Surfing and freshwater crocs

A few short updates since our last post from Rottnest Island:

Lovely picnic at Matilda Bay for our neighbour's birthday party. The Bay is next to the University of Western Australia, and the views look back towards the downtown (known as CBD here, for central business district).

It was 35 degrees, so the adults mostly hung out in the shade of a big tree with beer and food, while the kids played push-each-other-off-the-dock.

Sol finished a set of 5 surfing lessons at Scarborough Beach. He still feels he has some way to go to perfect his technique, but definitely made progress over that period. Now we have to figure out ways to get him surfing opportunities back in Victoria...

Weekend visit to Mundaring Weir included a stop at the Mundaring art park:

We met some fun loving tourists in the park as well. Couldn't quite figure out what they were all looking at.

The weir itself is pretty impressive, sending 90 million litres of water per day to the goldfields of Kalgoorlie, through the longest freshwater pipeline in the world (560 km).

However, when the Rainbow Lorikeets of Mundaring get thirsty, it's not water they are after.

This past week, I went up to the Kimberley region in the far north of Western Australia for a work trip. Although the subject matter was challenging (suicide prevention), the region is fascinating and we did get to fit in a visit to the famous Cable Beach to watch the sunset...

And on our way back from Mowanjum/Derby, we spotted a few freshies (Crocodilus johnsoni) sunning on a rock. Our list of Australian wildlife spotted is gradually lengthening.

Very strange this year to celebrate Hanukkah in the hot sun. But learned a very useful trick, to keep the candles in the freezer to prevent them from melting in a puddle before they are even lit.

Rottnest Island

A short ferry ride away sits Rottnest Island, which must be one of the best, if not the only, state-run holiday islands. The island has a somewhat sad history, having been used as a prison for Aboriginal people for a period in the early 20th century, but then was taken over for defensive purposes during World War II and then some visionary decided that this wonderful holiday destination should become state property rather than being privatised to make sure that ordinary citizens could enjoy it in perpetuity.

Another visionary decision was to keep the island largely free of cars. There is a public bus, a small train line and a few utility vehicles as needed, but the holiday visitors primarily use bicycles to get around the 20 km2 island and visit its many beaches and snorkelling spots.

The first spot was neat because you could snorkel around a small shipwreck, a boat that came free of its moorings in Fremantle and ended up sunk just off the coast of Rottnest. Above water, it looked like a rusty boat hull, but underneath it was a seagrass and coral garden that was barely recognisable as a boat.

The second spot was really cool, with a range of different corals and an underwater trail to follow - although the sea had worn away most of the words on the underwater signs. The temperature was perfect for beaching, if a bit hot for cycling. Rio had to work hardest on his little bike with no gears, and there were a few reasonable hills, but the occasional well-timed appearance of candy seemed to help him overcome the challenge.

And even better-timed appearances of cute quokkas by the side of the road helped morale too.

On the other hand, the appearance of the venomous long black slithery dugite snake was less welcome for some of us snake fearers.

Our flat was pretty nice, with a view of the dunes and ocean. Chris and I got out for a sunset walk while the kids vegged out. We were a little worried by a search party for a missing 5 year old who had wandered off during a scavenger hunt from a gaggle of 20-odd kids, but we assumed she was found as the calls died down.

Sunday we started with a visit to the WWII very large gun (9 metres) at Oliver Hill. The tour guide had an unusual accent, Aussie with a hint of North American, and turned out to be from Nanaimo but living in Perth for 25 years. The mechanics of the massive gun were highly impressive, and it was easy to imagine the tough routines of the military personnel working there.

Another dugite siting very close by, and a few massive spiders. Good views from the hills, reminding us of how surprisingly close Perth is yet feeling miles away from the busy city bustle.

After the military site, we cycled back into Thomson Bay and the kids got to play in the inflatable water park in the heat of the midday sun while Chris and I watched from the shade sipping iced coffees. Some traditional Aussie pies for lunch at the bakery, and then a final snorkel at The Basin. Saw a stingray and some different fishies.

Saturday 2 November

Day 3 of England's first Ashes warm-up match against a "weak" Western Australia XI who scored 451/5 declared. Chris, Sol and Rio headed down to the WACA with its huge towering floodlights to watch England bat in reply. Finally a chance to get up close to our cricketing heroes. Starting the day at 270/2 with Trott and Bell on overnight 50s saw some beautiful shots, especially from Bell who was creaming the cover drives:

The ground was quite empty, probably only a few thousand there, so we had a choice of seats and moved into various spots during the day, mostly close to behind the bowlers arm, but also hanging out on the sloped grassy bank square of the wicket that will be our home for all of day 3 of the third test. After half an hour I can confirm it's not very comfortable sitting there on the grass, so don't know how we'll manage for a whole day (have to take a cushion). Bell and Trott both completed centuries and then Bell retired just after the second new ball had been taken in order to give the other batsmen some practice, but they all got out cheaply.

At first we had been disappointed that Cook, Broad, Swann and Pietersen weren't playing in this game, but that actually made it easier to see them up close as they went to the nets in the ground to practice. Sol and Rio soon become more interested in the goings-on in the nets than out in the middle and after a short while Rio was aiming to collect autographs on his new floppy cricket hat from as many players as possible. He even managed to get Bell's signature when he inexplicably ended up fielding at 3rd man for a couple of overs to add to the signatures of Cook, Swann and Tremlett. It was nice that the England team were happy to stop and chat in the ground. Here's Cook signing Rio's hat and saying something about where he played when he was young.

Broad was also having a bit of a bowl in the nets but it was not going too well, so time for the double tea-pot.

Sol got to pose with England's backup keeper Jonny Bairstow, who due to an injury to Prior, might be featuring in the Ashes after all.

For the older readers like me, I was excited to see Goochy the batting coach, but without the trademark moustache.

Thoroughly sunburnt, we left early as the game petered to a draw, Rio clutching his "enchanted" hat. Must have done some good because Rio put in a terrific performance at his cricket match the next day.

Wednesday 30 October

The England cricket team arrive in Perth for the start of their Ashes defence. Rio wants to go to the airport at midnight to see them arrive. We say no. He wants to find out which hotel they are in and go there. We say no. Then, the day before they start their first match, instead of practicing at the WACA like usual, they came to our local cricket field, across the road from Rio's school, to practice there. Rio cycled home from school oblivious to the presence of his heroes just past the car park. We only find out the following day that they had been in the same nets that we use and had a mini-game in the middle! Here's a picture of Kevin Pieterson batting in our nets and in the second picture Rio's school is just behind the car park in the background (photo credits to Floreat Subiaco cricket club):

LAST holiday post

I had to get this up so that Chris can start posting about all the cricket that's been happening since we came back from holiday. Here's a short one from our drive home (lots of photos!):

Day 16: Kalbarri to home

On the way back to Perth, we stopped at a fascinating site called The Pinnacles. It’s a large region, protected as a park and geological research site, made up of sand and these cool rock formations. The pinnacles range from quite small and frail to stout and fairly tall, and they cover an amazing area. Only part of that area is accessible because of the surrounding sands. It was neat to be able to walk around them and try to imagine the geological processes taking place over thousands of years to form them. There are different theories, but the most plausible one was related to trees, acidification and limestone. (Sorry, I forget the detail). Chris spent some time trying to get cool photos, including ones with the moon sitting atop of the pinnacles (he succeeded but I can't put portrait oriented photos on the blog because they show sideways). But once again I was just trying to keep one step ahead of the flies and not inclined to hang out and admire for long.

We also passed the Pink Lake on our way back. Although it was highlighted in the guide book, it wasn’t enough of an attraction to warrant a sign from the road. So we kept waiting for the turn off to the viewing point and it never came. We did get quite a good glimpse of it from the road as we drove past, and it was spectacularly pink. I can confirm, after flying over Australia on my way to Brisbane the following week, that there are lakes of all kinds of wacky colours around the country. In addition to vivid pink, there are some bright yellow lakes, as well as white ones, and then all shades of blue and green.

Penultimate holiday post

(For those of you confused by the chronology of our holiday - my apologies - it has taken me a very long time to put these posts up, so we are now long since home from our trip. More up-to-date posts to follow soon, I hope.)

Day 14 Kalbarri: Up early for a canoeing adventure down the Murchison River. Two other families of four turned up and we were all were transported by 4WD van along roads that made the previous day’s ride seem smooth. When we arrived at the launching spot, it turned out that ‘self-guided’ really meant ‘self-guided’ – our van driver saw us off and then drove down river to cook our breakfast. The canoes were shorter and wider than Canadian ones, and the paddles were more like kayak paddles than canoe paddles – but we got used to that pretty quickly and I ended up thinking that kayak paddles are pretty handy in a canoe because you don’t have to worry about doing the J-stroke.  It was a fairly easy paddle downstream for the first two legs, to breakfast and then to the swimming hole. But then the afternoon wind picked up a little early, and we had to work fairly hard for the final 2 km stretch. Luckily we had stuffed ourselves at breakfast so had the energy to fight the wind. We were treated to lots of bird life again, including lots of sea eagles diving for fish and lots of stately pelicans.

In the afternoon, Chris and the boys went to Jake’s Bay to look for a good body boarding site, while I wandered around town and checked out the gift shops and bookstore. The beach they found had good waves but was too rocky at the shore to feel safe with body boarding, so they found a different spot that was calm and had a swim/Waboba.

Day 15 Kalbarri: Cliff-top whale watching hike along the Bigarda trail was the morning’s entertainment. I have to admit, I didn’t really think we’d be seeing whales, but the woman at the visitor’s centre said she had seen some a few days ago and if we were lucky... The hike was beautiful, along cliffs whose base was made of the Tumblagoorda sandstone, underneath about 15 metres of Tamala limestone. 

The ocean was turquoise and aqua, dotted with small whitecaps turning to big foaming froth at the shore. I jokingly offered a big handful of Doritos to the first person to spot a whale – but sure enough, Dorito-loving Rio suddenly spotted a humpbacked whale flipping out of the water in the near distance. The humpbacks are migrating south for summer, passing the Western Australian coast from May through October. The last ones to come past are the mums with their babies. They jumped and splashed for quite a while before continuing on their way down the coast and we on our walk. It was tricky to watch our footing as well as keeping an eye out on the ocean, but we managed to spot several more groups of humpbacks by the time we came to the end of our hike. 

However, we still hadn’t seen any of the southern right whales which were supposed to be visible closer to the shore. We watched and waited quite a while at the final view point, but not until we started walking away did Chris spot a right whale spouting and swimming at the surface. They are much shyer than the humpbacks, or at least they are less interested in playing about in plain sight. It flashed us a bit at the surface and then disappeared again – until we walked away again, and up it spouted. It did this several more times before we eventually had seen enough to feel that we’d got our dosage of right whale viewing.

After lunch we went to the Blue Holes, marked on the tourism map as a good spot for snorkelling. We warmed up with some beach cricket, managing to retrieve the ball when it was slogged into the water. However, the water was blue but not very transparent, and the only fish we saw while snorkelling were a couple of cute little brown spotted guys and a tiny black and white striped fish. The ‘holes’ were created by a small reef making some sheltered pools with much smaller waves. We gave up on the snorkelling and enjoyed our final relaxing beach time before the drive home tomorrow.

We splurged on supper at The Restaurant Upstairs, some more delicious fish and seafood (and another veggie curry for Chris). I got to try Barramundi, (thanks for the recommendation, Dave H.!) but chose prawns for the accompaniment rather than peppered kangaroo. 

Kalbarri National Park

What a surprise to hear rain on the roof overnight, after so many days of cloudless sunny skies! I don’t understand why Australian roofs are so commonly made of corrugated metals, given the heavy rains that pound down in sudden flash showers. Of course, we had hung out some washing to dry over night - more wet in the morning than when it came out of the washer. I enjoyed an early morning walk down to the fascine (where the river water meets the ocean), with a very light shower and gentle breeze but quite pleasant temperature. 

We packed up and hit the road, back down south to the Kalbarri National Park. I’m getting more used to driving on the Western Australian highways, with the speed limit of 110 km/hour even on roads without a dividing line between the lanes. Chris and I both find overtaking is a little bit challenging because the mirages on the road make it hard to see in the distance. There are also lots of ‘road trains’, the super long loaded trucks. And today, the added excitement of the extra wide loads coming at us, trucks carrying houses on them that jut out over the highway dividing line and right into our driving lane.

It was nice to get off the main highway and head toward the coast to Kalbarri. The national park is huge, but the town has a nice quaint little holiday village feel, all stretched out along the water front. The town is located where the Murchison River meets the ocean, so the water tastes salty but is not very wavy – but you can see the big waves breaking just beyond the river bank. We’re staying at a nice little two-story apartment just off the main drag; I’m thrilled at the size of the fridge and kitchen after cooking in pretty cramped quarters for the last 10 days.

After a walk down the water front to make some plans for the next few days’ adventures, we couldn’t resist jumping into the water for a swim before supper. Seafood again – this time Rio got to try lots of different types of seafood piece by piece: squid rings, oyster and prawn, all breaded and deep fried – how could you miss? Chris enjoyed a delicious homemade veggie burger and Sol had chicken burger again. I got the grilled Spanish mackerel. We ate outside with a view of the river, ocean and hills as the sun set gradually behind some cool clouds on the horizon. I like the way so many places here are BYO; it sure helps to keep the cost down, but still makes it feel like a special meal as you sip your wine from a tumbler and unwrap the paper packet with your fish and chips.

Day 13 Kalbarri: Today was the toughest day of the holiday. I spent the morning in considerable discomfort with a stomach upset – though the boys seemed happy to catch up from their internet deprivation while waiting for me to feel better. Our planned hike in the national park was postponed to after lunch, which wasn’t a terrible thing since it meant we were hiking slightly past the heat of midday and finishing up in the early evening when the lower angle of the sun made for nicer photographs. To get to the start of the hike, we had to endure a 27 km drive up an unsealed road, mostly sand that had been graded by caterpillar in small ridges. Some of the drive was bone-juddering, so we appreciated that they are in the middle of roadworks to pave the way into the park.

The first views from the car park were promising, but slightly clouded by flies. We set off briskly, hoping to walk ourselves out of fly range, but no matter how fast we went, they followed us in swarms. The hike started up on the top of the gorges, then a rocky climb down into the river bed (still enough water to be called a ‘river’ but pretty minimalist). 

We wound around with the river, admiring the Tumblagoorda Sandstone patterning the gorge walls (layers of multi coloured sand deposited 480 million years ago and then gouged into gorge shapes by water and erosion) – as much as we could through the cloud of flies. The heat was pretty intense in the gorge, with very little wind to help against heat or flies. We were fairly well prepared with water and snacks but nobody wanted to stand still long enough to nibble. 

Chris managed to stay cheerful, take photos, and find his inner Zen to ignore the flies, whereas Rio found that giving voice to his complaints was the best approach. He was tempted when we offered to let him take shelter under a shady gorge overhang and stay there, but the flies didn’t diminish in the shade so he thought better of it. 

There were lots of birds, including a couple of black swans that seemed to be escorting a pelican off to a secure facility, one in front and one behind. A couple of roos showed their faces as well, to explain the copious roo poo on the trails. 

The route was fairly well marked but we managed to stray from it a few times when there was no sand to show us trekker footsteps. Chris’s GPS was helpful but not quite at the scale required to avoid all wrong moves.

The Loop hike was 9 km total, with some vigorous up and downs, so we were all pretty tired upon our return. Just enough energy and oomph to smile for the camera at Nature’s Window.

The first thing we did on the way back was to stop at BP to pick up some fly hats – Sol and Chris still being stoic and refusing a hat, but Rio and I pretty convinced they would come in handy. See tomorrow’s post for who was right...

Back at home for a well earned supper and the kids’ first game of Euchre. I think they are hooked. Yay, we don’t have to wait for our annual camping trip at Rathtrevor to play Euchre now.