Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Tom Rich and I drove from where we were staying in Apollo Bay, picked up Greg
Denney at his home, and parked our vehicle near a trailhead, about two kilometers
(1.2 miles) uphill from the beach. The walk down to the outcrops, punctuated by
muddy,slipperypatches,promisedaverticallychallengingsloglaterintheday,just
when we would be most spent from our explorations below.
Greg, who joined us to scout rocks of the Eumeralla Formation composing the
dramaticcliffsnearApolloBay,hadalongstandingrelationshipwithTomasafield
assistant and friend. He also had the good fortune of growing up next to one of the
most famous dinosaur sites in Australia: Dinosaur Cove. In the 1980s, Greg and
his father, David Denney, assisted Tom, Pat Vickers-Rich, and a crew of volunteers
with some of the most technically difficult conditions any dinosaur dig site should
ever have to endure, detailed by Tom and Pat in their topic
Dinosaurs of Darkness
,
publishedin2000.Inourmorerecentventures,Greghadquicklyprovedavaluable
assetinourfieldendeavors,suggestingroadsandparkingspotsforourfieldvehicle
and advising on safe access points to outcrops.
Greg had also become my ichnological apprentice during our previous week
together in the field and quickly became quite good at spotting small fossil inver-
tebrate burrows in Cretaceous outcrops. I would have liked to credit his rapid suc-
cess to my extraordinary teaching abilities, but instead chalked it up to his spend-
ing much of his life outdoors. After all, he had already trained his eyes to pick up
smalldetailsinhisnaturalsurroundings,suchaswallabytracks,echidnadigmarks,
and kangaroo feces. These skills had not been sullied by the constant distractions
of “big-city life,” a challenge I face every day when not in the field and living at
homeinthemetropolitanareaofAtlanta,Georgia.Ienviedhimtheseopportunities,
available to him every day, and in such gorgeous places.
The thirty-minute walk to Milanesia Beach promised by the trail-head sign
next to where we parked was surprisingly accurate, considering how carefully we
placed our feet while walking down the steep, winding track. Toward the bottom of
the trail, we also had to cross a small stream teeming with freshwater leeches, just
