Anatomy: written in the first person...

I am David's carbon footprint drifting majestically from the deep blue sky.

Over the weekend I traveled to Alice Springs for work. Alice is about 1500 km from Darwin, I flew there in an airplain!

 

This year I have done and have planned way too much air travel! Too much flying around in carbon emitting jet planes for me! 

Damn! I ride my bicycle most of the time and avoid driving so I can reduce my impact on the planet... and because I actually like riding my bike because bikes are fun and cool! But it's just so easy to book a cheap flight in a jet to the opposite side of the country and it's part of my job or sometimes just so tempting to go somewhere and off I go again and Boom! A whopping big 'Vapor trail through the empty air...' tons of carbon ejaculated across the sky! 

That's millions of years of sequestered sunlight and CO2, mixed with the oxygenated air we breath, burned in a furnace to produce thrust enough to force a tin can full of apes into the air like birds, propel them beyond the peaks of the highest mountains at speeds bordering on interstellar, across seas and deserts and mountains and time zones in less time than it would take me to ride my bike to Katherine!

I wonder if you could represent a person's carbon footprint by measuring the distance of an airplane vapor trail from horizon to horizon, how much of the sky would mine take up?

Alice Springs was nice. Whenever I arrive there by plane it takes me an hour or so to adjust. I don't know why. There's a very different aura in the Desert and it has some weird effect on my brain and my eyes. I literally can't see properly when I first arrive. The sky is to big or the air is too clear or something. It's like you shouldn't really just turn up there out of the sky. Maybe in the desert we should only arrive slowly on foot or by camel?

Male Zebra Finch

A Wren (Female, didn't have time to ID at the time)

I don't like to be the one burning the carbon, but how else would I be able to see these beautiful desert bird species in a weekend and be back with my family in 3 days?!

Peace!
 

Visiting friends in the Heart

Just had a magic couple of days in Alice springs! I was there for work but did get a few moments to just enjoy the space! The desert is green, the air is clean and there were plenty of opportunities to sit and breathe it all in. Fortunately we stayed at a fantastic venue and the meals were catered for! We didn't have to shuttle people for accommodation to meeting sites either so there was plenty of time in between meetings, to just hang out!
We even got a surprise invitation to the opening of Hector Burton's art exhibition at the Hele Crescent gallery!
Unfortunately most of the photos were lost when the other camera was stolen from the  hire car at the hospital!    We Thought we'd lost our second camera but it turned up wedged behind one of the seats of the hire car... I haven't seen the photos yet... Hoping there were some decent ones in there!


Ben and Graham hanging out at Hele Cres...(attempted oldifying photo using basic rgb tools)

The place where we stayed is called Campfire in the Heart. It is a Christian Retreat and had some great facilities! Outdoor kitchens, 'Campfire', meetings spaces indoors and outside, an awesome little prayer room including an atrium which created the illusion of the Desert within the house. What I really enjoyed was the stone labyrinth which I was told is 1km long! I walked about a quarter of it before it was time to set up for the morning meeting... It really helped me centre myself before commencing the serious part of my work for the day.
David and Sue, who own the place catered for our lunches and dinner, which not only saved me a heap of work but was a higher standard than I could have managed between meetings! It was a great break for Ben and I who usually end up doing all the cooking as well as meeting duties.
Another great bonus was that David was happy to drive people around a bit! I'm sure I got a great shot of all the old men in the 35 year old kombi... but it was on the other camera! I'll search the other camera when I see it.
Apparently he has owned that van since it was new!
A few of the guys missed out on the show... claiming to have been to too many opening nights. We'll I haven't and I'm totally glad I did go. I was enthralled by the stories behind Hectors paintings and the Trees he painted really stirred me!



Labyrinth at Campfire in the Heart

I wish I'd had more time to just chill, there was definitely some special energy in the Centre this weekend. Full Moon too!
Unfortunately I could only stay for one night and had to return to Darwin at 5:30pm on Saturday. It was kind of a surreal flight home... I was tired and kind of drifting in and out of dream like imaginings.

P.S -
Here I was in an aeroplane again.... Now in the center of Australia, watching the Stuardess demonstrate how to fit the buoyancy vest in case of emergency and wondering what were the chances we'd crash land into the only visible body of water after take off... the Alice Springs sewerage ponds.... What a strange procedure!
Now I'm talking to a fella who tells me all about flying into remote mining camps and working shift for bucket loads of money, gold prospecting and safety training.... 
Now we're getting closer to Darwin and the sky turns dark..... darker... black... Lightening flashes and we're engulfed in darkness!
Now we're circling Darwin just a few ks from the tarmac waiting for a thunder storm to pass...
Now my feet are on the wet tarmac... smelling av gass and humidity... Now I'm hugging my wife and the kids are wrapped around my feet as I try to get my gear from the carouselle... Now I'm home...