Break 1 - Day 3 - On the Road to Shark Bay

We rose early and were on the road by 7am. We estimated between 600 & 700 km to drive today which turned out to be right. We've been almost hobbit-ish in our eating habits - we stopped in Geraldton for 2nd breakfast (our first visit to 'Mackies' - McDonalds in Oz) and then had lunch on the road at a rest stop. We had our first taste of the true outback experience. They flies were so bad that we had to eat in the car. I have since bought Kyle a fly net as he really cannot stand them and gets quite twitchy.

As we were making good time – the weather, traffic and our bodies all co-operated to make an ‘easy’ drive, we stopped in at Hamelin Pool to see the stromatolites and telegraph station.

The Hamelin pool stromatolites are a different variety than those near the pinnacles. There are two major types here in Shark Bay, and they are out into the water. There are ones that look like moss almost – they grow horizontally in the shallower water. There are also ones in the ‘deeper’ (still very shallow) water which grow upwards. These are not circular however, they are more columnar.

The telegraph station is now retired, but was the primary means of communication from 1884 till full telephone service (can't find the date, but it was later than you would think - something like the 1960's). Again lots of flies, but interesting stuff around the station.

Of great interest were the buildings - made of shell stones. We saw the quarry where they carved blocks of shell rock (don’t know what else to call it – it was pure shells formed into rocks) for building – there is very little wood here due to the small size of the trees. I suspect the combination of poor soil, little water and high winds combine to dwarf all the trees. Driving through the landscape is not really scrub – but more mini trees or bushes. At any rate, they built out of the shells. The quarry is no longer used except to restore the historic buildings.

Finally we stopped in at Eagle Bluff to see the views – spectacular, but the most memorable thing is the WIND. Mike figures he has never experienced such strong wind before (apart from sticking his head out of a moving car). The winds were so strong you could barely talk to the person next to you. The water was very turned up, so we did not get to see the dugong, rays or sharks that are often visible in the bay area. The lookout is a walkway high up along the coast looking down and the view is quite good into the water. There was also remnants of an aboriginal fishing pool. They built a long sand bar out into a pool in the bay and herded the fish into it (they think).

At last we arrived in Denham around 5pm and got settled in to our quaint little cottage in a resort. We took a quick walk into town to get oriented. We had a nice hot tub, shower, and dinner (local restaurant – seafood and chips for Kyle & I, Mike had prawn curry) before an early bed for another early rise to go see the dolphins of Monkey Mia.

Break 1 - Day 2 - More Pinnacles and Stromatolites (say that quickly 3 times)

Saturday morning we headed to the stromatolites. These bacteria (cyanobacteria) are the earliest form of life on earth and contributed vast amounts of oxygen to the atmosphere allowing many other life forms to evolve. They require supersaline water to grow - so it's not everywhere that you will find them.

There are several areas in WA where these grow, but the ones here near the pinnacles are the most ancient form. They are the most similar to the most ancient fossilized ones.

They grow in several forms. The ones here are circular. Only the outside is active and the inner area dies off. Their growth rate varies, but the average is about 30 years per centimetre.

Note - the remaining photos for the day are of pinnacles - so don't be confused by the mismatch of text and photos please.

Next we headed to a couple of ‘points’ within the Nambung Park. We visited Kangaroo point and ….. We took a walk along the beach at Kangaroo – lots of seaweed washed in and there were the ‘buddy birds’ of pelicans and cormorants along the shore. There were also some other birds – wagtails, terns, and a couple of types of gulls – one quite large. We found some very large cuttlefish on the shoreline along with many, many kangaroo tracks leading around the sands in the area.

The next point was more protected and we lounged on the beach for a while. Kyle is becoming quite adept at constructing lounge chairs in the sand to lie back and read. From there we headed back to do some shopping and made a creative kangaroo curry for lunch. We packed a picnic for dinner and headed back to the pinnacles.

It was very overcast and even rained a bit on us – although just specks of rain. We took a different route this time and ventured into a less travelled area where there were lots of sand dunes.

Kyle had fun climbing and rolling down. At the base of the dune were some very large pinnacles which looked like Stonehenge. The first photo at left is of Kyle atop a sand dune - the pinnacles at the base are about 8 to 10 feet high to give you a sense of scale. And this is him in action rolling down the dune. Yes, he had a good shower that night.

The colours were totally different again today. We managed to eat our dinner at the lookout point in isolation – a few people wandered through, but mostly it was just the 3 of us. Very picturesque and peaceful.

We drove back in the dark – Mike took some shots in the dark as all the other vehicles were departing. There were spooky effects of shadows on the pinnacles which were hard to photo, but they looked really neat.

Again to bed early for a major drive day tomorrow.

First Break, Day 1 - Pinnacles

Well we are back home now with time for a couple days wind down before next terrm starts. I will post our trip with one entry per day - sometimes more than one day at a time, and as always just click on any photo to see it larger.

First things first - Happy (belated) Birthday Alistair (on April 6 - our departure day). We saw your gift hunt video on your blog. It looked very exciting - we are sure that you must be enjoying your new scooter!!! Wish I had one...(actually, I wish I was young enough to use one :-)

As a prelude to our April school break postings, here is a summary of our itinerary. We planned to travel the west coast of Australia from Mandurah up to Exmouth. Enroute we hoped to see the Pinnacles, Monkey Mia/Sharks Bay, and anything else we happened upon which was of interest. At Exmouth, we planned on visiting the Ningaloo Reef - not the Great Barrier Reef, but pretty darned impressive from the accounts we have heard to date. We also were hoping to hook up with Cindy in Exmouth - a fellow Barrieite teacher on exchange near Perth also (who'd have guessed there could be more than one!!!), and with Jeez - a fellow Pinjarra teacher in Coral Bay.

With this agenda in hand, we set off on April 6 on our journey. Day one was actually Good Friday - a day when pretty much everything shuts down. So our plan to spend the day driving and to visit the Pinnacles worked well. Our side trip to pick up more honey in Gingin failed as they were closed, but lunch in Gingin back at Eliza's cafe was successful.

Once settled into our room, we quickly headed out for Nambung park and the Pinnacles. We arrived in the park late afternoon so the lighting was quite good for photos. The Pinnacles are limestone formations left behind when the surrounding sands are blown away - you can read a bit more at this site.

We were quite surprised by the diversity and large area they covered. There was a wide variety of size and shape and colour. Some areas were densely populated and others spread out. Some had flat tops and were straight / cylindrical and others were clumps. Some were solid, some had holes through them. In different sections, they had different hues – some areas they were pinkish, some areas yellow, others whitish and some were greys and blacks. As we moved through the park, the sun continued to drop in the sky and the colours were constantly changing the effect of setting sun made the colours even more dramatic.

We hung around through to sunset despite the threat of driving in the dusk/dark with kangaroos on the road. There were some families enjoying the sunset view with wine and a dinner spread. This looked divinely civil enough to prompt us to copy on Saturday.

On the drive home we did encounter roos (live ones – not the routine dead ones) at the side of the road – we took the drive at a much reduced speed just to be safe.

Brief Checkin

We are here at an internet cafe in Exmouth, half way through our 2 week break. Having a blast - lots to see and tons of variety. Will do a whole lot of updates when we return, but for now here are some quick samples of what we're up to.

Photo'd here you have a shot of the Pinnacles with Kyle & I.


Coastline north of Carnarvon where the blowholes (shots will follow) are.





Finally, snorkelling shot from Ningaloo reef near Exmouth.

The Littlest Penguin

Okay - finally some faces for the site! Will try to get some of Kyle & I also, but it really is not Mike's inclination to take family photos while touring - he constantly seems to have his artistic eye at work. On Monday evening as we strolled along the Mandurah waterfront with GL & Marucia, he continued to spout 'that would be a great shot' while visually framing photos with his fingers - even though he did not have his camera with him!!!

As for todays' entries... On Sunday Kyle had a rendezvous with school pals, so the 4 of us headed over to Penguin Island to check it out. The ferry ride is very short (some people even waded across the sand bar although there are warnings that it can be dangerous). The island is one of several which form a marine protected strip running along the coast off of Rockingham (about a 1/2 hour north of Mandurah) - Rottnest is actually a continuation of this same ridge. This is the only island in this set which you may land on. The islands are limestone and are being eroded away at sea level by wave action. As a result, the shore is quite rugged and full of caves and interesting formations.

We took a boat tour around the islands here to see the native life. Male sealions hang out here normally, but right now they are up north for mating season visiting the females. They will return in a couple of months (and we likely will too). A few straglers remain, so we were able to see this one fellow as he 'worked on his figure' to fatten up for the females next time. Mike caught this guys only action as he moved up the beach to get away from the waves as the tide came in. Apart from this move, he just looked like a great big rock.

The island is also home to many cormorants and several other sea birds. There is a pelican breeding ground also, but it is cordoned off from visitors, so Mike wasn't able to get any photos. We also saw bridled terns (look a lot like an arctic tern, but with slightly different markings - these ones look like they are wearing a bridle). They were here today, but would most likely migrate out the next day as the full moon arrived - very timely that we saw them.

And of course, there are penguins. There are Little Penguins (aka Fairy Penguins or Blue Penguins) nesting here - although they are nocturnal, so you do not see them out during the day. There is a penguin exhibit where they nurse penguins which would not survive if released. There are currently 10, and we caught their feeding. Very little penguins - they only stand 40 cm high. The ones shown here are fully grown.

Well, it is now Tuesday and having spent Monday showing off Mandurah, George & Marucia have now rented a car and are visiting Freemantle for the day. We will spend this evening together, and tomorrow they are heading off for a trip to Albany/south coast/ Margaret River. We will be gone when they return, so our time was short & sweet - but a great visit and it was wonderful to hear a Canadian accent!! Not sure we'll get another post in before our trip up north, and not sure whether we will have network connectivity - so we'll catch up at the end of April.

So cheers for now, Happy Easter all and no worries!

Kings Park for 5 Please

George and Marucia (Mike's parents) arrived right on schedule on Friday evening. As George just stated 'Ho hum, another gorgeous day' - the weather continues to be near perfection (it is now Monday morning as I just get to starting to write this blog).

We travelled in to Perth on Saturday - this time with Kyle. All 5 of us first headed to Kings Park and toured the gardens. This time the water gardens were open also. Mike continued his theme of tree photography as you can see from the shots. The park has many statues also - Queen Victoria is photoed here.

The Marri (I think I have that correct) tree has interesting flowers. The flowers erupt from upside down buds. As mentioned before, there are no petals, but the colour and texture is still present in the stamen. After the flower has finished its life, the remnant shell remains on the tree as seen at left. There is a series of childrens books written about the 'caps' which we were told about on our trip to Gingin. A visitor from England was enchanted with the caps and created a whole series of stories about the 'pixie' like creatures who wore them. I will have to try to find the books....

A few extra shots from the botanical gardens here including a photo of the Aboriginal meeting place in the park. Even prior to Kings Park being established, this was also a place of great significance to the aboriginals as it is on a hill overlooking the harbour. The Beedawong Meeting Place (at right) is still used by aboriginals for significant gatherings.

After lunch, we headed into the city area to catch some sights. We visited St. George's Anglican Cathedal. The building is classic Gothic revival style. It was built in the 1880's (consecrated 1888) and has very unique brick work (the brick clay comes from Rottnest Island).

Inside there are several 'St. George and the Dragon' iconic references in statues, stain glass and on the altar. As with almost every church or cathedral we have ever visited, the building was under scaffold on the exterior as the brickwork is being restored.

Passing through the city, we could not resist riding the kangaroos (Marucia and Kyle here) - Kyle is quite certain that the roos are NOT to scale!

Next we headed over to the Swan Bells - and arrived just the entry door was being locked. With some humble grovelling we were able to gain entry. We scurried up to the top for the view (not overly high - just 6 stories), then visited the bells themselves. The bells were donated to Perth from St. Martin in the Fields in England in 1988 for Australia's bicentennary. The church containing them was unable to support their weight any longer - at 11 tons. The tower in Perth was designed to support them and finally completed construction in August of 2000, and the bells now have a new home which should last them for many many years.

The art of becoming a bell ringer is not a simple skill. The ringers are volunteers and require extensive training prior to becoming active. Ringers actually do exchanges to other bell towers and there is quite the community of bell ringers or 'changers' as they are known. Sorry, no photos of the actual bells here (you can visit the link to the Swan Bells site) as the lighting was very dim and we were hurried through since they were technically closed. Then home for dinner and another sound sleep!