Monday, Nov 3 - back to Santa Barbara!

Pic: Sydney skyline

Up at 2:45 AM. Dumped the suitcases into the car and we took off, Mark driving, to the Perth airport in drizzle. The roads were empty and we got to the airport in 30 minutes and left the car at Avis, and got into line at Qantas. Bob requested a window seat for the flight over Australia to Sydney and we got to our gate, got flat whites (coffee) and got onto our 737..and Bob got to his seat only to find a blank wall instead of a window. Quite claustrophobic and irritating, although it was cloudy most of the way over. Bob could flatten his seat and catch a glimpse of view. Anyway, we got to Sydney at noon and Mark headed over to United and we continued onto the international terminal for our Qantas flight.

We managed to get rid ourselves of our remaining Oz dollars. Couldn’t find an outlet to plug my computer into and the battery was low, so blogging was impossible. Finally go onto our 747 and had the wonderful luck of having an empty seat between us for the 13+ hour flight. Qantas gave us a good lunch, lots of movies and TV, and we popped a sleeping pill and in no time were cruising into LAX. Picked up our luggage, cleared customs, got outside. I managed to find my cell phone buried deep in my suitcase and called Mark who had just gotten to Budget where we met him a

few minutes later. What luck that our flights were so well coordinated and neither was late!

We drove home, arriving at 2 pm, said goodbye to Mark who was anxious to get to his house and see, his cat, Simpson. We called the Cat House Hotel and went down to pick up Jane. They had taken great care of her and given her a lot of attention and food and she looked pretty good.

Spent the rest of the day cleaning up the mineral residue on the floors that had been flooded by the water heater, but the new heater was all installed and we had hot water. Could have been a real disaster had Phebe not noticed the leak! Thanks millions to her, Curry and Hilary!!!

Picked up Chinese food, ate and went to bed!

Tuesday, Nov 4 - recovering from jet lag, but as I type…Barack has just been elected!! Wow!!!

Bob saw 152 bird species, of which 38 were life birds (including nine new parrots!!).

Sunday, Nov 2 - Exploring Fremantle

Pics: Fremantle wterfront, Maritime Museum, stern of the Batavia, Fremantle cafes

Sunny and warm! Mark got up early and drove off to investigate some local birding sites. Bob and I slept in until eight. Cooked up some breakfast and Mark returned with some great shots of the sun rising behind Perth.

Bob and I set off for Fremantle about eleven and easily found parking at the harbor. Walked over to the Maritime Museum Shipwreck Gallery which has a wonderful exhibit of the recovery of the wreck of the Batavia, a Dutch ship that hit a reef in 1629 off the coast near where Geraldton is today. The 300+ passengers were stranded on two small islands while the captain and officers went off in a small boat to Java to get help. When the commander returned months later, he found soldiers on one island and mutineers on the other with a few enslaved survivors and evidence that the mutineers had murdered ~120 others. Quite a gruesome tale, but fascinating to see how timbers, canons, pottery, etc were found and reassembled 300 years later.



We walked around the downtown of this pretty city full of tourists and locals, and found an internet café where I found out that Phebe, Curry and Hilary had taken care of our plumbing problems and we will be able to take a hot shower when we get home! Many thanks to all!!


We drove back to our trailer, trying and failing to find diesel on a Sunday. We watched Fox Sports for a while as Perth was hosting international air racing: small planes competing for the best time for going horizontally and vertically through a complicated series of inflated pylons placed throughout the wide Swan. Quite a sight and the best possible weather conditions for showing off Perth/Fremantle. Check it out on TV Sunday.

We drove back downtown at six and wandered by the myriad of crowded sidewalk cafes, finally choosing Sandino’s where we started out by sharing half a kilo of chili mussels that was fabulous with lots of spicy tomato sauce. We followed that with a Capsicum/Italian Sausage pizza which was good but a little weird with pepperoni-like sausage and a Caesar salad. Our waitress started out by being very snippy and gave Bob a withering look when he asked for more napkins with the mussel dish, but gradually warmed up to us and was quite cheery by the time we left. We got back to our car and drove to our trailer, packed up and went to bed,

Saturday, Nov 1 - to Fremantle

Pics: 'Roo and grass tree, Wonnerup House, Our trailer!

Bob and I took a walk around the Bushlands property, seeing many kangaroos, flowers and birds. Back for breakfast, made some sandwiches, cleaned up, packed and were off at ten and headed north. We drove to the beach just north of Busselton. It was warm and sunny and about 60 degree and even though it was a Saturday, the beach was practically deserted.

We continued on to Tuart (yet another kind of Eucalyptus) Forest National Park and walked out on a boardwalk to a large bird blind and saw Black-necked Stilts up close and a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, a life bird. We are continually amazed how well constructed and maintained the public facilities are in Australia, compared with the US where many things seem to be falling apart.

Across the street was a National Trust Historic Place, Wonnerup House, built in 1839, and one of the original pioneer family’s house and farm. Beautiful colonial house with much of the original furnishings. I bought a ticket and walked around it while the boys birded, but then they spotted a Western Corella, a white parrot, on the grounds and had to buy tickets to get near it!!

We continued north, the road becoming a four-lane divided highway - the first we’ve seen this trip. We passed through Bunbury and Mandurah, until Fremantle was only about 30 miles away. I pulled out the Yellow Folder where Bob keeps all the travel papers and hotel confirmations…and couldn’t find anything on the next hotel. I had reserved a cottage back on our first day in Perth as we were finding most things booked due to a flying show this weekend. I guess I had never printed it out and didn’t even know the name of the facility, let alone where it was!
We pulled off the highway and tried to find an internet café where I could retrieve the info on my AOL account…but unlike the tiny towns we had been in so far, the bustling one we were in now had nothing - everyone has computers of their own. Slight panic…we thought of trolling neighborhoods in hopes of using an unsecured wireless account somewhere.

Finally I rechecked my notebook, and, Yes, I had written down the name, Woodman Point Holiday Park, on an obscure page. Whew! Especially as I had paid for our lodgings in full. Anyway, Woodman Point was on the map just north of a huge naval/industrial area and about five miles south of Fremantle. We easily found the Holiday Park about four and they had my reservation. It is a large trailer/tent park, rather nicely landscaped with large trees and we now are in a double-wide trailer! Very plastic and prefab, but colorful, spacious and clean. We settled down on our front porch to watch parrots flying about and for a celebratory beer, and then took off for downtown Fremantle for dinner.

Fremantle is a small city at the mouth of the Swan River, just downriver from Perth. We parked at the lively harbor to look for dinner. The Mussel Bar had been highly recommended for good food and great views right on the waterfront, but they have a dress code and wouldn’t let Mark in in his shorts, so we had to settle for Joe’s Seafood Restaurant and Bah (is he from Boston?). Very good shrimp, but pretty mediocre in general. Drove around Fremantle a bit; looks like an interesting shipping town with lots of new and old buildings which we’ll explore tomorrow.

Friday, Oct 31 - Margaret River

Pics: our Bushlands cottage, our sheep neighbors, a Grevellia in the garden

Sunny again! We all drove to Margaret River and had a good breakfast of banana pancakes and ham and cheese baguettes. The boys left at 8:45 for Dunsborough to take their whale-watching cruise in hope of getting a few more pelagic species on the trip list and I walked around the village, looking at the shops and settled into a nice bookstore to catch up on email and blog.

I found out that our hot water heater had sprung a leak - every traveler’s nightmare - but that Phebe, our house sitter, and caught it and gotten her plumber to drain the heater before, I think, too much damage had been done…Anyway good to be warned rather than arrive home and find the mess unexpectedly. Hilary and Curry are trying to coordinate the plumber now that I have corrected the House Book with the new plumber’s name!
have corrected the House Book with the new plumber’s name!

I left after a couple of hours and caught a taxi back to Bush lands Cottages - taxis are an appropriate mode of transportation in a wine-tasting area - and relaxed! Took a nap, had a walk around the grounds, seeing cockatoos, our kangaroos, and a glimpse of the ocean. Read and sketched until Bob and Mark returned at 4. Into town for a very good dinner at Ze Arc of Iris restaurant.

Thursday, Oct 30 - exploring Margaret River area

Pics: Bushlands woodlands, Surfin' Prevelly, Lunch at Vasse Felix, Buffeted by a gale at Sugarloaf

OMG - Sun! Well, really partly cloudy, but it was so nice to see some blue sky that we were thrilled after about ten days of drizzle and rain. Bob and I took a pre-breakfast walk around the Bushlands property and encountered a kangaroo family of a mother ‘roo with one joey looking out of her pouch and an older one outside grazing. We walked some of the trails on this 45 acre property of old Karri Eucalyptus, saw orchids, beautiful ferns, returned back for breakfast and then headed out.

We dropped Mark at Mammoth Cave, one of a series of caves in this area, and we headed to the coast. We drove to Prevelly Park, a world champion surfing site, and watched surfers riding enormous waves and walked along the beach for an hour.

We picked up Mark and headed north to the town of Dunsborough to arrange a pelagic tour for the boys tomorrow. Feeling peckish, we looked for a vineyard with a café (there are over 100 on this section of coast) and drove into Vasse Felix, one of the first wineries in the area. Beautiful grounds and a very fancy restaurant! We ordered three “starters”, since we didn’t want to stuff ourselves, and had one of the best lunches ever (right up there with Paarl, Hil).

I had shaved yellowtail king fish, with green ginger sorbet, wakame and shiso salad, Bob had seared scallops with iberico jamon, sw. corn pudding and truffled air(!) and Mark had a great green salad (not a easy thing to come by in OZ). We shared it all around and had a fabulous lunch with a glass of champagne.

The rest of the day didn’t go quite as well: we reached the little town of Dunsborough and found the oceanfront road where the charter is supposed to leave tomorrow and drove back and forth spotting little boat launches and exquisite beaches with stripping of turquoise and dark blue in the ocean - very tropical - and finally saw the boat, Naturaliste Charters, anchored off shore but no office. Finally after asking a lot of people we found a tourist office in town and made a booking for tomorrow morning. It was four already, but we drove to Cape Naturaliste and Sugarloaf Rock where the Red-tailed Tropicbird is supposed to nest. The road was closed so we had to park some ways away and hike a mile to the Rock overlook. Lovely vegetation, but blowing a gale by the time we got there….and the birds, sensibly, were elsewhere.

Headed home, stopping in the very cute touristy town of Margaret River and picking up a box of fried chicken and chips at Chooks, the local KFC. Cuba Libres, chicken and bed!

Wednesday, Oct 29 - Cape Leeuwin

Pics: Leeuwin Lighthouse, Rock Parrot

Well, it was raining when we got up at 7:30, but we had a great day anyway. Mark made delicious banana pancakes which we had with “maple flavour” syrup. We packed and set off at ten. Unfortunately we never got to meet our hosts, Pam and David, who run the boutique winery next-door which would have been interesting…also we might have gotten hold of a few replacement light bulbs!

Off through more lovely Eucalyptus park land for about 120 km to the town of Augusta and the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. The lighthouse sits on the southwest most point of WA where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet and here it always blows a gale! It was raining on and off but not cold at all which made it quite tolerable, as long as you held onto your hat. I signed up for a lighthouse tour and the boys went off to bird.

I and the others on the tour climbed the 179 steps to the top with our guide, Bill, warning the men not to hit their heads on various low points - a little irritating as I was a good six inches taller than any other participant! - and stepped out onto a platform and were almost knocked down by the force of the wind. Great views of really fierce waves. The lighthouse was electrified in the 90s and up to that time quantities of kerosene had to be hauled up those steps!

I found Mark and Bob and we walked back to the ticket office/café, but on the way, just peacefully eating seeds in the lawn were two Rock Parrots, a bird we were hoping to see, but not nearly so easily! They are olive green with a turquoise band over their bills and turquoise in their wings. Just lovely! They totally ignored us so we were able to really study them well. We finally got to the café and had a very good lunch of tuna and spicy curried-egg sandwiches and mochas.

We drove north about 20 miles north to the Bussells Bushland Cottages - the boys were worried because this is the cheapest place I booked (3 nights for the price of 2) - but it looks like the best place of the trip. We have a spacious rammed earth cottage and just now as I’m typing a family of ‘roos hopped by looking in the door as they went! Then a Port Lincoln parrot stopped by for some seed! Too cool!

I did a couple of loads of laundry and, when Mark finally came back from emailing and shopping, made pork chops with rice, onions, gr pepper and tomato. TV and bed.

Tuesday, Oct 28 - Pemberton

Pic: Katy's Marron, Blue Loft Cottage

Awoke to pouring rain and thunder! Drove into town to a bakery where Bob had a delicious slice of pizza and a custard tart and Mark and I had muffins. We split up and Bob and I walked in the rain to a tourist information booth for maps and hiking guides and settled into a store with an ethernet connection and caught up on emails. We met up with Mark who had discovered that Simpson, his wonderful 15-year old cat, had been dropped off at his house on Sunday due to a miscommunication! Due to the wonders of Skype, he was able to talk to his neighbors who will feed and care for Simpson until we return. Whew!

We decided to try and take some walks in the national parks nearby as it was only drizzling. We drove the Karri forest loop through tall beautiful salmon-colored Karri eucalypts and finally saw the Varied Sitella, a small black and white bird, that Mark and Bob had been trying to find. We drove by the fancy Karri Valley Resort and made a reservation for dinner. Bob and I drove home, stopping at the Beedelup Falls for a quick walk, and found ourselves on a wildly swinging, narrow suspension bridge over the small falls, made it over and returned to the A-frame to change and back to the Resort. I finally had a chance to order “marron”, the local crayfish and got one that weighed one pound! Just like a “chicken” lobster and quite good, although the thorax was filled with salmon mousse and I didn’t get to find out if marron have tomalley or not.

TV, bed and hopefully a sunnier tomorrow.

Monday, Oct 27 - Valley of the Giants National Park

Pics: Treetop walkway, Slender-billed Cockatoo, me in a tree

Cool and partly cloudy. Ate breakfast and cleaned up, said goodbye to Eugene and Eddie, and to Jody, and set off at ten. We cut across town to the scenic coastal route west. Our first stop was at Wilson Inlet at the town of Denmark. We were afraid it would look like Solvang, but it was instead a trim tiny seaside town. The White-winged Triller was a new life bird. We stopped a few more times, and then I insisted that we not delay getting to the Valley of the Giants National Park as it kept looking like rain.

We got to the park and got tickets for the Tree Top Walk, an amazingly well-engineered walkway that gradually climbs in swaying sections to 120 feet, so that shortly you are up in the tops of the Red and Yellow Tingle Trees, a type of very large Eucalyptus. Suddenly at the top of a dead snag we spotted the Slender-billed Black Cockatoo, a huge black parrot with a very large bill hidden in its fluffy black face feathers - a really dramatic sight that ordinarily we would have just glimpsed from the ground.

We returned to the Visitors’ Centre and grabbed the sandwiches we had brought and walked onto the Ancient Empire boardwalk through groves of enormous, buttressed trees. Al, a ranger, came and told us about the trees and efforts to save them, reduce salinity in the surrounding farm land and generally preserve the environment.

We had another 100 miles to drive so we set off through parkland and tree farms, finally reaching Pemberton, a small town in timber and wine country that looks pretty nice. I had selected a 2-bedroom chalet, called Blue Loft Cottages that turned out to be quite a ways out of town, in the middle of the woods across the street from an avocado grove. Very cute, brand new A-frame house with a loft bedroom up a spiral staircase and another bedroom down.
I cooked sautéed chicken with veggies and made mashed potatoes and we watched Austin Powers, pt 3.

Sunday, Oct 26 - Porongurup N P

Pics: Poronurup flower, Windrush Winery

Little wind and clearing. The boys set off at 6:30 for Two Peoples and I stayed in bed which felt ridiculously luxurious! Up at eight, Bob and Mark returned at nine, and we had bacon and fried eggs and set off at 10 for Porongurup National Park about 25 miles north of Albany.

When we drove up into the small mountains of the park we could see the Stirling Range about another 25 miles to the north of us. Although the parks are close together, the flora is very different. The Porongurups receive much more rain than the Stirlings and have beautiful, very tall and straight Karri eucalyptus. The whole park had burned over 18 months before, but the trees are very fire resistant and are recovering nicely. The smaller plants look pretty weedy , although we saw some pretty flowers but we didn’t see any of the many orchids that are supposed to grow there, but maybe the fire has something to do with that. Lots of bird songs and we saw several Western Rosellas, orange-red parrots with yellow faces and green backs.

We drove on to the town of Mt. Baker and asked someone for a restaurant recommendation and she suggested Windrush Winery, down a long dirt road. We finally found vines growing and turned into the winery and lovely modern tasting room and café. We were greeted by David the owner and tasted four very good and inexpensive wines (USD 13-14) and then went into the café where his wife Caroline served us a very good lunch of Turkish bread with dips, stuffed mushrooms for me, lamb kabobs for Mark and chicken salad for RR.

After our leisurely lunch we drove back to Albany and birded a marshy area for an hour or two finally returning home for toasted cheese sandwiches and bed.

Saturday, Oct 25 - Albany

Pics: roos!

Torrential rains over night. Up at five again, this time to fierce winds and off and on rain. We drove to Two Peoples Bay again so that Mark could see the rare Western Bristle bird ( he heard it, didn’t see it) and we all could try for the even rarer Noisy Scrub-bird that had been thought to be extinct from the mid-1800s until it was discovered in the early sixties (if its call is so noisy, which it is, how could it have been missed for a century??)

It had been so warm lately that I didn’t wrap up enough and it was Cold out there and I stayed in the car much of the time. . We passed a field full of kangaroos which was a wonderful sight. I hope they were wild and not farmed roos, but great to see them anyway. We drove to a nearby gas station/general store and restocked for breakfast and bought some local beer and wine. Returned for breakfast about eight.

We set out for town at noon as it was too windy to do anything else. I returned to my scuba shop to blog and Mark found an internet café and then we shopped and wandered up York Street, meeting Bob, who had driven off to see more of the coastline, at the Library at two.

Stopped at a large IGA supermarket to do a major restocking and returned home. Bob and Mark walked down to the nearby bridge to look for shorebirds and I stayed in to nurse the cold I’ve had for the past week. Finally had enough time to cook the Brucato’s famous BTOR (beef tips over rice) with green beans. Bob and I sat down to eat at seven and after a bit, were joined by Mark who had become lost after driving off to check out some swamp for rails and crakes.
Good dinner, if I do say so, and afterwards, Mark managed to light the fireplace stove, which is our only heat. It’s surrounded by a fence (some kind of safety device, I guess) which make it very difficult to build a fire.
Tonight is the beginning of daylight savings, so the sun won’t come up until 6:15 - much better!