map and thesis (part 6)

And the end is here. Finally after 6 weeks of hiking, climbing, observing, noting, interpreting and sweating 90% of the time, I am finally back home in sunny Twyford. I say sunny because I was hoping for it to be cool and maybe even rain but actually it's 31°C so the sweating has continued.

The final few days consisted of tidying up my work and doing some last minute data collection, all good stuff to help bolster the thesis which is making good progress at the moment (well, the introduction is done anyway). Early on in the trip, we decided to end the whole adventure with a day or so in Barcelona. I remembered from my time inter-railing that a fast train from Madrid to Barcelona stops in Zaragoza. Ideal then that we could drop off the cars and then catch the train and lucky that I managed to get fairly cheap tickets on the internet.

Barcelona is not a new place for me. In fact it is the 4th time I have visited. In line with wanting to keep the trip as cheap as possible, we decided to book a hostel. Using the good old hostelbookers website (a favourite of mine) lead us to a 'very nice looking' hostel close to the Plaza Catalunya which is effectively the Trafalgar Square of Barcelona and therefore smack bang in the middle of everything we needed. All seemed perfect until we arrived at the hostel. I will not name names as it was not the most terrible place I have ever visited and actually, despite the strong smell of BO and weed, the guys we first bumped into all seemed very nice. Indeed, within 30 seconds they had invited us to a festival. However, the general feel of the place was just grim. The bed was grim, the loo was awfully grim, the shower was grim (and had things growing on the base). I like to review everywhere I go on TripAdvisor as actually it has provided a really great service to me when travelling but here I am torn. I want to give it a bad review but the people (who all seemed to work in the hostel - it was strange) were so friendly that I would feel a bit guilty. Decisions eh!

The beach, Barcelona

As we only had a day, it was nice to just relax and have drinks (a fair few), eat good Spanish food at the famous Bilbao Berria (my absolute favourite Spanish restaurant) and walk around the beach. As it was a Monday, most of the museums and such were all closed as is common practise in Europe. 

Tuesday came and it was finally time to get home. The usual airport monotony was stirred up by listening to some loud mouthed scouse 'girls' (covered in tattoos, piercings and an unpleasant expression etc) trying to convince everyone why they needed to skip the queue for passport control in their own unique way. Lucky me also got to experience two delayed trains on arrival in the UK, typical really. So that is the end of that. As mentioned in earlier posts, now is the time to start writing up all of my observations and then using knowledge I already have and with lots of reading, I can make my scientific interpretations. This will be the bulk of my thesis and I have a few months from now to get in the first draft.

As for my blogs, I have a family camping trip coming up this weekend which probably won't warrant a post as all we do is sit, chill and chat. I have a dinner in Oxford next week and my dearest mother is going to visit so as you can see, not a hugely interesting few weeks to come. The next big adventure for me will be my tour of Asia starting in early September for 3 weeks. I plan to visit HK, China, Japan and Singapore and of course, I will have to write about my experiences there with lots of photos to enjoy.

Until then :D

map and thesis (part 5)

I am writing this with just 2 days of mapping left to go. Slightly out of synch for what I would have liked to do however, life currently is just a countdown to heading home. For those who are interested in the geological part of this little adventure of mine, it is still confusing. Unfortunately as mentioned in previous blog posts, lots of small forests have grown all over the area completely covering everything. With such low levels of exposure we are near enough guessing what is happening. In the adult world of geology, they would have more equipment to bore down and collect samples, have access to chemical analysis etc but alas, we just have our maps and coloured pencils. Either way, it is almost done and I actually think I will have a decent (first attempt) map to hand in. The hassle now is writing the thesis. My upcoming trip is going to include some typing during flights I think. 

On the social side, we managed to take a day off to visit the historic city of Pamplona. In all honesty, it was much smaller than we thought so also visited the fort town on Jaca, town that can also trace  its routes back to Roman times and is famous for its 16th century fort. 

The Cathedral of Royal Saint Mary, Pamplona

Spain is certainly a beautiful country but one has to wonder sometimes how it manages to function. Despite Pamplona being the capital of Navarre, it was such a quiet place. Bars and cafes were open but when you walk down some of the side streets it just appears deserted. The city is also famous for its bullfighting but this happened a few weeks past and now the very large stadium that hosts the event was closed and didn't offer the chance to look inside. I could not even get a good photo as the outside is surrounded by trees!

Since writing this blog I have not mentioned the fact that I have been driving, a function that none of my family would have thought me capable of. I passed my driving test through the army more than 5 years ago. The course they sent me on in order to get my license was up to two weeks long but with the option to take a test after the first week. Monday to Thursday consisted of meeting our (two of us had to share a car - can not remember the other guy though) very strange driving instructor who really did not seem interested in teaching. We would drive around a bit, do some manoeuvring then swap over and do it all again. My test was on the Friday, I did not feel ready. Upon meeting the driving assessor on the Friday morning I thought we could get this fail over and done with nice and quickly. We drove out of camp, went around some roads and parked on a hill where the assessor instructed me to turn off the engine. He then started to chat to me about my regiment, about his old regiment and his time in Northern Ireland. 15 minutes later I started off again with a hill start, drove in a loop and back into camp where he then assessed my parking (which consisted of me driving straight into the starting point). 11 minors later (unsure where they came from) and I had my pass. Boom! Luckily did not have to drive again....until now.

This would not normally sound very encouraging to most but actually it has been very simple (aided by the car being automatic) and nobody has died of fright from my dangerous driving.

So what is next. Sunday I head to Barcelona for two days of doing no geology at all. Tuesday I fly home and have a few days before heading off on a family camping trip to my fathers favourite place. More on that to come soon I think.

So sum up this post, here is a photo of a really neat little village we saw whilst driving to Pamplona that looks like Rohan from LoTR, it is built on a small hill and everything!

Until next time :)

map and thesis (part 4)

Only a short blog today as with only two weeks of fieldwork left to go, the week was dominated by a visit by my supervisor, Professor Charlie Bristow. The initial worry turned out to be unnecessary as he actually said my work was very good BUT, it appears both me and my mapping buddy made quite a big mistake in that we missed an entire formation (sigh!). Not to worry though as it turns out that in the ten years since he was last here, a small forest seems to have grown over all of the exposure and in the places where did did 'see it' we called it something else. Anyway, problem solved and ready to move on.

Much needed selfie before hiking around in the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park.

To that end I do not really have much to talk about this week other than the 13 hour Geo Tour we did yesterday (Friday 5th) which included visiting some geological sites located close to scenic Spanish towns, a quarry that was once the start of a very large basin millions of years ago and finally a trek to the crystal blue waters of the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park (at almost 1800m above sea level).

I have some photos in my Google Photos but I have never in my life seen such clear blue water. 

The day culminated in some fossil hunting in mudrocks from the mid-Eocene, I was fortunate enough enough to find a very good Echinoderm fossil (photo below, pen is for scale). So overall a hugely useful visit from my supervisor who managed to clear up nearly 3 weeks of confusion within an hour of arriving. Now I have 2 weeks to correct the errors made and finish off the final few field-slips. The stressful part is only just beginning though as I have to write the thesis. With my little Asian tour coming up in September and my draft being expected by late November, I have had to start drafting my thesis now. Not my favourite past time after a long day in 30° heat but needs must and all that.

One part of this whole degree that has started to niggle in my mind is the viva at the very end. Rumour has it that the main topic for the viva is the map and thesis. The examiner is expecting a thorough and proven understanding of the geology around the area, the tectonics affecting it etc. I can honestly say that until yesterday(ish), I was completely bamboozled. By the end of these two weeks I hope to have it cleared up.

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My dead fly count: demi-god level

Andy's dead fly count: god level

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