Day 9 & 10: Lyme Regis

All right, I'm not sure that anyone cares at this point, seeing as how my trip was a month and a half ago, but seeing as how I have some time and the internet connection is pretty good right now, I'll start on this post.

Lyme Regis is a town on the Dorset Coast of England, which I first read about in one of my sister's guidebooks on my first trip to England. I wanted to make the journey out there then, but it proved to be too far away for us to do it as a day-trip, and we already had too many other things planned. So, when I learned that I would be going back to England, I made sure we put it on our itinerary.

The big attraction of Lyme Regis is the fossil hunting that can be done there. Near the town are large cliffs consisting of alternating layers of limestone and clay, within which many Jurassic age (on the order of 190 million years old) fossils can be found. Periodic mud-slides carry fossils onto the beach, and after being reworked by storms and tides, this means the beach is a great place to find fossils. Due to the abundance of them, you area allowed to keep whatever you find, and there are a number of individuals in town who make their living off of fossil hunting.

Anyway...
My family and I took the train to Axminster on the Friday, followed by a bus to Lyme Regis. We arrived mid-afternoon, but by the time we got there it was too late to go fossil hunting on the beach east of Lyme Regis (because of the tides), which has better prospects, but we did wander along the western beach, and within five minutes on the beach I found a decently preserved ammonite! We wandered all along that beach, finding a number of ammonites, as well as a broken belemnite, and what we later learned was a vertebrae from a dinosaur or possibly an ichthyosaur.

The next day, we wandered around a bit in the morning until the tides were sufficiently low to go out on the eastern beach (between Lyme Regis and Charmouth), and then did more fossil hunting. Between the four of us, we found quite a few fossils, nothing spectacular, but something to remember the trip by. I also met the geologist, Paddy Howe, from the Lyme Regis museum, who has been working in the area for the last thirty years. He was very friendly, we had a good visit, but told us the fossil hunting prospects weren't very good right then; the best time to go is in the winter, but when we went conditions were unusually poor. He took pity on a fellow geologist though, and gave me a couple of fossils he had on him, including a pyritized ammonite (that is, an ammonite fossil where the shell had been entirely replaced by pyrite)!

Okay, on to pictures!

Here is The Cobb, which divides the two beaches I mentioned earlier.


Next, here is a picture of the beach to the west of Lyme Regis, where we started out on Friday. We walked all the way out to the point you can see at the left-hand side of the picture.


Here you can see my family fossil-hunting.


Below are the cliffs.



I'm only going to put up a couple pictures of the fossils I took here, because there are a lot of fairly similar ones.






Awwww...


Here's the town hall, it looks pretty neat.


And this is part of the beach between Lyme Regis and Charmouth



We wandered along the beach to Charmouth, where we stopped for lunch. We did a bit more fossil hunting on the way back, but by then we were running a little short on time (both in our trip and due to the tide starting to come in), so we returned to Lyme Regis, and visited the fossil shops as well as some other sights in the town. Then we picked up our bags from the hotel, caught the bus to Axminster, and from their took the train back to Reading. The next day, was our trip to London, and after that it was time to go home!

Fire! Fire!

So, nothing really to be concerned about, but there seem to be fires burning EVERYWHERE around us. Okay, I'm exaggerating a little bit. Depending on who you ask, Highway 102 is closed north of the La Ronge airport, between La Ronge and Missinipe, or south of South End (which is actually north of our camp). I know that Neimeiben Lake (where my friend and co-worker Tyler was headed today, to spend the long weekend with his family) was evacuated. Also, that there are fires burning north of us, south of Brabant (the closest community to us), near Missinipe, and of course near La Ronge/Neimeiben Lake.

I should phone my mom and give her some more grey hairs. :P

I'm not overly concerned, but it is something we'll be keeping an eye on.

Lack of inspiration

So, I'm sitting in northern Saskatchewan, and a couple of times now I've thought I should put something here to update my loyal readership (yes, all three of you) on what's been going on. But, I really haven't had much to say. I thought about doing a photo documentary thing about my work, because while many of you know what I do (gold exploration), few know what that entails. I don't know, in the evenings I just haven't felt like it.

In brief: I've spent the last week grid mapping, and probably have another week to go before I finish the grid. My leg (the one with tendonitis) is holding up okay, and slowly seems to be getting better. It's been really nice having internet access in the evenings, as well as the Vonage phone which means we can call people for free (as opposed to ~$1.00/minute with a sat-phone); the combination of those makes it a lot easier to keep in touch with friends (yes, I do have some) and family. So, can't complain really.

Please drop me a line via e-mail or otherwise and let me know how you guys are doing.

Go north!

Well, I'm back up in the bush. The trip up was interesting; highway 102 (which goes north from La Ronge) is in somewhat rough shape from all the rain that's been coming down, so I had to take that portion of our trip a little slower than usual. My co-worker Mary picked me up this morning, and will be heading back to Saskatoon tomorrow with a different truck that came up a few days ago.

I will be up in the bush now for about three weeks, then I get a week break, and after that will be here until the end of August before I head to Sudbury for a couple of weeks to take my first class towards my M.Sc. in Mineral Exploration.

Let me tell you, very nice having internet access in the bush. Up until this summer, we have been able to e-mail over sat-phones, but you have to keep the file size down, and actually loading a web-page is virtually impossible. Think slow, unreliable dial-up that is prohibitively expensive.

So, this means that you all won't be free of me this summer, even if I'm not around in person. Now you can never escape...unless you, I don't know, turn off the computer, go outside and enjoy some fresh-air and exercise.

Two Weddings, Father's Day, and into the field

In brief for now:
I had a very nice weekend. I got together with Maryanne and Chris Reed for a little while on Friday, and then my coach Ted in the evening.

Saturday, I watched the Beat Beethoven race, which Ted won. I then traveled with my former training partner Marion Craig out to the wedding of Greg Wilson and Jennifer Neiszner, at the Neiszner family farm near Weyburn. I was best man, and it was really an honour to be there. Greg and I first got to know each other competing at track, and then became training partners when he moved to Regina for school, and have stayed friends ever since. They are moving out to Ottawa, and will be sorely missed here. It was a very casual, laidback affair. The service lasted fifteen minutes, but was beautifully delivered by Greg's former coach, Jorin Green, who is now a professor of theology. The pictures were very nice, the photographer was great!

The wedding wrapped up quite early, such that I was able to get back to Regina around 9:00 p.m., and was able to attend the reception for my friends Meg Lipskey and Karl Persson. They were surprised to see me, and it was good to see so many of my other friends there.

Today, I attended church at the Regina Fellowship Assembly, and then went to Meg and Karl's Hawaiian themed gift opening and reception for close friends and family. It was great fun, although I had to duck out a little early so that I could spend part of Father's Day with my dad. I then returned to Saskatoon, and tomorrow will be heading into the field. I get a break from July 8-14th, and will otherwise be in the north until around the end of August.

So, my friends, please keep in touch with me by e-mail or over MSN/Skype. I'll hope to see some of you on my break, and everyone have a great summer!

Day 8: Avebury

-Updated June 18-
On Thursday, we all hopped on the train to Swindon, and from there took the bus to Avebury.

Avebury is a small town with some very significant archaeological sites in and around it, most dating back 5,000 years. Jen and I came here on my last visit, so we tried to see some different sights this time.

The town is just beautiful: the local pub, the Red Lion, has a thatched roof, there is a small visitor centre, and, of course, the best feature is the stone circle which runs through the town. This circle is similar to Stonehenge, but older by about 500 years, the sarcen stones are unshaped, and the circle covers a much broader area, as you will see from the photos below. Also, nice from our viewpoint, Avebury is not the tourist attraction that Stonehenge is, so you can still go touch the sarcen stones, and it is much less crowded.

The Red Lion Pub:


The stones run through the town, and across fields, many of which are populated with sheep. There is also a ditch surrounding the circle of sarcen stones.

Here you can see some of the stones (and sheep):


Next is a close-up picture of one sarcen and a couple of sheep:


Below is a good picture showing the curve of the stones, the ditch, and part of the town.


Here is another good view of the ditch.


Sheep!




Okay, I can't resist, one more picture that shows the sarcen stones, taken near Avebury Manor and Farmhouse, part of a heritage site run by the National Trust.


The real black sheep of the family.


I like this sign. Helpful, isn't it?



Next, we walked out to Windmill Hill. This site is not much to look at, but is of great historical significance, having been the site of the first neolithic community in the area, older even then the sarcen stones, the barrow, and Silbury Hill (which i will tell more about below). There are also a number of unexcavated barrows near Windmill Hill, which were created two or three centuries after the village was abandoned.

As you can see, we went through some interesting terrain getting there.


The approach to Windmill Hill.


And the hill itself. As mentioned, not much to look at.


King of the Castle!


Here is a wacky spire, taken from far away using my zoom. I have no clue of its name/history/purpose.



On my first trip to Avebury, Jen and I got as close as we could to Silbury Hill, but this time we just took pictures from afar. It's pretty easy to make out for miles around, as it is the highest structure in the area. This hill dates back to ~2600 BC, and is a man-made hill approximately 40 m in height, comprised primarily of chalk. There has been speculation as to its purpose, but no definite answers; one popular theory is that it is a burial mound. It represents an estimated 4 million man-hours of work!



A notable omission from this trip was taking in the West Kennet Long Barrow, shown below. This was a burial chamber for many people; fifty bodies have been removed from it, and that from an area that only represents one-sixth of the length of the barrow. It was constructed approximately 5,000 years ago, and was sealed up about a thousand years after that.

Baptism

Well, as many of you know, I was baptised yesterday at the Regina Fellowship Assembly church. This was something that was a long time in coming, as it had been more than a year since I first made it known that I desired this experience.

The baptism took place as part of the morning service. Many of those who I attend church with in Saskatoon came down to visit this event, including David Gabruch, an Elder there with whom I have formed a particular friendship. The usual attendance at the Regina church is about twenty people, but it was more than doubled yesterday (by Joel's count, 42! Yay Douglas Adams!)!

The service was ministered by David Cotcher and Trevor Sunbow (whose last name I have undoubtedly mangled...someone please correct me), with some additional words of encouragement from David Gabruch.

I would just like to thank all those who came to the service, and the others who could not be there, but whose prayers and thoughts were with me.

Day 7: Reading

The day after we got back from Ireland we had originally planned on doing some traveling to see some other sights, but by consensus we decided a break was in order, so while Jen got some much-needed work done, my parents and I wandered around Reading a bit, and had a bit more restful day.

During our stay in Reading, some of the neat things we saw include:

A big lion, in a park in downtown Reading


More pictures of the park




The remains of Reading Abbey





More of downtown Reading



Poor Queen Victoria. A roost for pigeons, and seriously in need of cleaning. Royalty just aren't treated as well anymore, I guess.



The following were taken along the canal.


The crane (above) was taken on behalf of my mother. Yay 12x optical zoom!




There were a few other neat things in Reading, but I've covered the highlights, in brief here. Sorry for the lack of commentary, I'm feeling somewhat pressed for time right now.

Ky look-a-like

I was out shopping this evening for some supplies for the field, and saw a girl that had an uncanny resemblance to Ky. I did a double-take at first, thinking it was her, but that was not the case. The real clue-in for me was that she was talking to a boy! Indeed, very possibly a boyfriend! :P

Day 6: Dublin continued and the journey home (well, to Reading)

On Tuesday, our ferry back to England was scheduled to leave at noon, so we had a few hours in the morning to roam around. We went to Trinity College, as well as a beautiful park not far away, and saw one or two other things.

Here is the entrance to Trinity College.


This is part of the central green area.


Next, here is my sister snooping around.


This is a nifty sculpture (kind of reminds me of the chestburster from Alien)


Best. Sign. Ever. Need I say more?


Next, is a picture of my mother taken with Molly Malone.


We then continued on to Saint Stephen's Green Park.


There are pretty flowers surrounding a pretty rock.


And look! A picture of me! I bet some of you had forgotten what I look like.


"C D E-D B-D ducks?" "M aren't ducks!" "S M R! C D E-D B-D wings?" "L I'll B! M R ducks!"


Isn't it a pretty place?


I just had to take a picture of this place.

Cool statue.


That about sums up our stay in Ireland. We took Irish Ferries to Holyhead, and it wasn't as pleasant as the ferry from Fishguard. It probably didn't help that it was full of rowdy Irish football fans, or that it was smaller than the other ferry; although faster, it just wasn't as enjoyable. Plus, at the end of the ride, they kept giving us contradictory orders about where to disembark, and none of the crew seemed to speak English. At any rate, we made it back safely to Reading, which would be our base of operations for the rest of our stay in England.