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Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Friday, 3 October 2014
Watch out world - we're coming back!
Friday 3rd October - We're back at the Crowne Plaza at Changi Airport in Singapore, paying a bit extra to avoid having to check out and spend five hours hanging around before Etihad check-in opens and we can get rid of our heavy bag. I upgraded the baggage allowance to cover all the extra goodies we're bringing back, but actually they only add about 4kg to the total (and the heavy stuff is for us!). We flew here from Perth with Scoot, Singapore Airlines new long-haul budget offshoot. You pay extra for all the frills, including hiring an iPad if you want to watch movies (we didn't). We got a "Super" seat with excellent legroom in the "Silent Scoot" part of the cabin (no children) for a very good price. They didn't have my prepaid food on their manifest but sorted it out when I showed it to them on my printed itinerary. It was a very good salad, but a Toblerone and a can of iced green tea was a bit of a strange dessert. When descending into Changi the pilot suddenly opened all the throttles and went round again, which was a bit disconcerting. After we landed he explained it was because of a flight control malfunction, they went back up to go through the check list and sort it out - the plane was an ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 777, probably wouldn't have happened with an Airbus where the wings are made in Bristol.
On our last day in Oz Linda and Ross showed us round a bit of the local neighbourhood, including the rose garden they used to own, which they hired out for weddings. We took their dog round one of his regular walks, and the wildlife proved obliging again. Kangaroos watched us warily, but the dog is elderly and no threat. He took no notice of the big, slow, lizard that Ross found, which stayed nice and still for photographs. The only drawback of the route was that it was also followed by horse riders, and the evidence of their progress meant that the fly population was numerous, and excessively friendly.
We're really grateful to Linda and Ross for showing us so much of the southern part of WA, and being such kind and generous hosts. Now it was time to tear ourselves away and head to the airport and home via Manchester, arriving early on an October morning. It may prove to be a bit of a shock to the system.
Sunset over the lake from our room at Rottnest. Wind turbine provides power for the desalination plant for the island:
On our last day in Oz Linda and Ross showed us round a bit of the local neighbourhood, including the rose garden they used to own, which they hired out for weddings. We took their dog round one of his regular walks, and the wildlife proved obliging again. Kangaroos watched us warily, but the dog is elderly and no threat. He took no notice of the big, slow, lizard that Ross found, which stayed nice and still for photographs. The only drawback of the route was that it was also followed by horse riders, and the evidence of their progress meant that the fly population was numerous, and excessively friendly.
We're really grateful to Linda and Ross for showing us so much of the southern part of WA, and being such kind and generous hosts. Now it was time to tear ourselves away and head to the airport and home via Manchester, arriving early on an October morning. It may prove to be a bit of a shock to the system.
Sunset over the lake from our room at Rottnest. Wind turbine provides power for the desalination plant for the island:
One of the magpies that come when called by Ross, they will feed from his fingers:
Not a bad bird to have nicking your flowers - an Australian Ringneck parrot, known as a 28 because of its call:
Kangaroo keeping watch on us:
Final pic of Aussie wildlife, a Western Blue-tongue Lizard (he seems to have lost a bit of his tail):
Nearly done!
Tuesday 30th September - We're on Rottnest Island a few miles offshore from Perth getting out of Linda and Ross's hair and having some R&R in a Premium Lakeside room at Rottnest Lodge. The advertised internet connection at the hotel has just been taken out to be replaced by a wifi network - unfortunately Telestra have connected the optical fibre but permission has not yet been obtained to install the wifi equipment in the historical part of the hotel. So I'm sitting outside in the shopping area where there is free wifi and a very noisy crow, which has just left a large deposit a few feet from where I'm sitting - first world problems!
After being shown Perth by Linda and Ross, and returning the van, we went with Linda for three nights in a chalet near Dunsborough in the Margaret River wine region. By chalet think Swiss alps rather than British beach - two double bedrooms each with its own bathroom, huge lounge/diner/kitchen with log stove (which we needed, it was cold the first night). We had a great time looking round the scenery, wineries, craft galleries etc., and finished with a great walk around Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. We saw distant whales, lizards small and large, a snake which was too quick for my camera and a swarm of bees which we gave due respect and a wide berth.
Returning on AFL Grand Final day I managed to catch the second half with Ross to explain what was going on - which was that Hawthorn (his late Dad's favourite team) were thrashing Sydney Swans, and it continued completely one-sided. It ended with Hawthorn winning by 21.11.137 to 11.8.74, which is comprehensive, and pleasing to Ross as he had $10 on them at 2.5 to 1, not bad odds for a two horse race. The next day we visited a very high class craft market at the University of Western Australia, where we completed our present shopping, and then had a walk round Lake Monger to tick black swans off our must see list.
The next day wee went down to Freo (Freemantle) to board the fast ferry for a bouncy 30 min trip to Rottnest Island. Rotto (as it is inevitably known) is a beautiful small island (11km long by 4.5km wide) with no cars, but lots of hire bikes and a hop-on/hop-off bus running around the coast. It's usually a peaceful, mainly family, destination except for one week in the year when school-leavers gather to get blotto on Rotto - not what we were aiming for. We avoided any stress from biking and did a couple of nice walks where we encountered virtually no other people but did get to see a lot of wildlife, including great birds, very fast lizards, and a large (1.5m) highly venomous snake - which we kept well clear of.
The main feature of Rottnest is that it is one of only a few places where you can still see quokkas. According to the field guide, the Quokka is a small, secretive, mainly nocturnal wallaby. However the Rottnest quokkas don't appear to have read the guide. You can detect them either from a rustling in the undergrowth or from a tickling sensation around your feet when having a coffee. The few shops on the island have small anti-quokka swing doors, like a saloon bar for munchkins. At dusk one appeared on the other side of the flyscreen on the verandah of our room and tried to look appealing. Their similarity to very large rats did not endear them to Louise, and led to the naming of the island by the 17th century Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh. Apparently "Rotte nest" is Dutch for "rat nest".
Pretty good view from the bar at the Wise winery (note to picture editor, sea should be turquoise):
Tucker is not bad at Leeuwin Estates winery:
Next stop Antarctica, looking over the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Margaret River (note turquoise sea still missing):
Useful info for whale watchers - would be really useful if they were less than a kilometre away:
A cooperative lizard, I only got pictures of the tails of the uncooperative ones:
Pleased with this one (no idea what the beetle or flower are):
Not bad birds to have flying round a uni car park, rainbow lorikeets at the University of Western Australia:
Black swans on the Swan River:
Sacred Ibis performing the entertainment role of a duck in a UK park:
Looking back to Perth from Rotto (turquoise sea becoming apparent):
G'day mate, got any food?:
Louise adopting a quokka defensive position:
Secretive, mainly nocturnal - bah!:
Rottnest Lighthouse, 4.5km into our 10km walk, temperature 31 degrees C:
Pink Lake - a pink lake, caused by specialised algae able to survive in water four times as salty as the sea:
Geordie Bay, no Newcastle accents heard, but got the turquoise sea nailed now:
The quokka equivalent of Mum taking the kids out begging:
Treat this one with respect - probably a Dugite, "Dangerously venomous, bite can be fatal". We didn't get close enough for a definitive identification:
After being shown Perth by Linda and Ross, and returning the van, we went with Linda for three nights in a chalet near Dunsborough in the Margaret River wine region. By chalet think Swiss alps rather than British beach - two double bedrooms each with its own bathroom, huge lounge/diner/kitchen with log stove (which we needed, it was cold the first night). We had a great time looking round the scenery, wineries, craft galleries etc., and finished with a great walk around Cape Naturaliste lighthouse. We saw distant whales, lizards small and large, a snake which was too quick for my camera and a swarm of bees which we gave due respect and a wide berth.
Returning on AFL Grand Final day I managed to catch the second half with Ross to explain what was going on - which was that Hawthorn (his late Dad's favourite team) were thrashing Sydney Swans, and it continued completely one-sided. It ended with Hawthorn winning by 21.11.137 to 11.8.74, which is comprehensive, and pleasing to Ross as he had $10 on them at 2.5 to 1, not bad odds for a two horse race. The next day we visited a very high class craft market at the University of Western Australia, where we completed our present shopping, and then had a walk round Lake Monger to tick black swans off our must see list.
The next day wee went down to Freo (Freemantle) to board the fast ferry for a bouncy 30 min trip to Rottnest Island. Rotto (as it is inevitably known) is a beautiful small island (11km long by 4.5km wide) with no cars, but lots of hire bikes and a hop-on/hop-off bus running around the coast. It's usually a peaceful, mainly family, destination except for one week in the year when school-leavers gather to get blotto on Rotto - not what we were aiming for. We avoided any stress from biking and did a couple of nice walks where we encountered virtually no other people but did get to see a lot of wildlife, including great birds, very fast lizards, and a large (1.5m) highly venomous snake - which we kept well clear of.
The main feature of Rottnest is that it is one of only a few places where you can still see quokkas. According to the field guide, the Quokka is a small, secretive, mainly nocturnal wallaby. However the Rottnest quokkas don't appear to have read the guide. You can detect them either from a rustling in the undergrowth or from a tickling sensation around your feet when having a coffee. The few shops on the island have small anti-quokka swing doors, like a saloon bar for munchkins. At dusk one appeared on the other side of the flyscreen on the verandah of our room and tried to look appealing. Their similarity to very large rats did not endear them to Louise, and led to the naming of the island by the 17th century Dutch explorer Willem de Vlamingh. Apparently "Rotte nest" is Dutch for "rat nest".
Pretty good view from the bar at the Wise winery (note to picture editor, sea should be turquoise):
Greeting the locals at our Dunsborough "chalet":
Tucker is not bad at Leeuwin Estates winery:
Next stop Antarctica, looking over the Indian Ocean from the mouth of the Margaret River (note turquoise sea still missing):
Useful info for whale watchers - would be really useful if they were less than a kilometre away:
A cooperative lizard, I only got pictures of the tails of the uncooperative ones:
Pleased with this one (no idea what the beetle or flower are):
Not bad birds to have flying round a uni car park, rainbow lorikeets at the University of Western Australia:
Black swans on the Swan River:
Sacred Ibis performing the entertainment role of a duck in a UK park:
Looking back to Perth from Rotto (turquoise sea becoming apparent):
G'day mate, got any food?:
Louise adopting a quokka defensive position:
Secretive, mainly nocturnal - bah!:
Rottnest Lighthouse, 4.5km into our 10km walk, temperature 31 degrees C:
Pink Lake - a pink lake, caused by specialised algae able to survive in water four times as salty as the sea:
Geordie Bay, no Newcastle accents heard, but got the turquoise sea nailed now:
The quokka equivalent of Mum taking the kids out begging:
Treat this one with respect - probably a Dugite, "Dangerously venomous, bite can be fatal". We didn't get close enough for a definitive identification:
Tuesday, 23 September 2014
End of the road ...
Tuesday 23rd September - well here we are in Perth, and the campervan has been returned with a final value of 3,772km on the clock. By sticking to 100kph (thanks to cruise control) we managed to average 11.4 l/100km (24.8 mpg) which is pretty good for something that big. Fuel costs varied from $1.55 per litre in Perth to $1.92 in Broome, and our total fuel spend was $740.41, about £444, less than I expected. It was a great pleasure to arrive to Linda and Ross's lovely welcome at their sumptuous pad up on the Darling Range yesterday, knowing that we wouldn't have to construct our bed, or share the shower with various grey nomads with sandy feet.
The last afternoon at Monkey Mia was spent pursuing wildlife over the seagrass beds on Shotover. We saw dugongs, green sea turtles, a sea snake, and a sea horse the crew had found at the jetty - the skipper's first in nearly 20 years. The next day we picked up our new spare tyre and set off south to Kalbarri along the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. With no spare tyre anxiety we made time to stop at some of the sights. Shell Beach is made up entirely of small cockle shells, metres deep in places, the only thing that can live in the hyper-saline waters. High evaporation, low fresh water input and seagrass banks limiting tidal movement mean that the bay has over twice as much salt as normal seawater. Over time the lower layers get compressed and chemically eroded sufficiently for a soft limestone to be created which can be cut with a saw and used as a building material. A few kms further on we went to Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites - again something that can only survive in a hypersaline environment. They are built up of layer after layer of microbial mats - layers of bacteria which are the most basic of living organisms - the first life on earth billions of years ago which through photosynthesis created the oxygen essential to all other life.
We realised that we were moving into different country when we saw our first proper fields planted with crops - huge fields, but not bush on all sides any more. That evening we arrived in Kalbarri at the mouth of the Murchison River after passing along roads lined with shrubs in flower. It is a pretty little place with an interesting river frontage and a national park to explore, but we were only able to stay one night (and the wifi didn't reach as far as our pitch). The following day we set off early into a really strong wind which blew all the cobwebs away on the couple of clifftop lookouts we visited - no chance of picking up whales when the sea was covered with white horses. As we carried on we had another first - real Australian rain! It came and went at first but then settled in properly as we rejoined the North West Coastal Highway - spray from a road train is quite an experience, but it helps wash the dust off the van. Unfortunately it kept on going as we arrived at the camp site, specially selected because of their daily late afternoon guided wildflower walk, but it was weather dependent. It kept on raining all afternoon so we stayed in the van, switched the air-con to heating mode, watched a DVD, then cooked up a meal using up most of our remaining food.
The following morning it was drying up a bit so after watching kangaroos hop past the van we were able to follow the wildflower walk trail on our own. There were lots of things in flower, which we didn't know the names of, and all the plants were holding on to the rain drops, so our trouser legs soon became saturated, but it was all very pretty - apart from the flies which began to appear as the sun got out. Then it was time to set off on the final leg, but diverting onto the Indian Ocean Drive, which promised to be more scenic than Highway 1. So it proved, with great scenery, views of the ocean and pretty small seaside towns like Cervantes where we had lunch with the very last of our food. As we got closer to Perth things gradually got busier until we were in normal urban stop-start traffic, which was a challenge with a big heavy thing with a long stopping distance. We managed to find our way, without incident and without too much argument, onto the Great Eastern Highway and climb the very steep scarp of the Darling Range - downhill heavy traffic restricted to 40 kph and "Emergency Truck Arrester 2 km Ahead" signs - and then through the wooded back roads to the welcome sight of Linda and Ross.
Today we returned the van and had a look round Perth, particularly Kings Park which is on the only hill in the city giving spectacular views over the river and the city. It is also home to a fabulous botanical garden which gave Louise the chance to put a name to some of the things we had been seeing and hope to see more of later on.
Dolphin giving me the eye:
Dugongs are not as easy to photograph:
Green sea turtle:
Shell Beach, entirely made up of cockle shells. The fence in the distance is one end of the 3km electrified fence erected to keep feral animals out of the Francois Peron National Park - foxes (introduced to give hunts something to chase) and feral domestic cats have been responsible for driving a large proportion of Australia's small mammals close to extinction:
Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Each of these "rocks" is a collection of microbial mats built up over hundreds of years:
Perhaps the mens' group could consider a change of name?
Windswept kangaroo on Red Bluff near Kalbarri:
Outside Linda and Ross's getting ready to take the van back:
From King's Park looking over the old Swan Brewery towards central Perth:
The last afternoon at Monkey Mia was spent pursuing wildlife over the seagrass beds on Shotover. We saw dugongs, green sea turtles, a sea snake, and a sea horse the crew had found at the jetty - the skipper's first in nearly 20 years. The next day we picked up our new spare tyre and set off south to Kalbarri along the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive. With no spare tyre anxiety we made time to stop at some of the sights. Shell Beach is made up entirely of small cockle shells, metres deep in places, the only thing that can live in the hyper-saline waters. High evaporation, low fresh water input and seagrass banks limiting tidal movement mean that the bay has over twice as much salt as normal seawater. Over time the lower layers get compressed and chemically eroded sufficiently for a soft limestone to be created which can be cut with a saw and used as a building material. A few kms further on we went to Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites - again something that can only survive in a hypersaline environment. They are built up of layer after layer of microbial mats - layers of bacteria which are the most basic of living organisms - the first life on earth billions of years ago which through photosynthesis created the oxygen essential to all other life.
We realised that we were moving into different country when we saw our first proper fields planted with crops - huge fields, but not bush on all sides any more. That evening we arrived in Kalbarri at the mouth of the Murchison River after passing along roads lined with shrubs in flower. It is a pretty little place with an interesting river frontage and a national park to explore, but we were only able to stay one night (and the wifi didn't reach as far as our pitch). The following day we set off early into a really strong wind which blew all the cobwebs away on the couple of clifftop lookouts we visited - no chance of picking up whales when the sea was covered with white horses. As we carried on we had another first - real Australian rain! It came and went at first but then settled in properly as we rejoined the North West Coastal Highway - spray from a road train is quite an experience, but it helps wash the dust off the van. Unfortunately it kept on going as we arrived at the camp site, specially selected because of their daily late afternoon guided wildflower walk, but it was weather dependent. It kept on raining all afternoon so we stayed in the van, switched the air-con to heating mode, watched a DVD, then cooked up a meal using up most of our remaining food.
The following morning it was drying up a bit so after watching kangaroos hop past the van we were able to follow the wildflower walk trail on our own. There were lots of things in flower, which we didn't know the names of, and all the plants were holding on to the rain drops, so our trouser legs soon became saturated, but it was all very pretty - apart from the flies which began to appear as the sun got out. Then it was time to set off on the final leg, but diverting onto the Indian Ocean Drive, which promised to be more scenic than Highway 1. So it proved, with great scenery, views of the ocean and pretty small seaside towns like Cervantes where we had lunch with the very last of our food. As we got closer to Perth things gradually got busier until we were in normal urban stop-start traffic, which was a challenge with a big heavy thing with a long stopping distance. We managed to find our way, without incident and without too much argument, onto the Great Eastern Highway and climb the very steep scarp of the Darling Range - downhill heavy traffic restricted to 40 kph and "Emergency Truck Arrester 2 km Ahead" signs - and then through the wooded back roads to the welcome sight of Linda and Ross.
Today we returned the van and had a look round Perth, particularly Kings Park which is on the only hill in the city giving spectacular views over the river and the city. It is also home to a fabulous botanical garden which gave Louise the chance to put a name to some of the things we had been seeing and hope to see more of later on.
Dolphin giving me the eye:
Dugongs are not as easy to photograph:
Green sea turtle:
Shell Beach, entirely made up of cockle shells. The fence in the distance is one end of the 3km electrified fence erected to keep feral animals out of the Francois Peron National Park - foxes (introduced to give hunts something to chase) and feral domestic cats have been responsible for driving a large proportion of Australia's small mammals close to extinction:
Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Each of these "rocks" is a collection of microbial mats built up over hundreds of years:
Perhaps the mens' group could consider a change of name?
Windswept kangaroo on Red Bluff near Kalbarri:
Outside Linda and Ross's getting ready to take the van back:
From King's Park looking over the old Swan Brewery towards central Perth:
Friday, 19 September 2014
Dolphin experiences
Friday 19th September - my birthday! Everyone else is off doing something so hopefully the campsite wifi will be up to the task of uploading some photos. We're hanging around before our sea creature watching trip on the Shotover sailing catamaran.
Had some more dolphin experiences today, and I was selected to feed one, on my birthday! It is very quick - you say hello to the dolphin, hold a fish by its tail, lower it into the water and a fraction of a second later 104 conical teeth have grabbed it and swallowed it. No touching is allowed, apparently we can pass diseases, and they can become aggressive. In previous years they attempted to bite someone nearly every day. We were also rewarded with one dolphin doing a series of jumps just a few metres offshore, unfortunately my camera was switched off at the time.
Here's some recent pics:
What to watch out for in Exmouth:
Coral Bay:
Heading south:
I know my place in Carnarvon:
Pelicans hang around hoping to grab some fish:
The smile is fixed, it remains even if they are biting you, but the look in the eye is very intelligent. Their eyes work independently, and are as good in or out of the water. They sleep 8 hours a day but take it in short naps because they have to make a conscious decision to take each breath, so they shut down only half their brain and keep one eye open.
An emu on a tent raid:
Giving me a dirty look after I shooed it away - this is Dad, Mum doesn't look after the young:
Shotover, we'll be aboard in a couple of hours:
Was looking good for the union, but I've just seen the Dundee result, so 49.1% Yes 50.9% No at the moment - who can tell whether we will return to the same country we left?
Had some more dolphin experiences today, and I was selected to feed one, on my birthday! It is very quick - you say hello to the dolphin, hold a fish by its tail, lower it into the water and a fraction of a second later 104 conical teeth have grabbed it and swallowed it. No touching is allowed, apparently we can pass diseases, and they can become aggressive. In previous years they attempted to bite someone nearly every day. We were also rewarded with one dolphin doing a series of jumps just a few metres offshore, unfortunately my camera was switched off at the time.
Here's some recent pics:
What to watch out for in Exmouth:
Coral Bay:
Heading south:
I know my place in Carnarvon:
Pelicans hang around hoping to grab some fish:
The smile is fixed, it remains even if they are biting you, but the look in the eye is very intelligent. Their eyes work independently, and are as good in or out of the water. They sleep 8 hours a day but take it in short naps because they have to make a conscious decision to take each breath, so they shut down only half their brain and keep one eye open.
An emu on a tent raid:
Giving me a dirty look after I shooed it away - this is Dad, Mum doesn't look after the young:
Shotover, we'll be aboard in a couple of hours:
Was looking good for the union, but I've just seen the Dundee result, so 49.1% Yes 50.9% No at the moment - who can tell whether we will return to the same country we left?
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Sub-tropical
Thursday 18th September - We've made it out of the tropics, not without drama. We left Exmouth on Tuesday, had a look at Coral Bay, very nice, very small, pretty crowded, and spent the night in Carnarvon - which had decent wifi, hence lots of pictures in the last post. We had a quick look around Carnarvon in the morning, which was a first for us - clouds in the sky sufficient to obscure the sun, though it soon burnt off. Then we set off for Monkey Mia to spend some time with dolphins.
All went well as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn but further south in the middle of the outback (OK, within mobile phone range of a roadhouse) we had a tyre burst at 100kph. Fortunately it was a rear one so I was able to stop without much drama. However, changing a tyre on the edge of National Highway 1 with road trains whooshing past was a challenge. It is possible to concentrate on what you have to do even though all the local flies are crawling over your sweating face, but it isn't nice. I managed to change the shredded tyre and we made it to the campsite with no more incident, except a few emus in the road.
Today we made the acquaintance of Footy in Denham the nearby small town. He took the wheel and tyre off us and started searching for a replacement. Eventually he was able to locate one in Perth, and it is now on its way up here, hopefully to arrive tomorrow morning. However, Footy says that is in the hands of "those drug-riddled truckies", so lets hope our one is on uppers not downers.
But before that we went down to the dolphin interaction experience. Louise says there is something a bit unsettling when a wild dolphin looks you directly in the eye while you are standing in the water a couple of feet away. I had gallantly held back to let her into the front rank along with the German youths and elderly Japanese ladies. It's my turn tomorrow morning. We had another wildlife experience on returning from sorting out the tyre, when I had to shoo away an emu which was raiding next-door's tent for some bananas.
I've just tried to upload some more pictures, but it appears that we are back to ice age internet which is struggling to save even this small amount of text ... so watch this space.
All went well as we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn but further south in the middle of the outback (OK, within mobile phone range of a roadhouse) we had a tyre burst at 100kph. Fortunately it was a rear one so I was able to stop without much drama. However, changing a tyre on the edge of National Highway 1 with road trains whooshing past was a challenge. It is possible to concentrate on what you have to do even though all the local flies are crawling over your sweating face, but it isn't nice. I managed to change the shredded tyre and we made it to the campsite with no more incident, except a few emus in the road.
Today we made the acquaintance of Footy in Denham the nearby small town. He took the wheel and tyre off us and started searching for a replacement. Eventually he was able to locate one in Perth, and it is now on its way up here, hopefully to arrive tomorrow morning. However, Footy says that is in the hands of "those drug-riddled truckies", so lets hope our one is on uppers not downers.
But before that we went down to the dolphin interaction experience. Louise says there is something a bit unsettling when a wild dolphin looks you directly in the eye while you are standing in the water a couple of feet away. I had gallantly held back to let her into the front rank along with the German youths and elderly Japanese ladies. It's my turn tomorrow morning. We had another wildlife experience on returning from sorting out the tyre, when I had to shoo away an emu which was raiding next-door's tent for some bananas.
I've just tried to upload some more pictures, but it appears that we are back to ice age internet which is struggling to save even this small amount of text ... so watch this space.
Tuesday, 16 September 2014
Gorge-ous Pictures
Tuesday 16th September - At last it appears we have a functioning internet connection - so here come a plethora of pictures:
A Boab tree at the Kununurra campsite, allegedly over 1000 years old:
The Ord River dam has a clay core, flexible enough to cope with earth movements:
Such a small dam to hold back enough water to flood Wales to a depth sufficient to be slightly inconvenient:
The Ord River tamed, all the water at this point has gone through the hydro-electric scheme which provides the power for the town:
The power source for the 700HP air conditioning Dan? said was provided through the front of the boat:
A freshie:
A pelican:
Travelling at up to 70kph:
Sunset over the lake at Kununurra, flying foxes due soon:
Echidna Chasm in Purnululu National Park:
Camp fire at sunset, singing not encouraged:
The lights attracted some large insects, including this praying mantis:
Jason spent 5 minutes collecting some cane toads, for euthanasia by freezer:
Cathedral Gorge, for scale purposes the small white dot is Nick:
I'm Mandy, fly me - she may have heard that before:
The view down from my seat:
... and out the other side - white knuckles provided by Louise:
The views were pretty spectacular:
I
It was a very small helicopter - note lack of doors (it's not me in the front, I took the picture):
Scaling Emma Gorge, the route included a lot of clambering over rocks even bigger than the ones in front of Louise:
A view inside the bus, Sonya and Joachim in the (best) seats they occupied for the whole trip:
Nick found the bus a bit noisy, fortunately there was a Cyberman supply shop in Kununurra:
Pausing having forded Pentecost River, named after a Mr Pentecost:
How to cross Pentecost River if it's not your own suspension:
Collecting firewood:
The result:
Nick and Paul discussing the relative merits of South Australia and Queensland, Kathy not impressed by Nick's argument:
There were some beautiful pools in the gorges - heat about 35 degrees, so not cool:
Inspecting some indigineous art, Nick manoeuvering for a good shot:
The snake I noticed about a metre from Nick's head - a brown tree snake, only mildly venomous:
A water monitor about a metre long:
There were some beautiful water lilies:
Another monitor, a bit larger than the previous one:
The pool at the top of Manning Falls that Louise and I swam in:
Fossil in Winjana Gorge:
A freshie says hello, and keeps his brain cool:
The Boab tree near Derby (pronounced Duhrbee) which was used as a prison by "blackbirders" - you could get over a dozen people inside if you don't care that they all have to stand up all night. Blackbirders kidnapped indigenous people and carried them off to their pearling schooners. When they were at sea they were given the option of diving for pearl shell or being thrown overboard. Women and girls were preferred because they could stay underwater for longer:
It's not easy to take a picture of Staircase to the Moon - we bought a postcard the next day:
Louise enjoying sampling five different beers produced by Matsos Brewery in Broome. You get them free if you have lunch and present a $10 all day bus ticket, otherwise they cost $12.50 - bargain! Also the lunch was very good, reasonably priced, and we made full use of the bus tickets. She actually liked the ginger beer, and thought the mango beer was ok. Note for connoisseurs (Nigel) - the one on the left was a wheat beer which hadn't finished clearing but tasted fine, and they had a very nice dark lager:
A cooperative lizard in Karijini National Park:
One of his mates. They think that as they are the same colour as their surroundings, and they stay still, they'll be OK. Probably works with kites, but not with Brits with Canons:
Circular Pool at Dales Gorge, looking down:
Clambering down, grade 4:
From Circular Pool, looking up before we climbed back up:
It's not easy to take pictures through a glass bottomed boat - you get a DVD of the guide's own pictures taken underwater as part of the deal:
The view from the lookout where we saw our first whales, a bit to the left:
A Boab tree at the Kununurra campsite, allegedly over 1000 years old:
The Ord River dam has a clay core, flexible enough to cope with earth movements:
Such a small dam to hold back enough water to flood Wales to a depth sufficient to be slightly inconvenient:
The Ord River tamed, all the water at this point has gone through the hydro-electric scheme which provides the power for the town:
The power source for the 700HP air conditioning Dan? said was provided through the front of the boat:
A pelican:
Travelling at up to 70kph:
Sunset over the lake at Kununurra, flying foxes due soon:
Echidna Chasm in Purnululu National Park:
Camp fire at sunset, singing not encouraged:
The lights attracted some large insects, including this praying mantis:
Jason spent 5 minutes collecting some cane toads, for euthanasia by freezer:
Cathedral Gorge, for scale purposes the small white dot is Nick:
... and out the other side - white knuckles provided by Louise:
The views were pretty spectacular:
IIt was a very small helicopter - note lack of doors (it's not me in the front, I took the picture):
Scaling Emma Gorge, the route included a lot of clambering over rocks even bigger than the ones in front of Louise:
A view inside the bus, Sonya and Joachim in the (best) seats they occupied for the whole trip:
Nick found the bus a bit noisy, fortunately there was a Cyberman supply shop in Kununurra:
Pausing having forded Pentecost River, named after a Mr Pentecost:
How to cross Pentecost River if it's not your own suspension:
Collecting firewood:
Nick and Paul discussing the relative merits of South Australia and Queensland, Kathy not impressed by Nick's argument:
There were some beautiful pools in the gorges - heat about 35 degrees, so not cool:
Inspecting some indigineous art, Nick manoeuvering for a good shot:
The snake I noticed about a metre from Nick's head - a brown tree snake, only mildly venomous:
A water monitor about a metre long:
There were some beautiful water lilies:
Another monitor, a bit larger than the previous one:
The pool at the top of Manning Falls that Louise and I swam in:
Fossil in Winjana Gorge:
A freshie says hello, and keeps his brain cool:
Louise says "hi" to one of his mates:
An olive python about 2.5m long, body about 100mm thick:
Entering Tunnel Creek:
Yes we went to Cable Beach. No camels were present, but we did see some walking past the caravan park. Note the Stinger warning, only mild, and the sea temperature 33 degrees:
Probably a unique picture of Fortescue Falls at the other end, no one is swimming in it:
Walking along the bottom:
Mount Nameless near Tom Price, the highest peak in WA. If they'd asked the aborigines they would have told them what the name was:
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