Day 1 - Perth to Sydney

On a sunny Friday morning we made our way out to Perth Airport to start our latest adventure. We climbed aboard one of Richard Branson's big red birds for the four hour flight to Sydney. When we arrived we caught the train to North Sydney where we were met by my aunty Janet.After settling in, Janet took us out for a sightseeing tour of the Manly area. We saw some of the sights that are a bit off the tourist trail such as St Patrick's College (above) and some of the national park areas out on the peninsula (below). Later in the evening we had a few drinks with some of my relatives at the Wharf Bar (Manly).

Around the world in 40 Days

The quiet times are soon to be over. After our exciting times in the Americas & a couple of short local trips, we've been saving up money & holidays for an epic around the world trip.

We will cover 4 continents & 9 countries during the 40 day journey.
The main stops are Sydney (NSW Australia), Calgary (AB Canada), Campbell River (BC Canada), London (England), Paris (France), Kigali (Rwanda), Nairobi (Kenya) & Arusha (Tanzania).
There will be a wide range of climate, wildlife & architecture. There will be some familiar places & faces along the way with some completely new to us during the second half of the trip.

Exciting times are ahead! Watch this space for tales & photos from our latest adventure.

Birds of the Great Southern

There is more to Southern WA than the scenery. The abundant bird life is quite incredible.

The Stirling Ranges were home to a healthy population of Wedge Tailed Eagles (below) that sored over the grasslands. The coast near Albany had the usual suspects (Seagulls & Pelicans) but we also saw Petrels (below).Denmark was home to all manner of birds large & small. The Wedge tails were there but there were also smaller raptors like the Brown Goshawk (right) that swooped down past me trying to catch the small finches & wrens I was trying to photograph.
The Denmark area has many small birds such as the white breasted Robin (above) and the Splendid Wrens (below). The bright blue one is the male & the white, the female.The garden of our B&B was full of flowers that attracted all manner of small birds including the splendid wrens, Firetails (above), and New Holland Honey-eaters (below).

The garden also attracted Western Rosellas. They were mainly juveniles (above) but I did see one adult male (below).
The garden also attracted the larger parrots like Twenty-Eights (Australian Ringnecks). There were lots of them at the Berry Farm 'Sampling' the local produce. I think they're my favourite parrot. We do see them around Perth but I haven't manage to catch them with the camera. I love the photo below because they have the red berry juice all over their beaks. Caught in the act!

It was sad to pack up the car & head back to Perth on the Sunday. I'm sure we'll be back to visit soon enough.

Denmark & Walpole

Saturday in Denmark & the beautiful weather had deserted us. We awoke to overcast skies & light drizzle. No matter, we set off toward Walpole to the West of Denmark. It's such a nice drive through the tall lush forests. A little twisty in parts, but that's half the fun.


Our first stop that morning would be the Tree Top Walk a few kilometres short of Walpole. They've built a steel walkway in the tree tops. You don't even climb too high because it's built on quite a steep valley so you walk out into the tree tops rather than up. Handy for those tourists that aren't as fit as they should be.
The Tree Top walk has a second part to it. They call it the Ancient Empire. Instead of walking around the tree tops, you wander around a different area at ground level. Many of the trees have been through a forest fire many years ago & you can see where the internal part of the tree have been burnt out and the living part (the bark) has continued regenerating around the outside.

A little way closer to Walpole there's a dirt road that leads into the heart of the forest and to the giant Tingle Tree (Right). This tree was hit by fire many years ago leaving a massive void at the base. The tree is very much alive & they estimate it to be 400 years old depending on who you talk to.

Further up the one way dirt road (and some fun rally driving entertainment I might add) you come to Circular pool. I'd have to say that the beautiful lakes in Canada have spoiled us for just about every other lake in the world, but Circular pool was pretty nice all the same. We had the place to ourselves & it was a nice tranquil place to chill out for a while.
We manged to find some awesome burgers for lunch at the road house in Walpole which was a fantastic change compared to the very average food options we'd experienced in Denmark. From there we did some exploring around the Walpole area but it seems to be more interesting from a boat which we didn't have. Having done what we could to explore Walpole we made tracks back to Denmark. We stopped in briefly at the Mead winery where we sample endless types of delicious honey & checked out a bee hive they have in the shop that is effectively sandwiched between two sheets of glass so you can see how they go about their busy little lives.

The weather was starting to turn nasty after a bit of a reprieve, but we pushed on. We stopped at a couple of little beaches near Denmark including Waterfall Beach (right). None were in the same game as Little Beach from the day before. Maybe the weather had something to do with it...

Green's Pool was the final stop for the day. The weather was nice enough to leave a patch of blue sky for us so we could appreciate the place. It's very popular with tourists & locals alike. I can see why. Oddly, once we headed back toward the main road, the weather turned wet on us & put pay to anything else we thought we would do.

Albany

On Friday we had the whole day to explore Albany & the surrounding area.

We set off for Albany after breakfast. We headed to Cheynes Beach (below) which was as far away as we were going to go for the day. It's about 70 kms east of Albany. It's a nice enough spot with clear calm water & good fishing & boating options, but I don't know that it was worth the extra driving. I think it's more somewhere to avoid the Xmas holiday crowds.

Heading back toward Albany, Two Peoples Bay Reserve has a couple of little gems including a couple of interesting lakes (Moates Lake pictured). By far the pick of the places we visited that day was Little Beach (above & below). The photos tell much of the story, but the crystal clear turquoise water, squeaky white sand & dramatic Granite rock formations leave you speechless. At around 40kms from Albany, it's completely worth the effort.

We didn't go too far that morning without seeing a goanna. The warm conditions had them out in force. This one was about 3 ft nose to tail.

The last side trip before heading back into Albany was Nanarup, where a brook empties into a lake of sorts (Taylor Inlet below) that then empties into the ocean. It looks to be a half decent surf beach, but the wind was up and the surf was a washing machine.
We had lunch in Albany & headed out along Frenchman Bay road & into Torndirrup National Park that is the peninsular that encircles the port of Albany.

The first stop was The Gap & Natural Bridge.

The Gap doesn't sound like much, but when you look down from the top at the huge waves crashing in you feel very very small.
The best know tourist attraction of Albany is Natural Bridge (below). The pounding ocean & granite rock along the southern coastline creates some amazing formations.

A little up the road is the blowholes. They don't work properly unless the Great Southern Ocean is very restless. The blow hole was only just working with nothing more than a bit of spray very occasionally. I though it was restless that day so I can only imagine what it can be like on an angry day.

After a lightning stop at the Blueberry farm for some very average muffins, we returned to Denmark. We sat beside Scotsdale Brook (below that runs through Denmark) chewing on our muffins. At least the scenery was nice.

The Great Southern Region of Western Australia.

Last week we went exploring the Great Southern Region of Western Australia. We stayed in the little hamlet of Denmark for 3 nights & set about exploring the area bounded by the Stirling ranges in the North, Albany to the East & Walpole to the West. It's a good 4-5 hour drive from Perth depending on conditions, but well worth it. Fortunately the drive isn't anywhere near as boring as the road north of Perth but you still want to give yourself at least 3 days away to make it worth while.
About 2-3 hours into the drive at Cranbrook you can take a side trip to the Stirling Ranges (above). Unfortunately the wow factor is a little hard to produce after a year & a half in the Canadian Rockies, but it's not bad by flat old Western Australian standards. The peaks have an altitude of around 1000-1100m & jag up from the flat plains of the wheat belt not more than a couple of hundred metres above sea level. The most eastern peak in the park is Bluff Knoll (above). A narrow windy road leads up to the foot of the rocky outcrop where you can get a nice view of the plains (below) & the rest of the peaks. Given more time & cooler temperatures we may have done the 4-5 hr round trip hike to the top of the Knoll, but not this time. After stopping for a short while at Bluff Knoll we continued south toward Mat Barker & on to Denmark. Along the way there were a couple of short cuts on dirt roads we took (because I can in the 4x4!) that tracked through seemingly endless farmland. Those short cuts meant that the Wedge Tailed Eagles weren't so concerned about passing traffic to the point where one rose up from the road and just cleared the roof of the truck. I had never been this close to one before and I can tell you they are very very large birds. They're an awesome sight but no easier to photograph in flight than the Bald Eagles in North America. I think I did OK with the one below.Eventually we reached Denmark & offloaded our gear so we were free to explore. It was getting quite late in the day so we decided to drive along Mt Shadford road and admire the scenery. It was a no brainer because we were staying at the Denmark end of the road.There is a lookout point (above) at the far end of the road that allows to to see the Great Southern Ocean & Wilson's Inlet that Denmark is built around.
Mt Shadford road is lined with huge tingle trees (left) making the drive even more scenic. There's no shortage of vineyards as well. The Denmark area has emerged as a new force in wines in recent years. Unfortunately the food options in Denmark are pretty bad. The 4 'restaurants' show promise, but the execution from the cooking staff is woeful in all cases. The Pub was the best of them, but it was still just pub food. It's such a shame because the rest of the place is so nice.

Changi Butterfly Garden

Changi Airport has as butterfly garden tucked away in one of it's terminals. I wasn't smart enough to take a photo of the garden itself, but I can say that it has 2 levels & loads of room. There are loads of plants & now shortage of butterflies. When you have 6 hours to kill (thanks to being cautious about transferring from Tiger to Singapore Airlines) spending a half hour or so in the butterfly house is a good way to kill some time.

I'm not totally up on my butterfly species, but the Internet gave me some guidance with a few.

The Blue Clipper was the most common (that day) These Common Rose butterflies were the most interesting with their bright red bodies. They were pretty active as well.I'm not 100% on this one, but I think it's called a Marbled White.I have no idea about the last 2, but the dark one looks like a leaf.

Eventually we were on a plane back to Perth. It was again one of their new A330's and before we knew it, we were touching down. Those entertainment systems on those plane are awesome for chewing up flight time. By the time we went though customs & caught a cab home it was about 2am. It didn't matter to our little grey fuzz balls. They were still happy to see us.