hooray, leaving for thailand today. not going to eat any chickens, kiss any chickens, or sacrifice any chickens. hopefully that should prevent any fatal bird flu incidents. nearly packed now. well, who am i kidding, i have a pile and a list, that’s close enough.

(oh, and as an update on the tick incident, apparently my skin became infected, which has led to two of the lymph glands behind my ear becoming swollen and pressing on things. i now have antibiotics. note to self: don’t get ticks)

apparently i’ll be departing for thailand later today. hoorah, more time spent cramped up in a backpack…. unless maybe they let me on the plane with everyone else. hope i get a window seat. i wonder if there are mooses in thailand? (oh, and sorry the tassie photos haven’t been added yet. i have been biting my owner, but she says it isn’t her fault, so what can you do?)

..russell the peak bagging moose..

the 2 bedroom unit i live in has become a menagerie: 5 people, 1 cat, 6 kittens, 1 rabbit and 4 geckoes. it’s developing an interesting smell in here. escaping to mt. arapiles on the weekend.

also, geekdom is complete, i’ve now placed a geocache of my own.

today: i arrived back in melbourne early in the morning, and found my first geocache at lunch.

yesterday: i woke up in mount field national park in tasmania, and discovered that i had a bloated australian paralysis tick on my ear. i prefer today.

just returned from trip to tasmania. visited a variety of interesting locations, spent far too much time cramped in backpack, but don’t appear to have suffered any ill effects. photos include my attempt on federation peak (unsuccessful due to adverse weather conditions), as well as visits to mount wellington, mount field (notably the remarkable ‘russell falls’), freycinet national park, and the tahune forest air walk.

..russell the peak bagging moose..

The initial reason for my journey to Tasmania – an assault on Federation Peak. We were trekking in along a horrible muddy quagmire of a path, and this was the first view of the peak we obtained. The ascent was to be unsuccessful however, as we were turned back by ill weather.