Now tt its over, I may just have a chance to pass the rock n slope course x.x

I'm so buggered. My mum told me to bring one of those luggage with the wheels but I refused coz its huge (abt half thigh high) coz I didn't want to appear as "girly" since this is a geotech field trip. So I brought a sports bag, which just fits my stuff nicely. Its just that when ur carrying 3 pairs of jeans, thick jumpers, toiletries, a steel cap toe + a 3 kg backpack, it was too much to carry around n hence, my lob sided shoulder.I will be forever hunch and I ain't proud of it :(

If no one happened to miss me, I was in Mittagong for 3 days u fools. It rained like there was no tmr. Wind was insane and Kurt's (lecturer) motto was "rain, hail or shine - we're doing work! Even in garbage bags" followed through. He was not kidding. Heres the worst of the worst in memory:

2nd day out .. it was 8.30 in the morning, we're standing in the rain and wind, asleep with minimal fuel in our stomach, standing infront of this GIANT synite rock ( I mean,.. GIANT GIANT) and with our trusty compass, we mapped defects while balancing a helmet on our head. This may sound like nothing (if it does sound like nothing then ur a noob, n heres the definition of a defect:  to put it simply, defects refer to every single crack that exist in a giant rock. No giant rock obviously occur in one giant mass and hence the interface between each little mass forms this so called defect.The definition of mapping for each defect is taking the direction of the SLANT of the crack in the vertical AND horizontal axis. Yea this may still sound like nothing, then ur a definite noob and cannot be helped)

The good stuff came in last on the 3rd day when we went to the South Marulan Quarry thanks to Blue Circle and Blue Scope Steel. It was a giant mine, the first I've seen and so I get to call it giant. But in fact, this was only a small operating plant. I have no idea whether to stand back in awe or disgust when I look at these things. Coz It is just basically a huge bad ass pit, when it can be a nice environment for things or animals to grow in. But then again, dudes, this is where your calcium came from. This was one of the biggest quarry that supplies calcium in toothpaste, calcium pills, cement, purifying steel and the list is endless. So, this mine is a must. If it is shut down, production above will stop, including the purifying of water in the town of MELBOURNE, all in 7 days. So, this is big scale for me :S and for now, I'll just stand back in awe.


This was our first stop. It was on top of a huge mountain looking into the ocean, and this mountain that is an active landslide. The town gets angry if we talk about these landslide slips anywhere near them ( i guess they don't want to be reminded.. and nor do they want their land price to go down...) so to talk about it, we have to be far far away from the town AND be able to look at the landslide slip at the same time. Hence, top of a big mountain.
This was one side of the huge ass rock to map. The photo just scaled it really badly, just look at the bottom of the rock face, thats your typical 3 laned freeway. So put that into perspective.

This bridge was a $80 million viewing stage for geotechs like us, but they also used it as a road. Talk about road kill. This is the Lawrence Hargrave Drive, not that many of u care, but it won heaps of award. It was built over the sea so that people don't get killed by the falling boulders that tend to hit cars as they were driving previous road it replaced, which was directly next to the cliff face.

Pieced beautifully together. Naturally by nature. Its very cool. Except for the grafitty. But ignore that. We think its blood. But this is basically Bumbo Latite, the leftover of the volcanic eruption that happened millions of years ago.

And this is retarded me, holding the bumbo latite lol.

The Bumbo Latite wall stopping waves that comes in. The waves were huge and this is no beach. I think if u jump off from the furtherest rock, you'd be swimming in about 60m of water :S

More Road kill, The bus is near that road sign, we were walking in a single line in glow in the dark vest. People honked like theres no tmr. Practically every truck and some cars.
After walking this is where we got up to, on top of high road side - landslide base. Remeditation works was to replace the toe of the landslide with a rock mattress to increase its strength.etc etc. we were still honked.

Outside tea shop. We were bored waiting for the bus driver to drive us back.
This is one of the mine, only on the northern end. IT was HUGEEE. that little red circle is a truck. No normal truck, one of those trucks with each wheel costing over $35000 EACH and they are much taller than you, forsure.
Maybe this picture will be worth something when we're old and productive to the industry. This was Me n the boyzzzz (lol) at another part of the mine, well we're ugly, so just awe on the dyke (the black vertical thing behind us) coz tts something big.

The yellow circle is two people walking near the wall. When I was there, it felt like I was walking along the floors of the ocean with the three walls so high up that it blocked the sun from coming in. Well the dyke is formed from an intrusive lava flow that creeps between the weak surfaces of the rock. They tend to flow vertically upwards and black coz theyre volcanic rocks. Geotech 101 class dismissed.
Dez + prof. Khalili, my thesis supervisor. I look scared. Coz I am. He's not too bad outside the office. But I'm still scared. I'm not sure why this writing is underlined.... nor can i be bothered to work out how to remove it...

shower time :)