Exploring our eon

Canberrans consider the South Coast their backyard, so I guess I can at least jot this down here. Megan and I have just returned from three days at the coast to visit rocks and fossils: a geological field trip from Ulladulla to Bermagui. Geophysicist Doug and Carol led a group of 30-or-so to the various rocky, storm-eroded beachside outcrops that expose the underlying geology. And incredibly, over that short distance, we saw three exposed layers of rocks: the southern tip of the Sydney basin (~250mya, sedimentary, rich in fossils) through the Batemans Bay Melange (~500mya, metamorphic) to igneous (~50mya, basalts, cherts, pillow lavas, etc) at the southern end. We'd walked over much of this before, but it's different with some knowledge. Our mate Nancy is interested in Aboriginal women's matters so we got a parallel course in stone tools, fish traps, middens and the like. What a great combination of social, physical and educational: clambering over rocks, chatting any manner of things, learning of rocks and fossils, photographing too much, getting an early dose of Vitamin D and tan for summer, meeting for coffees or dinner. Memorable. Just some of very many pics.