The Search Begins in Earnest

Just two days after my arrival in the Ariege, I stopped into a real estate office in the nearby town of Tarason-sur-Ariege. In rapid fire French, two ladies peppered me with questions (even after I made it abundantly clear that I only speak a little bit of French) about what I was looking for. I completely choked on the most basic words and out came some bizarre mix of Spanish, Dutch, French and English. (I need to give this mishmash language a name like Spanederfrish). I was pretty mortified, but they were happy enough to set an appointment for later in the afternoon to see a small place with great views and a bit of land....a combination that is difficult to find for the kind of money we are able to pay.

I walked home from the encounter thinking, "If anyone ever starts feeling a little too good about himself, he should go to a foreign country on his own and try to buy a house. If he's really feeling super-human, he should come to France." It's remarkably humbling and, at times, pretty disillusioning....however; I know it will get easier and I forced myself to jump in as fast as possible.

I survived the house visit and aside from the fact that the agent asked me at least 6 times whether I liked the place, it was almost a pleasant interchange. And also the fact that she had no interest in showing me exactly where a piece of buildable land for sale was located. As we sped past, she vaguely shook her arm to the right and said something like "that piece of land you were interested in? It's somewhere up there." Oh, great. Thanks.

I wasn't blown away by the tiny house and it was pretty expensive for as much work as will be needed, but now that first home visit on my own has occurred, I can move forward. Phew! Hard work....but well rewarded with a (non) Rapture Party complete with mojitos, wine, good nibbles and the fantastic company of more of the expats I met last year.

My New Ariege Family

In order to make our search for the "perfect place" more affordable, I am volunteering my time and labor in exchange for a place to stay, food and the use of a car. Luckily, last year, we made some wonderful friends here in the Ariege who were very happy to let me share their home along with their daughter, dog, cat and lots of guests in their rental apartment (downstairs) and in a separate cottage on their property.  Sam, Helen and Maia treat me like one of the family and it's great to have their insight on living as expats in the Ariege.  They moved here 4 years ago when they purchased this gorgeous place and have turned it into a real gem.

I've been doing a variety of tasks including weeding, pool cleaning, corralling the chickens (very difficult) and garden work and will likely assist with the "turnovers" of the rental properties (cleaning, changing linens, etc.).  Before and after work, there's jogging, eating, stretching, swimming in the pool (VERY necessary with the incredibly hot weather we're having), chatting with the guests (one family was from Eagle River, Alaska and was training in the Pyrenees for the Mt. Marathon run in Seward...small world!) and drinking :)     

Here are some photos of the beautiful place I'm staying, which don't do it justice since I only have the mobile phone camera.  For a better sense of the rental spaces and the pool and grounds, see: Rental listing website - Click here


   

The view from my bedroom

Caught up...for now

Whew...the blog is now up-to-date.  Just in time, as I am about to leave for France for two months of volunteering and house hunting.  The volunteering is a way to get a free place to stay and food while I'm looking at properties.  It doesn't give me all the time I'd like to do my searching, but we simply have to be as frugal as possible so our money can go towards a house.

At the moment, we are limiting the property search to the Ariège, which is the southern-most department of the Midi-Pyrénées and sits on the border with Spain.

Double click on the map for a larger version

 While I'm gone, Michiel will be staying back in the Netherlands to do some more computer studies as continuing education.  It will be difficult being apart for these next couple of months, but this arrangement makes the most sense for us.  Fortunately, the first people I am volunteering with are friends from last summer.

Dutch food

Once in a while I get the question; "what are signature dishes in the Dutch cuisine?" and often I don't have a very good answer. But since my father always delights us with fresh asparagus when we are in the Netherlands in springtime, I thought it would be a good idea to share with you how we like to eat them.

After peeling the (white) asparagus they are preferably cooked while standing in a pan that leaves their heads out of the water, so they don't overcook. They are sprinkled with a bit of nutmeg, served with cooked potatoes, hard boiled eggs, melted butter and diced ham and salt and pepper.

Yummy (lekker).

Springtime in the Netherlands (and Belgium)

Dutch landscape - polder, cows, geese, sheep - where Michiel grew up

The last month in the Netherlands has treated us (and everyone else) to the sunniest, warmest, driest spring ever. We've spent lots of time running, biking, cooking and enjoying the company of the family and friends. We've interspersed the pleasant with the necessary - medical and dental visits for physical qualification to return to the ice...this time in August.

Spring streetscape

We've spent a huge amount of time on the computer - catching up on the blog (finally), researching houses in France, re-learning French (I highly recommend the Michel Thomas audio program for those who learned French in high school and just need to re-learn/re-fresh), re-learning trigonometry to help tutor our nephew, and wasting oodles of time on Facebook.

Some Spring highlights: meeting our ice friends, Patrick and Liisa in Brugges for wonderful talks, bike riding and beer and chocolate sampling; helping our friend, Sandra, paint her apartment and our drinking and eating tour of Amsterdam on May 5 (Bevrijdingsdag - the celebration of the end of WWII); meeting our ice friend, Sully, and his friends in Amsterdam; the family reunion in Belgium in a "castle" (the castle was a bit less finished and luxurious than the internet photos suggested, but the company was wonderful); lambs, ducklings, flowers, and blossom trees (it's been an unbelievably gorgeous Spring); and being utterly spoiled for one month in one place with great food and drink, few responsibilities or costs and lots of reading material.

Local wildlife

Indonesian feast at the castle

Man v. Cow - the cows are let out into the fields for the summer

In Bruges

   

Beer, sunshine, wind mills and friends!

A Reluctant Change of Plans

Disappointed that our travel plans would have to be revised, we resigned ourselves to returning south towards Perth and continuing on to the Southwest corner of Australia. We'd heard lots of good reviews from friends on the ice about the southwest - great wines, good food, lovely beaches and tall trees - but none of this really excited us too much. We WERE excited; however, by the lower temperatures...but not by the huge increase in cars on the road and people (read: really noisy families) in the campgrounds. We attempted to make the best of it by visiting as many eucalypt forests as possible and climbing really tall fire lookout trees (well, I should say that I climbed the trees and Michiel enjoyed the security of the forest floor after a pair of aborted attempts). The experience of swaying in the wind at the top of the Bicentennial Tree (70 meters/210 feet above the ground) was exhilarating if not a bit terrifying, but to be above all the other tree tops looking out into the distance was quite wonderful.

Treetop Walk - a bit disappointing after climbing the giant trees

Bicentennial Tree

We stayed in some nice campgrounds, took a couple of walks along the beautiful Indian and Southern Ocean coastlines, craned our necks looking at giant old Tingle and Karri trees (types of eucalyptus trees), and sampled a little wine. It was....well, nice - not spectacular, just nice.

Indian Ocean shoreline at Conto Campground

Looking out towards Antarctica from Torndirrup National Park near Albany

We returned to Perth just in time to catch another heat wave and absolutely melted while doing a short, self-guided walk around the city and the Botanic Garden in Kings Park. That heat was ferocious enough to wipe away any nostalgia or sadness we might have felt about our vacation being over. We flew through Sydney and on to Los Angeles, Dallas and New York, where we had a great but short visit with my sister, Dad and step-mom. Our last flight(s), took us through Iceland to finally land in the Netherlands - just in time to leave for a 30-person family reunion in Belgium the next day!

Here are a few more shots from our Australia trip:

The big dish at Carnarvon (no longer operating)

Banksia

The Pinnacles near Cervantes

Port Gregory. This really is a pink lake. They do beta-carotene mining here. Who knew???

Great beaches, great camping spots, great friends!

We did a little bit of free camping where allowed (not often), which was only possible when there was enough wind to cool us off at night so that we wouldn't need the air conditioning. Our spot at Whalebone Bay on the road to Monkey Mia was a perfectly windy, free camping experience.

Free Camping

In this same area, we visited the famous shell beach and the stromatolites at Hamelin Pool. Stromatolites are the oldest living organisms on earth. They are found in hyper-saline environments (like this pool) and are exposed at low tide.  Scientists believe that the oxygen produced by stromatolites made it possible for life as we know it to exist.

This beach is made entirely of layers and layers of little shells like the ones in my hands, below.

Hamelin Pool Stromatolites

We spent several nights camping in the Cape Range National Park and snorkeled in the famous Turquoise Bay, as well as Oyster Stacks and Lakeside areas. Unfortunately, many of the camping areas in this park were closed due to flood damage so the few open camp sites were overrun with camper vans.

Oyster stacks snorkeling area in Cape Range National Park

Wallaby watching us as we watched him at sunset

We'd originally planned on driving up to the coast via a 4WD track along the coast, which would take us to a turtle sanctuary where we could observe the hatching of the babies and their return to the ocean...but again, the storms and floods of the previous months had completely destroyed the coastline and the nests. We opted to stay inland and drive up to Exmouth and the Cape Range National Park via the paved highway.

After our time in Cape Range, we were going to head east to the incredible gorges of the Karijini National Park, but, yet again, we were thwarted by the news that all of the roads into the gorges were closed due to rain and flood damage. Park staff were not completely sure when the roads would re-open.

We were despondent....we had been told by our friends, Rich and Tracy, that Karijini was the real jewel of Western Australia and that we should rent a 4WD camper to get to the gorges only reachable by driving down long, unpaved tracks. We followed their advice and rented a more expensive 4WD model camper but when we heard that all unpaved roads in the park were closed, we decided to skip the 8 hour drive east to do just the few things we could reach on paved roads.

As we weighed our options, we chatted with other travelers. From them, we heard that the warmer-than-normal temperatures had brought the whale sharks to Coral Bay several weeks earlier than normal. This was an unexpected bonus as we had resigned ourselves to being in Western Australia a few weeks too early for the coral bloom and the return of the giant animals. We turned south and booked a tour to snorkel with whale sharks. We had six opportunities to jump in the water and swim alongside the gorgeous and graceful animals.  They are truly amazing to see, but we have to admit we were a little disappointed that the whale sharks off the coast of Western Australia are much smaller than their counterparts elsewhere (4 - 5 meters (12 to 15 feet) in Australia vs. 6 - 10 meters (18 to 30 feet) in other parts of the world) but we still enjoyed being able to swim so close to these beautiful creatures.  It made puking over the side of the boat completely worthwhile.

I think this was before I got seasick

Whale shark from the ship's deck

Fortunately, our return to Coral Bay also gave us an opportunity to spend a wonderful evening with our ice friends, Dave and Carey, who drove extra long on their way north to see us before we headed back south. Summing it up perfectly, Dave said, "I won't even go out of my way to see you guys in the galley in McMurdo, but we just drove 300 kilometers extra to be here!" We sure appreciated it and it was one of the highlights of our trip!

Critters of Western Australia

Despite the plagues, there were plenty of beautiful white beaches and crystal clear water (mostly free of jellyfish), gorgeous sunsets and interesting wildlife to keep us occupied on the long stretches of steaming pavement on our way up the western coastline. We were even lucky enough to see a giant monitor lizard (goanna) crossing the road. We weren't fast enough with the camera, but these beasts are huge and incredible (and more than a little intimidating). There was also a long stretch of highway towards the Cape Range National Park that was dotted with dozens of termite mounds. But before we got that far north, we fed pelicans in Kalbarri (Did you know that they have a really pointy bit at the end of their beak??? I didn't either....until it tried to snatch a fish out of my hand.), stopped at the super touristy Monkey Mia to see the dolphins come to shore to get fed and in Coral Bay we snorkeled amongst some of the most gorgeous underwater scenery I've ever seen.

Monkey Mia dolphins waiting to get fed

We had day after day of hot sun, warm nights and swimming. We snorkeled in water so clear, you could see the rays, sharks and schools of tiny fish without even putting your face in the water. We marveled at the colossal underwater landscape of lavender, bright blue, pink and yellow corals that looked like giant cabbages and prickly cacti. I freaked out watching Michiel hover above a giant ray as it ate off the bottom of the ocean floor (we discovered later that it was the same type of ray that killed Steve Irwin....great, Michiel!) We snorkeled multiple times each day and tried not to get fried in the blazing sun. When it got too sticky or hot, we retreated to the air conditioned comfort of the Camperoo.

On land, we were delighted by the variety of wild parrots and the kookaburras, which sound like maniacal monkeys at sunrise and sunset (they go especially wild at the end of this sound clip). At one campground, we watched a kookaburra steal a piece of chicken from someone's BBQ and then attempt to make the piece of meat small enough eat by holding it in its bill and smacking it repeatedly against a tree branch while making frustrated growling noises. Very entertaining.

Kookaburra, a relative of the kingfisher. They look sweet but they are horrible scavengers.

Pelicans at Kalbarri

Wild emu

Heat, Flies, and other Plagues

We've noticed that when we're in Antarctica, it's hard for us to remember what heat feels like.  Multiple times now, we've planned a vacation somewhere hot and tell ourselves that it will feel great.  In our Antarctican minds 100 degrees F/38 degrees C seems pleasant.  After Thailand, Tonga and now Australia, perhaps we finally learned our lesson.  That temperature is just plain hot....and with an added humidity level that was formerly unheard of in those parts, we spent far too much time in our air conditioned Camperoo.

If the humidity was a novelty, the flies were not.  In all of my research on the internet, I didn't read anything about the flies, but when we spoke to the locals, they claimed that they were a common irritant, especially when the wind blew a certain direction.  Irritating, yes, but also kind of fascinating (for about a second) how they could cling onto clothing in even the heaviest wind.  Case in point:



Or this:

We're wearing head nets in the picture above, taken at Kalbarri National Park.  If you take a good look at the trees and the river, you can see how much the river is in flood.

Floods....the entire region, like parts of eastern Australia, had also suffered from extreme rainfall and flooding throughout the 3 months prior to our arrival.  The floods wiped out many of the fertile plantations in the area we were traveling in and everywhere we went, we saw signs of the damage - washed out roadways, gas stations that had been inundated with water that were closed indefinitely, banana tree trunks covered in mud, their fronds black with rot and... the locusts.

Locusts were everywhere in every stage of growth.  They were squashed on the blacktop, active in the brush and grass alongside the highway and ever-present in our grille and on our windshield.  This is a shot of a bucket of water for washing windows at one of the roadside gas stations.  Yep....locusts.

We found a nice, shady caravan park in Carnarvon one evening and discovered (while on the toilet, mind you) that it was overrun with frogs.

All of this got us thinking about plagues and we wondered if we hadn't been transported into some sort of modern day version of a Biblical story.  We were waiting for murrain, boils, and the death of someone's first born son.