Australia 2003-4

Dan with parents Carol and Eric Hobson

We are well and nicely tanned at this point in our journey. Now that we are back in Adelaide and enjoying the hospitality, not to mention the computer, of Carol and Eric Hobson, friends of Neil and Claudia Carver, it is time to start writing again.

We left Adelaide in early December to take up residence in an RCI exchange condo in Goolwa, a beach resort town on the Fleurieu peninsula south of Adelaide. Our drive there was trough the McClaren Vale wine district, necessitating regular stops to sample the local produce. One of the highlights was a visit to McClaren Vale Olive Grove. They are a small operation specializing in delicious hand picked and marinated olives and top quality olive oil. The few bottles I bought were enjoyed for special occasions later in our trip.

We had a good, relaxing visit in Goolwa, even though we only had one hot, sunny day. Instead, we enjoyed long walks on the beach, swims in the resort pool and short drives through the surrounding countryside. The two-bedroom condo was a perfect size to share for a few days with Janet and Bob Trotter, our friends from Ottawa. Bob is an Ottawa Bicycle Club friend of Ray and you may remember that Janet is the keen birder who was in Oz for a three week birding excursion. We couldn't offer them a huge assortment of exotic birds, but we did have penguins. The tiny fairy penguins, also known as blue penguins, the same species we saw in New Zealand, come ashore each night in nearby Victor Harbour. The penguins nest on small rocky Granite Island connected by a causeway to the mainland. People are free to visit the island during the day, but for the penguins' protection, you must be in a guided tour to see them in the evening. We arrived at dusk and after viewing a film about the penguins in this colony, we went outside to await their arrival. At first we didn't think they were coming, but then we heard them calling to each other and small groups of birds were waddling their way to their nests and being greeted by their mates. They are funny social little birds and we have never tired of watching their antics.

Janet and Bob left us after a few days to visit Kangaroo Island, a 45 minute ferry ride from the tip of the Fleurieu peninsula, and we followed them shortly after. We crossed paths once more at the ferry on the island and were pleased to find they had enjoyed their stay as much as we later did. At least half of the island is National Park land and being far from the mainland, the animals and birds have thrived. We had kangaroos and wallabies wandering around our Caravan Park and resident koalas in the trees. Yes, koalas are cute fuzzy, non-threatening little bears, but they can be noisy at night. They sound like snuffling, grumpy old men when they decide to trade one roost in a Eucalyptus tree for another tree.

Wallaby	Remarkable Rocks, Kangaroo Island
sleepy seal	Kangaroo Island lighthouse

Kangaroo Island was great for us walkers. We followed trails in the Flinders Chase National Park next to our Caravan Park to view the Remarkable Rocks, a collection of huge granite boulders, termed Inselbergs, on cliffs overlooking the sea. At the nearby Admiral's Arch we saw a colony of New Zealand fur seals frolicking on the rocks below this huge rocky archway. Another day we walked through Eucalypt forests to a narrow cove on the ocean to explore small caves in the limestone cliffs. We also visited a few of the lighthouses on the island. Near Cape Borda lighthouse we walked down an extremely steep path to a rocky cove where ships would drop off supplies for the lighthouse keepers every three months. The keepers had to hand haul the supplies back up the path we had trouble walking down. Eventually they built a rail track and used a horse to haul their goods up, but even that must have been challenging.

Platypus have been introduced to the island and have thrived without any natural predators. From our Atherton Tableland experience, we knew that the best viewing time was at dawn or dusk. We chose dusk. We left our campsite after an early supper and drove 16 km into the deserted park to the pools where the platypus live. We followed a 5 km trail around several likely pools but there was nary a ripple to suggest anything lived there. We finally gave up, as it became dark only to experience the most hair-raising trip back to our campsite. All the Roos come out at night just to scare tourists. They line up along the road and then dare each other to play chicken with any passing vehicle. At one spot we could have hit 6 in one blow, if we had wanted too. Needless to say it was a slow trip back.

Of course, Kangaroo Island is a birder's paradise as well. We visited one of the wetland areas on the island to view Cape Barren geese, but I am sure what we saw was no comparison to what Janet and Bob identified.

Finally, it was time to leave the tranquility of Kangaroo Island and head west. We had the infamous Nullarbor drive ahead of us, but we found the crossing easier than the road from Cairns to Alice Springs. The roads were paved, two lane all the way, and there was more traffic. Instead of seeing other vehicles every half hour, we met others every five or ten minutes; positively crowded! The roadhouses were also more frequent and a little more elaborate. We made good time on the roads, although we didn't push it. We got off the ferry from Kangaroo Island in mid-afternoon Monday and reached Esperance in Western Australia at noon the next Friday.

In case you were wondering, Nullarbor is a bad translation of the Latin meaning No Trees, and for a great portion of the road, it is true. The Nullarbor Plain is a vast limestone shelf that was once part of the ocean floor. The soil is almost non-existent on most of it, hence just small bushes dot the landscape, no trees. Because it is so flat and barren, the winds have free rein. It was so windy when we stopped overnight at some of the roadhouses that we resorted to staying in a cabin. We didn't relish being blown away in our tent.

Cabin motel on the Nullabor

90 Miles of Straight Road

A section of the road includes the longest stretch of straight road in Oz, possible the world. It is 146 Km, (90 miles) without a bend; very good for making time, although Priscilla's top speed was the posted limit of 110 km/hr. There is a sign at one end of the Nullarbor cautioning drivers to beware of crossing Roos, Emus and Wombats (a weird cross between a koala and a ground hog) for the next 1152 km! There were even sections that warned of stray camels. We saw a few emus but we managed to avoid hitting them.

Both Western Australia (WA) and South Australia (SA) are very protective of their farming industry. At the border going west between the two states is a checkpoint. You cannot bring any fresh fruit or vegetables across the border. This necessitates calculating carefully how much food to bring with you on the drive and furious eating of the last apple and orange before reaching the border. WA also listed nuts on their forbidden list so I went around to other campers at our last caravan park offering handfuls of our nut and raisin snack mixture. The trip from west to east is a bit easier as the checkpoint is right before the town of Ceduna, which has a well stocked supermarket. It was still another 1000 km to the nearest supermarket on the westward trip. Luckily we were prepared with freeze dried dinners, because the roadhouse food was overpriced and not gourmet.

Esperance Beach

Frenchman's Peak

Our first stop in WA after the Nullarbor was Esperance, a pleasant community of 6000 on the coast. After sitting in a car for so many days we were glad to take advantage of the walks in the area. The coast is lined with hard packed white sand beaches, the favourite for 4WD vehicles, but not Priscilla. We walked instead, along the beach, over the rocky outcrops in Cape Le Grand National Park, and hiked to the top of Frenchman's Peak to enjoy the view. Many of the place names in the area honour of Captain Baudin of the French ship Geographe which met up in 1802 with the English Ship, the Investigator, under Matthew Flinders in Encounter Bay, near Goolwa is SA. The story goes that but for the fast thinking of Flinders, Oz would have been a French rather than an English colony. The French ship charted much of the south coast and their contributions lives on in the names given to the towns and parks.

Australian towns have a Christmas tradition that Ray and I was happy to participate in. The Sunday before Christmas the whole community meets, usually in an outdoor location since it is Oz summer, to sing Christmas Carols. We were given candles and songbooks when we joined other Esperants in an outdoor amphitheatre Sunday evening. Accompanied by a local brass band, a soloist and a quartet, we sang many of the familiar carols along with Aussie versions of old chestnuts. I especially liked Six White Boomers (kangaroos) and beach versions of dashing through the snow. It actually got to feel a little like a northern Christmas as the temperature dropped that evening. We needed all our fleece and Gortex jackets to ward off the wind and cold.

We took a detour inland from Esperance to visit the hill regions of WA. The Stirling Ranges and Porongurup National Park looked inviting to hikers. On the way there we stopped for a coffee break in the small town of Ravensthorpe. We started talking to two women and discovered one of them had painted a mural on the wall of the local grocery store. We were impressed by the depiction of the history of the town, painted when our acquaintance was 70 years old.

Porongurup National Park was our choice for hiking. There were few people around as we followed two different trails to rocky outcrops with views of the nearby Stirling Ranges. A steel ladder firmly anchored to the side of a bald rock reached one summit. It even had a protective screen around the ladder to prevent possible falls. Even Ray, who doesn't like heights, liked climbing that ladder.

From Porongurup NP we headed for Walpole, where we had reserved a room in a hostel for Christmas. On the way we detoured to Frenchmen's Bay, in Albany, to explore their versions of natural stone arches in the sea cliffs and to witness crashing waves send steamy spumes through blowholes in the cliffs, like the whales that cruise those coasts in the Oz winter.

hikinng in Porongurop NP

Valley of Giants bridge

Walpole is another small town along the southern coast of WA, this time in the most heavily forested region of the state. We took a walk in the Valley of the Giants on a suspended bridge amongst giant Karri and Tingle, a Eucalypt variety, trees. The bridge was constructed to lead up more than 50 meters to the tops of the trees. It was really a very safe construction although it did sway considerably. Some people preferred to view the trees from the safety of the forest floor instead.

We had a great Christmas dinner at the hostel. We suggested to the other guests that we all cook our meals and join together for a communal dinner. After more than a little wine and lots of good food, but no turkey, we all had a great evening in what was for us a strange land far from home. We were reminded of how small the world is becoming when we phoned our families the next morning (we were 12 and 13 hours ahead of Canada) to wish them Merry Christmas. Thank goodness the phone systems work so well, after we managed to figure out the phone card system.

Gloucester Fire Tower Tree

Heading west again we made a stop in the Pemberton area to see their giant Karri trees. This is a logging area and forest fires are always a real danger. In the 1930s, instead of building fire towers, they took advantage of the tallest trees and the loggers' expertise. Spikes were hammered into the trunks of some of the tallest trees, spiraling to the top where wooden platform shelters were constructed. At one point there were 13 of these fire tower trees, but today there are three that survive for tourists to climb to see the view. Ray refused to have anything to do with climbing up 60 M, but I went up two; the Gloucester and the Bicentennial trees. It was fun and once you got used to climbing up on steel spikes with no safety net below, it was fine. There was a protective screen at the end of the spikes and the spikes were long enough to enable passing a descending climber as you were going up. It was a great view over the tree tops from the top. My only problem was small blisters on my hands from the rough surface of the spikes. Ray says I was holding on too tightly.

We were heading for the Margaret River, a wine district and favourite windsurfing spot on the south west coast of WA. We finally caught up with all those holiday travelers we had been warned about as the Caravan Park in Margaret River was packed. At least there is always room to put a tent and everything was very orderly and friendly.

We signed up for a guided trip in canoes at the mouth of the Margaret River. Being Canadians, we had no trouble with the wind on the river, but a group of four young men from Melbourne met their match. I don't think three of them had been in a canoe before as they kept paddling in a circle and bumping into the banks of the river. They were finally rescued by our comely guide, Mary Clare, who took the stern of one canoe with two of the fellows as passengers. They did not mind at all.

Canoeing on Margaret River

lunch on Margaret River

Once we were all paddling in the same direction we floated through a grove of melaleuca trees to the upper river. The trees, also known as tea trees, release a die that colours the waters a dark brown that is actually good for your skin. We stopped to visit a cave along the shore and again to have a bush tucker picnic lunch on the shore. Some of the wild foods that Mary Clare offered us were familiar from our Tennant Creek experience on the way to Alice Springs, but many were new. We made our own sandwiches with wild smoked emu, kangaroo and turkey and flavoured them with wild herbs and chutneys made from the fruits. We even had a pate made from the local version of the Witchitty grub. It was very tasty and didn't have any buggy or slimy texture.

Another day we drove to see a lighthouse situated at Cape Leuwen on the coast, stopping on the way back to taste several of the local wines.

We had reservation in Freemantle (Freo), an adjoining city to Perth, for New Years. Bunbury seemed like a good lunch stop and the big draw there was dolphins. They come right into shore every day to see the tourists and pick up a fishy treat as a reward. We arrived to a blustery wind that kept the dolphins farther out in the bay that day. They don't like to get sand on their noses, so we were told. We did manage a nice swim on the beach anyhow before moving on.

We stayed in a YHA hostel in Freo and visited downtown Perth by train. There is an excellent commuter train serving the outlying suburbs, so rather that try to find a scarce parking space, we took the half hour ride. Downtown Perth was quite compact and very attractive with green parks lining the banks of the Swan River.

Freo has an active bistro scene so celebrating our anniversary on December 30 was fun, once we got a reservation in the busy sidewalk cafes. New Years Eve, on the other hand, was disappointing. We had looked forward to joining in on some public celebrations and watching fireworks. This does not happen in many places in Oz besides Sydney. We didn't want to be in an overcrowded bar and the streets were quiet, so we were asleep before midnight. Next year we will have to organize our own party.