Sunday, December 27

These two little guys have been our daily guests at breakfast. The furry one is a bandicoot and the one that looks like a big lizard is a skink. The owner of the B&B puts bread out for them every morning, that's probably why they're so fat.

Canoe trip, continued...

We pulled onto a secluded beach to have a "bushtucker" lunch, which means foods the aboriginals ate. We waited about 10 minutes for the last canoe to finally get there, but they quickly announced that there was another canoe from our group that was stuck in the reeds, had almost capsized, and was taking on a lot of water. The guide and the husband of the woman and two teenagers in the sinking canoe then launched a rescue mission, and about 10 minutes later they all made it back to the beach. How the mom and teenagers managed to nearly sink the canoe remains a mystery, but like I said before, they were paddle challenged.

Anyway, after a short hike to a lookout over the river, the guide prepared the lunch, and had us all taste native foods including blood limes, spices, flour, a kind of nut and a powder that tasted like coffee. He put out smoked emu and kangaroo, along with chutneys and pesto, olives and cheeses, bread, etc.

At the end he brought out "dessert," which were grubs that he cut up and mixed with yougurt, since he said that was the only way anyone would try them. While most of us declined, Bill ate one and then went back for seconds, it was so yummy. One of the kids that ate one of the grubs promptly threw up, but at least he went off to the side to do it. Here's Bill eating a grub.

Monday, December 28

We checked out of our B&B and headed south to Prevelly Beach, at the head of the Margaret River. There we met up with our canoe trip guide and group of fellow canoers. And although they all said they'd been canoeing before, it quickly became clear that many of them were "paddle challenged." The current was strong enough so that we soon realized we didn't even need to paddle, so we just relaxed and drifted along. However, behind us we could hear the non-stop clanking of paddles hitting against the sides of the canoes, and it seemed bizarre to see many of the people paddling feverishly but basically going nowhere. That's when we realized we probably had a pretty good chance of winning the race at the end.



Here's a pic of a small island we stopped at, where our guide picked several different plants for everyone to taste, including one that tasted like celery and another like carrots, which were used by the aboriginal people.

Monday, December 28, continued...

Following the canoe trip we headed south to our next B&B in Pemberton. This is the heart of the tall trees country, and the "tingle" is the tallest tree in Oz, growing only in the extreme southwest corner of the continent. There are also beautiful "karri" and "marri" forests here, and the karris sometimes reach over 200 feet tall. Although the drive down took an hour and a half, we did not pass one gas station, fast-food restaurant, etc. For that matter we barely saw any other cars, and this was on a main road, during the peak summer, holiday season.

After checking into the B&B we went out to dinner, and there are not a lot of choices in Pemberton. The restaurant we ended up at was a throw back to about the 1950's, complete with frilly lace curtains and light fixtures you'd expect to see in a saloon in some old Western movie. The artwork consisted of pictures of trees in the process of being chopped down. The only other photos on the walls were of prize winning steers, and the music playing was country western from waaaay back, sounded like songs from the era of maybe George Jones and Tammy Wynette, or possibly even older. We could have been in some little town in Oregon or Idaho, with all the logging photos, but the seafood was excellent. We had marron, the local delicacie, which is found only in this extreme southwest corner of the country. It looks and tastes like a small lobster, and along with the marron we had both baked trout and smoked trout. Afterwards Bill went to the "toilet" to wash his hands and when he came back, he said I had to see the restroom for myself. Well, first I had to try to find it, because when I followed the signs for "toilet" there were 3 doors, all marked private, and the only other door led to the outside. The waitress saw me standing there and yelled out, "Ya got to go outside luv, then it's out on the verandah." Well, sure enough, outside was a small building with a sign on the door which read, "Toilet," and sure enough there was a toilet in there, but no toilet paper and no sink. That was outside in the open air, but there was no soap or paper towels, just a sink. But at least the bathroom fit in with the ambiance of the restaurant.

Saturday, December 26, Boxing Day

Another holiday, but there were lots more businesses open today than on Christmas. Today we hiked the Bunker Bay track, near the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse in Leeuwin Naturaliste N.P. Absolutely gorgeous ocean and cliff views, with water so clear and a true turquoise color. The only drawback were the flies, which were the worst we’ve experienced so far. We wore our fly nets for the first time, and decided they were by far and away the best investment we could have made. We also saw lots of other people wearing them, something we’d not seen before, but without them we could not have done the hike at all, the flies were that bad. The net fits over your hat, and limits your vision somewhat, although you get used to it fairly quickly. At the end of our hike, we walked down to the beach, without our fly nets, and although the flies were somewhat less annoying down at the water, just going up and down the short distance from the car and back was amazingly bad with the flies. We were literally covered with them, ugh…….

I hate those little suckers. You look and feel like you’re wearing a burka with the nets on, but anything is better than dealing with the flies.

Friday, December 25

Merry Christmas from the other side of the world. We arrived in Dunsborough late yesterday afternoon, for a 4-day stay at a B & B not far from the beach. This morning we went hiking along part of the Cape to Cape track, above the cliffs with beautiful ocean views.

We saw more people at the beach today than we’ve ever seen, but we were told that many Aussie’s have a tradition of going to the beach on Christmas. There was virtually nothing open, except for one gas station that was only open in the morning, so luckily we were able to get some “petrol.”However, when we went out later in the day to get some Christmas dinner, everything was closed. Just as we’d given up and headed back to the B&B to make sandwiches out of the leftover turkey and brie we’d bought the day before for lunch, Bill noticed a Thai restaurant with an “Open” sign in the window, and sure enough, they had just opened for dinner. So, that certainly beat cold left over sandwiches for Christmas dinner.

Tuesday, December 22, continued...

Here are some pics of a marri tree, which bleeds when wounded. It's not the exact same tree I wrote about in an earlier post, but it's the same type, and it shows the bloody looking sap, called "keno." Ironically, the aboriginal people dried the keno and sprinkled it into their own open wounds.