Melanie and Steve, Around the World in __ Days

Monday, November 10, 2003


This Blog was written on October 31, but the blogger web site was down and we haven't have web access since then. We've had amazing adventures since then also, but we don't have time to write them down today. Today we are in Corral Bay - more on that later.)


October 31 Blog

They told me that when we flew to Australia (a month ago) and we crossed the
internation date line, we'd lose a day. But they didn't say it would be
Halloween. There's no mention of it here (and of course it's Spring).
Melanie asked a taxi driver the other day and he said they do celebrate
Halloween "a little bit". She asked if it was also on October 31, and he
said, I don't know
but it's whatever day "you guys (Americans)" celebrate it. And that the kids
here dress up in the suburbs. But clearly it's not such a big deal if he
doesn't even know the date. There are no decorations, no pumpkins, no
mention at all. A Tear drops...

We are back in Perth after 9 days driving the southwest of the state of
Western Australia: Living in our totally fun old van (no longer "Chester",
but little Blu), under the stars, viewing the upside down constellations,
exploring rain forests, deserts, gorgeous coastlines and beaches, and
appreciating spring wild flowers everywhere.

Perth is just a short stop for us this time as we get things organized to
head to the warmer North.

Highlights since 10/16: The Adventures, Challenges, and Beauties Southern
Western Australia

-ACTS OF HUMAN KINDNESS BY RON AND JOHN:
--Ron: The day after our last blog was our last full day in Perth, and a good
Send off. First, because of the Rugby world cup, basically every room in
Perth was booked. People throughout our hostel, including us, were finding
themselves homeless and dejected and
looking for places out of town. Our hostel got two cancellations that night,
and Ron, the manager, who we'd gotten to know the day before, came looking
for us to give us the spots. How lucky were we. We felt very fortunate and
touched by Ron's taking care of us.
--John: That same day, John, the Mechanic, was working full tilt along with
all three of his workers on our dismantled engine to get the van ready to
take to the registration office in time for us to leave by the weekend. They
went the extra mile to build a required timber box around our second gas tank
even
though we expected to do that ourselves, and then John personally
escorted us to the registration office and talked the inspectors through the
safety check. We made it in a nick of time.
-FRIO FREO: On our way out of town, we stopped in Fremantle, the sweet
port town south of Perth, for a fun dinner out. Mel picked the restaurant
not based on food, or ambiance etc,... but for which restaurant was the most
warm inside. Mel figured out why locals like to call Fremantle "Freo" -
though Australians pride themselves on contracting just about every long
word, this one's clearly because the town is always cold (but very charming).
-YANGALUP NATIONAL PARK AND PRESTON BEACH POINT: Heading South for Real: We
finally got out of the Perth Area: Took a Drive through the Yangalup national
Park in search of Jarrah Trees which produce a hard beautiful wood that
Aussies are very proud of. We had a bit of trouble distinguishing the jarrah
trees in the forest but enjoyed the drive through the bumpy dirt roads in the
middle of the woods that let us out on Preston Surfer Beach for a beautiful
stretch and sandy sit.
-NOT SO "MOBIL", BUT HOME: Maybe Chester Blui (the van) doesn't like bumpy
dirt roads, or sub par mechanic jobs, because after we got out of the
Yangalup forest, he started to putter, and then putter some more, and pretty
soon, he was taking narcolectic naps right in the middle of the highways and
we were repeatedly coasting onto the shoulder to wonder why. We got
ourselves to a gas station but a) it was not a service station and b) it was
Sunday so there were no other service stations available [except "honest
Steve's", right next to Mel on the front seat]. Steve worked on the car,
experimented, tried various things, hitchhiked to town to buy some parts, but
by night fall, Chester Blui still wasn't running. The best things is, if
you're going to drive a car that doesn't run, do it in a car that is also a home.
Then, no matter where you're stuck, you're home. We climbed in the bed in
the back and slept right there in the gas station. On Monday morning, Steve
telephoned mechanic number 2, the good one (John), and trouble shot. It
turned out that the problem was the sub-par job that mechanic number 1 had done on the
points. With some elbow grease and a jigsaw blade, Steve adjusted them, and
since then the van runs great (that was 10/18, a good sign) other than a
little tendency to overheat when driving in the desert.

-DOLPHIN DISCOVERY CENTER IN BUNBURY: Looked through the museum, then headed
out in the morning to their beach in hopes of meeting some dolphins in
person, or in dolphin. It's a regular beach, no pets, no fences. People come
there to just wait and hope the dolphins will visit. It doesn't happen every
day. It's a little chilly so Mel bought their "bottomless hot tea" and we
laid out on their pretty beach waiting, hoping. It did happen today. Two of
their friendliest dolphin visitors, Jet and Shanty, both came for a visit.
About 20 excited visitors on the beach walked out to about waist deep and
stood to watch the sleek fins glide by as the curious dolphins looked us all
over. The guides invited some of us to swim. Most people chose not to either because it was
too cold or they didn't have swim suits. We chose to, of course. Only four
of us did. And the four of us swam right out there separate from all the
other crowds with the guides. Jet and Shanty circled us for about an
hour. They'd look at us, or turn on their back and flash their white bellies
toward us. It was magical and touching and unforgettable. And while the
water was cold enough for Mel to have hesitated about going out in the first
place, the magic of the whole encounter warmed her up much warmer than she
had been when standing with the crowds at hip depth. This was one of those
dreams come true. [We thank Nate Sandy Sara and Colin for their appropos gift of underwater cameras which were perfect that day.]

-THE BUSSELTON JETTI: We took some time to hike the 2KM Busselton Jetti which
holds the distinction of being the longest jetti "of it's kind" in the
southern hemisphere. For us, it was just a nice evening, post sunset walk.
We talked with lots of the local fishermen and
fisherkids, some of whom posed for our camera proudly with their recent
catches. We saw blue crabs, two foot long squids, and a venomous sea snake
from the pier.

-MARGARET RIVER AREA - WINERIES, PREVELLY PARK, LAKE CAVE, KARRI FOREST, THE
BARANUP FOREST HUMAN MAZE, AND CAPE LEEUWIN:
--Wineries: Margaret River is a beautiful coastal town with tons of things to
do. The area is riddled with wineries, most offering free wine tasting. We
visited the Winery at Cape Mantelle and Steve decided he loved the Merlot.
This was Mel's first time in a winery and she was surprised that it didn't
include advertisements, or speaches, sales pitches or tours. It was just a
walk in and get handed free glasses of wine, buy or don't buy, and leave, a little bit of a
surprise to her. Mel loved the gorgeous fields surrounding the wineries.
--Prevelly Park includes a world famous beach called Surfer's point where
many of the world competitions take place. It's also next to Rivermouth where
the Margaret river meets the sea. There were more surfers at Rivermouth. We
stopped at both and enjoyed picnics and walks on the beach to the backdrops
of highly skilled surfers on waves many times their size.
--Lake Cave: The area offers about 200 caves of various varieties to visit.
We chose Lake Cave for it's name sake - a lake in a cave sounded mysterious
and beautiful. It lived up. The cave was full of white chrystal stalagtites
and mites all magestically balanced over a mirror of still lake water. We've
both visited several caves in different countries before and found this one
to be one of the most beautiful while being quaintly small and personal. To
get there, we climed down over 300 stairs into a Doline
(a whole in the ground caused by a colapse of the earth above part of the
cave thousands of years before).
--Karri Forest: Karri's are Myrtle related trees here with tall smooth sleek
pillars of trunks and high canopies of rainforest foliage. We drove through
the Karri forest and admired their vastness, beauty, and sheer quantity as
they lined up for hectares. This was one of a few rainforests we'd drive
through on our travels, each dedicated to the tree of it's own area.
--Human Maze at Baranup: Steve and Mel raced through the Baranup Forest Maze,
a human maze of shrubbery and foliage. Mel won, on chance alone (usually
Steve's the one of us good at directions, so this gave Mel a boost of pride.)
--Cape Leeuwin: We ended the very full day at this most South-Westerly point
in Australia where the Southern Ocean Meets the Indian Ocean, and also
coincidentally near Cumberland Rock which is the Antipode of
Washington DC (exact opposite side of the Earth). A beautiful place with a
light house to enjoy the sunset and walk to touch both oceans.

FORESTS OF WALPOLE: THE VALLEY OF THE GIANTS, THE GIANT TINGLE TREE, THE TREE
TOP WALK, AND A STROLL THROUGH THE ANCIENT EMPIRE:
The Valley of the Giants: We spent a day in the inviting city of Walpole
which prides itself on it's forests. Most of the Southern part of
Western Australia is rain forest. Walpole considers itself one of the least
seasonal and most unchanging parts of Australia. For this reason, it has
maintained a climate very similar to the climate
millions of years ago, so it still supports trees that died off just a few
hundred kilometers north of here when Australia changed from a tropical to
an arid climate. Walpole was a beautiful, cool, moist
blast to the past sporting a huge canopy of exhotic trees: mostly Karri,
Yellow Tingle, and Red Tingle. The Valley of the giants was a gorgeous drive
through the largest and most striking of the trees, the Red Tingle.
-Giant Tingle Tree: The red
tingle trees reddish trunks could be so huge that cars could drive
through holes in their trunks caused by past fires. A short nature walk took
us to this most famous of the Red Tingle Trees. The Giant Tingle seemed to us
to be an answer to the “General Sherman”, a famous Sequoia in California.
-The Tree Top Walk: 40 KM above the trees, they built an 800 meter walkway to
help us feel what it was like to be an animal or a bird soaring among the
canopies of the rain forest. The walkway was a grid so you could see through
it to the ground far below and it was built to sway with our movement or with
the wind to feel like an actual tree bow(warnings posted in
advance warned of fear of heights and motion sickness.) Atop this airy,
swaying, natural walkway, we felt a little like the actors in "Crouching
Tiger Hidden Dragon". This unique idea for an attraction surpassed our
expectations.
-The Ancient Empire Walk: Down below, the forgotten Ancient Empire Walk, free
and forgotten by many of the tourists was packed with wildflowers, trees,
aromas, and jungle bird sounds.

THE TREASUREABLE SHELLY BEACH: At our hostel in Perth, we befriended Peter, a
really friendly guy leading a seven week tour across all of Australia. We
struck up some conversation and he let us in on some of his Aussie Secrets:
Not places he was taking his tour group, just secret hidden away retreats
that he had found during his career exploring the country. What a gold mine
of information. And we struck Gold at the end of our Walpole
day by following his advise to go to Shelly Beach. Peter hadn’t even known
the correct name of the beach, but he drew us a map
and gave us a great description of how to get there and told us not to miss
it. We found it right at sunset after passing a kangaroo on the road and
driving through the national park. The secluded camp spot offered black
splashing cliffs, soft clean white sands, acqua waters, grass to park
and camp on, and was backdropped by hills and mountains as far as the eye can
see. While we only stayed there one night, it was hard not to contemplate
making this a long term holiday. In the morning, we woke to the sunrise over
the ocean and realized this was one of the only places we'd ever been where
both the sunrise and the sunset were over the ocean, both west and east. We
both took a swim in the water and layed out on the beach. Melanie took a jog
up the steep road and path to a mountain lookout (note that "mountain" in
this area would translate to "hill" in America) far above. She was
captivated by a 360 degree view including Steve and the van way down below.
Melanie decided this was definitely one of her favorite specific places
on Earth.

ALBANY AND IT'S SURROUNDINGS: THE WIND FARM, THE GAP, NATURAL BRIDGE, AND THE
BLOWHOLES: Albany was our final southern and coastal destination before
beginning to loop upwards toward inland sites and back toward Perth.
-The wind Farm: You know the windmills you can see off the freeway in
California near Palm Springs? They have one of these here, but they've made
it into a really fun place to visit. First, this wind farm is built on the
tip of a peninsula with deep ocean blue framing it on both sides. Second,
below the windmills they've built a fantastic nature walk totally decked with
spring wild flowers. Third, it's actually invigorating to get so close to one
of those windmills. Before we went there, we asked one woman in town why it would be worth
visiting and she explained that it's kind of thrilling to stand
below one, and to listen to it and look at it. She described it's powerful
operation as sounding like an airplane engine. We found that in fact it was
quite exciting. The windmills are huge. They tower above you and you realize
they are many times what they appear from the freeway perspective. And they
are loud - naturally loud. It's just the wind making them work, but they roar
and slice through the air. We enjoyed it.
-The Gap, Natural Bridge, and the Blowholes: On the cliffs of the coast lie
these natural wonders. The Ocean Churns against the steep and dramatic cliff
walls - which was once connected to Antarctica when we were all one
continent, Gondwana. The
Natural Bridge is where the ocean had worn away the rock below a huge bridge
of stone that hangs there waiting, framing the saphire coast until one day
the bridge will fully erode and collapse to form another Gap. The Gap is a
break in the cliffs where a huge chunk is missing, steep, sharp and jagged,
and is filled with a churning washbowl of water. Best of all were the blow
holes: These were small sand blasted holes on the top side of the rock
cliffs, maybe a foot and a half in diameter, and they were about a hundred feet above sea level. The Sea
entered under the cliffs into caverns far below and through some weird process,
caused an explosion of air, water, and sound through the holes above, like a
geyser. The bad news is the
conditions have to be just right for the geyser effect, meaning very stormy.
For us, the weather was too nice. So The water never
made it out of the blowholes. But when we stood near one hole at
just the right time, the blow hole would roar like a dragon and expell a
powerful burst of breath out onto us so suddenly and loudly that it was
actually scairy and made us both spontaneously yell.

HYDEN ROCK FORMATION: WAVE ROCK, HIPPO'S YAWN AND MULKES CAVE:
-Wave Rock: Inland now, this was the first sight we've visited that we had
actually heard of before planning our trip. It's a huge rock formation in the
middle of the desert called the
Hyden rock formation where 60 thousand years of rain and erosion have left
some awesome shapes prime for rorshock analysis. The most known is Wave rock
that stands about 40 meters tall and curves inward and downward almost
exactly like a huge ocean wave. The minerals and water runnoff of all the
years have painted it striped whites and reds, but in a patters almost
perfectly reflecting the striations of a sea wave. We set up a pretend surf
board and dressed up in our surfer gear to take pictures hanging ten.
One thing we've loved about Australia is there are so many things to see in
this huge country, but just not that many people. So even though we
visited this very common tourist sight on a Saturday, we barely saw anyone
else there and we had plenty of time and space for our surfer safari photo
session.
-Hippo's Yawn: Nearby on the same rock formation just a short walk away was
Hippo's Yawn which looked exactly like what it's called - a great big hippo's
mouth eternally opened and sporting a massive relaxing yawn.
-Bobtail Lizards: We both came across lots of colorful and interesting
lizards along the trails. Melanie took a jog along the trails
surrounding these rocks and came across 3 or 4 Bobtail Skink
Lizards. These guys are big fat fellows with a girth probably half as fat as
their body length and with naturally stub tails that look like they lost
their tails in an accident. Their heads are probably as big as a small
tangerine, and they just look at you, as long as you don't bother them.
We've also seen several of these sun bathing on the desert roads.
-Mulkes Cave: Theres a cavern in the rock where ancient Aborigines have
painted some of their primitive art, mostly hand prints. We climbed through
here and explored the surrounding beautiful landscape before heading off
toward gold country.

ORANGE DAY AND DAVE W/HIS DOG RUPERT THE BRAVE:
-Oranges Galore: On the highway we came across a massive spill of oranges
where a "road train" (the term here for large semi trucks) apparently lost
control of some of it's cargo and spilled
crates and crates of succulent oranges.
We found them intact in their boxes and ready for enjoyment. We
stopped to offer help, but there wasn't much the trucks could do with the
cargo now, so the oranges were free for the taking. We took a box of each
variety of orange (significantly reducing the foot room in our little van
home.) But we've enjoyed several mid day treats and fresh squeezed glasses
of orange juice since that day. As we packed them in the car, we
wondered "who will we be able to share these with?"
-Dave and Rupert the Brave: Another hundred K or so down the highway, out
in the middle of the hot desert, we came across Dave and Rupert. Dave
McCeurne, in his khaki's and shades had walked on foot, hauling behind him a
wheeled cart with all his things, including sweet "Rupert the Brave", his dog
and companion for the last 19 weeks. Apparenly Rupert usually
walks by himself but currently needed to rest his hot paws on the shaded cart
for a little while. The cart sports a sign saying something to the
effect of "I'm walking from Sydney to Perth in support of Asthma". Wow. If
you don't know Australia or don't have a map, imagine that Sydney is about
the same distance from Perth as Miami is from LA, but that there are a lot more deserts and a
lot fewer people in between. Hey, here's someone we can share our
oranges with. We had to stop and talk. Dave was great. He was so friendly,
and also quite glad to share some human interaction. He's been walking for 19
weeks at a minimum of 40 KM per day (42 KM is a 26 mile marathon) - and he
didn't even look like he was in pain. Yes, he took our oranges gratefully
and told us that an hour before a policeman had stopped and given him some
oranges from the same wreck on the side of the road. This guy was some kind
of hero. He was on the home stretch toward Perth (another 400 or so KM away)
where his wife and two kids awaited him.

KALGOORLIE GOLD COUNTRY: THE SUPER PIT, MINING HALL OF FAME, AND THE BROTHEL:
Western Australia is extremely proud to brag that it is home to the larges
gold producing area in Australia. The gold found here over the years is
credited with causing Western Australia to become a working part of the
Country Australia rather than basically a working prison camp thousands of
miles away from the heart of the country. Kalgoorlie is like the Vegas of
the States, in that it's a destination, all alone, out in the middle of the
desert, associated with wealth, and which sports a gritty character all it's
own.
-The Super pit is the biggest pit in the southern Hemisphere - No, that
doesn't sound like a reason to drive several hours into the middle of
nowhere, but it was actually quite a sight. Deep in this pit, humongous
construction vehicles roared and beeped and hauled massive loads of gold
filled dirt back and forth to the surface. Sometimes from our lookout, people
can watch the dynamite blasts but unfortunately for us it was a windy day
we all blasts were cancelled. The hugeness, dryness, and
vastness of the operation, mixed with the business and loudness of it
reminded Melanie of a Star Wars Movie, or the sandy town where young Darth
grew up.
-The Mining Hall of Fame: A great museum, even for the museum wary. Here,
we got an underground tour of an actual old gold mine complete with demos of
operating old mine drills and tools. Above ground we watched a gold pour
demonstration and were taught how to pan for gold. Steve found a little gold
nugget and handed it to our friend Marchek who dropped it. We couldn't find
it. Boy did he feel bad. Somewhere there in the lands of Kalgoorlie is our
piece of gold. Don't start another gold rush for it though. It wasn't that
big.
-The Brothel - Club Langlee 181: Remember, we said Kalgoorlie was gritty, and
a bit like Vegas. Well, in more ways than one, but one is that prostitution
is an industry there - not sure if it's actually legal, but it's allowed. We
drove through the red light district and stopped at perhaps the only brothel
on earth that is active and actully gives tours. We wanted to take the tour
but it was really really expensive and we couldn't understand exactly why.
Melanie wonders if it was because the tour was for more than curiosity, but
maybe was more of a introductory tutorial. We decided not to do the pay tour
but looked around as much as we could on our own.

BACK IN PERTH: Our second stay in Perth, and if all goes as planned, our
last - though we love it here and could even see ourselves living
here (especially after just a little more global warming). We found ourselves
an even better hostel to stay at than before and rediscovered that "luxury"
is in the eye of the beholder. A shower, instead of a sponge bath, for
instance; a toilet, instead of a shovel. None of which seemed important or
even bothersome on the road, but which just made for a little happy
relaxation while we were here. We spent our Perth days running necessary but
fun errands, picking up little needed (or wanted) things for our trip,
working on adding extra conveniences to our van home (like luscious seat
covers to hide and soften our old torn vinal).

HEADING OUT OF PERTH TODAY: Almost sad to go, but not quite because we're
excited to see what's ahead, we're finishing up some errands today, hoping to
commit to some fun time for a picnic on a Perthan beach, and then head north
(where it's warm and Melanie's sure she will bite her tongue for ever having
wished for warmer weather while down south). So many people we've met who
have travelled to Australia for a short time have ended up loving it so much that
they've stayed much longer. Our friends Murray and Wilma from
Scotland came on a short trip and ended up living here for 16 years and
starting a family here. We can sure see how that can happen. And we can see
how time ticks by and a short time becomes a long one without you even
knowing it. We feel like we've only been here a flash and we've been in
Australia for over a month.


OTHER HIGHLIGHTS AND NOTES OF INTEREST TO US: MEL'S INVIGORATING SIGHTSEEING
JOGS, WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS, RESORT LIKE CAMPING SPOTS FREE, MEL'S LITTLE EXTRA
SPARKLE, STEVE'S AWESOME CREATIVITY
-Mel's Nature Jogs: Melanie love's her morning jogs. Initially, she did them
for the sake of exercise, but that's evolved into a whole new meaning. Mel
has found that during the day she and Steve drive to sights and appreciate
them, but when she gets out in the
bright early light and runs along a trail, a river, a dirt road or
boardwalk, she sees things up close and in new magical ways she never could
from a car or organized landmark.
-Wildlife Sightings: Wildlife includes wildflowers and this is the very best
of times to be traveling through Western Australia for the flowers. The
unique splotches of color never cease to surprise us. As for animals, we've
seen Quakkas (small Wallabies that hop like Kangaroos but look a
little like huge rats), Several wild kangaroos (unfortunately crossing the
roads in front of us, a danger similar to deer in America), wild Emu's
sauntering on their long legs through the trees alongside the road,
Shanty and Jet the Dolphins that swam happily with us, a fox crossing the
road, venomous snakes but never close enough for danger,
lots of interesting lizards, large nasty spiders, and
5 inch preying mantis in our van. The birds are everywhere and very colorful
and different and loud. It's funny that some of them can be very beautiful
but squawk like a midnight tom cat making mating calls. Others sing like the
jungle. We hope the list goes on.
-Great Camping: of our nine day tour, we only paid to park and camp once. The
other eight days we found free but always gorgeous natural places to bask
in the Australian beauty: in groves of trees, on beaches, by river bank
swimming holes, or parked alongside
streams full of loud happy frogs. We love our van.
-Mel's extra sparkle: Melanie painted her toe nails and needed some
accessories to match. She bought a shirt and some jewelry. But then she needed a place to put the jewelry, so she had a hole pierced right through her belly button for it. Makes a convenient carrying case. She's
wanted to do this for a long time and did it right before leaving Perth the first time. She loves it.
But taking care of it out in the middle of boonies, such as pouring cold
bottled water on her midriff in the chilly night air, is always a challenge.
Looks good.
-Steve's Awesome Creativity: Steve has put hours of mental energy into
thinking of ways to make our little van home a real home and not just a set
of wheels. He comes up with solutions to every inconvenience and builds parts
and pieces to make living in this old 'junker' luxurious. He never ceases to
amaze Melanie.

As you can tell by the length of this epoch Blog, we are excited and happy.
and we anticipate adventures to unveil and explode upon us as we keep it up.
Come and see.

Happy Birthday Dan G, Mom, and Cambria.

Happy Halloween today. Mel actually heard one "Happy Halloween" wish from a
caller on the radio today. It gave her a little comfort while
she's missing one of her favorite holidays. At least someone knew it was
halloween here. (and Happy All Saints Day tomorrow, if anyone actually
celebrates that; certainly not in Australia.)


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