Sunday, June 27, 2010

Well June is almost over, half a year gone already, and we're definitely into winter now.  The last couple mornings have been freezing, right around 32 degrees in fact.  It does warm up during the day, as long as you're in the sun, but it's far from shorts and t-shirt weather, although that's what lots of Aussies are wearing these days.  I don't know how they do it, it is definitely cold right now, and our heater is not working. 

Last month the strangest thing happened while we were watching the ABC Nightly News from the US.  We tape it since it comes on here at 3:00am, and there was a segment about Berkeley requiring incoming freshman to have their DNA tested.  They were showing scenes of students around the campus and the reporter stopped to interview a few of them.  Then they showed a couple of students sitting on the steps of a building, and I said to Bill, "that looks exactly like Josh."  He replied that of course it couldn't be since Josh lived in Seattle now and hadn't been at Berkeley for 15 years, but I insisted on rewinding it several times and although it was just a side view, I was certain it was Josh.  Of course it made no sense, especially since this guy was smoking, (and I knew Josh NEVER smoked) but I took some pics of the TV screen and emailed them to him.  I was so glad to hear I wasn't crazy and it really was him, although why the network would intermingle 15-year old file footage with current stuff is beyond me.  So bizarre to be sitting in Australia and see my son on TV, only from 15 years ago, truly strange...  When I spoke to him later he noted he never thought he'd get ratted out on the smoking thing by a film crew 15 years after the fact.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Well, today Australia made history with its first ever female prime minister taking over.  I think the way their system works is that if the current prime minister appears to be losing popularity, like this one was, then his party can replace him with someone else, until another election is held.   Not sure when that will be but this is the first time they've had a female running the country, so things should be really, really good from here on out.

Last Saturday we tried something we'd never heard of before, called orienteering.  Basically you go out to a forested area, they give you a topographic map and a compass, and you're expected to find several different electronic markers before returning to the starting point, with the whole thing being timed in case you feel competitive.  Well Bill loved plotting the course, like I figured he would, and I was just along for the hike.  It's all cross country, except for a short trail in the beginning, and most of the participants were running through the brush instead of walking.  Crazy people.  We finished the first, easy course in less than an hour so went back for a longer one, and that one took a little over 2 hours.  Bill used the compass and map to find the markers, and my sole contribution was to put the peg in the electronic thing to mark we'd been there.  If it'd been up to me to find our way we'd still be out there stumbling around in the bush. 

Friday, June 18, 2010

Well today I went out with the education group again to a school, and this time I had to present two of the animals myself.  I was not exactly prepared for this, but I stumbled through and did my best.  Now I really need to read all the info they gave me so I know what to say - I just assumed I'd have several more times to observe before being expected to talk. 

Things have been very quiet at the hospital lately, so I've had a chance for a lot of one-on-one training.  Yesterday I learned how to tube feed birds and bobtails, although I sure hope I don't have to do it anytime soon; I'm afraid I'd put the tube down the wrong way or too far and choke the poor things. 

I'm still trying to figure out all the different accents at the wildlife center, since there are volunteers from lots of different countries.  Yesterday a Scottish lady with a very thick accent was asking another volunteer where the "gat-ill" was, and I couldn't figure out what she was talking about.  Then she said, "You know, the lit-ul gat-ill," and I realized she was saying "little girl."  Wow, that was a tough one.

One of the supervisors was showing some of the new volunteers the charts, and she noted that the comments written down are always kept very professional.  But then she started laughing as she read a comment at the bottom of a bird's chart that was not doing very well.  It said simply "Poor littel lov."

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Went on a really interesting tour today with the American Women's Club, to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.  They have been in existence for 75 years, and provide medical service to all remote areas of WA, via prop planes and the very recent addition of a Lear jet.  There is no fee for this service, and in many instances it is the difference between life and death, since medical centers are so far away from most places in WA.  The state comprises one third of the entire continent, so the area is huge and medical facilities are basically non-existent in the outback.   The service they provide is free of charge to anyone living or traveling in AU, and they have something like 35 doctors, 40 nurses and 35 pilots on call.

We got to see some of the prop planes they use, and a flight actually came in while we were there, with the patient being immediately loaded into a waiting ambulance and taken to a nearby hospital.  We went inside a simulator, and the plane is literally filled with medical equipment, making it a challenging place to be if you're claustrophobic.     

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Time to head back home, but we stopped on our way out at Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites.  They are described as the oldest living organisms on earth, and are only found in a few places, where the water is twice as saline as normal sea water.  They are extremely slow growing and some are up to 1,000 years old.  This pic shows how clear the water is, since these were all under water. 

It took us around 7 hours to get home, and there's not much to look at on the drive.  Gas stations are few and far between, and are usually located at a "roadhouse."  When I asked someone exactly what a roadhouse was, they said "a gas station, a toilet, and some really bad food."  And that pretty much sums it up, although some of them have some sad looking accomodations that you wouldn't stop at unless you were really desperate.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Today we took a morning flight over Shark Bay, in a little 8-seater plane.  We were the only passengers, once we dropped off a guy who'd just flown in and needed a ride to Useless Loop.  This tiny spot on the map had no airport, it was just a dirt airstrip and not a building in sight.  I wondered why the landing was so bumpy until I realized we were on dirt.  Our pilot was very, very young, looked to be about 14, but I'm sure he was probably at least 19.  The owner of the company and the pilot met us at the Shark Bay airport, and she said the pilot was "brand new."  Not sure if she meant brand new to the company or to puberty.  And while I've gotten used to hearing Aussies say "no worries" it's a little disconcerting when the pilot says it while he's fiddling with the airplane instruments.

But everything went fine and we flew low enough to see some dolphins swimming by.  This is a pic of the cliffs.

We had a little beach front villa at this resort, and just down the beach a short ways is where the dolphins   come in every day to get fed.  You can go out as far as your knees and let the dolphins swim around you, but you're not allowed to touch them.

There were some big pelicans hanging around too, hoping to get some fish from the rangers.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

We left early today to drive back down the coast to our final stop, Shark Bay and Monkey Mia. Not much to see on the main highway (which is only one lane in each direction) but after turning off to Shark Bay we stopped at Shell Beach, so named because the entire beach is covered with tiny shells and no sand at all.   They are as much as 30 feet deep in places, and at the rear of the beach they've compacted into a solid mass.

Here's a sculpture made up of nothing but these tiny shells.  Years ago they actually constructed buildings from the shells, since they harden and stick together.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Today we headed for a beach called the Oyster Stacks to go snorkeling, and it certainly lived up to all the hype we’d heard.  It was kind of rocky so I decided to wait till Bill checked it out and then decide if I wanted to go in or not. Well he came back pretty quickly and said "you have to go in, it’s amazing."  It was very shallow although the currents were kind of strong in some areas. We saw some really interesting fish and corals we’d not seen before, including ones that looked like giant cabbage heads and some long, skinny fish called trumpet fish, like this one here. 

Afterwards we headed to the next beach up the road, Turquoise Bay, which was an absolutely beautiful sandy beach, also with exceptional snorkeling.  It was hot, close to 85 degrees and the water was warm.  Of course, because of the reef, there are no waves near the shore, and as I was sitting there in the shallow water, watching the waves break way out on the reef, I just kept thinking, "ahhh, paradise."  

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

This morning we drove for an hour down to the end of the peninsula, to hike along the ridgeline at Yardie Creek. We were hoping to see some of the rare black-footed rock wallabies, but we saw only kangaroos instead. Of course, they look so much alike we could have been looking at wallabies and not known it, but they definitely did not have black feet.  

We headed back to Exmouth in the afternoon, since Bill had booked a couple of dives on the navy pier, rated by some as one of the 10 best shore dives in the world.  He said they were good dives, but his camera ended up fogging up at the end so he missed some good photo ops.  But here are some of the pics he managed to get.

This is a lion fish with his mouth open to feed. 

And here is a fairly good sized shark, swimming (away luckily) over a massive coral head. 
 
 
 

Monday, June 7, 2010

Time to leave Coral Bay and head up to Exmouth. I have to admit this place is hard to leave, so laid back and easy going, it has a really nice, casual feel to it. Since it’s only 2 hours to Exmouth, Bill went for one last snorkel, and we stopped for a short hike in a canyon along the way.  We saw this big bird walking along, and found out later it's an Australian Bustard, considered to be a sort of bush turkey by the aboriginals.  We continued on into Cape Range National Park to check out some of the beaches for snorkelling the following day.  Our last stop was at a beach called Mangrove Bay, where we stopped to talk with an Aussie couple who really liked to talk. We ended up leaving just after sunset, so were forced to drive back in the dark.  Now we know why people are advised NOT to drive at night, it was nerve-racking to say the least.  Bill drove while I yelled out, "roo on the left, now the right, left, left, right again," and so forth, all the way back to the hotel.  They were literlally bounding all over the place, this area seems almost overrun with them at night. The hotel we’re staying at used to be part of a US Naval base, built here in the late 1960’s to communicate with submarines using low frequency radio waves. Literally everything needed to build and equip the base was brought over from the US, including even the concrete used to pour the foundations. We walked around the now deserted base and noted that they had pretty much all the comforts of home, including a swimming pool, baseball diamond with stadium lighting, dive shop, movie theatre, bowling alley, church, etc. The radio towers are still being used to communicate with subs, and a small portion of the base is fenced off and still in operation. We were told the rooms in our section of the hotel used to be the female officers housing unit, and still had working 110 electrical outlets, definitely not something you typically find over here.  

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Well it absolutely poured all night, and we would not have been surprised if the campers had decided to riot and take over the hotel for some relief from the rain.  It must have been miserable in those tents, even the locals the next day said it NEVER rains that hard.  We also half expected to get a phone call from the dive shop, cancelling today’s snorkel/dive trip, but it went out at scheduled, even though it was cold, cloudy and windy when we left.  However, after a while the sun came out and it turned out to be a gorgeous day out on the water. The first stop was for snorkeling, which we did for about an hour, and we saw tons of beautiful coral and lots of fish. Then we went further out to find the manta rays. This is a very well choreographed and rehearsed effort, involving the use of a small airplane to spot the rays.  Once they’re spotted, one of the crew goes in the water and swims out to them, then half the people on the boat go into the water and swim along with the rays for a few minutes, then the other half go in. We switched back and forth like this 3 times, so we got several chances to see them, and they are enormous. The ones we saw were 6 to 8 feet across, and they swam fairly fast so it was hard to keep up with them. The visibility wasn’t great but here’s one of our pics.

After that was lunch, then another snorkel/dive, and then we headed back.  Here are some more underwater pics.  (It's best to double click the pics)

Saturday, June 5, 2010

We made it to Coral Bay, a very tiny little hamlet, not even a town really, just a couple of caravan parks and one hotel, a couple of dive shops, two restaurants and a tiny little grocery store and gas station. Went snorkelling this morning, just needed to walk a short distance from our hotel to the beach, and then the reef begins just yards from the shore. We were amazed at the number and diversity of fish, and some of the coral heads were enormous. Very easy snorkelling in very shallow water, but the numbers of fish and coral were amazing.  It rained just a bit while we were out, but since returning to the room, it’s turned into a tropical squall, with quite a bit of rain. Bill has gone back down to the beach to snorkel again, he thinks he’s in heaven with the incredible snorkelling here, but I’m done for the day.  I let him talk me into booking an all day snorkel trip tomorrow, on a boat looking for “giant manta rays.”  I will definitely be out of my comfort zone but so long as my mask doesn't leak I'll be happy.   Here are some of the underwater pics Bill took today, as well as a photo of the beach.

Friday, June 4, 2010


Today was an all day travel day, although it took us less than 7 hours to drive to Coral Bay, instead of the 8+ the map listed. Not far from Coral Bay we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, so we’re officially in the tropics now. Besides almost running down a couple of kangaroos, the drive was pretty uneventful. These two appeared to be playing chicken, because they stood on the side of the road, watching our car approach, and then at the last second they both hopped right out in front. We had been warned by multiple people not to drive at night, but sometimes the roos are active during the middle of the day as well. We were amazed at the number of road kill on the drive to Coral Bay, everything from kangaroos to goats, sheep and even cattle. There are very few fences, so the cattle and sheep just wander wherever they want to go, and the goats are apparently wild. We’ve heard that driving even further north, we can expect to encounter lots of emus and even wild camels, and I can't imagine what hitting a camel would do to your car.

The scenery consists of mile after mile of these termite mounds, and not much else; and the termites apparently eat leaves and sticks from bushes, since there are no trees or other sources of wood around, like houses.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Today we did a rather challenging, level 4, 8 kilometer hike, down into the Murchison River gorge, and the river was completely dry in most places. It was amazing to see how high the water level is at times, and some of the trees had huge amounts of debris wrapped around their trunks, extending up several feet. This is caused by flooding from cyclones, and the force of the water has created some amazing rock formations. The geology was as colourful as parts of the grand canyon, with multiple layers of red, cream and gold. The rock is called tumblegooda, not sure if that’s an aboriginal word or not, but I expect it is. We saw some wild goats and lots of roos and parrots, and as usual, very few people. I have to admit, we were tired by the time we finished, and of course the last part of the hike was all uphill.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Today we joined a bunch of backpackers for a canoe trip down the Murchison River. Once again we were the only old farts but at least we didn’t get stuck on a sandbar, like some of the others did. It was sunny and warm and surprisingly the guide let us go on our own, while he drove downstream to cook up a big brekky for everyone. I guess they don’t worry too much about people drowning in the river, since it’s pretty much waist deep in most parts. Prior to the guide telling us that, he explained how to inflate the life vests that we were required to wear, and he said after pulling the cord and inflating the vest, you simply stand up and walk out of the river. That gave us a clue that it was pretty shallow. Although we saw lots of cool looking birds, my pics didn’t turn out so well, since I kept turning the camera off every time I tried to take a picture. Bill had put the camera in the underwater case so it wouldn’t get wet, but it’s hard to see the buttons and even harder to push them, and I kept forgetting which ones did what, so I got very few pictures.

In the afternoon we drove out to one of the river gorges for a hike along the riverbed. It was surprisingly hot in the sun, since this is late autumn, but the temps out here during the summer months reach nearly 130 degrees, so this is definitely the right time to visit.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Road trip to Kalbarri National Park, Coral Bay, Exmouth and Shark Bay.  We left yesterday, around 5:00 pm, although we actually had to backtrack to find a gas station, and we hadn’t even left town yet. We’d been warned about the scarcity of gas stations as you drive north, but we didn’t expect to encounter a problem before even leaving Perth. So we didn’t actually get on the road until around 6:00, then drove as far as Geraldton, where we spent the night at a B & B. The house was a 120 year old two-story, set on a hill with great views of the ocean, even from the first floor.

The B&B owner suggested we check out the local museum before heading up to Kalbarri, since it’s less than a 2 hour drive. First we walked to a memorial at the very top of a hill overlooking the city, which memorialized the seamen from a ship sunk off the coastline during World War II. After touring the museum we headed for Kalbarri National Park, which was wonderfully quiet. Only two other rooms in our motel were occupied, but we were told that next month, during school holidays, the population would expand from 2,000 to 10,000.

We drove to several coves along the coastline, and hiked for a while just as the sun was setting. The above  pic shows some of the fascinating sandstone, some of which looks like stalactites or soda straws like you’d find in a cave.

This is a photo of the Kalbarri coastline.