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