Ahhh, Australia Part 1: The West Coast

Our three months in the Land of Oz are coming to a close on February 16th. The time has just evaporated. Our adventures have taken us up and down both the east and the west coasts and each place we have visited has been unique and wonderful. I can only give you a small peek at all we have seen with a heavy emphasis on the wildlife.

We lived in Perth for six weeks while Don hung out at the University of Western Australia. We had a nice view of Swan Bay from our apartment.

I knew I was in Australia when two Laughing Kookaburas landed on a tree outside our window.

And there were always black swans hanging out in the bay.

The Rainbow Lorakeets loved the tree in front of our dorm. They are beautiful but make a lot of noise.

The apartment was within walking distance of Kings Park and Botanic Garden featuring plant life in Western Australia. My favorite was the Giant Boab tree.

Rottnest Island is a short ferry ride from Perth. We spent a day there biking around the gorgeous island, snorkeling, looking for wildlife and spotting lots of Quokka, small marsupials (not giant rats), for which the island was (mis)named.

We also wandered around Freemantle, the port from which the Rottnest Island ferry left. We laughed when we walked up a set of stairs and turned around and saw this, work from the same artist we saw in Carcassonne. Freemantle is known for the best preserved prison built by convicts  and for an open air market. We passed on visiting the first and buying anything from the second.

We visited a number of different beaches during our stay in Perth and every time we visited a new beach, I was startled by how blue the water was. The windy weather, rough surf and warning signs never kept Don out of the water.

I was not so tough. (Or crazy!)

We were really excited when Keeha arrived on December 15th for the holidays. We took a quick overnight trip south of Perth to the Margaret River area which is known for its wineries and its surfing beaches.

Remarkably, after the sunset, we drove past a field full of kangaroos. We pulled over to watch and saw two males boxing. The pictures are a bit blurred but I just have to share them. It was so awesome. In the last picture, the kangaroo on the right had just been kicked and fell over.

On the 19th, Jeremy arrived and we were complete. Yay!

Our plan was to spend two days exploring while making the twelve hour drive north to Coral Bay where we would spend a few days over Christmas. We never imagined how many neat things we would discover.

Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool: These are considered living fossils and are examples of the earliest life known on earth.

Shell Beach: Located in the Shark Bay Region, this beach is made entirely of Cockle shells. These small mollusks can live and thrive in this “super salty soup” of an environment. The high salt content also makes it easier to float!

Denham: We spent two nights in this small town in the Shark Bay area. Our first morning, we woke up and saw Emus walking down the main street.

Later, we saw them swimming while we were snorkeling.

That evening, we had beverages on a viewing platform at Eagle Bluff which overlooks Shark Bay. There were a lot of flies but we could see small sharks, rays and turtles swimming in the water below.

And we spotted some Wallabies on the way back to our humble abode.

Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort: If you stay in Denham, this is the place everyone says you shouldn’t miss. “Wild” dolphins have been coming to this beach looking for handouts for decades. It was very touristy but we did get to see two newborn calves, one 3 weeks old and one only a couple of days old. The “swimming” with the dolphins was a total myth and actually prohibited. Oh, and there are no monkeys.

The drive north definitely demonstrated how vast and desolate a lot of Australia is. It was very dry and scrubby for most of the way.

We arrived at Coral Bay on December 24th and found our accommodations to be quite acceptable.

Our Christmas day began with a walk along the beach to a shark nursery area where young black tip sharks can be seen feeding at low tide.

The wonderful part of this beach is that you step into the water and the snorkeling is terrific.

We were told that a typical Australian Christmas is spent swimming at the beach,  drinking beer and barbecuing. Our beach was a prime spot.

We figured we should join in.

By far, the most fun we had, was a boat trip we took to the outer reef to search for Manta Rays and to visit a shark cleaning station. An airplane was used to spot the Manta Rays and sharks. The boat would zoom around and drop us off and pick us up to see as much as possible. It was a rush.

On the way home, we stopped by the Pink Lake at Port Gregory.

And then there were the Pinnacles near Cervantes.

The amazing Christmas trip had to end. We flew out of Perth to the east coast on December 30th and ended 2018 watching fireworks together over the river in Brisbane.

To be continued…