tree top walk

On Jan. 29th we went on the Valley of the Giants tree top walk, near Denmark, WA. The walk is in a forest of giant Tingle trees and the suspension-like walkway takes you 40 meters into the tree tops. The trees can be up to 400 years old and their base up to 20m in girth. Their roots are weak so their base widens out to support them, called a buttress. We had fun with that word. The trees only grow in this area, within a 6000 hectare range.

Notice our motorhome parked among the trees, this was our campsite the night before. Beautiful. Black cockatoos and fairy wrens were our companions.

Thistle cove

Just a little down the road we found Thistle cove. We had the beach completely to ourselves. We're not sure why, maybe because you had to walk a bit to get to it. Again, the white sand and turquoise water. Mercedes is holding out a tiny mussle shell, soft and see-through.

Cape Le Grand

After the desert drive we reached the port town of Esperance. We spent a night in the campground getting laundry done, etc. The next night we went to Cape Le Grand national park, so far the only Australian national park we've been to that doesn't require 4 wheel drive (which we don't have). The beaches here are like a dream. The sand was white as snow, the water a turquoise blue. We went for a snorkel around those rocks you see us standing on. Then played on the beach. When we were leaving the beach Kyra spotted a kangaroo. It hopped through the piles of dried sea grass and then chewed on something for a long time. It didn't seem to mind our presence. Back at the camp area other kangaroos were hanging around the camp kitchen waiting for handouts. Some had joeys with them. When some kids got too close to a mom and joey, the mom took off like a shot and her joey matched her hop for hop, never missing a beat.

Nullarbour pictures

Nullarbour

'Nullarbour' literally means 'treeless'. Well, as Kyra pointed out, there were some trees across the several 100kms stretch but mostly low bushes and desert-like conditions. The road runs along the coast but the cliffs are so high you don't see the ocean unless you go to the edge of the continent and look down, way down, while you keep a tight grip on your offspring. The right whales raise their young here around August to November.
Driving this road was much like driving down through the centre of Australia. We saw far too many roadkill kangaroos and several live ones if we drove past supper time. Flocks of emu were also common. No one lives here except folks who run the roadhouses with essential items such as gas, food and accommodation about every 100-200 km. Everyone you pass on this deserted stretch waves. The sign the girls are standing by was repeated several times during the drive, sometimes with an emu instead of a wombat. Kyra is demonstrating what could happen if you get too close to the edge of the Great Australian Bight (if you look at this on a map it does look as though a giant has taken a bite out of the continent).
It took us 3-4 days to cross this stretch. When you're almost through they make you relinquish your fruits, vegetables, plants and seeds, something about fruit flies and diseases. The produce in the first town you come to after that is awfully expensive. hmmm.

Crabs and Birds, Eyre Penninsula

We've been trying our hand at catching crabs. Every little port town around the Eyre Penninsula has a jetty or warf, off of which people fish and swim. We got a crab pot and have tried to catch blue swimmer crabs several times. We've only had our bait stolen so far. Kevin and Kyra have seen these big crabs while snorkeling. One was enjoying a fish head (bait?) and didn't like the snorkeler intrusion.

We enjoyed the little port towns and bird life. Here on the left is a Galah who thought he was a seagull. His own flock was nearby but it seemed to prefer being an ocean bird rather that a parrot.

Pelicans are very common all around Australia. I liked how this picture shows how big they really are, comparing it to a regular seagull.

Look what we found!

Near the ocean we found ourselves a blue tongue skink crossing the road. It was very cooperative and had a look at us while we had a look at him or her. His tongue really is blue and his back end looks very similar to his front end. It's hard to tell if it's coming or going.

After our koala adventure one crossed the road in front of us the next evening. It just walked lazily across, turned to have a look at that big white thing coming close (us) and walked on. They don't seemed concerned about much. Apparantly their eucalyptis leaves make them very relaxed.

In South Australia are the Twelve Apostles, 12 towers of cliff left standing in the ocean having survived the erosion. Jim tells me their are only 11, one has given up. From the lookout you can only see a few of them but none of the information tells you about the lost Apostle. They may be afraid they'll have to rename the sight.

Further on we found other sights along the Great Ocean Road. The second photo is of a giant cleft in the cliff. The steps lead you steeply right down into the gorge, almost to water level so you can experience the thunder and crash of the waves coming in.

You may already know this but we just discovered if you double click on any blog photo it will enlarge for you.

Koalas, Jan. 15th.

Here are 2 of our furry friends from the camp ground. The one on the left slept like that for hours.

Jan. 9th-16th, 2008

We gave Jim his house back on Jan. 9th and headed east to the coast of New South Wales. Since then we've followed the coast from NSW, through Victoria, South Australia, across the Nullarbour Plains and into Western Australia all the way to Perth. It's strange but as we travel we find the days go by quickly and yet Jan. 9th seems months ago.



The first few days were as hot as the drive down the centre. Then on the 11th the temperature cooled to a comfortable, sleepable level and stayed that way almost all the way here. Now here in Perth it is up to the 35 degree range. Time again for pools and air conditioning.



In NSW we went to a whale museum in Eden and learned about an orca, Old Tom, who used to assist the local whale hunters in finding other whales, even sometimes taking their rope and pulling their boat in the right direction. The hunters would kill the whale and old Tom and his pod would eat the lips and tongue and the hunters would harvest the rest. Old Tom's skeleton is now in the museum after he washed up dead one day. The whales must have had a hit out on him.


Jim introduced us to Australia's fast food (besides MacDonalds etc): meat pies. We've now had meat pies all across the bottom half of this continent. We all go for that feast.


On Jan. 15th we found a parking spot downtown Melbourne, miraculously. We had take-away sushi and fries on the steps of federation square then walked up to China town and saw a dragon puppet dancing up the street. We were only there for 2 hours (our parking space limit) but we thought it was a happening city, a fun place to spend more time in.


That night we stayed at a free woods campground near Apollo Bay. As we were relaxing outside and the girls were playing with 2 sisters next to us I noticed a furry ball in a nearby tree. Was it? no. Yes, it really was, a koala. When we walked under it's tree it looked lazily down at us. Some campers showed us a mother and baby koala in a nearby tree. Then we found 2 more in another tree, all around us! We were quite excited, it's more rewarding finding them in their natural habitat rather than a zoo. We got to spend our evening watching them eat and look back at us. As it got dark the mother and baby came down. The baby rode on it's mom's back and they ambled across the camp sites, passing people by a few feet and climbed a new tree. What a wonderful treat.

The girls loved their new friends Zoey and Leah. Their parents invited Kevin and I over to enjoy their campfire. The next day we didn't leave until lunch time because we were all having fun with our new friends. The koalas had breakfast and were enjoying their morning naps, they sleep about 22 hours a day.