Mt Gambier, S.A.

The ferry trip from Tassie back to Melbourne was much better than going over. We used our oceanliner recliner seats and I actually got a few hours of sleep, with snorers all around me; I must have been tired. They give you a blanket and pillow to increase the comfort. The sailing was smooth and we got off the boat around 6:30am at Port Melbourne. The rest of the day was catching up on laundry and repacking for a quick 1 hr flight to Mt. Gambier. We were delayed about an hour as they had had a medical emergency earlier in the day which backed up all later flights.

Ed picked me up at the airport; off we go to their lovely home on 5 beautiful tree-laden acres. Jan works in Forestry SA and they have planted more trees for windbreaks. The weather had been quite fine last couple of days - about 27C. Jan took a couple of days off and we've done some touring around here. They are only 15 mins from the ocean and 15 mins from Victoria border. Ocean views are rough - strong winds coming off the Southern Ocean. Mt Gambier is an industrial town with about 30,000 souls. Big forest industry here. Monterey Pine plantations for lumber industry. Fast-growing here. In about 35 years they can harvest and replanting goes on every year. Yesterday Jan and I took a tour of the Princess Margaret Rose Limestone Caves - over in Victoria about 15mins from here. The cave for viewing is open to about 120 metres - and quite magnificent.

The other morning, I saw the biggest spider ever. Jan and I were standing around her kitchen counter when she remarked "Oh, something just dropped from the ceiling" and we walk over to the counter and this huge spider(yes it was the size of the palm of my hand - without a word of a lie)was sitting on the counter by the toaster. Krike bob, eeeek, eeeeek, I have a picture to prove it. They call it a "Huntsman" and apparently it is harmless, and does not build a web, but 'hunts' for its food. Since then, I've been watching the ceilings. Ha Ha Ha.... The birds around the yard are plentiful and varied - songs are quite beautiful and its a joy to sit out on the patio with your 'cuppa'

This afternoon, its back to Melbourne for a couple more nights - visiting a lavender farm tomorrow afternoon, then leave Melbourne at 8:30am Friday morning, bound for Sydney, then Vancouver and on to Calgary.

Oh yes, I hear it is Christmas - it just doesn't feel like that here. Decorations are starting to come out all over the towns but there's no snow and it looks so out of place.

This is probably my last blog for the trip - its been a great one with incredible moments - I will have much to share. The web album to appear.....soon...

Bicheno / St Helen's / Launceston, Thur Nov 26

This was a spectacular, but incredibly windy drive. St Helen's is quite popular resort, Binalong Bay, which is the major jumping off point for the many walks along the Bay of Fires. Beautiful, white powdery sandy beaches as far as the eye can see. Its called Bay of Fires because the first whitemen to land on the shores noticed a number of fires burning on shore due to the many aboriginal tribes living here. Today you can still see the middens the aboriginies created by piles and piles of mollusk shells over the decades.
Other highlights today were St. Columba Falls at the bottom of this beautiful rainforest, laden with huge tree ferns, sassafras, blackwood and myrtle trees. Fresh, lots of bird songs and wonderful earthy smells.

After stopping at a cheese-making farm, we continued to Launceston and got here late afternoon. Its only about 120 kms from the coast but because of the roads, it took ages. You get really tired from constant curves one way then the other and really start to appreciate the straight stretches!

Tonight, Friday Nov 27th is our last night on Tassie. Tomorrow night we spend back on the ferry to Victoria. From there I am heading to S.Australia to visit friends (from Banff who now live in Mt Gambier) for a few days.

Freycinet National Park - Wed Nov 25

Our centre base was a wee town called Bicheno for 3 nights and stayed in caravan park. The highlight around here is Freycinet National Park, Wineglass Bay Lookout and lots of hiking around the area. Unfortunatey Jean is not a strong hiker, so we just did the 30 min trek to the Lookout. I would have liked to do the 4 hour circuit hike, down to the WineGlass Bay and over the isthmus to Oyster Bay and around to parking lot - oh well, another time. There's much more to see on this Island. We also took in Cape Tribulation where the views were awesome, cliffs that drop into the ocean, granite everywhere. On another day here we walked the Foreshore Footpath along the Beach around Bicheno - watched young kids fishing for bait, trekked to the Blowhole (low tide, so nothin' blowin!) But the beach was spectacular. It is quite a holidayer's paradise around here.

Maria Island National Park, Monday Nov 23

"They call the wind Ma-rye-ah" Yes they pronouce it Ma-rye-ah, not Maria. Its named after an aboriginal tribe that used to inhabit. Talk about wind - blew all the cobwebs out of my brain. It blew the Entire day and didn't matter if you were on the coast or inland. A very small island that has a lot of history. Started off at aboriginal colony, then a convict establishment; followed by a private wine/silk-making industry by an Italian, then a large National Portland Cement plant, then a holiday-island for the rich in the early 1900s, and its been a Nat'l Park since around 1976. No shops or restaurants on the island. One dorm style cook-your own food and camping is available. The island has several interesting walks. Fossil Cliffs where they gathered cement by rail line to the cement plant. Painted Cliffs - sculpted sandstone cliffs stained with iron oxide in a myriad of colours. Its a 30 min ferry ride to/from and was quite rough on way back.

We continued up the island to town of Bicheno, near start point of Freycinet National Park. Drive was magnificent, jaw-dropping scenery.

Port Arthur Historic Site - Sunday Nov 22

Another cloudy cool start to the day with a bit of rain. Today Jean did her own thing, while I took a GrayLine Tour down to Port Arthur where over 12,500 convicts were held from about 1830 to 1877. The structures are brick, built by the convicts and many are mostly intact so its quite worth the day to see. They were treated quite brutally here, and were used to build up many industries such as timber, shipbuilding, brick and nail production, coalmining etc. Many of them learned trades and on good behavior actually excelled. I did the self-guided tour with my own headset and audio piece. I enjoyed this because the guided tours had masses of people and I could go where I wanted. My tour included lunch and a cruise and guided tour to the Isle of the Dead - a tiny island used as the cemetary. Of course the convicts were buried in unmarked graves at the bottom of the island and the free/military types buried at the top with massive headstones. It was a full day and well worth the effort to see. Torrential rainfall this afternoon all the way back to Hobart.

Salamanca Market & Huon Valley (Sat Nov 21)

What a difference a day makes - similar to home. We woke up to cloudy skies, very cool at around 13 deg C. Brrrrr.

Hobart is quite beautiful on one of the world's largest natural harbours. Its population is about 250,000 souls - it is the capital city of Tasmania.

Today we took a bus into the city to visit the popular Salamanca Market, about 250 stalls of various things, flowers, baking, food, wood, produce, jewellry and so on. After helping out the Hobart economy, we headed down to the Huon Trail south of the city, travelling through some really very scenic, green real estate. I really could live here if it weren't so far from home! Jean says its much like England in many ways. Our destination today was the Tahune Forest Airwalk. 600 metres of see through steel mesh walkway about 20 metres above the forest floor, halfway to the tops of the trees, through Huon Forest. There is one 24metre cantilevered walkway designed to sway (yikes - no support underneath) with approaching walkers...didn't like that so much.

The roads here are quite narrow and very curvy over most of the state. NO shoulders on most of the roads and barely enough room when semis or busses are coming the other way. Makes me a bit nervous when I drive. So even though the distances are short, it takes longer because of this.

Strahan to Hobart - (Fri Nov 20)

I'm losing track of days - generally what happens when on holiday. My wristwatch actually died first day I arrived in Australia - must have been a sign - but after 2 weeks of not knowing what time it was I purchased a cheapy in Freo market back in WA.

This day we left the west coast and it was a cloudy 27 deg C. and travelled inland through Queenstown to Hobart, capital city. This was our longest drive of a whole 3 hours! Queenstown looks like a moonscape - this is where they stripped the rainforest to make way for open pit mines for copper and gold. Quite stark and ugly compared to rest of the state. Other than this eyesore - okay...it had its own beauty - the rest of drive was lush green pastoral, lots of sheep, cattle. We stopped enroute for a 20 min walk through rainforest to see Nelson Falls. Ahhhhh smells so good and fresh. We stopped in the Derwent Valley for lunch near The Wall. This is quite impressive attraction - a carver (name escapes me) is carving out of the local Huon pine, a 100metre larger than life, wall depicting early pioneers and early forestry with horses - quite impressive,its so smooth, it looks like its made of leather...

Arrived into Hobart, temp around 29deg C. at our Discovery Caravan Park.

More from National Geographic - Strahan

The drive from Cradle Mountain down to Strahan again had a lot of diversity. We start out from top of mountain where it is somewhat open, travel through thick foliage on narrow windy roads (main highways - no shoulders!) I started out driving - Jean isn't used to curvy roads - but I got a little freaked because they aren't as wide as our roadways! Near Strahan we were driving through rainforest type of terrain with lots of ferns and tree ferns.

Strahan is a beautiful seaside village which offers quite a bit for the discerning traveller. On our first night we did a tour out to Bonnet Island and watched the Fairy Penguins returning from the sea under the cover of darkness. Headlamps were donned and our guides had special infra red torches, so as not to blind the little fellas. They make heaps of noise as they come in and return to their burrows where some of them had baby chicks waiting to be fed. We had clear night skies, so I was able to see the Southern Cross and other constellations; also saw a comet - we think, and part of the Milky Way and a couple of galaxies off in the distance.

Today, we just came back from a 7 hour cruise down the Gordon River, visiting Sarah Island, once a penal colony set up to harvest the Huon Pine. Grows in abundance here - a very hardy pine that contains an oil that preserves it from rotting for decades! The river contains a huge fish farm where they harvest Atlantic Salmon and Rainbow Trout. The weather was awesome today again; clear skies.

Tomorrow off to Hobart for 3 nights, so more from there!

Tasmania - Island of Discovery

Hello again, finally able to get to a computer; they are few and far between - I'm still surprised by that! Our first 'adventure' began with check-in at the ferry. You first get inspected for fruits, vegies, plants - cannot bring into Tasmania. Well...in our preparedness, we decided to shop for these items in Melbourne thinking we'd save money - better prices - but we had to give all this up (whatever we couldn't consume on the boat) Arghhh, neither of us read the Confirmation which clearly outlines the policy!!! We had about $25 worth of fruit (its very expensive down here) They check under the bonnet and the boot - Jean couldn't find the bonnet latch - we were laughing uncontrollably and then when her car door was open part of the ferry confirmatin flew out into the wind. Jean's chasing it to watch it go over the wharf - more laughter - but the security folks said its okay - res is in the computer. Then we are on the boat and realized they missed some of the vegies we had in the esky - more laughter (we'll throw them overboard!!)Krikey, it was like "Thelma & Louise" except we won't ride over a cliff at the end!

Well the Spirit of Tasmania was kind of a ride from hell. The "ocean view" recliners proved to be uncomfortable, so Jean and I decided to upgrade and buy a berth. I was skeptical as it was an inside cabin and I get motion sickness easily if I can't see the horizon. The cabin turned out to be not great for me (Jean is a vocal sleeper - sorry Jean!) So I got up around 2 AM and wandered around a bit, read a paper, went back to room, tried more sleep - basically got about 1 hr sleep total. Ferry ride is about 10 hrs - it takes awhile to unload. All vehicles are secured because seas can be quite rough. The swell was about 1 metre but I sure felt it when we were on the open ocean for about 5 hours. Unloading took another 2 hours. EVERY vehicle is subject to another inspection on shore. Sniffer dogs and more inspections (we did ditch the extra produce in rubbish bin) I believe the Aussies are the ULTIMATE in paranoia. They do need to protect their agriculture industry so I guess I can understand; but to check on both ends? We did manage to clear "Checkpoint Charlie" without incident!

My first impression of Tasmania - it is BEAUTIFUL! Pastoral with lots of green, green, green. Mountains in the distance, rolling hills, windy roads. Reminds me a bit of Gulf Islands. Our first little village - Sheffield - where they have painted murals to depict its early days (apparently copied the idea from Chemainus) After a nice breakfast and cappacino, we headed up to Cradle Mtn National Park. Jean hit a pothole near the top and when we checked into our cabin, I noticed she had a flat tire. Here we are in the middle of nowhere! Oh well, I figure - its just a glitch in the plan. A maintenance guy at the caravan park, put on Jean's spare tire and set her up with the service station back in Sheffield. We weren't sure what was involved as she also bent the rim on the wheel. Anyway, Jean headed back down the mountain and I did a 7.5 km hike around Dove Lake.

Dove Lake was quite beautiful - I must have hiked through 3 different eco systems. the entire trail was a boardwalk and built in steps of stone. The shrubs are in flower, lots of tree ferns and other palm like plants, tall trees of sassafras and myrtle. It had clouded over so it was good hiking temp. I could hear lots of fabulous bird sounds, but foliage so thick and canopies so high, you don't see them. Wildlife I saw today....an echidna waddling across the highway - it rolls into a ball when threatened and looks like a round spiny ball. Also saw a little wallaby - kangaroo type animal - right outside our cabin.

When I got back from hike, Jean was there, tire fixed - rim restored for only $30. Much to our relief. There was a tack in it and the service guy figures she had it in a while and when she hit the pothole it flattened the tire. Which he says might have been a good thing because if we had been going a high speed and tire blew - it might have been another story!
Tonight I was in bed by 8pm and got up at 7am. Bed was so comfy; slept like a baby - had to catch up from lack of sleep on ferry.

Melbourne to Tassie

I arrived here in Melbourne on Saturday (from Perth) My friend Jean met me at the airport - we have known each other since 1979 (I'm dating myself)where we did a Contiki trip in Europe. We've been in contact all these years - sometimes its only a Christmas card once a year. Its been great to catch up, have a few laughs, reminisce about our Contiki days. It is also a bit of relax for me in between excursions. Melbourne is suffering from a terrible lack of water. It hasn't rained much here in their winter - severe water restrictions within the home and outside the home (over 3 million people here) Their dam capacity is only at 35% which is very very low. Its a wonder any garden's survive here but they seem to cling to life having had to adapt to the heat and no watering. Right now South Australia - next state over is having a terrible abnormal heat wave - high 30's and 40's. Ughhh...Tasmania will be more like Banff's normal summer! (you know, rainy, cloudy, cool, highs of around 18 - 21C)

Tonight we set off on an overnight ferry - the Spirit of Tasmania - about a 10 hr journey. It can be a rough sail I am told - we are going the budget way and only bought 'ocean view' recliners, instead of a cabin. We set sail at 7:30pm and arrive around 6:00am. More later from the island state of Tassie!

Rottnest Island /Cottelsloe Revisited

Its been about 27 years since my first visit to Rottnest. The name translates to 'rat nest'so named because when the first person landed here he thought the animals he saw looked like rats. They are actually marsupials, about the size of a rat but look like a mini kangaroo and known as quokkas. Time has taken its toll on Rottnest. On my first visit ín 1982 it was fantastic as a day-trip from Perth where there were no cars, no accommodations or resorts and the only mode of transport was a bicycle. That's how I remember it - but sadly it's not that way anymore. Still no cars except a few maintenance vehicles, but now a few shuttle/tour busses. There are now a number of resorts- many expensive for the wealthy(no home developments thankfully) and now the once secluded bays are loaded with boats. Bicycles are still the main transport - the island is only about 28k's long. So a wee bit of a disappointment for me.

It was raining when we left on the 30 min fast ferry over to Rottnest and continued when we got there for a bit. We only had about 3 hours so after our usual morning cappacino, we rode the shuttle bus most of the way around the island(you can get on and off anywhere on the route)and walked the last 1.3 km back to ferry. Weather smartened up and it got quite warm. Back on the mainland, Lorraine treated me to lunch at "The Blue Duck" Restaurant on Cottelsloe Beach. Very very nice and I believe it is Perth's most popular beach; goes for miles with beautiful sand and restaurants dotting the beach. Quite calm today which was a bit unusual for the Indian Ocean.

Tomorrow Lorraine babysits her grandchildren and I'm going to find my way to Freemantle (known as Freo to the locals - Aussies are famous for shortening words!) Freemantle is the main port and where Perth got its beginnings. Lots of history there and apparently a great market. I'll take public transit and get a ride back with Lorraine's daughter who teaches school over there. Then Saturday, I'm off to Melbourne

Perth and South

Yesterday was a leisurely start; headed down to Australind around Noon and got to Heather's around 2pm. The highways are fantastic and some of the scenic routes are close to the ocean to stop and have a look. It was good to catch up with Heather and Ian; OMG her garden is like going to Butchart! Of course they can garden 365 days a year here so everything is colourful, big, lush. She had 2 fuschia "TREES"in her backyard - never knew they grew that big! Plus dozens of rose bushes, two huge bird of paradise plants, mulberry tree (delicious berries) mango tree, ornamental pair, various flowering succulents and an alstromera in bloom among many other plants! All the stuff we see in flowershops here. Also for you gardeners, the Kenilworth Ivy that we put in hanging baskets is a common ground creeper here and they call it 'woodland violet' Lorraine has it in her back yard. Apparently its hard to get rid of; something like chickweed!

I was amazed at the amount of development all along the coast up and down. No sign of recession here at all! Hugh homes on prime waterfront real estate. Not cheap either. Lots I notice around $200,000 plus.

Back in Perth until Saturday. Catching up with other friends for lunch and yet other friends for dinner tomorrow night.

Talk to you in a couple more days!

Back in Perth

Hi again. We arrived back in Perth about a couple hours ago, with Lorraine cleaning out the car and I'm doing the laundry and catching up on emails. We had a leisurely drive leaving the caravan park around 8:30, stopping along the way a few times to photo flowers and shrubs and take looks at the ocean scenery. As always we stopped several times to get coffee, use the loo and each day we sample some of the ice cream treats - they do have quite yummy ice cream. Perth temps are more to what I'm used to around the 25C mark.
Tomorrow we are off to visit Heather and Ian, Aussie friends I've been keeping in touch with since my first visit here in 1982. They actually came to Banff a couple of summers ago.
I'm around Perth this week, visiting a few other friends; hope to get over to visit Rottnest Island again (last visit was 1982 also) and then next Sat, I fly off to Melbourne to begin another adventure.

Have been quite surprised at the lack of internet cafe's so that is why I couldn't send emails every day. And the places where there was internet always closed up around 6pm....

I was also going to mention that last Tuesday was Melbourne Cup. The horse race that stops a nation! Believe it - shops are closed and the bars and taverns are full! We were in Coral Bay at the time - and neither of us gave the race any thought until....well the grocery store was open at least and most restaurants.

Kalbarri - Western Flora Caravan Park (Nov 7th)

Heading south and the temps are cooler around mid 20's. I've probably said this before but driving through the country you see plenty of nothing in between attractions. I've also noticed gas prices coming down, in this area around 1.33 or so. Shark Bay down to Kalbarri, we start to notice more wildflowers. They are prolific around Kalbarri. Many of the bushes are in bloom with pinks, oranges, pale yellows and so on. Around here we visited a couple more beautiful gorges before checking into our accomm. Then took it easy with a nice relaxing coastal drive. The Indian Ocean is a lovely green, and lots of spectacular cliffs here and white sandy beaches. Today we spot a number of whales spouting as they continue to make their way southward to Antarctica. We ate out at a local restaurant and if you think Banff is expensive, well its twice as costly here. I can't quite believe it. For example on the menu was a Chicken Caesar Salad for $27.50!!! You don't pay any tips or taxes on that - thankfully! I must say that the portions are gargantuan too. This salad would probably feed 4 people. I had ordered a bowl of Seafood Chowder and a Garden Salad. I could only eat half and that was pushing it. I think I paid something like $20. Lorraine figures that a waitress in Australia makes generally around $25 per hour, so you can see why the high prices. There's lots of foreigners working here - if I was younger I would too at that kind of money.

The skies are full of colourful galas and corellas. The galas are gray and pink and corellas are yellow and white. Huge birds and noisy.

Instant coffee is the norm as you travel on the road. Once in a while you can find cappacinos which are good. Here in the grocery store you can buy coffee bags (just like tea bags except with ground coffee) We brought some on the road and its quite good and you make it like tea.
Leaving Kalbarri we first stopped at a place called Rainbow Jungle. The do breeding programs on endangered species of parrots, mostly from Australia. Some bee-uuu-ti-ful birds. We also make another stop at a lookout point over the ocean and finally we saw whales close enough to shore that were blow-holing and frolicking by slapping their tales on the water. Close enough that you could here the slapping. It looked like 2 adults and a babe; maybe they were giving the babe lessons!
This evening we finished up in a place called Western Flora Caravan Park, where the owners have about 60 acres of natural untouched land and FULL of wildflowers and shrubs in bloom. Spring blooming is nearly done but it was still quite colourful. We saw dozens of different ground covers, different colours of bottlebrush or malaleuca type shrubs. The owner is a retired botanist and took us on a 2-hr walk through the reserve. I've never met anyone who knew so much about plants. Quite fascinating. He has done some work with David Attenborough also.

Steep Point Shark Bay Cruise

G'day! Wow what a day we had yesterday. Went on a 5 hour cruise on a zodiac type boat with 14 straddle-type seats (like a seadoo) and travelled about 30kms off shore. Top speed was about 90kph, krike, I think I have a permanent grin now because you are not sheltered from the wind and I felt like we were travelling in a wind tunnel! The ride was wild as we crashed over the waves; it felt a bit like bronco riding or a wild skidoo ride I suppose. The bay was relatively calm, but when we got out to the open ocean to Steep Point it was a bit scary for me. Bobbing around in this raft on 5 feet swells that feels like 20 feet to a prairie girl! The captain said it is usually much rougher. Waves crashing against the cliffs creating spectacular blowholes! So after that we travelled back to calmer waters (had morning tea on a secluded beach) and went snorkelling. Wow, way better than past two days. This part of the bay not accessible to general public so the coral was undamaged, hugh, colourful, various shapes, and many many more fish of all sizes. We saw lots of turtles in the sanctuary, saw a dugong - it was a bit shy so it left quickly. Saw two turtles mating (they were so busy, never noticed us!)

Steep Point is most westerly point of Australian mainland. The cruise ended up as 8 hrs because we were on the lookout for humpback whales and we found them! Two moms and babes, they should be migrating south by now but perhaps the babes need more training. It was awesome to watch them breach, frolick, blowholing. We kept hoping they would come closer to our boat but probably because of the babes, they stayed back.

It is beautiful here in Denham/Shark Bay. I would recommend it over Coral Bay. Our "villa" is right on the bay. Owners are formerly from Netherlands. Many western immigrants here in West Aus. Other interesting features on this peninsula include Shell Beach (instead of sand, beach is small little seashells about size of your baby fingernail) Because its a renewable resource, some buildings are made from blocks of this cemented sand and they grind it up for chickens. Also the Stromatolites (living rock billions years old - quite interesting)

The weather is cooler here than in the interior thankfully. Temps in the morn are around 20-25C. Today we head down to Kalbarri. The thing about driving is that there is lots of nothing in between the attractions. Scrubby desert with some areas heavily treed and others not. Where you see a mass of white gum trees is where the rivers are flowing when there is water in them! this time of year, most river beds are still dry. We had a spectacular thunderstorm the other night. Right overtop of us. The ominous clouds just opened up. Lightning followed by claps of thunder less than 5 seconds later. Close, very close.

Okay must be away to Kalbarri. Till next time.

Snorkelling in Coral Bay

I think I've discovered a new sport and finding a lot of enjoyment in it. Snorkelling! Its a little like going on safari and seeing creatures in their natural environment. Coral Bay is one of my most favourite spots in Australia and its my 2nd time visiting here. The bay is calm, because the reef break is way out and the big waves don't crash to shore. Its part of the Ningaloo Reef and its so amazing what you see. Today we saw two turtles, many shapes and sizes of yellow striped fish, black striped fish and various other colours plus dozens of these tiny irridescent blue and turquoise fish. They aren't bothered by you at all. Coral is neat too, so many different shapes and sizes, cabbage like, kale like.

Last night we went out to the beach in the moonlight to see if any turtles were coming ashore to lay their eggs. We are a bit early for the nesting season, but we were hoping to get lucky. Never saw a thing but it was great to sit on the beach in the moonlight!

Tomorrow we have long drive ahead of us about 600 k's down to Monkey Mia and Shark Bay. Best get to bed as its another early rise.

At the top of Australia!

Did I mention the flies? Man oh man, my right arm is sore from doing the Australian Salute. The journey has been extremely hot every day - unbelievable; over 40C sometimes over 45C. The gorges were absolutely beautiful. The ones we visited have pools in them fed by underwater artesian wells. The first Gorge we went to - Weano Gorge and I jumped in with all my clothes on (bathers were underneath, but I thought I would die of heat exhaustion, so in I went!) We visited a couple of others i.e. Python Pool (no pythons thankfully!) Dales Gorge with Fortescue Waterfall. Sat under the waterfall and man that was 'delicious! Each day is long. In bed by 9 or 9:30 because you are exhausted from heat and its so hot. One night we stayed in the Karijini Eco Retreat, which was a tent on cememt block with our own bathroom. NO A/C and so the flaps were unzipped to the floor; hardly a breeze - blew in later at night which was a hot wind....who left the oven door open? It was such a relief when we got up to the northern coast; to have sea breezes and humidity!.
It is very expensive up here in north W.A. Gas prices are anywhere from 1.39L to 1.60L You pay about $3 for a cold can of soda, $5 for beer. Eating at one of the roadhouses - you nearly hve to sell your firstborn! Steak $30 (that's trucker size, haha) Cheese burger, I paid about $12, BUT.....you must keep in mind here that the price you see is the price you pay. Taxes already included; people get paid high wages, so no need to top. Don't see many tip jars around.
Yesterday I did another driving stint for about 250 kms. It was pretty easy. Hardly any traffic this time of year and I had to overtake one vehicle pulling a boat. Its quite odd to pass on someone's right!
We are spending 2 nights in Exmouth - quite beautiful here - still very hot. We did a cruise on the Yardie River to find the elusive Black-footed Wallaby but because of the heat they were hiding in the caves on the side of the cliffs. We saw several other birds, a couple of stingrays, and lots of kangaroos resting in the shade of the mangrove trees. Then this afternoon, we tried snorkelling. I thought I was going to drown at first; took a few tries to get the hang of it. I saw "Dory" and her friends - incredibly blue fluorescent small fish, lots of striped ones, black and white, yellow and white. Now I'm hooked and can't wait till we get to Coral Bay where it will also be excellent. So its around 5:30pm and the sun will be setting soon...till a couple more days. Stay warm folks!

Oct 29th, Thur up in Tom Price Country

Hello my friends and followers! Sorry, no access to a computer until today. The flight here was long, approx 21 hours in the air; altogether I watched 5 movies between Vcr and Perth. Was another couple from Banff who I recognized, but didn't know and I approached them in Sydney. They were Doug and Donna McKeown on their way to Brisbane.
Lorraine collected me from Perth without any hiccups; I was in bed by 8:30pm...Tired..Its good to be back here.
On our third day of touring now and its very very hot. Landscape is beautiful, same but changes each day. Lots of trees, red sand, wild oats, wildflowers... Perth to Meekathera day one was a 10 hr drive incl. stops, Then yesterday it was from there through Karijini Nat'l Park to Tom Price. This morning on top of Mt Nameless via 4-wheel drive with a guide, with views of townsit, the surrounding hills and big iron ore mine site. We toured the mine today but not much going on - because of security we weren't able to tour the pit. Saw the train cars being loaded and conveyers moving the crushed ore around.
Did my first driving stint yesterday - Stay left, stay left is my new mantra! Not much traffic on the roads except for dozens and dozens of road trains - a tractor unit with up to 4 trailers attached. I didn't actually have to overtake one but they are good about letting traffic behind them know its ok to pass. They are so long, so I was hugging the far left side of road!
We haven't seen many animals, saw our first "LIVE" kangaroo this morning on our tour. Lots of dead cows by roadside; quite a few live goats in another place wandering freely. The stations are absolutely huge and many of them run cattle, sheep and or goats and then when its time to round them up they appparently muster by air and motorbike - they could be found many miles from home!
But heat whew! Air cond is a must, not a luxury. Thank the lord. Been getting to bed around 9pm - still recovering from jet lag, but we are also on road by 8:am This morn, our tour up the mtn started at 6:45am and it was already about 25 C. Temps are in high 30's and going up 40 further north.
The terrain is considered semi-desert, around here in the Pilbara, lots of spinifex dots the hills, mountains. Very sharp grass and you don't want to land in it. I tried to extract a piece of grass, it was so sharp, my finger stung for few hours.
This afternoon, we are touring some of the gorges and tomorrow some of same and tonight staying in an ECO Tent hmmm, will let you know what that is like.
I'm sweating like a hog right now as I learn to acclimatize.hahahah... Tom Price started out as a closed mining town but now anyone can live here if they wish...most people though are connected to the mining, which employs around 900 people. Shops close early, as no one to service accept the locals. Next town is miles away!
Anyway over and out for now. I'll connect again next time I see a computer - a couple of days from now perhaps

Today is the day I begin my "silver wing holiday" After leaving Calgary at 9pm, I'll board an AC 777 direct to Sydney out of Vancouver, about a 15 hour flight non-stop. Have lots of reading material with me but hope I sleep for most of the journey! Then I clear Customs/Immigration in Sydney, with about a 3 hour layover before boarding a Qantas flight to Perth - another 4 hours or so. I should be good and tired by the time I get there - 2 days later at 1pm local time. Lorraine my dear friend will be there to collect me and take me to a comfy bed!

Counting down the days, soon the hours before I take airporter to Calgary on Sat, Oct 24th and fly off to Sydney and Perth via Vancouver. Nearly packed and getting more excited every day.