This Easter, we had a surprise visitor from the US--FLAT SAM (A 2-d version of my neice Samantha mailed to us as a school assignment). Our job was to show FLAT SAM a bit of Australia.....so this blog is from her.
I arrived in Western Australia after 5 days in the international mail--boy was it cramped! (although I hear flying coach in Virgin Pacific is worse). Kris & Nathan were going to Albany for Easter and promised to take me on their vacation.
Friday, 10 April
We woke up at 6 am on Friday morning, trying to beat the traffic to Albany on the south coast of Western Australia. By 8 am the car was packed with camping equipment, and we were on the road. After joining a steady stream of cars heading down the Albany Hwy, Kris began a series of frantic calls to try and secure a campsite in the holiday traffic. 
At about 1:30 pm, we arrived in the Pronogerup mountains about 30 minutes from Albany. The campsite was already full, but they made room for us to pitch our tiny tent among the Aussie's portable castles. Since it was a beautiful day, Kris and Nathan wanted to get into see a bit of Albany and the Southern ocean. We had lunch in the sunshine, went to the county courthouse, and tripped out to West Cape Howe to watch the sunset over the Southern Ocean. The sunset was more dramatic because Middleton Beach is one of the best hanggliding areas in Australia and we watched the gliders soar over the ocean before drifting down to join us on the beach.
I got the chance to hike a little bit of the Bibbulman Track, one of the longest hiking trails in Australia. Albany is where the Bibbulman Track starts...Kris wants to hike it all someday when her feet get better!
Saturday, 11 April
We woke early to head to Albany for a tour of the town. After a quick stop at the farmer's market, Kris and Nathan headed to the waterfront to take in the Festival of the Sea. Albany's town festival featured local Australian wines, fresh seafood, cooking demonstrations, entertainment.
After tasting a "yabbie pie"(a pot pie made with crayfish), we decided to take a break and head out for another event across town--the "youth national soapbox championships"at the top of the hill. We expected amateur constructions of plywood, bike wheels, and homemade paintjobs, but were shocked to find moulded plastic bodies racing downhill at breakneck speed. We talked to one of the organisers and find that there are 3 major clubs in Western Australia that have soapbox races all year long. I got a chance to sit in one of the winning racers.
We went back to the Festival of the Sea to watch the boat race. Teams had 4 hours to build their own boat from limited supply of plywood and glue. You wanted to do a good job because you had to paddle or sail your construction 200 m to the jetty and back. I picked my favorite boat for the race. One of the boats collapsed before it left shore, 4 others made it into the water, only 2 completed the full trip.
For dinner, we went to a restaurant right on the beach called the Squid Shack. I ate fresh squid! and it was delicious. The best squid I ever ate. Kris and Nathan had some shark too, but the squid was my favorite.
We decided to head back to the tent for an early night since we had a big day the next morning. Kris and Nathan crawled into the tent to find it overrun with ants! It had rained on and off all day, and one of the zippers had been open a tiny bit. The ants took shelter from the rain in Kris' sleeping bag. Several hours later, after a bit of bug spray and many, many sleeping bag inspections we all hit the hay.
Sunday 12 April
While Kris and Nathan were up early fixing breakfast, I watched the kids in the tents next door were finding Easter eggs. Would you believe the Easter bunny didn't bring me any FLAT EGGs? Kris and Nathan had planned a morning boat trip, a visit to the whaling museum, with an evening Easter service. We arrived at the jetty at 8 am. The wind was blowing and the waves looked rough. It was a scuba trip! And I got to come along too!
After packing up the scuba gear (including Kris' new wetsuit:), we climbed aboard the dive boat for a very bumpy 30 trip to Seal Cove (I would have gotten sick but Kris made me take dramamine). At Seal Cove, I could see at least 30 seals lay on the rocks near the water. As soon as I jumped in the water, the seals dived into see the divers.
The seals were mostly white, with big black eyes, and tiny ears. They could swim so fast--and were very cute and playful--they even decided to play with the hood of Nathan's wetsuit. I wish I could have gotten a picture but Kris' camera doesn't work in water that deep. One of the other seals nibbled on a diver's hand--and I could see they had big teeth like a pitbull. I'm glad they were only playing!
After playing with the seals, I got to visit a shipwreck--the Cheynes II, a whaling boat. The boat had been sunk by purpose--blown up by dynamite. Now it was covered in coral and sea grass. I could still see all the masts and portholes, now it was covered in coral and sea grass and surrounded by bright coloured tropical fish.
After our dive, we went to visit WHALE WORLD where I got to see the Cheynes IV--the sister ship to the wreck in the ocean. The ship had a big harpoon gun on the front, a huge engine (it used almost a ton of fuel a day), and a big winch to help pull the whales to shore. We watched a 3-D movie about whales and took a tour of the huge factory that used to make whale oil and ambergris for perfume. Whaling is outlawed in Australia, so the ship is just a museum to show what they used to do.
The museum took so long that we missed church! We sang Easter hymns all the way back to the tent. We didn't have any ants but Kris checked her sleeping bag just in case.
Monday 13 April
Our last day in the Pronogerups was beautiful. We went to see "art in the park" a collection of sculptures that are set in the national parkat the foot of the mountains. My favorite was this one.--wait, that's a plant.
After looking at the art, we went for a hike up to Castle Rock, in the Prongerups. The Prongerups are the oldest mountains in the world...more than 1400 million years old. They are home to 1000 different types of flowering plants and more than 78 different types of birds. When we got to the top, there was a cool boulder that weighed 140 tonnes balanced on its end. We climbed all the way to the very top and you could see for miles.
On our way down we stopped at Maleeya's Thai restaurant. Nathan said the spring rolls were the best he ever had. I had fish curry--it was very spicy so I shared most of it with Nathan. after lunch, we drove home. We stopped at the "big ram" a giant sheep in the town of Wagin tha has WOOLARAMA every year--where they shear the sheep and sell the wool.
I'm hoping I can stay a while longer in Australia--because Kris and Nathan want to take me snorkelling on the Ningaloo Reef in a few months!
