Geraldton and Exmouth Australia

We’ve reached one of Australia’s lesser-known corners. In Exmouth we asked someone if many cruise ships stopped here and the answer was “You’re the first”. It’s hot (most days over 100 degrees this time of year) and dry and places are far apart. But there are beautiful places to see if you’re willing to jostle around on a rickety bus for a couple hours. Tour companies are not as sophisticated as in larger cities, but it’s fun, nevertheless.

From Geraldton we travelled to the middle of nowhere—Kalbarrie National Park. Kalbarrie is also a little seaside town, which hosts vacationers in the summer, who enjoy the wonderful beaches. The National Park has 2 sections: the Murchison River Gorge and the rugged, rocky coast between the beautiful beaches.

The Hawk’s Head section of the Murchison River Gorge is shown in Picture 1. It’s named for the rock feature on the right side that resembles a hawk’s head. A close-up of that feature is shown in Picture 2. The red rocks and vegetation remind you of the United States’ desert southwest.

We stopped for a picnic lunch in the town of Kalbarrie, in a park at the beach. In this case, the bus driver’s wife had prepared 2 kinds of quiches for lunch, popped them in the freezer and left town on vacation. The bus driver delivered them to the site, neglecting things like utensils to eat them with. We enjoyed eating them with our hands, while he ran across to the market to find napkins. He also popped out for some Freon to repair the bus’ AC!

We missed the excitement, though. Someone went into the bathroom and met a kangaroo in there!

We traveled on down the coast and enjoyed looking back at Kalbarrie in Picture 3. We also enjoyed the rocky coast in Pictures 4, 5 and 6. Picture 5 shows a natural arch and Picture 6 shows Castle Rock.

Further down the coast we found the Pink Lake shown in Picture 7. The color comes from algae in the water.

Our final stop was at the HMAS Sydney Memorial in Geraldton, shown in Picture 8. The HMAS Sydney was sunk by the Germans in WWII. The dome is made up of 643 gulls, representing the 643 lives lost. The taller column, with the Australian flag, resembles the prow of the ship.

Exmouth was our next stop—even more isolated than Geraldton. The area is famous for 3 things: a military base that was used as a submarine base in WWII, the Ningaloo Reef and the westernmost point in Australia. Picture 9 shows all 3: in the far distance on the left is the westernmost point, the upper right shows the 13 VLF radio antennas that listen to submarine “talk”, plus a beautiful beach in the middle. The Ningaloo Reef stretches along the shore here. Here’s some new cocktail party chit-chat that we learned: VLF (very low frequency) is the only set of radio frequencies that can penetrate water and be used for submarine communication.

Our destination was Turquoise Bay in Cape Range National Park, where we snorkeled the Ningaloo Reef. Given our lack of underwater camera, we can only show you the beach where we entered the water (Picture 10). The coral was interesting: lots of different types, but all a rather dull green-gray-brown color. We have snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef and found vibrant colors of coral. Our guide explained that the coral on the western side of Australia is soft coral, while the Great Barrier Reef is hard coral, with different types of algae that provide the colors. There were not masses of fish, but a good variety. The water was warm with a brisk current, which provided an easy ride in one direction or required a good deal of paddling and flippering, when going in the other direction.

We’ve really enjoyed being in Australia: gorgeous scenery, amazing animals and wonderful people. We enjoy the wonderful Australian sense of humor and occasionally can understand what they’re saying! Is there anything not to like in Australia? I’ve thought of 3 things:

     1) The Australian dollar is very strong, which means that things are very expensive. A $10 beer????

     2) They have the poorest excuses for hand dryers in bathrooms. We could blow on our hands and dry   them faster (or use the seat of your pants)!

     3) The bloody flies….. Picture 11 shows one of Rick’s shoulders with a flock of the little buggers. They don’t bite, but they climb all over you (face included) and enjoy invading ears, nose and mouth. Betsy accidentally ate one and was immediately proclaimed an official Australian.

Fortunately, the likes way exceed the dislikes. We’ll be back.

On to Indonesia.

Fremantle Australia

It has been very difficult reducing our Fremantle pictures to 12. We thoroughly enjoyed our 2 days in the city and surrounding area. To put things in perspective, Fremantle is the port city for Perth, which is 20-some kilometers inland. It is a relatively small city of approximately 30,000, but we found plenty to do there—so much that we never made it to Perth!

On our first day we visited 2 national parks north of Fremantle along the ocean. The first, Yanchep National Park, surrounded a mostly-dry lake and was home to some great wildlife.

Picture 1 shows a Kookaburra sitting in an old gum tree. (Doesn’t that make you want to break into song???). Picture 2 shows a cuddly koala. Picture 3 shows one of many gray kangaroos that we saw.

The second, Nambung National Park, is the gateway to The Pinnacles. These are limestone rocks, up to 10 feet tall, that seem to be growing from the sand. Of course, it’s the reverse. Time has worn away rock, leaving these amazing formations. Picture 4 shows one grouping, including the one that wore away to look like Queen Victoria. Picture 5 shows another that looks like an old man in profile.

The coast along western Australia consists of rocky coasts in some areas, sand dunes in other areas and gorgeous beaches. Picture 6 shows a view of some dunes from The Pinnacles. Close-up and in the sun, the dunes are white and look like snowdrifts.

We spent our second day wandering the streets of Freemantle. We spent the entire morning at the Freemantle Prison, which closed in the early 1990s and is now a museum. It had been an active prison for about 150 years and closed when it did because it was not considered sanitary—they did not have indoor plumbing and the inmates used buckets in their cells. 

We took 2 tours at the prison: Doing Time and Great Escapes. Our guide was exceptionally good: honest about what really went on and forthright with information that is often not known. It was a bit grisly, but fascinating.

Picture 7 shows the entrance to the prison, which was designed for 1000 prisoners, but has held more. It has a women’s building that could hold 70 women and the remaining buildings provided maximum security for men. Picture 8 shows one section of one building. It is 4 stories tall. The netting at the 2^nd floor level is a suicide net.

Picture 9 is a typical cell—about 4 feet by 7 feet. There is a window that provides light, but doesn’t open. The only fresh air was from a louvered board under the door. In the early years of the prison, there was a hammock in place of the cot. In later years, bunk beds replaced the cots. Prisoners spent 16 hours in their cell a day and 8 hours either working or in the exercise yard. Working was preferable to the inmates, as it provided them with a small salary, which allowed them to buy “extras”, such as food, cigarettes, etc.

Australia has abandoned capital punishment. Before the change in law, however, 44 executions took place in the Fremantle Prison, the last in the 1970s. The British considered hanging the most human, killing the individual in ¾ of a second. Picture 10 shows the very gruesome death chamber.

Over 200 people have escaped from Fremantle Prison and all have been re-caught—a record of which they are very proud. The final re-capture occurred in 2005. This prisoner had been at large for 30 years, lived a good and respectable life and had the misfortune to develop terminal cancer.  Unable to work, he applied for retirement benefits. Unfortunately, he didn’t do it in late 2004, when the disease was discovered, but waited until January of 2005. On January 1, 2005, Australia coordinated their data systems. When his name popped up for retirement benefits, it also popped up as an escaped convict. He was promptly arrested, returned to Fremantle, put in jail, pardoned and sent back to his home. But it gave the Fremantle Prison its perfect record of all escapees caught.

Our Great Escapes tour was full of many interesting stories like this. But our guide also emphasized other means of escape, such as painting. Picture 11 shows one cell, with a particularly talented resident.

Following the Freemantle Prison and a craft beer and pizza lunch, we visited the Western Australia Museum Shipwreck Galleries. It’s small, but contains some very interesting relics that have been pulled from the ocean floor. There are several Dutch shipwrecks off the west coast of Australia. As the Dutch East Indies Company ships rounded the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, the winds would sometimes carry them off course and they would end up hitting the reef off Australia instead of Indonesia.

One such example was the Batavia. The crew saved one small boat and managed to get everyone ashore on an island. A very grizzly mutiny and massacre followed. The perpetrators were tried and punished and the episode seemed to be over. A few years ago, however, divers found some of its remains, which now reside in the Shipwreck Museum. Not as complete as the Vasa in Stockholm, but the port side of the stern still remains, as shown in Picture 12.

We continue to enjoy the lesser-known parts of Australia. Two more stops before heading to Indonesia.

Adelaide

What a delightful city! They have done a marvelous job of conserving beautiful architecture and providing green space. Fortunately, we had 2 days here. The first day was spent touring the city.

We stopped at Tandanya, which is the National Aboriginal Cultural Center. The name means “red kangaroo”. The center is getting ready to celebrate their 25^th anniversary and had just hung the painting shown in Picture 1.  It is titled “Night & Day Dreaming” and was painted in 1988 be one of the most famous aboriginal painters, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. (1932-2002) It is huge, approximately 8 feet by 10 feet, and was found folded up among his belongs. This is the first time it has been stretched and hung. A few years ago, one of his large paintings sold for $2.4 million, so this is an amazing find. Unfortunately, since it was not found until after his death, we do not have the artist’s interpretation of the drawing.

At Tandanya, we also learned about Didgeridoos. The aborigine in Picture 2 is showing how they are played. To make one, a sapling is found and placed over an ant colony. The ants eat and weaken the central part of the sapling. The carver then easily removes any material in the center. The player made both of these didgeridoos and was able to get an amazing variety of sounds from them. Rick chatted with him about how to play it and learned that you hum or buzz your lips, while doing circular breathing. With proper breathing, this player has played for an hour straight without stopping. Rick describes the sound as “like a bagpipe drone with sound effects”.

Our second stop was at Carrick Hill, which is shown in Picture 3. It was built by Bill and Ursula Hayward, descendants of 2 of Adelaide’s most prominent (and wealthy) families—he brought Coca Cola to Australia. Carrick Hill was built to look like a 17^th century English manor house. This style was chosen to incorporate all the purchases made on their yearlong honeymoon.  In England, they found Beaudesert, a Tudor mansion that was about to be torn down, due to the expense of maintaining it. From the demolition sale, they brought paneling, doors, staircases and windows to Australia. One of their most amazing purchases was the grand staircase shown in Picture 4. When complete, they fitted the house with an eclectic mix of period furniture and contemporary art. Without children, the Haywards’ bequeathed the house and contents to South Australia.

On our second day, we went to the Barossa Valley to drink wine. Our first stop was at Seppeltsfield Winery, which creates excellent wine and provides a good historical cross-section of the Barossa Valley. In the mid-1800s, Catholic Germany was persecuting Lutheran Germans—threatening to take land and money. The Seppelts were a wealthy family of Lutheran tobacco growers, who sold their land and migrated to South Australia. They also brought 13 families, who would work for them. They had to “make do” in this remote locations and built the sideboard in Picture 5 from packing crates they used to transport their belongings.

They tried growing tobacco in this part of Australia and it failed. So, with a little experience in wine making, they started this winery in the 1860s. Picture 6 shows the cellars, which were built in the 1870s. While they have made many varieties of wine, they have become famous for their tawny port. 

Each year since 1878 they have saved one barrel of port and put it away until its 100^th anniversary, when it is finally sold. Picture 7 shows the 1899 tawny port. The 100-year-old port retails for $330 per 100 ml—that’s less than ½ c. A full bottle retails for $7000-8000. We tasted 21-year-old port, which was quite good. We asked how 100-year-old port would compare and were told that it tastes almost like toffee.

Our second wine tasting was at Jacob’s Creek winery, which is a household name about everywhere—we can get it at the grocery store.  The winery was started by another German, who migrated to South Australia in 1837, Johann Gramp. In 1847 he founded the first commercial vineyard in the Barossa Valley, on the banks of Jacob’s Creek. The view across the vineyards from the Visitor center, as shown in Picture 8, is beautiful. They are best known for their Shiraz, the most important and widely planted red grape variety in Australia. Shiraz grapes are shown in Picture 9.

As we’ve found in several countries, the best known commercial wineries do not provide the best touring/tasting experience. The tours are short and the wines tasted are generally not their best. Seppeltsfield was definitely the best experience.

As Picture 10 shows, we’re a long way from home! Currently crossing the rough and chilly Southern Ocean on our way to Western Australia.

Kangaroo Island

This was our second trip to Kangaroo Island. Several years ago we visited it with the North Carolina Zoological Society and found it to be an amazing collection of wildlife. This time we only had a few hours, so we concentrated on a very small portion of the island.

We first made a brief stop at Pennington Bay to see the beautiful vista in Picture 1. Australia is one glorious beach after another.

Our second stop was at Seal Bay Conservation Park. The seal family contains walrus’, true seals and eared seals, which are generally called sea lions. The beach shown in picture 2 is home to approximately 600 endangered Australian Sea Lions. These are large animals, with the largest males weighing up to 600 pounds.

At any one time, there are only about 300 sea lions on the beach. The remaining sea lions are feeding at the bottom of the Southern Ocean up to 60 miles offshore. Each adult sets out for 3 days of hunting food. They cannot sleep during that time because they must constantly be on the lookout for great white sharks and orcas, who find them quite tasty. After 3 days they return to the beach to collapse for 3 days of rest. Then the cycle repeats. Picture 3 shows a close-up of one tired sea lion!

The mothers are the most amazing. They give birth and are pregnant again within 2 weeks. So they swim out, leaving babies onshore, feed, return to baby, who then nurses for 3 days straight. At the same time, mother needs nourishment for the growing fetus. They are the hardest-working mothers on the planet! Picture 4 shows a baby waiting for its mother to return. Picture 5 shows a picture of a very tired mother returning to a hungry baby, who is following her to a place where she can rest. They climbed a large sand dune, coming to rest under the boardwalk, as shown in Picture 6.

The laziest sea lions are the juvenile males, who haven’t reached sexual maturity and, therefore, don’t have to fight other males to dominate the beach and they still depend on Mother for food (for up to 18 months!). The only thing the young males do is play-fighting other males. Picture 7 shows 2 young males trying to look assertive. Picture 8 shows some of the early attempt to fight.

It was a great day spent marveling at these animals, followed by a glorious full moon as we sailed away from Kangaroo Island (Picture 9).

Melbourne and Geelong

On the way from Eden to Melbourne our ship stopped for a day in Burnie, Tasmania. We blew it off!!! We’d been there before and it’s not real exciting…. A second day in Melbourne would have been preferable.

Melbourne is a different story. We love Melbourne! It’s a beautiful city, it’s easy to get from one place to another and it has an interesting history. We joined tour guide Kenneth Parker for an architectural walking tour called “Arcades and Allies”.

At about the same time that we had our Gold Rush in California, the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is located, had a gold rush. Melbourne has a wonderful natural harbor and quickly became the place where everyone landed and the capital of the state. Gold poured in, money poured in and there was a sudden boom in building. From mid-19^th century, through the early 20^th century, a huge amount of building occurred. The results are still lovely.

Banks, in particular, flourished as shown in pictures 1 and 2 show. Picture 1 is the ANZ Bank building from the outside. Picture 2 shows the interior of a former bank that is now an office building.

Melbourne is particularly known for its arcades. Pictures 3 and 4 show the floor and ceiling of one arcade. Many are Victorian and Edwardian, but we also saw some that are Art Deco. We also saw alleys that have been converted to spontaneous art galleries and sidewalk cafes. It was delightful to wander.

Picture 5 shows the beautiful. Flinders train station, which is in the heart of downtown. Diagonally across the street from the train station is the cathedral, which is not particularly memorable. What was interesting was the peek into Victorian life in Melbourne, as shown in Picture 6. To one side of the cathedral we found this sitting area for women only. Special areas in parks and theaters and other places were reserved for women, so they did not have to suffer from the amorous attentions of all those nasty men from the gold fields!

Across the street from the Cathedral is the very modern Federation Square, where we found the “art” shown in Picture 7. This was an exhibit to encourage people to recycle their mobiles.

By the way, while the weather looks gloomy on both days, it's actually haze from bush fires in other parts of Victoria. They're desperate for rain, both to help alleviate the drought and to improve the air quality.

The next day we spent in Geelong, which is a short sail across the harbor from Melbourne. It’s a near-perfect city. It’s 200,000 plus inhabitants have all the necessities right there, although they are a quick train ride from Melbourne and they’re on the ocean. What more could they want???? We met friends, who planned the day to be spent along the Great Ocean Road.

The Great Ocean Road follows the southern coast from Geelong to the west. It was built following WWI, providing employment for returning veterans. Australia suffered horribly in that war. With a total population of 5 million, they provided 300,000 soldiers and sailors to the British war effort. 60,000 were killed and 180,000 injured. Our friend, Keith, told us that his grandfather had 4 sisters who were engaged to 4 soldiers, who went away to war. None returned.

The road alternates between beautifully rugged seascapes, like the one shown in picture 8, and lovely beach villages, like Lorne, which is shown in picture 9.

When we turned inland to head back to Geelong we found a small grove of eucalyptus trees along side the road and 3 sleepy koalas. Picture 10 shows one in the typical koala position. They sleep 20 hours per day and eat eucalyptus leaves for the remaining 4 hours. Picture 11 shows one who has just woken and is taking a stretch. What a treat! Koalas are marsupials, like kangaroos and ARE NOT bears, even though they are wrongly called “koala bears”.

There are many kinds of eucalyptus trees in Australia, but koalas only eat a couple kinds.  Picture 12 shows the flowers on particular type of eucalyptus. Don’t know if that’s one of the types koalas will eat (the tree we saw them eating from had white blossoms). But the color of this type of eucalyptus was so spectacular that we thought it deserved a picture!

Returning to Geelong, the “lady” in Picture 13 greeted us. This is called a bollard and a local resident, Jan Mitchell, who has since died, created over 100 of these. They are now part of the Baywalk Bollard Trail, which depicts many of the characters who molded Geelong’s history.

It was a wonderful day with good friends, who are justifiably proud of their part of Australia. How lucky we were to have our own private guides!

On to Kangaroo Island and Adelaide.