Perth Zoo

The Easy Riders express bus returned me to Perth. I spent another night with Rebecca and her family. The morning of my flight to Sydney I went to the Perth Zoo, where Rebecca works, to see many of the amazing animals that are unique to Australia. I finally got to see a koala.





After a morning at the zoo Rebecca took me to the airport. Rebecca and her family were generous hosts, and like Joanne, they truly made my visit to Australia a million times more fulfilling and enriching.

Exmouth

Darren and the Easy Riders bus headed north without me and I stayed on in Exmouth to do two days of scuba diving. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures like I did from Malaysia. The first day I did two boat dives with Exmouth Dive Center. We went to Labyrinth and Blizzard Ridge. We saw several types of sharks, sea snakes, rays, turtles, and of course, what seemed like millions of fish.

The second day I went diving with Ningaloo Reef Dream. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go diving with this company if you are in Exmouth, Western Australia. They were unprofessional, irresponsible, and practically downright illegal.

There were 8 snorkelers and 4 divers on the boat. There were two staff. There was a dive master who was also the skipper of the boat. The second staff member was a young woman (22) who was on her second day of dive master training. Because on staff member has to stay with the boat she was assigned the task of leading the four paying divers on a tour of a site that she had never been to before. Two of the four of us were on their first dives after open water certification. Needless to say, this poor girl, who should not have been in the situation that she was in, got us lost and failed to keep track of everybody's air levels and I had to eventually take charge and get everyone back to the boat alive. Outrageous to say the least.

Anyway, that is enough text. Below is what comprises rush hour in Exmouth and the light house at the north point of the peninsula.

Aussie Beers

One of the best things about traveling is experiencing new things in different parts of the world that you do not have access to at home. Examples include art, music, and food. Another one of these things is of course beer. On the plane flight down to Oz I decided that I would try as many different beers as I could and eventually write this post rating the beers that I tried.

Before I start this list there are a few things that readers need to know.

1. I tried 23 different beers.
2. I frequently tried new beers even when I could have drank a beer I had already found that I liked.
3. All Aussie beer is served ice cold.
4. Aussie beer is a lot stronger than American beer. Usually about double the percentage of alcohol .
5. The vast majority of Aussie beers are lagers.
6. The whole micro-brewery phenomenon is not as prevalent in Oz as it is in the US.
7. The beers are listed in the chronological order they were tried with the first at the top.
8. Aussies do not drink Fosters. They think the stuff is $#!%.

• Tooheys Old :|
• Carlton Draught :|
• Tooheys New :(
  
• Victoria Bitter :(
• Red Back w/lemon :(
• James Squire :|
• Coopers Sparkling Ale :)
  
• Coopers Pale Ale :|
• Cascade Premium Light :|
• James Boags Premium Light :|
• Abbotsford Invalid Stout :|
• James Boags Draught :|
• XXXX Gold Lager :(
• Hahn Super Dry Premium Lager :(
• Swan Draught :|
• Little Creatures Pale Ale :)
• Crown Lager :|
• Bootleg Brewery Raging Bull :)
• Little Creatures Bright Ale :|
• Little Creatures Rogers Beer :)
• Emu Bitter :(
• Emu Export :(
• James Squire Porter :|

On the whole I have to say that I was relatively disappointed by the quality of beer in Australia. Most of it is flavorless piss colored lager. It certainly does drink easily - mostly because it is very cold -, and it does get you drunk. As the micro-brewery thing catches on more and more in Australia I think that there will be more good beers to choose from in the future.

The best beer I had down here was definitely Little Creatures Pale Ale. The brewery is a small one in Fremantle, Western Australia, that primarily ships its beers along the west coast of Australia.

Beach Day

The tour north was cleverly designed to put the majority of the driving at the front of the week which allowed us to spend plenty of time on the fabulous beaches around Coral Bay and Exmouth. One of the most interesting beaches we went to is known as Shell Beach because the entire thing is comprised of tiny little round shells. Trillions and trillions of them. The beach is hundreds of meters wide, kilometers long and our guide told us that they are tens of meters deep. The top shells are slightly dirty grey, but the ones underneath are blindingly white.


After Shell Beach we quickly stopped in Exmouth to check into our hostel and then headed out around the tip of the peninsula to Turquoise Bay in the Cape Range National Park. As is evidenced in the picture below, there is perfect white sand and crystal clear water. This corner of Australia is fringed by a large barrier reef called the Ningaloo Reef. While it is far smaller than the much more famous Great Barrier Reef on the eastern side of the continent, the marine life is in perhaps better shape for it. The remote location and low population densities in the area also insure that the beaches are a lot less touristed.

We spent most of the afternoon snorkeling in a current where we would walk up the beach swim out into the current over the reef and get a free ride along. We saw turtles, rays, two types of shark, a swarming feeding school of reef fish, and of course tons of coral.

Life in the Sea

The afternoon of the second day an the morning of the third day of the bus tour north ended up revolving around critters that live in the ocean. Appropriately, we started with one of the oldest organisms on earth: stromatolites. To make a long story short, 3.5 billion years ago, when the earth's atmosphere was mostly comprised of carbon dioxide, stromatolites appeared and over billions of years eventually produced enough oxygen to raise the oxygen percentage to a point that other life forms could flourish. In other words, if it were not for stromatolites, none of use would be here today. Unfortunately, it was a very low tide when we visited them in Shark Bay, so they simply look like black rocks sticking out of the water...

The next stop was a small marine park that has been created outside of Denham, our stop for the second night. The park has been created solely through private funds and private labor of the last two decades. It served to rehabilitate injured marine animals found in the area as well as conduct research into sea turtles, dugongs, and other endangered species.


We were given a tour of the park by a volunteer who showed us stone fish, sea turtles, a variety of fishes, and even a few sharks that they had in a giant pond. The shaggy blob shown above is the seemingly unimpressive stone fish. The venom that the fish's dorsal spines can inject is said to be so painful that some people who have had the misfortune of being subjected to it, have amputated their own limbs in an attempt to find relief. If the shock caused by the massive onslaught of pain does not kill you outright, and you do not cut of your leg, a complete recovery can take more than a year.


After a relatively uneventful night of beers at the local pub in Denham we all got up extra early to head out to Monkey Mia (pronounced Myah) to see the dolphins. Monkey Mia is a place where several decades ago a family of dolphins started showing up and people started feeding them. This was of course a bad idea, but the highly intelligent dolphins caught on to the act and started relying almost solely on people for food. Things have of course gotten much better under professional marine biologist supervision and while the dolphins are still fed, it is only about 20% of their total daily intake.


Every morning the dolphins come into the shallow waters to be fed. Hundreds of tourist, controlled by parks officials, line the beach to take pictures and hopefully get picked to have the opportunity to feed a fish to one of the dolphins. Hey, Luck is my middle name.

Kalbarri National Park

After a very long drive north on the first day of the tour we overnighted in Kalbarri, a small fishing/crabbing town along the coast. Surprisingly, the road that runs north up the west coast of Australia does not actually run on the coast. It runs well inland for most of the way, which is great for the continued protection of the hundreds and hundreds of miles of pristine coastal ecosystems, but is very bad for road trippers. There is a lot less to look at. The hostel we stayed in was packed with no fewer than three other tour buses full of backpackers doing the exact same thing that I was.

After an early morning departure from Kalbarri we arrived at Kalbarri National Park. The highlight of the park is the gorge cut by the Murchison River, which we spent several hours exploring. Like most gorges, present day river has eroded its way down through ancient layers of sand stone that were originally laid down hundreds of millions of year ago in tidal flats. The result is beautiful banding of red and white rocks.

In addition to exploring the bottom of a small section of the gorge we went to Nature's Window, one of those places that every tourist has to get a "trophy shot". Regardless, the location is beautiful and we were able to sit on the cliffs and watch kangaroos come down to the river for a drink.

Pinnacles

The first tourist stop on the journey north was the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park. The pinnacles are located about 20 km from Cervantes, a small town in the middle of no where. The location is famous because of the pinnacles, huge limestone boulders that jut up out of the surrounding yellow sand. They vary in size and shape, but some of them are as much as 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) tall.

The pinnacles are ultimately formed from sea shells after a very long and complicated process that you can read about in the two links above if you are interested. Needless to say the geologic features make for great photography. I just wish that I had been there during sunset when the light had been better.

Easy Ridin'

After a much needed day off in Perth I set out north to explore the western coast of Australia. My eventual goal was Exmouth, a small outback town known for its outstanding scuba diving. The because I did not have my own car, the cheapest, easiaest, and best way to go north was on a backpacker tour bus. After getting several recommendations I signed up with Easy Riders.



I showed up at the Easy Riders shop just after 7:00 in the morning and slowly other people on the tour began to trickle in. Right around 7:30 a small tour bus showed up towing a trailer for all of the bags. This was going to be the transportation for the 1500+ km journey from Perth to Exmouth. Bags were thrown into the trailer, we piled aboard, and off we went. There were a total of 14 passengers on the bus, representing 7 nationalities: German(2), Irish(4), English(4), Swiss(1), Austrian(1), American(1), and Taiwanese(1). The vast majority of the people on the bus were in couples, which was a bit of a bummer, but hey, you get what you get.

The bus driver/tour director was a Perth native named Darren, who had been driving backpacker tour busses in Australia and Europe for years. Darren was a great driver and also a great informant of local history. He knew the names of all of the flora and fauna as well as many aboriginal legends associated with the places that we visited. He also provided details about the region from the time of its discovery up to the ongoing giant mining boom. In addition, and most importantly, he came out drinking with us in the evenings at the local pub. His girlfriend Emma, who was a riot of a good time, and did an outstanding job of keeping Darren awake during the long stretches of nothing was along as the copilot.

muirauqA

The last stop on my tour of southwest Australia was the Busselton Jetty. The 140-year-old jetty, measured at 1841 meters (more than 6000 feet), is the longest wooden jetty (pier) in the southern hemisphere. It has had a long and interesting history and is truly a corner stone of the Busselton community. There are even plaques to old timers who have passed on that were regular fixtures on it.

While the jetty itself is not all that interesting, the underwater observatory at the end of it is amazing. At the end of the jetty there is a 12 meters (40 feet) in diameter and it extends to the sea floor 8 meters (26 feet) below the water. There are 11 acrylic windows that allow the fish too look in and see the humans in their natural environment.

The posts for the pier can be seen through the windows. They are completely covered in different types of corals and other creatures. There are also numerous fishes swimming around. They move from window to window to examine the humans inside the tank.

Lake Cave

The Margret River region is mostly built on top of granite, but there is a large mass of limestone that runs north-south. This has resulted in more than 390 caves in the region. At present, three of them are open to the public. Rebecca and I chose Lake Cave to visit.

Margaret River

Margaret River (Margs), located approximately 10 miles from the Indian Ocean is the heart of two not often associated industries. It is the home of wine and surfing. The mediterranean climate makes the region a fabulous wine producing location and the winter storms far out at sea bring world class giant waves for the surfers. It is a bit like if you combined Napa and and Santa Cruz California. The tourism industry is also fully geared to cater to both passions.

Our first day in Margs Rebecca and I went on a wine tasting tour with Bushtucker Tours. We went to four wineries (Howard Park/Mad Fish, Brookland Valley, Knotting Hill, and Howling Wolves), a cheese factory, a chocolate factory, and a brewery (Bootleg Brewery). The day long outing also included a gourmet lunch. We tasted 40 wines and I finished off the day with a pint of Raging Bull at the brewery that came in at a whopping 7.1% alcohol.

The day had everything you could ask for: sunshine, good company, good alcohol, good food, and a driver, which allowed us to drink as much as we liked knowing that we would be dropped off right back at our hostel. Perfect! I couldn't have asked for more.

I was keen to try a little surfing, but the waves did not cooperate, and the water is REALLY cold. At least for a boy from Hawaii, that is. Instead, we also explored a bit of the coastline.

Tall Trees

December 6th, Rebecca and I headed south from Perth to the southwestern most corner of Australia, general referred to as the Margaret River region. Our first stop was tall tree country, which extends from Pemberton to Walpole. The region is known for its towering karri trees, a type of eucalyptus that can grow to a height of more than 70 meters (230 feet).

We started with the Gloucester Tree, 61 m tall. Situated just outside of Pemberton, it is the world's tallest fire lookout tree. There is a spiral of rebar spikes driven into the tree that you can climb to the top. The catch is that they are about a thick as a nickel and there is nothing under them to catch you if you fall. Being a young guy still, I decided to skip climbing to the top.

From Permberton we drove several hours south to Walpole and the Valley of the Giants, which is the location of the Tree Top Walk. The Tree Top Walk is a 600 meter (2000 feet) walkway that reaches a height of 40 meters (130 feet) above the ground. Due to the way it is designed, the entire thing noticeably bounces and sways as you walk across it. The experience is made more unsettling by the swaying of the trees around you.

Perth, Western Australia

Knowing that Australia is about the size of the contiguous 48 states, I flew from Melbourne out to Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Perth is the home of Rebecca, my traveling companion for my trip to Brazil last spring.

Bec and I went out to lunch on the beach and then took a driving tour of some of the highlights of Perth. I got to take my first dip into the very cold Indian Ocean. The best stop was Kings Park, which offered beautiful views of downtown.

Perth, situated on the banks of the Swan River, has a small central business district and a very American-esque suburban sprawl: very large and expanding very very rapidly. House prices here have doubled in the last 24 months and the building and mining boom is so big that there is a serious shortage of labor.

Perth has a very laid back, casual outdoor lifestyle that is centered around the beach. When people are sunned out at the end of the weekend, they all head to the pub for a Sunday session. Sunday session is a massive social event where hundreds of young people hang out drinking from about 4 in the afternoon until well into the evening. They are a great tradition and I enjoyed going to one immensely.

Melbourne

Joanne and I parted ways in Melbourne. She had to go back to work. I am extremely thankful because she took time off of work and drove my butt all over southeastern Australia for more than a week. My trip would not have been anywhere near as nice if I didn't have her to show me around.

Thanks Jo!

I spent a couple of days hanging out in St. Kilda, a really cool neighborhood a little ways south of downtown Melbourne. Jo and I had been going full tilt for so long that it was nice to just hang out for a day doing nothing more than laundry and internet stuff. I stayed at a place called Base. It is a new breed of hostels that are springing up that are designed and built with backpackers in mind. Right now they are only in OZ and NZ, so if you make it down this way, be sure to check them out.

Anyway, here are a few pictures from Melbourne.

After a Sunday spent resting and catching up on chores I set out to explore the city on a Monday. This of course meant that half of the museums that I wanted to go to were closed. It also meant that Chunky Move, a dance group my parents saw when they were in Australia was not performing. Oh well, I guess I will just have to come back. I did make it to the Melbourne Museum, which was a modern state of the art building with great collections. It even had a full blown rain forest inside it.

On the whole I would have to say that I enjoyed Melbourne more than Sydney. I base this mainly on my feeling that I would be happier living in Melbourne than in Sydney. Sydney was just too big and urban for me.