Friday 9 May--Dongara to Denham

Waking in the Priory Hotel after 10 blissful hours of holiday rest (with visions of skimpies dancing in our heads), Nathan and I rose to explore Dongara/Port Dennison. These 2 towns divided by the Irwin River have merged to become the LOBSTER capital of the world. With this in mind, we went in search of the crawfish/lobster factory, which featured tours (and I hoped free tastings). But alas, the tours were no longer available to the public and Nathan and I settled for scones and coffee from the Port Store in Port Dennison. With a little coffee, Nathan was ready for playtime.

We wandered the marina, learning about the hundreds of shipwrecks that litter this part of the Australian coast. The sea floor is mostly sand--so the water is an amazing turquise colour, luring sailors into the hidden reefs that dot the coastline. The whole coast is named the Batavia coast after its most famous shipwreck, and really there are too many less notable wrecks to count.

Not all of the water is so beautiful, as we discovered the river estuary had turned the water into a less than appealing sewage colour. For some reason, this part of the town didn't make the brochures.

From there we explored the streets lined with 100 year old figs. With about 6 shops total, Nathan and I managed 3 major shopping purchases.

1) a new camp stove (we forgot a peice of our backpacking stove in the US).
2) a guide to free camping in WA, including our next destination
3) 2 books for the trip--in our hurry to leave, we hadn't packed junk fiction. This is unacceptable for a vacation.

With these essential purchases made, we hit the road. Just up the coast is Geraldton, where we stopped at the HMAS Sydney memorial. This ship lost 645 crew in a battle with a German boat in WWII. For the last 60 years, the location of both wrecks has been a hotly debated mystery. Then just weeks ago, the wreck of the HMAS Sydney was discovered. We agreed it would be a perfect time to visit Geraldton's famous memorial. The names are listed in black granite, a woman waits looking out to sea, and 645 silver seagulls arc over the memorial site.

Our next destination was a highpoint--a visit to the Hutt River Province. The Principality of the Hutt River Province seceded from Australia on the 21 Day April 1970. Rebelling after the control of wheat prices, this farmer on a large station in Western Australia, filed the necessary paperwork to become an internationally recognized principality. After buying numerous souveneirs, Prince Leonard graced us with a royal audience, and this message for Gretchen in Minnesota.




After the thrill of meeting royalty, the next 4 hours of travel zoomed by. We arrived in Denham (Shark Bay World Heritage Site) at 8:15--about 15 minutes after every restaurant in town closed. The proprietor at the Bay Lodge called the pub and got the cook to agree to stay late for us--but the only thing still on the menu when we arrived was.....fish and chips.

Following dinner, we decided to walk off 2 days worth of fish and chips along the waterfront. We didn't get far before discovering that Denham was hosting its Fishing Fiesta, 5 days of fishing with all categories of competition. AND Nathan without his pole. He didn't forget it in our frantic packing, but it couldn't fit in his tiny 4X4 without becoming an obstacle to getting in the front seat.

Without his pole, Nathan did what all frustrated fisherfolk do--walked up to other people fishing and asked them what was biting, what sort of bait they had, the weight of line etc. This interrogation led to our introduction to Gavin a garrulous tree-loper from Mandurah (about 10 minutes from one of Nathan's clinics.) In 20 minutes of conversation well-lubricated by XXXX beer and fishing stories, we learned about Gavin's grandfather's fishing record, his years of marriage, relationship with his children, childhood vacations in Denham, and more. It was "mateship"--the casual bonding of Australians in just about any situation. And it wouldn't have happened without fishing interrogation, I'll never be able to tease Nathan about his questionning again.

We didn't really get our after-dinner walk in, so we waddled off to the Bay Lodge making plans to get up early to burn off double fish n chips with a morning run. Secretly, I thought "running on vacation? Ha!" but Nathan promised he'd get up early. "I will if you will," I bargained.

Tomorrow: Denham, Off roading in Francois Peron National Park, and our free camp site.

(Holiday Blogs delayed!) Thurs 8 May

Nathan and I just returned from a fantastic vacation in the North West of Australia. Rather than try to cram all the cool stuff from our holiday in one overly long Blog entry, we've decided to replay our holiday delayed by about 10 days.

Thursday 8 May--
Work was frantic (as always), but more so with our impending vacation and the fact that I had been sick for the days before. I had promised Nathan that we would hit the road by 4 pm. I told everyone else I needed to leave by noon, in the hopes that we might actually get out the door on time.

While I was scrambling to fit 10 days work in 8 hours (I went in at 6 am!) Nathan had the responsibility of preparing for our road trip. He had new tires, a car service, upgraded his broken CD player, and packed the car with the items I had set out the night before. (Unfortunately, we forgot to pack CDs so with no radio for most of the trip we brushed up on show tunes and hymns).

He began calling at noon (are you ready to go yet? no--by 2pm.) At 2 pm (are you ready to go yet? one more call.) At 2:45, I actually left work to finish off the packing still making calls to my admin Annie (who is a saint) on my cellphone all the way home. We quickly grabbed Jake (for a trip to the Kitty hotel) and began our vacation.

After dropping Jake off, we managed to just catch rush hour traffic on our way out of Perth. Finally at about 5:00 pm, we were outside of the city, heading North into the Australian bush. Within 45 minutes, we began to relax and realized neither of us had eaten anything all day. We made a quick stop at the GinGin Hotel for a beer and classic fish and chips. While waiting, we chatted with the locals who were amazed that we were planning to drive another 3 hours after dinner.

You see, kangaroos are a lot like deer. They come out at dusk and linger along the roadside, waiting to leap in front of your car, in mass suicide attempts. Unlike deer, kangaroo eyes do not reflect your headlights, so you can't actually see them until you are within about 50 m of your bumper. Driving at night becomes a video game--trying to avoid the roos, and still keep a reasonable average speed. Most Australian's don't drive past 5 pm, its too aggravating with the potential loss of property and life. That's one of the reasons the locals thought we were nuts to grab our dinner and head for the car.

BUT, Nathan and I have not lost our habits of a decade of roadtrips together, and carried on to Dongara/Port Dennison another 2.5 hours along the highway. Dongara/Port Dennison is a seaside town, planted with beautiful trees, dotted with classic Australian shops. But, you can't really appreciate any of that after dark, so we went directly to the Priory Lodge Historic Inn. It is limestone and brick, with deep verandas to give shade from the Australian sun. The Inn was built in 1881, serving as a hotel, then nunnery, then girls school, then hotel again..

With this colourful history, it was rather shocking to enter the bar and discover the barmaid in "skimpies." This colourful Australian term means she was just dressed in bra, underwear and high heels, serving beer to the patrons. I can only imagine what the nuns thought. (of course, the nuns might have been more troubled if the male bar staff had been required to dress in their underwear and high heels.)

So not lingering long in the bar, we made our way to a reasonable room (nothing fancy, but clean) to rest up for the rest of our big vacation.

Tomorrow-exploring the City, and a trip to Shark Bay and Denham.

I Confess!

Okay, okay, it's all my fault.

I am, of course, referring to the fact that, hours after I trimmed the playoff beard, just a little bit, just on my neck, the Wild started their downhill slide. Who knew about the power of the playoff beard? Just in case it affected any other part of my life, I haven't shaved it again. Who knows, maybe we'll start a tradition of the promotion beard, or the personal-best-in-the-marathon beard.

Either way, we thought that we could turn our attention back to our favorite part of the blog. You guessed it, it's time for another installment from (dum dum duuuuuuummmmmm...)

Mystery Fruits!

The fruit this time is called a Dragon Fruit, and it is like a small pink pineapple, or a large pink pine cone -- I guess the key words are pink, and piney. A little bit too flash on the outside, though, since it raised expectations for inside. It was kind of like...a bland kiwifruit. A pink, piney, bland kiwi.

But it's very photogenic. Which is more than I can say for the beard.

(I was sure that i'd be able to edit this photo once in the blog, but it's just not happening. And it's way too late, and i'm far too lazy, to delete it and add another. Sorry if this causes any neck pain. - nm-)

The Playoff Beard

Today we'll take a question from the mailbag...

Chad Jones from the USA asked an excellent question. He was curious whether the playoff beard popular with players in, and fans of the NHL should start from bare skin, or whether we just keep the old whiskers and stop trimming.

I must confess that, while I am a long-time hockey fan, I have only recently been able to grow a beard (and even that is debatable), so some of the nuances are a little sketchy. I think that the important thing is that you put away the razor for the duration of your team's run in the playoffs, not whether you use it first.

I've made the choice to show my face on this continent for the first time, and shave (or at least cut back to two games' worth) first.

We'll keep a playoff beard update until the Wild are out...or win the cup. Which, after this last game, I was worried that I would be shaving again far too soon, but they pulled it out. I think they were actually trying to give me palpitations.

By the way, for a good laugh, check out the songs on the sites below.
The Teenage Song is a good cultural reference about contemporary adolescence in Australia -- don't miss the vegemite jar on the table (yes, they really eat that stuff).
The other is just fun.

As I was saying, Diving...

ahem, before we were so RUDELY interrupted by all this focus on hockey (and potatoes), last weekend we were incredibly lucky to be asked by Gaylene and Colin to join some local divers for a night dive, and then head out to nearby island for a reef dive the next morning. With the help of Gaylene's underwater camera we can finally show you some of the cool stuff we saw!

The night dive was freaky at first, but fine once we were underwater. It really was pitch black (as you can see from the photo), so we really don't have any pictures of that. The next day, however, was beautiful weather, sunny, cool (wetsuits are incredibly hot when you are out of the water), and not very much swell (some of us get seasick easy).

The colors of the coral and sea grass were amazing. There were angel fish, large schools of bream (or something else silver and shiny), crayfish, cone shells (ooh, deadly).

But near the end of our dive, we saw something truly rare, a dolphin came down and swam a circle or two around us before it went off to play with others. Nathan said he about had to change his wetsuit when he saw this large, fast, grey object swimming at him (not a shark, not a shark, please not a shark). While I would willingly pay money for to swim with the dolphins, a close encounter with a wild one was spectacular! i knew there was a reason we finally got our dive tickets.

U.N. International Year of the Potato

I heard something interesting on the radio on the way into work today. 2008 is the U.N. International Year of the Potato. Working for the Diversity Council, I have been aware of other UN initiatives such as International Year of the Woman, Year of Struggle Against Racism etc. So, I have been blissful unaware of the other important U.N. International years.

2002 - International Year of Mountains 2003 - International Year of Freshwater 2004 - International Year of Rice 2005 - International Year for Sport and Physical Education 2009 International Year of the Nudibranch

U.N. International Year of the Potato. Why not? The potato has half the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C, has no fat or cholesterol, has less calories and greater satiety than other foods, and takes less water than rice and wheat to grow. There are more than 2000 varieties of potato grown in South America that can grow in almost any conditions (while the U.S. and Europe settles for about 15 varieties that grow in pretty narrow conditions). So I supposed taking all that in to work,U.N. International Year of the Potato could have a big influence on hunger and poverty.

Isn't public radio great?

Nudibranchs vs. NHL

Well--I just have to say I think Nathan's blog demonstrates something clearly about our friends. Despite the provocative scuba pictures, and the titulating use of the word Nudibranchs, our friends really care much more about the status of the hockey playoffs than just about anything else.

While there is a surprising amount of local recreational hockey in Perth. Nathan can play Sunday, Monday, and Thursday nights easy.( of course you are always popular if you are a goalie), we have had an amazing deficit of NHL.

Nathan has to satisfy himself with the checking stats and game synopses nightly, and then trying to draw a hockey conversation out of me by quoting various numbers and rankings. Unfortunately, I tend to be more interested in watching the game than comparing save percentages and line ups. (oh, really...uh huh, 37%, wow, you don't say...)

We are contemplating the devilishly expensive cable options (which still only show one or two games a week) but so far have delayed because of the endless contracts and cancellation clauses. In the meantime, its clear you hockey friends are the folks who will respond to Nathan's dire need: swapping endless statistics, creating a virtual hockey bar (the replacement Buffalo Wild Wings where we spent every play off game while living in Rochester), and the trash-talking/side-betting hockey mates who are his link to play-off excitement.

Thanks for being there on the important issues. Kristin

p.s. Nikki--while I'll never give up hope on the Devils, I'm letting the Wild be my long-shot hope!