Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 64, February 2013

Last Chance

Only four trips are available before 28 April, special offers on the first three.

• Russell's Light Wet Special: 10-18 February 2013.
  When a number of people had to cancel, I was left with two on section one and none on section two so I've had to cancel section two. I WILL run it for those on section one.
  Click the link and read the updated trip notes to see why I'm going to run with so few.
  Special offer. I've dropped the price from $995 down to $795 including transport between Darwin and Kununurra on both ends.
• Pilbara: Karijini National Park: 7-20 April
  Two great walks in one of Australia's most spectacular national parks. Either can be done on its own.
  Special note. All roads into Karijini were closed by heavy rain on 24 January. That rain (340 mm in the two days to 9 a.m. on 25 January) will make 2013 an exceptionally good year to visit.
  Special offer. We still need more bookings to run the trip so we are extending the 15% advance purchase discount to 8 February. (List price is $2995.) If we don't have at least five bookings by then, we will have to cancel the trip.
• Bungle Bungles & Osmond Range: 14 April - 4 May
  Two great walks, either of which can be done on its own.
  Special offer. We still need more bookings to run the trip so we are extending the 15% advance purchase discount to 19 February. (List price is $4295 for the full trip, $3195 for section one and $2295 for section two.) If we don't have at least five bookings by then, we will have to cancel the trip.
• Kakadu Family Walk No. 1: 21-27 April
  If the family which is considering this trip confirms, it will be the harder option and suitable for adults.

List prices — Where Are They?

Our list prices appear on multiple pages on our website. Several people have told me they were hard to find. I thought it should be easy. I can't fix a problem if I don't understand it. If you have ever had a problem finding a price, please tell me where you looked.

First Chance — Help a Park

We may be able to offer a new trip lasting 7-9 days.

Essential maintenance in parks around Australia is suffering because of a lack of funds. Nitmiluk is no exception. The Jatbula Trail is the most popular, long-distance walking trail in the Top End. As some of those who do it have no experience in overnight walking or bush navigation, the trail needs to be clearly marked. Every wet season, trees fall on the track while other markers get washed away by floods. When we did the trail just after Christmas, there were already places where it was hard to follow. Not a problem for a group like ours, but a potentially serious problem when the trail reopens later this year. I asked the chief ranger if he'd be interested in some help. His reply follows.

"It is worth planning for a trail maintenance exercise probably involving two Rangers with 6-8 clients working in two groups. We could aim to carry enough track markers to 17 Mile and then fly in additional markers as well as bring in two extra Rangers. The opening times vary each year depending upon the wet season and the water levels at places like Crystal falls. In the four years that I have been here opening times have varied from late April to early June."

IF enough people are interested, I'm prepared to offer a special trip sometime between late March and mid April for less than cost. (If I could afford it, I'd run it for free. That is, however, beyond my means.) The Jatbula Trail notes from my last trip should give you an idea of what to expect.

If you think you might be interested, please send me an email and let me know.

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What We Are — and May Become

Are you really what you think you are?

Take away your memory and what's left? But your memory is never wholly correct. "When thinking about the workings of the mind, it is easy to imagine memory as a kind of mental autobiography - the private book of you. To relive the trepidation of your first day at school, say, you simply dust off the cover and turn to the relevant pages. But there is a problem with this idea. Why are the contents of that book so unreliable? It is not simply our tendency to forget key details. We are also prone to "remember" events that never actually took place, almost as if a chapter from another book has somehow slipped into our autobiography. Such flaws are puzzling if you believe that the purpose of memory is to record your past — but they begin to make sense if it is for something else entirely."

I've been keeping a diary on and off for 40 years. Every so often I go back to look something up and discover that my memories of a particular event are wrong. I'm far from alone. New Scientist had a special collection of articles about memory in their 10 October 2012 edition. Click here to see two of them..

What we may become.

Are We Becoming Cyborgs?

"Are new digital technologies changing us in a more profound and perhaps troubling way than any previous technological breakthrough?" Here are a couple of quotes from the NY Times article * Are We Becoming Cyborgs?

• ...over 50 percent of kids, between 13 and 17, spend 30-plus hours a week recreationally in front of a screen
• Every hour you spend sitting in front of a screen is an hour not talking to someone, not giving someone a hug, not having the sun on your face.
• the alarming increase in prescriptions for drugs used for attentional disorders in most Western countries over the last decade or two. Of course, it could be doctors are prescribing more liberally or that attentional illnesses are now becoming medicalized in a way they weren't before. But my own view, especially for the younger brain, is that if you take a brain with the evolutionary mandate, which the human brain has, to adapt to the environment; if you place such a brain in an environment that is fast-paced, loud and sensory-laden, then the brain will adapt to that. Why would it compete with the other, three-dimensional world?

The full article, * Are We Becoming Cyborgs? runs to six pages. I think it's well worth a read.

Many years ago, I read a science fiction story in which most people spent their lives wired up in little boxes, being fed intravenously while living in a virtual world that was much more rewarding than the real one. The author was on the right track, but didn't envisage what will soon become possible. Technology should soon reach the point where you not only see and hear but feel, taste and smell your virtual world. Think what that would mean for society?

Why live in the real world when a virtual world can be much more rewarding? Very few people actually produce things. If we didn't need all those things, our economy would collapse —: but if we needed little more than basic food, perhaps delivered intravenously, why work so many hours to buy things that can never be as rewarding as those in our brains? In a world like that, the human race would consume far less and slowly our impact on the real world would begin to decrease. Some people are already controlling mechanical devices by thought alone. The biggest limit as to where this kind of technology can take us is our imagination. We live in an interesting world.

Declining population

The Growth of Singles in America explains how the birth rate in the US has dropped to the point where it is well below replacement. The Australian fertility rate is similar.

The author of the main article believes that, "We could tilt more into a 'now' society, geared towards consuming or recreating today, as opposed to nurturing and sacrificing for tomorrow." He finds that alarming. But, we live in a finite world. Population growth has to end someday. What's wrong with sooner rather than later? With stabilising the population before we've exhausted all the easily accessible natural resources and exterminated a majority of the other species on the planet?

But, and there always is a 'but', when the population growth finally stops, that implies we have to take care of ourselves. The next generation can't or won't do it.

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Weather Worries

Global Warning

The cover story from the 17 November issue of New Scientist began, "Five years ago, the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on climate Change painted a gloomy picture of our planet's future. As climate scientists gather evidence for the nest report, due in 2014, Michael Lepage gives seven reasons why things are looking even grimmer.

1. The Arctic is warming faster than predicted.
   The thick sea ice in the Arctic Ocean was not expected to melt until the end of the century. Now it looks like summer ice could be gone in a decade or two.
2. Extreme weather is getting more extreme.
   We knew global warming was going to make the weather more extreme. But it's becoming even more extreme than anyone predicted.
3. Food production is taking a hit.
   Global warming was expected to boost food production. Instead, food prices are soaring as the effects of extreme weather kick in.
4. Sea levels will rise faster than expected.
   Greenland's rapid loss of ice means we're in for a rise of at least 1 metre by 2100, and possibly much more.
5. Greenhouse gas levels could keep rising even if our emissions stop.
   The planet currently absorbs half our CO2 emissions. All the signs are it won't for much longer.
6. We're emitting more than ever.
   If we stopped emitting CO2 tomorrow, we might be able to avoid climate disaster. In fact we are still increasing emissions.
7. Heat stress means big trouble.
   If the worst climate predictions are realised, vast swathes of the globe could become too hot for humans to survive.

You can read the original article here.

Following on from #6 above, in January, * On Scale of 0 to 500, Beijing's Air Quality Tops 'Crazy Bad' at 755. "An air-quality monitor atop the United States Embassy recently measured an air quality index well above 500, which is supposed to be the top of the scale." The article goes on to note that, "The World Health Organization has standards that judge a score above 500 to be more than 20 times the level of particulate matter in the air deemed safe." Australia counts on China to take our exports. How long can they go on like this before their cities become uninhabitable?

On 10 January, the NY times ran an article * Heat, Flood or Icy Cold, Extreme Weather Rages Worldwide. "The growing incidence and intensity of extreme weather events is a sign that climate change is not just about rising temperatures." There would have been one change if the article had run a couple of days later. Sydney set an all-time record for the highest temperature ever recorded.

Back in August, New Scientist ran an article Climate change: The great civilisation destroyer?. It began "War and unrest, and the collapse of many mighty empires, often followed changes in local climes. Is this more than a coincidence?" Our technology will certainly allow us to survive more extreme changes than those which destroyed other civilisations in the past but things could conceivably get bad enough so our society would collapse as well. If that were to happen, it is unlikely that any part of the planet would be unaffected.

Given the recent bushfires and floods in estern Australia, the final link here is particularly relevant. In a recent story on the ABC, Fred Hillmer explained that "research into Australia's unique climate has proven invaluable in dealing with bushfires and other extreme weather threats." He then goes on to ask, "Shouldn't we also listen to what it says about global warming?"

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Grief, Death and a Lost Connection

The two things that everyone alive shares are the fact that they were born and will eventually die. Losing three of my former guides in ten months has given me reason to think about the inevitable end a bit more than I would otherwise. The following stories all said something to me. I hope they say something to at least some of you as well.

Grief and Death

• * As Nurse Lay Dying, Offering Herself as Instruction in Caring
  "A nurse terminally ill with cancer volunteers to be a subject of research for students from her alma mater." A slow death became meaningful with a final act of giving when there was nothing else to give.
• A good death should be the norm
  "In a death-denying society such as ours, in which the focus is on treatment and cure, palliative care gets the dregs at the bottom of the funding bucket. It is seen by some not as real medicine or real nursing, but as hand-holding."
  "The way a loved one dies can leave people feeling angry, frustrated and guilty - or sad but feeling as if the journey was a privilege. More Australians need access to the kind of palliative care that helps them enjoy a loved one's last months of living and accept their dying."
  The full article is worth a read.
• * A Shocking Death, a Financial Lesson and Help for Others
  "After Chanel Reynolds's 43-year-old husband died in a bicycling accident, she had to suddenly face the financial tasks that grown-ups are supposed to have completed by middle age."
  We seldom get to choose the time and manner of our passing so it makes sense to plan ahead and try to leave our families with as few problems as possible. While much of the information on Chanel's website is specific to America, some of the ideas apply just as well here in Australia.
  The Australian Will Kit costs from $29.95 and has both will & power of attorney forms.
  Choice reviewed a number of kits including the above.
  (Why are some such kits often free in America while all but a few state specific ones seem to cost money here?)
  Different states have different free power of attorney forms but you seem to need the specific one for your state. Do a web search for "power of attorney forms Australia" and you'll see what I mean.

A Lost Connection

Humans and Nature: Can the Gulf Be Bridged?
"To be able to grieve for the loss of something, we have to first develop love and affection. It takes time. It takes a deep connection, cultivated emotions that emerge from knowing and experiencing a place or a person again and again." ...."our perception of nature as separate has spawned a lot of the environmental problems we see today. When we hike in a national park or protected area and experience nature as something removed from our daily routine, we come to know it at as something apart from us."
Thinking of how so many have lost their connection to the natural world on which we depend reminded me of a series which has been airing on SBS1, Secrets of our Living Planet. The last two episodes are still available online.

• The Magical Forest expires on 6 February
• Waterworlds expires on 13 February
  I thought that this episode was particularly good at showing how everything in the natural world is interconnected. Snails in the Brazilian Pantanal affect the lives of whale sharks thousands of kilometres away.

Two More

The following two items don't really fit here but they fit here more than they would fit anywhere else. I enjoyed them both.

• Medical Alert
  A true plague which is affecting our society.
• Visualising Vastness
  This one shows you where we really fit in the scheme of things.
  I highly recommend clicking the link and watching the video.

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Tech — Hi & Low

Old Tech

What happens when some of our old technology becomes obsolete?

• * For More Pianos, Last Note Is Thud in the Dump
  Our throwaway society has little room for big things like these any more.
• If you don't have a mobile or your breaks down, it's becoming harder and harder to find a pay phone.
  The * Decline of pay phones and what to do with them tells of a surprising use for old phone booths.

New Tech Hazards

• * The Cloud Factories: Power, Pollution and the Internet
  "Helping to process the staggering amount of Internet activity that occurs, data centers waste vast amounts of energy, belying the information industry's image of environmental friendliness."
• * Outmaneuvered at Their Own Game, Antivirus Makers Struggle to Adapt
  "Consumers and businesses spend billions of dollars a year on antivirus software, but these programs rarely block freshly minted strains, because the malware creators move too fast."
• * Europe Weighs Requiring Firms to Disclose Data Breaches
  Cybercrime in Europe has got so bad that the European Commission is considering a plan to require companies that store data on the Internet — like Microsoft, Apple, Google and I.B.M. — to report the loss or theft of personal information in the 27-nation bloc or risk sanctions and fines.
• The Real Hazards of E-Devices on Planes is about the US, but it could happen here.
  "If the Federal Aviation Administration does not re-evaluate its ban on device use during takeoff and landing, someone will be hurt, but not because of interference with the plane's avionics."

Made in the USA

While Australia doesn't have America's advantage of a huge domestic market, there are some lessons we can learn from * Why Apple Got a 'Made In U.S.A.' Bug
Apple's decision to make some of its computers in the United States shows how little assembly costs matter in the global computer market.

New Tech You Can Use

• * Drivers With Hands Full Get a Backup: The Car
  "New technology is poised to refashion driving fundamentally long before completely autonomous vehicles arrive."
• Reality checker: How to cut nonsense from the net
  From New Scientist, the title says it all.
• * Silencing the Smartphone
  "Citing better productivity, some companies are trying to wean employees from constant contact with their electronic devices."

Social Science

"Social science continues to remind us of the power of social context, and the thousands of variables that shape our unconscious. Here's a * smattering of recent research."

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What Makes Willis's Walkabouts Different?

There is no other tour operator anywhere in the world offering exactly the same kind of trips that we do.

Our tours are not for everybody. While we try and explain exactly what we offer on out website and in the information we send out, we still get some people who come on our trips expecting them to be like other tours. Some are wonderfully surprised; others are woefully disappointed. We'd rather miss some bookings and avoid those disappointments. Here are a few of the things that make Willis's Walkabouts not just different but unique.

• Making money is not the primary reason that the business exists.
• For a very small business, we offer an incredible variety of trips.
  Among other things, this means that we minimise our impact on the places we go.
• With so many trips on offer, it is inevitable that, on many trips, the guide will not have been there before.
• We offer exploratory trips to places where none of the guides have ever been.
• We go off the beaten track to places where you are likely to see few, if any, other people.
• Our guides have to take a large amount of personal responsibility for how each tour runs.
• We expect far more from you, our clients than other tour operators.
  • You have to provide your own breakfasts and lunches.
  • On many trips, you will have to share in the driving or ride in a vehicle driven by one of the other clients.
  • You are responsible for bringing your own gear or for deciding what you wish to hire from us.
  • You are required to read the masses of information we send out and are required to sign a statement stating that you have done so, or will do so before the trip.
  • You are expected to assist the guide with camp chores and help others if they need extra assistance.
  • If the guide is confident of your abilities, you are likely to be given an unparalleled degree of freedom on the trip.

Taken one by one, there are others who offer similar things. Taken altogether, there is no one else. That's one of the reasons why several of our clients have done ten or more of our trips, why 40-50% of our clients each year are repeat customers and why so many of the rest come based on recommendations from friends.

The Challenge — Win a Free Trip

The challenge is in three parts.

1. Read the more detailed document What makes Willis's Walkabouts different/unique tell us how we can improve it and what sort of photos we should use when we put it onto a web page.
2. Turn it into a half-page ad. Let us know what kind of photo or photos we'd need and we'll supply a selection. Or maybe you have one of your own from one of our trips.
3. Find another tour operator anywhere in the world who matches all the criteria above and in the What makes Willis's Walkabouts different/unique document.

The Prize

1. If we use your response to #1 above, you get the larger of a $250 or a 33⅓% discount on a trip.
2. If we use your response to #2 above, you get the larger of a $250 or a 33⅓% discount on a trip.
3. If we agree with your answer to #3 above (or can't show you why we disagree), you get the larger of a $250 or a 33⅓% discount on a trip.

Sorry, no cash. We can only offer discounts. The percentage discount will be taken off after any other discounts you might be entitled to. Sadly, there has to be a limit. The percentage discount can apply only to trips to the value of $3000. If you choose a more expensive trip, you can apply the amount you would have saved on a $3000 trip to the one you choose.

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News About This Newsletter

Contents

Before I finish one newsletter, I'm already working on the next. I often find that I've got too many interesting things for a single newsletter. I'm also always looking for other interesting items I can add. I'm particularly interested in environmental issues, especially those which might affect bushwalking and in the technology which is shaping our lives. As I said in the last newsletter, Suggestions welcome.

Sending the newsletter

The program I use to send the newsletters is hosted on the same server that hosts our website. The newsletters are sent from walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au. This is the contact address on our website. If you would like to continue to receive these newsletters, please include this address in your "friends list" so that it isn't blocked.

For some reason, some servers block the newsletters no matter what you try and do. I send these in small groups from my normal email. It's not a simple problem. If anyone thinks they might have an idea how to overcome the problem, I'd love to hear from you.

Emails sent to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au are currently automatically forwarded to rrwillis at internode.on.net. If you want to send an email to that address, replace the word "at" with the symbol @. I am trying not to put that address any place where it can be harvested by spam bots.

We don't want to add to the mass of email spam. If you don't want our newsletter, please send us an email and let us know. We'll then delete your name from our newsletter list.

Our email address is walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au.

Note. The program we use to send this newsletter has an automatic delete at the bottom. Clicking that link will delete you from the mailing list on the server but it will not delete you from our main database. My newsletter mailing program will not allow the auto delete to send me an email notifying me that a deletion has been made. If you want to be removed from all further mailings, please send an email to walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au

If you know someone you think would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to them. The more people who get it, the more likely it is that I'll be able to run the trips which might interest you.

Best wishes to all,
Russell Willis

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