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  Newsletter 111, December 2020 - Willis's Walkabouts

Willis's Walkabouts Newsletter 111, December 2020 — Bumper Christmas Edition

There should be enough here to keep anyone who is interested browsing for weeks. I hope you enjoy it. My suggestion is to take a couple of minutes to scroll through, noting things you might want to come back to later. Different stories will interest different people so it's hard for me to recommend a specific article. But I will say that anyone who goes bushwalking should have a look at the first section in Tech. Relying too much on city tech when out bush has killed people and will kill more.

Last Chance! Bookings for the first two trips in the Definite Departures section close on 22 & 25 December.

If you are viewing this on a mobile, the newsletter and many of the links should work better in a horizontal format.

Restricted content. Articles marked * or ** are on restricted websites Click for more info.

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In this issue

WW Major Updates

Website

Prices

Almost none of the 2021 prices have been updated. Some prices will definitely have to go up. Anyone booking before a price rise goes onto the website will lock in the old one where we provide transport and a price halfway between the new and old where we charter transport.

Definite Departures

Since the last newsletter, both Drysdale trips have booked out. We are taking waitlists. Unless people cancel more than 60 days before departure or borders close again, the following are all definite departures.

Other Trips With Bookings

Including charters, we now have so many bookings that we have had to change the date of some trips, cancel others and may have to cancel still more. Get in soon if you are interested in any particular trip. Here are those that have bookings, but not yet enough to guarantee departure.

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Money and Christmas

I was almost finished with the newsletter when I came across the article below. I decided it was so important that it needed to go near the top.

Ho-Ho-Ho Overspending
  • When it comes to Christmas, a lot of people have unrealistic expectations, especially little kids. Disappointing them is tough. But sometimes it's necessary.
  • It's pretty common for someone who makes $50,000 a year to spend $7,000 on Christmas. Of course, they're not paying $7,000 in cash. They charge it to a credit card. So they're really spending $14,000 when you tack on interest.

Credit Cards and Interest

For many, perhaps most, people credit cards are no more than a tax on the mathematically disadvantaged. I can't remember where I came across the comment that "the average person spends 10–20% of their income on interest every year", but I decided to see if I could find out if it was true.

That's a recipe for disaster.

Afterpay and Similar

Afterpay is free for the purchaser — unless they fail to pay their instalments on time, in which case there are substantial charges. The merchant pays a fee of between 4% and 6% on Afterpay transactions. In most cases, this results in higher prices for everyone as the list price gets bumped up to account for the credit charges.

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Government Overreach

Press Freedom

This one might be the worst of the lot. The NT Government refuses to allow one media organisation into their press conferences. They make a variety of excuses but as far as I can tell, the real reason is that they don't like the questions they get. Here are two stories about the ban from the ABC.

When the current NT government was first elected in 2017, they established a legislative scrutiny committee "to restore trust in government" and provide "more scrutiny on government, and to [ensure] open and transparent government". One of their first acts after being re-elected this year was to abolish the committee. When questioned by an ABC journalist about this, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!': Gunner rebukes journalist for questioning his response. I don't know what the government has to hide, but I can't think of anything other than trying to hide something to explain some of their actions. Actually, when I think about it a bit more, that behaviour reminds me of Donald Trump.

Nationally

One thing both major parties seem to agree on is that some things are best kept from the public.

Misc

Some of these stories lead me to wonder about the future of democracy in Australia. It is, of course, not just Australia. Here's one from America.

Why Can't We See All of the Government's Virus Data?
Since March, federal agencies have been collecting a trove of information. But they refuse to release most of it.

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China vs the Rest of the World

China Domestic Politics

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Other WW 2021 Trips

While I personally enjoy every single trip in the program, I think these need a special mention.

Australia

  • Russell's Light Wet Explorer: 5-14 February
    Guide: Russell Willis.I am not going to miss doing at least one good wet season trip. Have a look at the video at the end of the trip page. I'll run this for as few as two people at no extra charge. If I don't fill it, it's organised so that I can do two weekend trips with local friends.
  • New trip. Kimberley Family Walk: 11-17 April
    We've often been asked if we could do a Kimberley Family Walk. When the venue for our April Kakadu Family walk became unavailable, I decided that this was the perfect time to give it a go. Click the link above for details about the new trip. Click this link for the Family Walk page which gives an overview of what we try and do on all our family trips.
  • Centralian Highlights: 21 April - 9 May
    It's got a bit of everything and is easier than most of our trips. I really enjoyed it the last time it ran. I'd hope to lead it again if it runs this year.
  • Finke Gorge National Park: 18-27 July
    Another relatively easy trip. Lots of day walks combined with one or two short overnight walks.

Overseas

There is no way that travel to most of the world will be as unrestricted as it used to be before the end of 2021. We are, however, already in a travel bubble with New Zealand. It is conceivable that that could be expanded to other countries where the disease is under control. Two such places are Japan and New Caledonia. The following notes were what we would have offered this year. If those borders open soon enough, we'll try again in 2021.

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A Post Covid World

Covid Blog

I've been regularly updating a Covid blog page since late March. I think it's well worth a look. Two sections I think are especially important are
  • mounting evidence that people, even young people, who had no obvious symptoms when they had the disease can suffer long term damage and
  • updated information on vaccines.

Summary

AFTER COVID: Politics & Policy in the Age of Pandemic
This is a PDF of power point slides, from US but relevant to whole world.

Where We Live and Work

There are other consequences to the above.

What Next?

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Tech

Over-Reliance on Technology

I found the first of the articles below then did a bit of searching to find the others. It's things like this that cause problems for people who are properly prepared.

  • The Boundary Waters and an Over-Reliance on Technology
    Excerpt. "The dad was a classic case of the novice putting his entire faith in technology in the Wilderness, and it wasn't working so well for him. It seems his group split up to try to find an open campsite after fighting the wind out on the open part of the lake. He had a walkie-talkie to communicate with the rest of his group, but he was too far out of range for that to work. He walked up the rocky knob behind our campsite to try to get clearer reception for his device, but still his walkie-talkie did not work. He complained about no open campsites on the lake, but didn't have a map in sight (which typically show the designated campsites as red dots). “Thank God for off-line GPS,” he exclaimed as he peered at his cell phone, but his GPS didn't seem to show the location of any campsites either. He had no idea where the rest of his party was (nor, apparently, exactly where he was, either)."
  • Wilderness survival: Do hikers rely too much on technology?
    "To find people with a map and compass is just incredibly rare. It boggles my mind,' Major Kevin Jordan of the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department told the Globe. “But when we rescue someone, I hear a lot of regret, a lot of people saying, 'I should have brought more than my phone, but everywhere I go at home I have cellphone coverage.'"
  • Our Reliance on Technology Makes the Backcountry More Dangerous
    GPS trackers and cell phones give us a false sense of security in the wilderness.
    "One of the worst trends we've seen in the past 20 years is the proliferation of cell phones and technology in the backcountry," says Tim Smith, a registered Master Maine Guide and the founder of the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School, which instructs students in brush living, guide skills, and long-term winter survival. "It gives people a false sense of security. It's the idea of, Who cares how bad of a jam I get myself into? Because if there's cell coverage I'll call and someone will come get me. But if you had no outside line, no way of contacting other people, you're way less likely to take risks."

The stories above are from America but they apply equally here in Australia. If you don't know how to use a map and compass and take them with you, go with someone who does. You're definitely risking your life otherwise.

Facial Recognition and Surveillance

Misc

Making Sense of America

If you can't make sense of the recent election or how America functions (or doesn't function) these days, these articles will all help. There are lessons here for Australia. We ignore them at our peril.

  • This power point presentation from Bruce Mehlman explains the election result better than anything else I've seen.
  • The War of the Norm explains things in a different way.
    "For Biden voters, supporting Trump was inconceivable, since he was in it for himself and stood for the lowest values possible. For Trump supporters, not voting for Trump was inconceivable, since he represented resistance against hypocrisy and the ruthlessness of the elite as they accumulated power. Trump's supporters knew that he lied. They argued that all politicians lied, but that their lies were subtle and hidden. Trump's were open. Given a choice between the two, they voted for Trump. Trump's enemies thought this attitude abnormal, seeing open and self-serving lies as destructive and denying that the American norm had become systematic but subtle dishonesty."
    "I think that, on the whole, what divided the country was the gap between the hunger for a return to what some considered the norm, and the demand that the old norm be overthrown and a new one forged. Thus what Biden voters see as normal processes are unbearable to Trump voters. The issue is not who is right. The issue is that this country, judging by the vote, is divided down the middle.
  • The Welding Shut of the American Mind
      • "Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even specially, the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts. The most successful tyranny is not the one that uses force to assure uniformity but the one that removes the awareness of other possibilities."
      • "Every day, I see more and more good people lost to this disease, a virus of the mind with an R-0 far higher than any coronavirus. Good people who have convinced themselves that they've found The Answer — either in the form of a charismatic person or, more dangerously still, a charismatic idea — and that The Answer requires their unquestioned indignation and unexamined ego in service to its mighty end. And once they go there — once they give themselves over to the indignation and the ego that is beyond self-recognition and self-reflection — they never come back. Their heart and their head are welded shut."
      • "You say you want a revolution? Well here's where it happens. In your own damn mind. THIS is the struggle of our day. This is the struggle of all days, of every human society that's ever seen its day in the sun. It's a struggle that NEVER stops, because those organized interests of power and wealth in every human society will ALWAYS be there with their narrative blowtorches, seeking to weld our minds shut in service to their power and wealth."
  • Why Do Chinese Liberals Embrace American Conservatives? *
    It's less about foreign policy than the culture wars.
    "political correctness in America began as a way to avoid insulting people and to promote equality, it has helped turn a set of debatable beliefs into an edifice of near dogmas — that immigration, free trade and globalization are unquestionably good; that minorities are almost all victims; that major countries are responsible for setting the world right." Nowadays, Mr. Sun wrote, political correctness is "a burden, a kind of shackle America has placed on itself, a kind of self-inflicted bondage.""
  • How Misinformation 'Superspreaders' Seed False Election Theories *
    Researchers have found that a small group of social media accounts are responsible for the spread of a disproportionate amount of the false posts about voter fraud.

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Problems in Kakadu

We've been forced to make many changes to our Kakadu program. Here are some of the reasons why.

Kakadu has been under-funded for years. Park Management has not had the money they need to maintain everything that needs to be maintained. Under previous management, decisions were made that should never have been made. Here are the areas where we've been affected.

Gunlom and Waterfall Creek

  • Gunlom. When the new walking track to the top of the falls was constructed, it was not properly aligned and opened up a sacred site that should not have been visible. It is now the subject of a lawsuit by the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority against Kakadu Management. Until that matter is sorted, we cannot get access to Waterfall Creek from below the falls.
  • Upper Waterfall Creek. I've been told that the route we used to use to get from Barramundi Creek to the headwaters of Waterfall Creek is a men's only area so that route has been closed. A fairly senior member of the current park management team told me that there must have been a route women could use and that they hoped to find out what it was. We live in hope but given other management priorities, I fear that this route is gone for good.

Consequences. All our trips beginning or ending at Gunlom have been shifted to Koolpin or Maguk (Barramundi). Details on the relevant trip pages.

Twin Falls

The Jim Jim Creek crossing on the track to Twin Falls was scheduled to be upgraded this year. Covid meant that the contractors couldn't get in so it is now scheduled for 2021. Until the upgrade is done, the track will remain closed to the public.

Consequences. All our trips beginning or ending at Twin Falls have been shifted to begin or end at the Jim Jim car park. This adds a walk of about 3½ hours in each direction to Twin Falls. Details on the relevant trip pages. If Twin opens earlier, we may be able to switch back.

Maguk and Barramundi Creek

In May 2019, a helicopter being used for feral animal control in Kakadu crashed, seriously injuring all on board. That put an end to aerial feral control until new procedures could be put in place. That meant that feral numbers increased to the point where Park Management believes that it is too dangerous for us to use part of our old wet season route. There is no alternative.

Consequences. All our wet season trips beginning and/or ending at Maguk have had to be cancelled for 2021. We remain hopeful that the problems will be addressed so that we can offer these trips again in 2022. There should not be any problems with our dry season trips once the track has opened.

Baroalba Creek

The possible closure of Baroalba Creek was first suggested in the Kakadu Walking Strategy in 2012. I mentioned that in my Newsletter 77, February 2015.. Nothing happened then but our other wet season routes along Motorcar & Kurrundie Creeks were later closed for cultural reasons.

At a meeting in early November, I was told that some of the area was being closed for safety reasons and that another part was being closed as the Traditional Owners had their own plans for the area. That still left most of what we do. But, when I put in a permit application a week later, I was told that almost all of the area had been closed. One night walks are still possible, but so much has been closed that even a two night wet season walk might not be viable. According to the current Kakadu Plan of Management, tour operators should, where possible, be given 12-18 months notice of changes which affect their program. "Where possible." As it is an area we've been visiting since we first began, I'd have thought it reasonable to give us more notice. Several people have been helping us to argue our case but at this point do not have an answer.

Consequences. If we are lucky, we'll be able to run the trips one last time this year. Whether or not that is the case, we expect that the area will be closed after that.

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Environment

No particular order. All well worth a read.

  • Urban golf courses are biodiversity oases. Opening them up puts that at risk
    "Golf courses contained the greatest diversity and abundance of beetles, bees, birds and bats of all the green spaces we studied. We found ground-nesting native bees that do not occur in much of the urban landscape because it is dominated by built surfaces and exotic flowering plants."
    "The minimum number of bird species we saw on a golf course was always higher than the maximum numbers at other green spaces. We found much more evidence of birds breeding. There was also a diverse array of insect-eating birds, which are in decline in many parts of Australia."
  • This Urban Safari Comes With a Warning: Watch Out for Snakes *
    On nighttime hikes in Hong Kong's surprisingly lush forests, a snake catcher teaches city slickers about the reptiles — and their bites.
  • Protect Ningaloo
    Not as well known as the Great Barrier Reef, but just as worth protecting. Website is well worth a browse and gives you a chance to help.
  • Land in Russia's Arctic Blows 'Like a Bottle of Champagne' *
    Since finding the first crater in 2014, Russian scientists have documented 16 more explosions in the Arctic caused by gas trapped in thawing permafrost.
    Article has more interesting links, eg Chinese turning to mammoth ivory instead of elephant ivory
  • Locust Plague It struck early this year and is still going on.
  • A rare natural phenomenon brings severe drought to Australia. Climate change is making it more common
    We found only ten extreme positive Indian Ocean Dipole events in the entire record. Four occurred in the past 60 years, but only six occurred in the remaining 440 years before then. This adds more weight to evidence that positive Indian Ocean Dipole events have been occurring more often in recent decades, and becoming more intense.
  • A Mustang Crisis Looms in the West *
    With too many animals on public lands and too many on the public's hands, the federal wild horse management program is short of money or palatable solutions.
    We've got the same problem in parts of Australia.
  • Fireflies Have a Mating Problem: The Lights Are Always On *
    Habitat loss and pesticides are threatening firefly populations, a new study has found. It also cited a problem unique to glowing bugs: light pollution.
    I remember my neighbourhood in America being full of fireflies every summer. An icon of my childhood is nearly gone.
  • Can the World's Strangest Mammal Survive? *
    The platypus is imperilled by habitat loss, predation by feral cats, and now drought and wildfires wrought by climate change.
  • The World's Largest Tropical Wetland Has Become an Inferno *
    This year, roughly a quarter of the vast Pantanal wetland in Brazil, one of the most biodiverse places on Earth, has burned in wildfires worsened by climate change.

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Miscellaneous Stories I Enjoyed

WW II — Points to Ponder

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Time For Me To Retire?

Toward the end of one of John Mauldin's recent newsletters, he wrote, "Someone asked me once about retiring. Why would I do that? If I retired, I would want to read, write, travel around the world, and talk to fun people over great meals. I would likely start a new business simply because I couldn't help myself. Since I'm already doing that, why would I retire?

That reminded me a bit of myself. If I retired, I would want to read, write and go bushwalking with interesting people on whatever kind of trip I was still fit enough to do. Since I'm already doing that, why would I retire? But, like John, I have other people doing some of the work that isn't fun any longer. I used to think that the accounts were the worst part of the paperwork. No more. Trying to meet the ever increasing amount of paperwork we need to do to be allowed to continue to run our trips is a challenge. Common sense isn't common any more. How do you spell it all out in things like risk management documents?

Thankfully, Cassie has been doing most of that. It is time consuming and means that sometimes more time is spent on computers than in the bush but this is one of the many things we need to do to be able to continue to offer the trips we run.

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Time for You To Work For Us?

Our business is incredibly seasonal. In an extreme case, something like 75% of our total business could going to come in a two month period. We need guides who are happy to lead one or two trips per year. The more flexible they can be the better it is for us — and them. More flexibility means more likelihood of getting work.

If you have done one of our trips, you know the kinds of things the guide needs to be able to do. If you think you might be interested, please start by reading our Willis's Walkabouts Guide Qualifications document. After reading that, if you still think you might like to become a guide, send us an email and we'll send you more info. There is a lot of work and a lot of reading involved. Please keep that in mind before sending the email.

Assistant Guides

Our prices do not allow us to pay assistant guides on any trip. We can, however, offer a free or heavily discounted place on some trips to experienced bushwalkers who are prepared to help with a lot of the work and carry a bit of extra weight. It's not easy, but it can be very rewarding. It might also help me keep leading trips for a few more years than would otherwise be the case. If you think you might be interested in acting as an unpaid assistant on a trip, send me an email and we can take it from there.

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Photos, Videos & Just For Fun

  • Best of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Finalists 2020
    I had the wrong link in the last newsletter. Well worth a look. Click on a photo to see a large version, then scroll along to see the rest. Great stuff! When I scrolled through the second time, I caught details I'd missed on the first go.
  • Whale sculpture catches crashed Dutch metro train
  • Golden eagle vs chamois Amazing photography. Original in French. Google Translate says, "This is not a staging but a moment captured by the studio cameras. We see a golden eagle attacking a chamois in the Austrian Alps. He grips the back of the poor bovid with his talons. The mammal starts to run, leap and hurtle down the mountain to try to get rid of this embrace. In panic, he repeatedly falls crushing the eagle. After these few falls and after being rolled over very heavily by the chamois, the raptor finally let go. A new style of freeride among animals, surely."
  • Card Trick
    I've seen a lot of card tricks over the years. This is the best. See if you can work it out.

A Final Thought

The happiest times are the times in which the pages of history are blank.

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News About This Newsletter

Restricted websites. The NY Times allows non-subscribers to look at ten free articles each month. I've got more links than that in this newsletter so I've marked them with a red asterisk (*) so that you can choose which are of most interest to you. Bloomberg allows three free articles. The Washington Post and The Economist both have limits but I'm not sure what the current limits are so I've marked their articles with a double red asterisk (**).

Next Newsletter — January? February? Depends on how much time I have.

As always, I welcome a bit of feedback about some of the things in this newsletter and suggestions for the next one.

Sending the newsletter

I'm now using a paid version of MailChimp to send all of the newsletters. I'm not sure what I'll do if the list goes over 2500.

walkabout@bushwalkingholidays.com.au 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.

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. Both MailChimp and the other program we use to send some of these newsletters have 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. One of the programs will not allow the auto delete to send me an email notifying me that a deletion has been made. If you want to be sure that you are 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.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to you all!!
Russell Willis

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