1h)- Hobart) and about 17000km (distance from home – new life record as well) I’m really on the other side of the world – especially if you mind that the longest distance between two points on the earth is about 20000km (half the equator).

backed with equipment right before leaving cologne

Packed with equipment right before leaving cologne (Picture: Kristof D.)

Can't remember being on an airport where there is no taxi way (Airplane turns on the runway and drives to the terminal) before.

Can’t remember being on an airport where there is no taxi way (Airplane turns on the runway and drives to the terminal) before.

At the airport Arko picked us up and drove us to our new home for the next 10 weeks.

We live in a great house together with a nice family close to the ocean (300m) and fairly close to the University. The view from the house is just amazing. Since we arrived in mid summer the weather is fairly good. However, figuring out the best clothing is quite tricky. Since Tasmania lies within the roaring forties there might be quite a lot of wind outside. On the other hand, the sun is really nice and warm.

Not to hard to enjoy breakfast with this view

Not to hard to enjoy breakfast with this view

On the first days we got our desks in Arko’s very well equipped lab (more on that later) and we were busy setting up the equipment and sorting out basic stuff as bicycles.

My desk in Arko's lab

My desk in Arko’s lab

I’m very excited about the next weeks. We have tough about some interesting projects which will produce quite a lot of work – I imagine. However, since the landscape of Tasmania apparently is amazing I’m planning to hike … ahhem, bushwalk as they call it here 😉 as often as I can.

I’ll keep you posted. For now I’m saying good night and pass this day over to you 😉

And, btw., „Tasmania – explore the possibilities“ is the slogan to be found on Tasmanian cars. I thought, that would fit my trip to the other side of the world quite well. In this manner, the block got its header.