The Somewhat ShorterTrip to

	April 17-21	Perth	Visited Brian & James at their new home	Whale sharks, Exmouth, WA
	April 21-24	Road Trip North	Perth to Exmouth via Geraldton and Monkey Mia
	April 24-26	Exmouth	Snorkeling with the Whale Sharks and some diving
	April 26-29	Road Trip South	Exmouth to Perth via Carnarvon and Kalbarri.
	April 30- May 3	Melbourne	Sightseeing and shopping

Mon 4/17/00 I'm here! Arrived in Perth after 19 hours flight time and settled into Brian and James' new house 30 km east of the city. While Brian lectured at Curtin University James and I went for a hike at a reservoir nearby and looked at the local architecture. They're in a nice, woodsy area. Low, brick houses with corrugated tin roofs are the norm. The yard is filled with fruit trees and birds (green parrots, cookaburras, magpies), which makes for a loud morning chorus. Then there's the night sky with the Southern Cross and, next week when the moon wanes and moves out of the way, the Magellenic clouds and other wonders. The moon, by the way, is upside down here.

James thinks about letting me in

Fri 4/21/00 Drove from Perth to Geraldton today, up on the coast. On the way we stopped at Nambung National Park, the site of these amazing limestone pinnacles. Found only in an area of 80 acres or so, these spikes range from 6 inches to 15 feet tall. It's quite a sight! The drive up was beautiful. The countryside is fairly flat, with some rolling hills. Most of the way was desert, light chapparal with areas of eucalyptus forest. Banksia is everywhere, a shrub covered with cylindrical orange lantern-like flowers. Toward the coast the terrain changed to rolling grasslands with tree-covered ridges, very much like Marin county west of Petaluma. It's beautiful, pristine, and very quiet. Tonight we're heading out in search of a lobster dinner (local specialty).

Sat 4/22/00 Drove from Geraldton to Monkey Mia today. We are now at the westernmost point of Australia, on a penninsula with the Indian Ocean on the west and Shark Bay on the east. The trip up brought us through an area with few towns, mostly just sheep stations and truck stops. This area sees the famous Australian "road trains", truck rigs with up to three trailers. These monsters can have 60 wheels and run 55 meters (180 feet) long.

We also solved another Australian mystery. All day yesterday Brian (vK) claimed he was seeing melons growing by the side of the road. James and I humored him but didn't believe it. Today we all saw them, and stopped to check. They turned out to be giant, grapefruit-sized puffball mushrooms.

At the southern end of Shark Bay, brown rocky bumps and towers rise from the bay floor nearly to the surface. They're called stromatolites, and they're famous. Brown rocky bumps, famous? There's a good reason. They're created by microscopic cyanobacteria growing in the water. These bacteria have been around for 3.5 billion years, and for two billion years they were alone on Earth, slowly creating the oxygen that made us possible, bubble by bubble. This is one of two places on Earth where they still grow. We also passed miles of white beaches covered not in sand but tiny cockle shells in drifts over 20 feet deep. These shells become cemented together over time, and ancient beds of them are quarried now, cut into blocks to use as a building material.

The plan for tomorrow is to get up early and go to the Easter service at the Anglican church in Denham. I located the chapel today. Like many of the historic building around here, it's built of shell blocks.

Sun 4/23/00 Went to Easter service this morning at St. Andrew's by the Sea (the westernmost church in Australia?), and it was packed and charming. Savvy, too: The collection hymn was "All to Jesus I Surrender." Brian and James lent me the car for the drive in and I made it with no problems. I did sweat pretty fiercely during a section of road with no line down the middle. Only used the windshield wipers instead of the turn signals once.

I thought I'd probably miss the dolphins today, but Nicky (pictured) and her calf Nomad came into shore just as I returned. A big crowd forms on shore. A ranger keeps everybody in line, ankle deep in water. The dolphins come as close as they wish and eye the people. It's hard to tell which species is the one on display. The dolphins definitely seem amused by it.

They feed the dolphins a very small number of fish at random times to keep them visiting but without creating dependence. I got to help with feeding, by choosing people from the crowd, handing them a fish, and watching that nobody's feet were mistaken for snacks. James took a photo of me showing Nicky that the bucket was empty when lunch was over.

Mon 4/24/00 Ok, today was a totally bizarre day. It started with hours of worrying if we were going to able to continue the trip at all: the car was missing on one of its four cylinders. Denham is a tiny town and this was a four day holiday weekend and it didn't look like we would be able to see a mechanic until Wednesday, the day we are supposed to be seeing the whale sharks 600 km north. After some whinging and complaining to the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) the town's overwhelmed mechanic agreed to have a look. Our little hope barometer swung up and down wildly as the diagnosis went from ignition, to valve damage, to bad sparkplug, finally to a clogged injector. We decided to risk heading on.

Paul and his magic doodad

So off we drove, with windows down to spare the engine from having to run the A/C. Not ten minutes out of town, blam! A huge noise. I thought a brick had come through the driver side window but an instant later the car was filled with feathers. A large bird had come through the window and exploded on impact, blasting feathers, bird parts and carnage all over the inside of the car. We spent a half hour by the side of the road cleaning up. This was definitely the weirdest thing I've experienced traveling. We were pretty shook up, but carried on.

We kept our eyes peeled all the way up and, thankfully, we didn't encounter another animal on the road (or air). As we made our way North toward Exmouth, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn, latitude 23.5°S and continued to the tip of the penninsula. The Big Dipper, not visible from Perth and last night touching the horizon, is solidly up above it tonight. Finally! We made it here to the Potshot Hotel Resort. Tomorrow we can explore Exmouth and see what we're in for.

Tue 4/25/00 Today was a much better day. We went to the Indian Ocean side of the penninsula today and saw emus (right) and a kangaroo on the way. I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get the kangaroo. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was incredibly cute. There were also six foot high termite mounds, standing bright red above the grassland. (I'll have to get a shot of these later).

We went to Turquoise Bay to snorkel. The reefs here are very close to shore, easy snorkeling distance. Unfortunately, the recent rains have (apparently) brought lots of nutrients to the waters close to shore so there are millions of jellyfish in the water. We tried to swim through them but there's just no way to do it without getting stung. We wore T shirts but the buggers got our legs. These jellies are not the lethal Queensland type, they're just annoying like ant bites. Still, 5 minutes was enough to convince me to give it up. Too bad.. we saw lots of large fish in the few seconds we could spend looking around. I took this picture while wading near shore. The white thread-like tentacles underneath are the nasty bits.

James and I go on the whale shark observation trip tomorrow morning, then at night I have a night dive booked afterwards. Tomorrow night is going to be the annual coral spawn. Each year 8 or 9 days after the April and May full moons, the coral reef releases clouds of eggs and sperm into the water. The entire reef does this all at once. It's supposed to be a fascinating thing to see. I'll report tomorrow!

Wed 4/26/00 WOW! What a day! Whale Shark Day for James and me (Brian vK stayed ashore). We were picked up at 7:30 and brought to Tantabiddi pier, and ferried by an inflatable to the Diving Ventures boat, about 18 passengers plus staff. They ran us outside the reef while a spotter plane circled over the waters looking for whale sharks. Andy (right) gave a briefing, explaining that we were to keep three meters away from the sharks and not harrass or touch them. After a bit we stopped and six of us did a one-tank scuba dive whilst the others snorkeled above. When we surfaced, the snorkelers reported that a whale shark had passed right by them! Today was a lucky day: instead of spending the day searching for sharks, today they found us.

Group one gets ready for our third viewing

So the boat positioned itself ahead of the whale's path and in teams of ten we jumped in. The shark passed right through our group, and we gave chase for three or four minutes. It was unbelievable. This fish was a male, easily 15 to 18 feet long, covered with white spots, and accompanied by an entourage of small fish riding ahead of its mouth and under its fins. The picture at the top of this page just barely gives you the idea of what it was like! It was truly beautiful, worth the whole trip here to see! It swims with its wide mouth slightly open to filter and feed on microscopic animal life (krill), just like a whale.

After lunch and a swim we came in and returned to the hotel, and I immediately I went out again for a night dive on the reef to see the coral spawn. Apparently it's quite a sight as the corals release tiny eggs and clouds of sperm. The phenomenon is accompanied by a feeding frenzy by small fish and clouds of tiny 1 cm long red worms which get into everything: your ears, hair etc. I say "apparently" because my dive buddy Sandy and I didn't see it at all even looking for an hour. Some divers did see some, but we saw only a cool moray eel and a few fish, and not much else. A kind of a dud dive. Still, it's a privilege to be down there at all, and you can't dictate your entertainment requirements to Mother Nature (perhaps she had a headache tonight?).

It was beautiful and relaxing here... a definitely wonderful holiday spot. I'd come back in a heartbeat. There are lots of dive sites I'd like to visit still! But tomorrow we will start heading back. First stop, Carnarvon to see the auto mechanic.

I got the underwater film developed from yesterday, and shot the photos with the digital camera. They came out well enough to put here till I can get proper scans. Here are some pictures of the whale shark we saw yesterday:

The working end

From above. He's about 5 or 6 meters long.

Hundreds of small fish ride the pressure wave in front of the shark.

Larger fish ride underneath and under the fins.

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Thu 4/27/00 Left Exmouth today and drove down to Carnarvon. The drive down was uneventful (a nice change). We passed some amazing termite mounds on the way.

We passed through Coral Bay, near Exmouth, another big dive spot. There were massive quantities of jellies again so snorkeling was out. While the whale shark pictures were getting developed (below!) we took a glass-bottomed boat tour of the nearby reef. It was OK, but not on par with really being in the water. Coral Bay makes the six city blocks of Exmouth look like a teeming metropolis. A place to come back to.

We arrived in Carnarvon, a fishing and agricultural town down the coast. It's very ... quiet.

We're staying at the Capricorn Holiday Park. As we checked in, we realized something was amiss when an awkward silence followed when we answered that no, in fact, we hadn't brought our own bed linens. Our accomodation is a two bedroom modular home. I don't think they get many one night guests here. There is no phone in the room here here, so I won't be able to update the page tonight.

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Fri 4/28/00 Today we drove from Carnarvon to Kalbarri, passing Shark Bay and the penninsula where we spent Easter. It was a quick uneventful drive through the bush. The terrain was mostly flat with some gentle undulations. As we went south the vegetation changed from low, flat scrub to a thick, low eucalyptus forest, to open grasslands, and finally to the shrubby stuff more common in the southwest: banksia, blackboy and tall bushes. We visited the scenic gorges of the Murchison River in Kalbarri National Park along the way. The Bush

After checking into our cabin in Kalbarri and having afternoon tea (note properly extended pinkies), we toured around to the south a bit and looked at the coastline. The Murchison River reaches the Indian Ocean at Kalbarri. To the south are rugged red sandstone cliffs, covered with light heath, dropping into the jade-colored ocean. When were there (alas, without the camera), the sun was setting behind an incoming storm, and the scenery was breathtaking. We also saw five kangaroos today, and also: no pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it, really cute and hoppy. Tonight: a nice dinner. We've all had it with "____ and chips" roadhouse fare.

Postscript: we had a great seafood dinner at Echoes, then stumbled across the Gilgai Tavern which was having a night of "Sax and the Single Girl". SSATSG is a five-foot four firecracker named Anne Bavin. Imagine 90 pounds of energy, red hair, in a black miniskirt, playing the sax and singing her heart out (not at the same time). Rock, blues, oldies, Beetles to Creedence to Elvis, and a gravely voice (think Bonnie Tyler in "It's a Heartache"). What a total blast! We stayed for two sets and a few beers. I got her CD's.

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Sat 4/29/00 Drove from Kalbarri back to Perth today. In the morning we saw the daily Feeding of the Pelicans at the Kalbarri marina.

We drove back to the Red Bluff overlook. It's quite beautiful as you can see. I just wish we'd gotten it with the sunset colors!

We drove down the coast most of the day. It's noticably cooler this week and the bugs are only 10% of what they were on the way up. We stopped on the way in the preserved historic settlement town Greenough to see the small stone houses, churches, store and gaol (jail). Also met one of the few remaining residents:

The remaing couple hundred miles went by quickly. Now we're back in Perth. I'll be packing tonight, tomorrow I fly on to Melbourne. (There's a small chance that I might not be able to update the webpage during the rest of the trip, depending on the availability of a telephone jack).

Final dinner in Perth

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Sun 4/30/00 Flew from Perth to Melbourne today. No movie this flight but the live entertainment was better: the Western Bulldogs football club on their way home. Freemantle's team was in the baggage claim area when we arrived, so there I was in the middle of two footie teams. Is this a great country or what? Taxied to the Palm Court B&B. Looks like there's no telephone access at all here & the pay phone is broken. I'll only be able to update if I sneak down the hall and plug into their phone line. May have to wait until I return home.

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Mon 5/1/00 Rested and read this morning, then spent the afternoon walking around the shops of Swan St. and Flinders St. Bought some more Michael Leunig books! Found the Meat Market Craft Center and the Queen Victoria Market closed, will do those tomorrow. Then I took some "Melbourne at Night" photos.

Downtown Melbourne over the Yarra river

The brand new Melbourne Aquarium. 29 people are in the hospital with Legionnaire's disease due to a bit of a problem with the air conditioning system. I think I'll save this one for the next trip.

The Crown Entertainment Complex features a casino, all the upscale shops, etched glass and marble, water fountains synchronized to classical music, a light-show and descending chandelier system, and, on the hour, exploding gas balls. It's a sight.

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Tue 5/2/00 My last day in Melbourne. Spent lots of time walking around. Went to the Queen Victoria Market, a city-block sized covered bazaar were you can buy everything from budgies to t-shirts (lots of t-shirts) and tacky souveniers. There's also a farmer's market and food court featuring wonderful food, everything from Italian sweets and fresh toasted foccacia sandwiches, to Tasmanian Camembert and kangaroo steaks. All this real food and yet people were eating at Macdonald's across the street, very hard to understand.

Skyline from the Yarra River

At the Queen Vic Market

In the evening, had dinner with Darren Reynoldson and some of his friends. I met Darren last time I was here, and it was great to see him again. (Good luck in Amsterdam!)

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Wed 5/3/00 Flew home this morning (with the keys to my room at Palm Court in my pocket, again), seated in the Screaming Baby section for 13 hours. Did customs in LA and flew up to SFO. It's a beautiful day here, I had a wonderful trip, and it's great to be home!

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