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.

Koalas and kangaroos!

The heat wave in Perth kept us from venturing into the capital city of Western Australia, except to go pick up our camper, which Michiel dubbed "Camperoo".

Michiel in his nightly cooking ritual.  Yes, I'm spoiled...but I do all the driving!

We stocked up on provisions and headed north out of built-up civilization to our first and one of the best stops of the trip, a small, little-known National Park called Yanchep. We arrived in late afternoon in time to see the Western Grey kangaroos start to get active for the evening. They were unafraid of humans and allowed us to get close enough to sit in the shade and observe them for quite a long time.

The koalas at Yanchep were not yet stirring from their daytime slumber so we returned at 7 AM the next day to see them in all their cuteness. Here is a sample of great shots Michiel was able to get:

Western Australia

We mercifully escaped Christchurch a couple of days after the earthquake and joined dozens of extra people in the check in line at the Qantas counter at the airport. Many of them had no luggage to check in as they were forced to abandon their belongings in quarantined hotels. This was the case for many of our friends and Antarctic co-workers who, to this day, have still not received their baggage.

Qantas had brought in larger aircraft to handle the added passengers and were, as always, VERY free with the disbursement of alcohol which inevitably led to lots of frivolity amongst certain groups of passengers....notably the Australian earthquake clean-up specialists sitting all around us who had been working 3 month stints in Christchurch since the very first quake in September. We gathered from the intensity with which they were downing the chardonnay that they had seen some pretty harrowing things. They were good fun, though, and we had a very entertaining flight to Sydney.

From Sydney, we unfortunately had to transfer from the international to the domestic terminal which is not in walking distance and requires a transit passenger to pay for a shuttle bus. Awful airport. I recommend avoiding it if you can.

From Sydney, we flew across the island continent to Perth, which is roughly the equivalent to flying from NY to LA. After our "excitement" in Christchurch, sleepless nights of aftershocks and series of flights to Perth, we arrived in the evening and were met by a lovely and gentle shuttle driver who whisked us off to our stifling hot backpacker hostel in Fremantle.

We rested for the next 5 days in Fremantle and attempted to acclimatize to the unbearable heat. Day after day of 100 degrees F/38 degrees C was what Lonely Planet calls in it's guidebook to Western Australia: "enthusiasm-depleting heat". Indeed, it took all of our reserves to leave our air-conditioned room and go out for a swim. We did our best, though, and even went for a day of bike riding and snorkeling (disappointing - but then again, maybe I was just "enthusiasm-depleted") at Rottnest Island, which was named by the Dutch after the native quokkas, which they thought to be rats.

Quokkas on Rottnest Island

Cruisin' Tassie

After finishing the Overland Track, we returned to Hobart to pick up our campervan. A campervan is a great way to travel around (you can leave your "room" a mess and just drive away) - especially since there seemed to be few restrictions on where you can park overnight. We had a few really great parking/camping spots at the beach where we could listen to the sounds of the surf or, in one case, to the raucous noises of fairy penguins coming ashore for the night and gathering the troops to go back to sea at dawn.

Our van had a full bed, a two-burner stove, large water container, dishes and storage containers. It was quite basic but also quite comfortable.



We managed to see quite a lot of Tasmania, but weren't able to see the far reaches of the northeast and northwest as the roads were unpaved there. Roads in Tasmania are, overall, very tiring to drive anyway (windy, narrow and with speed limits so high that the local drivers take the curves in a pretty reckless manner; 80kph on really windy parts was not uncommon) so we opted to (mostly) stick to paved roads with the exceptions of access roads to National Parks or beaches.

We traveled clockwise around the island with the thought that we would visit the rainy west before the "rainy season" got into full swing. It was a good decision - we had generally dry and warm weather which might have even been slightly detrimental to our enjoyment of the mossy rainforests.



Rather than bore you with the day-to-day itinerary of the trip, I've opted to post our surprisingly long list of trip highlights (in no particular order) with some explanations.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

Whether it´s due to the hole in the ozone layer or not....the quality of light in Tasmania is unforgettable. The blue skies are more blue, the greens are greener and everything is sharply defined.

The amazing show of animals at sunset at Narawntapu National Park, called the Serengeti of Tasmania. We finally got to see lots of wombats, as well as wallabies and pademelons (and a GREAT sunset!)





The Overland Track: climbing Mt.Ossa, our camping spot at Lake Windemere, spotting platypuses at Lake St. Clair and a spotted quoll at dusk, pre-historical landscapes, pandani trees and buttongrass, Michiel taking a very cold swim in the Narcissus River, dodging skinks on the trail and our secluded camping spot in Pine Valley.



Wineglass Bay: This Tasmanian favorite was so overrun with tourists that we were sure that we´d have an awful experience, but once we climbed up and over the mountain, we were treated to pure, white sand and a quiet camping spot where we watched a ray on patrol at dusk and got a blackback salmon from a fisherman who couldn´t eat all the fresh fish he caught.



Cape Hauy hike: After a less than thrilling 3 day hike to Cape Pillar, we truly enjoyed the coastal cliffs of this day hike, especially because of our encounter with an echidna on the trail that allowed us to watch him closely.







Seeing both kinds of possums (ring-tailed and bushy-tailed) on our night hike at Mt. Field National Park. Though we didn´t fully experience the glowworms, it was really fun to hike in the dark without head lamps (the light upsets the glowworms and they stop producing their bioluminescent chemicals).

Diverse and entertaining bird life: cackling kookaburras (they sound like crazy jungle monkeys), ravens that sound like flying babies, hyperactive little birds and lots more!

Experiencing the groovy outdoor concert that occurs every Friday night in downtown Hobart - complete with sangria, beer and wine.

Going to the Antarctic exhibit at the Tasmanian National Museum - we actually learned quite a bit there!

Learning about Tasmania´s history as a location for deported British convicts and visiting former prisons and prison towns, such as Port Arthur (extremely well-organized and -presented information and buildings), the villages of Ross and Richmond.

Getting a very personal look at the fairy penguins on the northern coast. A local penguin enthusiast and self-appointed protector of the little critters offered an in-depth discussion and explanation of their behavior. We sat with him at the seashore at dusk to watch the rafts of penguins come to shore in order to return to their nests for the night. We saw possibly 80 penguins that night. Fantastic experience!

Visiting the limestone cave at King Solomon. Excellent tour and beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites.



Free camping and friendly people.

BARK! It is truly amazing how many different colors of bark you can find on eucalyptus trees and after a rain the colors are even more intense. Michiel took dozens of photos of the stuff.





Finally, one of the most memorable parts of our trip was meeting Peter and Anna, a couple from Hobart, whom we met during our Overland Track. It is common to get friendly with the people who are on a similar trekking schedule and over the course of several days on the trail, we learned more about each other. They gave us their phone number in the event that we needed a contact in Tassie and to catch up with them when we returned to the capital city. We looked them up and they not only invited us to their home for dinner but also to stay in their guest room. Their hospitality was amazing!