Australia Part One

We lived through 9:30 am three times while en route from Auckland to Perth: in Auckland, in Sydney, and somewhere over the south central portion of Australia. We traveled 6 time zones farther west, which, somewhat counter-intuitively, reduced our time advantage over Eastern US time from 18 hours to 12. At least now we can reasonably expect to do the calculation without looking at the second time zone on Tom’s watch.

Our good friends Vicci and Max

were kind enough to pick us up from the airport, and kinder still to offer us the hospitality of their home in Fremantle. We enjoyed their company and a great meal from the barbie while watching the sunset over the Indian Ocean—all from the back deck of their home. Vicci and Max made us feel very much at home and it was delightful to stay with them.

The next day (Sunday 05 April) we started our road trip to Shark Bay, about 500 miles north along the west coast of Australia. Our primary goal was the living stromatolites in Hamlin Pool at the southern end of the bay. The drive for us was interesting, although Vicci complains it is too dull. It had the desert southwest look to it only with bright red soil. We had to constantly be on the lookout for kargaroos. They are like the deer in Michigan both in number and nuisance- prolific along the highways, especially at dusk and dawn. We never saw any live ones, but there were about 12 dead ones along the roadside on the way back. Ewwww....

The stromatolites, while not very exciting to look at, were awesome to ponder.

Starting about 3.5 billion years ago, there was little oxygen in the atmosphere. Then came the stromatolites, and their waste product, oxygen. After a couple of billion years iron in the seas had precipitated into the oxides now mined, and the atmosphere had become “polluted” with 22% of the element necessary to most life on earth.

Our visit to Hamlin Pool was made more memorable by the plague of flies. Conditions in the early autumn bring out the tiny flies, about half the size of your average Michigan housefly, searching for moisture, especially in one’s mouth, nose, and eyes. Fortunately Vicci had provided insect spray which kept them from landing wherever we used it, but it didn’t discourage the flies from buzzing around our faces. For that we had mosquito nets to cover our hats and faces.

We felt a bit ridiculous at first

but soon saw them on some people, and a look of longing on the others who did not have them. The flies had arrived only a few days before we did and every shop was already sold out of their supplies of nets. We could enjoy the outdoors without constantly waving flies away from our faces, although with the nets on it sounded like we had stuffed our heads into a beehive.

We stayed that night in Denham, about 60 miles north of Hamlin Pool and on the coast of the west arm of Shark Bay. As we pulled into our hotel we could hardly miss the 4 emus strutting in and along the street, pecking away at food in the grass.

We had a delightful dinner of local sea food and watched a breathtaking sunset.

The next day we tried to sign up for a half-day fishing charter, but there weren't enough other customers to meet the excursion minimum. Plan B was a short drive to Monkey Mia. Mia (my-ah) means camp in the aboriginal language, and Monkey has several origins among the pearl divers who first put the place on the map. We signed up for nature cruise in Shark Bay and just before boarding, got a pretty good show from a group of 3 dolphins swimming close to shore. The sail boat we were on was huge. We sat at the front where we had an excellent view of the wild life.

From the boat we saw more dolphins,

a manatee-like sea mammal called a dugong, 3 sea snakes, jellyfish, and a really interesting fish called a longtom, which escapes predators by shooting up out of the water and then propels itself vertically along the surface by paddling its tail. Unfortunately, we couldn't snap pictures fast enough when the creatures appeared, but trust us, it was great!

On Wednesday we began the drive back to Fremantle. Our half-way stay was in the coastal town of Dongarra. We stayed at the Old Rectory B & B,

which is a century-old former Anglican rectory, charmingly restored to its original period. Here is the foyer, complete with church pew.

On Thursday we enjoyed another fine evening with Vicci and Max. We grew particularly fond of the hammock!