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Skulls Goes Down Under
On a recent trip to Australia, Skulls Unlimited's owner, Jay Villemarette, and Skulls Unlimited's Director of Education, Joey Williams, had a rare opportunity to explore the flora and fauna of this extraordinary continent. The trip focused on the areas surrounding Melbourne, Victoria. The Grampians National Park, the Yarra Valley, Phillip Island and the Great Ocean Road were just a few of the highlights. Below are a few excerpts from Joey's journal entries.
Day 1: Flew from Los Angeles to Sydney, then on to Melbourne. The flight took a staggering 19 hours, but with free drinks and in-flight movies of your choice, the trip was relatively painless. A masseuse would have been nice though. Lost one day in transit.
Day 2: Toured Melbourne and fought off jet lag. Visited the Melbourne Market as well as the Aquarium. Melbourne is a very beautiful and multicultural city. Australians in general, seemed to be fairly open to outsiders as well as being environmentally minded. Foster's does not appear to be "Australian for beer" as I have yet to find it here. I'll keep searching.
Day 3: Visited the Grampians National Park located in Northwestern Victoria. A huge area of the park had burned the previous year. It was interesting to see how the vegetation and wildlife was recovering. Highlights of this day included a visit to Reed Lookout, MacKenzie Falls, Boroka Lookout and Ballarat Wildlife Park. The hike up from the bottom of the falls was grueling.
Day 4: Today started with a chance to explore Australian agriculture with a visit to a Yarra Valley winery and dairy farm. After sufficiently sampling the wine, it was off to Phillip Island Wildlife Park. This stop allowed a close up viewing of koalas in their breeding program, to see the penguin march; where hundreds of little penguins, Eudyptula minor, come ashore each evening and march in large groups to their cliff side burrows. Quite a spectacle to behold.
Day 5: This day was spent with a personal guide we hired. This allowed a closer look at the surrounding environment. First stop was a local golf course along the Yarra River. A short walk lead to the roosting area for several thousand gray-headed flying fox fruit bats. Jay even had the rare experience of being defecated on by one of the bats. Next, it was off to visit several area National Parks to see koalas, kangaroos and wallabies in the wild. We also took in the grandeur of the surrounding forests, which included some of the largest trees in the world, the giant gum and mountain ash. These huge trees can reach a height of 300 to 400 feet tall.
Day 6: We traveled the Great Ocean Road along the southeastern coast of Victoria. The Australians call this ocean the Great Southern Ocean, but it is basically just the northern edge of the Antarctic. The scenery along the way was breathtaking with the pinnacle being the twelve apostles formations. We found it interesting that there were only ten of the apostles remaining. Two had previously collapsed due to erosion by the sea.
Day 7: Flew home. Another long day on a jet eased only by the free movies and drinks...and Qantas serves Foster's! Gained one day in transit, although it didn't feel like it. Jet lag is sure to be an issue.
Since wildlife laws are very strict in Australia, and collecting requires permits from the Australian government, Jay and Joey were not able to collect road kill but they did scope out a few contacts for future specimens for the Museum of Osteology. Jay and Joey hope to return later to explore more of Australia's wonderful habitats.
Inside Skulls Unlimited
As part of a new ongoing feature, our own Darien Hanson provides a unique perspective into the dirty side of Skulls Unlimited.
DEATH STEW - Episode 1: Lifestyles of the Brave and Malodorous
Welcome to the glamorous world of Skulls Unlimited! One of the most unique and interesting places to work, if not entirely pleasant. Due to the highly specialized environment we work in, there can be some strange situations encountered in the course of life that the average person can be assured of never having. Hopefully, with some spare time and a handful of anti-nausea pills, I can give you a good idea of what it's like to work here. I'll start off with three very important rules to remember when visiting or speaking about Skulls Unlimited.
Rule #1 for visiting SUI: Don't offer to shake anyone's hand while they're working. This should be obvious. Although it seems rude not to offer at least, the alternative of gooshy brain matter in your palm puts things into moist perspective. This also might apply to hugging, touching, breathing, or getting within 20 ft of an employee. Interact at your own risk, as do the innocent gas station and restaurant employees who have contact with us on break. Nose plugs for everyone!
Rule #2: Don't eat in the back room. Technically there is no actual rule in the handbook about this. Our employees are highly trained technicians with ninja-style stomachs, capable of ingesting comestible products on a table with beheaded mammalia, with no ill effects. The average person must cease nasal function when entering the front door. Masticate at your own risk.
Rule #3: Use caution when discussing SUI. While it may be highly amusing to mention the work we do to your friends and relations, some basic rules of tact and decorum still apply. You might not want to mention decomposing carcasses at dinnertime. Nor tell young children about the flensing machine and the brain capacity of the receiving tank. Polite public discourse never includes the words "... you should have seen the amount of intestines we pulled out of that!" Depending on your circle of friends, this may prove an invaluable tool when deciding to tell the hot girl you just met what your interests are.
I hope this proves to be some very useful information for you. I will return with more tips, info and juicy highlights of working at Skulls Unlimited in the next edition of... DEATH STEW!
Viva La Muerte!
Skully D (a.k.a Darien Hanson)
Newsletter Anniversary
This month marks the one-year anniversary of the Skulls Unlimited International Newsletter. We have had fun sharing company news, museum updates and new products with our customers. Now we would like to hear from you, the subscriber. Have you benefited from this newsletter? What would you like to see added? What would you like to see deleted? We welcome your comments. Please email all suggestions and replies to mail@skullsunlimited.com
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