Mediterranean Cruise I

Kate and I are just back from a Mediterranean cruise on the Star Princess. The photo is Kate at Katakolon -- a gateway port to Olympia (which we did not visit) in Greece.

We left Rome (actually the port of Civitavecchia) in early November with stops in Naples, Santorini, Rhodes, Kusadasi, Mykonos, Athens, Katakolon, Corfu, Dubrovnik and finally Venice. Nights were spent travelling between ports, days were spent touring -- each day was sort of a "20 minute Louvre" where you dash in and try to see it all. We did a couple of organized tours but most ports we explored on our own. We have a lot of photos to organize.

The weather held for us. We had sunny days and no rain. The day in Mykonos was very windy. We had hoped to go swimming there but it was far too windy for us. Although I did some a couple of brave souls in the water.

We were well outside the tourist season. On Santorini and Mykonos most of the restaurants were closed. But we were surprised how busy things were. It must be really crazy during the heights of tourist season. I have a sense that travelling in late September through early October would be a good time to visit the islands. Perhaps on our next trip.

See also Photo Album of Mediterranean Cruise.

England

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In November of 2011 were were in England for a few days. Kate had a meeting in London so we arranged some holiday time around it. We took a train from Pancras Station and visited with our "No. 1 Son" Christopher in Nottingham where he's a student and I tramped around the city of London while Kate was at her meetings. After England we went on a Mediterranean Cruise of the Eastern end.

Nottingham is a pretty old town with canals and locks from the industrial age. Christopher took us to a couple of very old hotels. The "Trip to Jerusalem" (1189 AD) at the foot of the castle is supposed to be the oldest still standing inn in England but then we bumped into another, The "Bell Inn" that made a similar claim *(oldest in Nottingham, but isn't the other one in Nottingham as well?). Nottingham is of course famous for Robin Hood, Maid Marion and all that.

In London we stayed in Bloomsbury, not far from the British Museum which we both enjoyed. The Parthenon Marbles are found there and are an irritant between Britain and Greece. On the one hand the British say they've saved them, on the other hand the Greeks say they were looted. Our hotel was right across the street from Tavistock Square, there's a statue of Ghandi there.

I tramped around the city quite a bit. Kate's meetings were near Trafalgar Square and I walked from there down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. Lots of pomp and circumstance there. Then to see the horse palace, changing of the guards and a walk along Whitehall to Big Ben and Westminster Palace.

Here's a photo album if you're interested.

Fred Picnic

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Another Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic at the Springwater Conservation Area near Aylmer. Good weather, good music, good fun.

The Rizdales, from London, played this year.

Fred's band, with the fabulous Ginn Sisters continues to evolve with new players on bass, mandolin and electric guitar.

Rizdales

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The Rizdales performed at the Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic. The album under the photo captures some of their performance.

Home County

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Photos from the Home County Folk Festival held in Victoria Park London, Ontario. Beautiful weather to enjoy work shops and hear some new music.

I was most impressed with the very young Ariana Gillis pictured at left. Her dad performed with her.

Pinery & Grand Bend

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My friend Charles wanted to take a photo trip out to the lakeside -- we visited Grand Bend and the Pinery Provincial Park.

Kate and I often go to Grand Bend, I've only been to the Pinery a few times.

Charles took pictures with his 35mm film camera. Today he's travelling with a well used Olympus; he's usually on Nikon cameras. He'll never go digital.

Bugs, Bugs, Bugs

 
(1 Apr 2011, Exmouth WA) This termite mound greets you as you arrive in Exmouth. Termite mounds are as common as dirt -- and are made of dirt. They're very big and hard as concrete. This one, which stands about 6-8 ft high, has been decorated. There was an area we drove through near Port Hedland where a great many mounds had been decorated with hard hats -- quite funny to see. I'm told that termite mounds, like icebergs, are an indication of a much larger structure under ground.

At our hotel we discover that termites are trying to build mounds all over the building. The laundry door was open and several were started on the walls -- hard red dirt structures with grubs inside. I discover this when I try to break one off the wall. You'd almost need a hammer and chisel. They're all over the place and this really creeped me out, you had a feeling that if you stood still too long one would start building on you!

One good thing about termites -- genuine didgeridoo's (the native musical instrument) are made from live trees that have been hollowed out by termites. I suppose they're edible too but I'm not going there.

The weather, having recently seen some cyclones, meant that the country side was very lush. That meant that locusts where everywhere feeding on the lush growth. The emu like that I'm sure -- they'd eat them! In Coral Bay the locusts had stripped the palm trees. One of the divers we met told us about a plague of "desert frogs" they'd had recently. Apparently the frogs burrow into river bottoms when the weather turns dry and will appear years later when the rain comes. After the recent rains a ton of frogs appeared.

Whale Sharks

We swam with the whale sharks just outside the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay on our return trip to Perth. That's Kate swimming about 4m from one of the sharks -- it's about 5m long, big ones grow to about 20m, so this guy is quite small as they go. Nevertheless they are big fish, hence the name -- whale shark.

We had an especially lucky day swimming with these peaceful sharks who live on krill and micro-organisms they catch on their gills as they slowly cruise through the water with their mouth open. Their teeth are vestigal so they can't bite you. We swam about an hour or so, in short and long spurts, with 2 or 3 different sharks. The guides tell us we had one of the longer swims they've ever experienced.

Coral Bay is a great place to experience the Ningaloo Reef. You can swim out about 300m or so and you're right in dense reef of all sorts with lots of fishies. You can also take a glass bottom tour of the inner reef or a longer tour outside the reef to see the whale sharks. It's expensive but if you get to see some sharks it's well worth it.

The Ningaloo is a "fringing" reef that's right there immediately off shore --- the waves crash over the reef maybe 1km or so from the shore. By comparison the Great Barrier Reef is some 35 or so miles out from the shore! I am not keen about long boat rides with folks chundering. I'd much rather to swim out from the beach and find a reef right there.

The morning started with we tourists meeting at the dive shop. There were about a dozen of us, the skipper and 3 tour guides -- Macca, Shane and Pru. We're early in the season and have a small group. Late in the season they'll have two boats of 30 people each. This makes for a big difference when you swim with the sharks as only 10 people can swim near the sharks at any time.

We rode a bus for a short drive to the marina about 1km or so down the beach. We were to Coral Bay back in 2004 but didn't go snorkelling with the sharks as the weather made the water too rough. This time the weather was on our side and we've been told that they've got to swim with the sharks every day for the last few days.

The marina wasn't here back in 2004, we recall driving down the beach and drift snorkelling back then.

Before we go out to chase the sharks we have a little test swim so the guides can gauge how good we are. It's on the reef and a bit of chase the guide -- she's swimming ahead and we try to catch her. It's quite tough to keep up. I have my flippers and am struggling to keep up but do, others are falling back. Kate is trying flippers (she has never used the before) but isn't getting the hang of them, she finds they slow her down. Back on the boat Kate persuades the guide that she can swim better without them. As you can see from the photo she swam free-style without flippers and did quite well.

The sharks are cruising outside the reef in deep water. Spotter planes find them and relay their location to the boats -- this helps to explain why it's so expensive. We spent about an hour or so racing about before spotting the sharks we swam with.

We bought a "bag" to take our snapshot camera into the water. It's hard to judge what you're shooting but we did get some pretty good photos. A proper underwater camera would be nice but we're seldom taking pictures under water. There were some guys with good cameras and we bought a DVD that the camera man took of the trip. Should be interesting.

If you're ever in Coral Bay West Australia and it's at the right time (they come after the coral spawn in late March) do spend the money and go swimming with the whale sharks. It's an experience only a very few ever experience.

Perth to Broome

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This photo album documents our drive up to Broome and back from Perth in Western Australia. Our intention had been to drive to Darwin and drop off the car there. Heavy rains had washed out roads in the Kimberley region so our plans were thwarted at Broome.

Much of this is documented in other blog entries, this is a capsule summary of our travels. The picture at left is a fellow walking along the road in the very empty country near Exmouth. Note the green and the bug mask to keep the flies at bay

In Western Australia there's a large bit of sand dunes near the Pinnacles. We stopped there briefly and at the Pink Lagoon near Kalbarri. We visited the National Park at Kalbarri just north of Geraldton and south of Shark Bay -- it's all very dry ruggged country with not too many people visiting. Western Australia is a vast area, lightly populated and very rugged.

We stayed in Exmouth for a bit to explore the Ningaloo Reef and Cape Range National Park. That's the top western corner of the state. We got in a lot of swimming in many fine bays in the park but it was alway too rough to go out on a boat to find and swim with the whale sharks (we did that on our return). It's a fringing reef close to the shore and you can easily swim out and explore the coral without a boat. We did so from the many fine bays and access points

We saw lots of critters in an around the park. Huge termite mounds are every where. Emu are large and quite amazing. And brumbies (wild horses) are common too. We did see a Perentie one day in the park -- they're huge lizards about 6' long. "What the fuck is that crossing the road!" Quite an amazing sight to see. A bit frightening too!

We drove up into some higher ground around Exmouth for the views of the area. Shothole Canyon is only a bit off the main roads, gravel road access and well worth a visit. It was hot and dry, very much like Death Valley or Arizona. But there had been the wet season so things were pretty green.

From Exmouth we headed inland to Karajini National Park. There only a few roads you can take, they're pretty good, but the gas stations are few and far between. You need to fill up when you can. At a gas stop one of the road trains had a bit of run in with the awning over the gas pumps. He'd got himself into a position where he couldn't go back and couldn't go forward. He ended up wrecking some of his truck and some of the gas station shelter. He'd have been a long way from the next place that could fix him up.

The red dirt of Western Australia is a bit of a "gold" mine -- the red is iron ore. At Tom Price and Mount Sheila there's a huge mine, huge trucks for mining the stuff and long trains to carry it to ports on the north shore where it's shipped to China and other places. They can just dig it out of the ground and send it off as raw ore to be processed elsewhere. It's that high in iron content.

At Tom Price (the only town near Karajini National Park) we stayed at the very expensive but tired and spartan Karajini Lodge. Their clientelle seemed to mostly be miners who don't live here but fly in and out for weeks long work stays. The dining hall (don't go looking for a fancy dancy restaurant -- you're in the outback) was efficient but again spartan. Thankfully they did have wine.

We did explore some of the rugged canyons and gorges in the park. We swam in a small river at Fortesque Falls but roads were closed to much of the park -- it's the rainy season. This meant for some glorious fields of wild flowers.

Between Karajini and Broome we had arranged to stay at a rest station around Pardoo which turned out to be even worse than the worn lodgings at Tom Price. The hotel rooms were converted cargo containers (you know the steel boxes they load onto boats, trains and trucks) and just not good enough for us. We decided to drive on (always a bit of a risk because there's not to much to drive on to). We ended up staying at a caravan park at 80mile beach arriving just around sun set. This was quite lovely, a nice park model trailer all to our own with a beach that went on for miles and miles.

The next day we arrived at Broome to discover we could go no further towards Darwin. We stayed at "The Pearle". I've documented much of our stay in Broome elsewhere and won't repeat that here.

Our drive back to Perth after our visit to Broome had us drop in to Coral Bay and the Ningaloo Reef where we were finally able to swim with the whale sharks. That was a memorable experience. Another interesting thing about Coral Bay was the locusts. With the recent wet weather there had been a plague of frogs, when we were there it was a plague of locusts who had stripped all vegetation bare. It doesn't rain very often but when it does nature responds.

Geraldton is a large town between Coral Bay and Perth -- we caught a sunset. The next over night was in Yanchep National Park just outside of Perth. We had a very nice room and were able to explore a bit of the park land -- they had some Koalas to view. But the most interesting part was to see all the Kangaroos come out at dusk to graze on the lawns around the hotel. There were a ton of them.

From Perth, where we dropped off our car, we flew on to more adventures down under.

Crabby Buggers

(29 Mar 2011, Broome) Today is our last day in Broome. Kate has had to do some work while traveling but we did get sea kayaking this afternoon.

 Played with some hermit crabs -- funny fellows who do fight back. But too small to do much damage. We gathered a few for a crab race. Somebody won but I'm not sure who.

We're told over the last few days that we should go searching for mud crabs which are really tasty, really big and very feisty!! They're found in the mangroves and will bite really hard (crocodiles hide there too and bite even harder).

 We're packing for our return trip. We'll spend a couple of days in Coral Bay snorkeling on the reef. We've been before and are really looking forward to going back.

We've enjoyed Broome -- better here than Philadelphia as they say (or some small town on the Kimberley) -- but are looking forward to our return to Perth and Melbourne. Kate tells me we've been to 3 of the top 4 restaurants in Broome. After a bit you've probably seen them all.

Richard, from the kayak tour, tells us there may be a cyclone next week. We'll be long gone by then. Our chum Peter Miller tells us its 27C in Melbourne. Don't know when I've seen it below 30C and we're looking forward to some cooler weather. The heat drives people "tropo", I believe it. Even the crabs are touchy.

We hear they've had more snow back in Ontario. To be in a land where roads are blocked by snow storms rather than by floods.

The Waifs -- Broome

(27 Mar 2011, Broome) we went to see the Waifs play at the Mangrove Resort on Sunday night. A stage was set up outdoors in the garden terrace which overlooks Roebuck Bay and the mangroves along the shore. This was the last gig of a 6 week tour and about 1200 people attended the show. A mixed crowd of all ages -- we all enjoyed the show.

Doors were supposed to open at 5:00 (they opened late) and the Waifs played from 8:00 or so until closing after encores around 10:00. We arrived early expecting a queue which did form but wasn't that big. We were first in the gate when it opened -- with Kate's bum knees we wanted to find some seating.

We got a table just at the edge of the terrace where we could enjoy the views, the sea breezes and the concert. A standing room/sitting on the grass area in front of the stage filled right up.

Donna Simpson (that's her in the photo) told a story about the last time they had played here. She took a tumble off the stage and cracked her head open. She had to go to the hospital emergency (they call it the "casualty") to have her head stitched together. Now they have a fellow back stage who watches her and keeps the stairs lighted so she doesn't fall again. They've dubbed the back stage stairs "Donna Falls".

They also told a story about their formation some 19 years ago and how they had started out here in Broome (everyone you meet says the Waifs are from their home town). Their song "Take It In" tells of those early times forming in Broome and moving to Melbourne with strong memories of the warmth, the mangoes, the beach and Australia's red dirt. "Take it in, take it all in. Now is a time which will not come again". Other great tunes I recall are "London Still" and "The Bridal Train". Thoroughly enjoyed their music.

Met some characters from Broome who love the outback and especially the Kimberley. We're not going further east/north as roads are closed. But we're told it's a wonderful country. ... with plenty to shoot (feral dogs, cats, pigs, goats, and more). Sounds like Texas.

Salties at Willie Creek

(28 Mar 2011, Broome) We took a tour today to the Willie Creek Pearl Farm about 10 miles north of Broome to learn about the modern day pearl industry. Reg survived an attack by a salt water crocodile (a "saltie"). Much bigger than the croc at French Bay that attacks chipmunks but similar mobility.

Broome was built on buttons - pearl buttons made from the oyster shell. The modern day cultivated pearl industry is a long way from the old button industry. Pearls were an occassional find, now they're a managed find in cultivated pearls.

We were driven in a van with about 20 or so folks - mostly old geezers like us, the "grey nomads" - on red dirt roads through the scrubby landscape. You could go yourself but I really wouldn't want to drive those roads. And they're rivers of mud when the rain comes down. The driver goes fast enough that you skim over the rough bits. Just on the edge of out of control.

Willie Creek is an estuary where they do a bit of cultivated pearl farming. Most of the farm (some 250,000 or so oysters) is out on the ocean. Here there's only a couple of thousand -- the naughty oysters who have managed to eject the pearl seed. Pearl farming is a big industry here just behind tourism.

We managed to spot a few goanna (lizards) and snakes on the way in. If you went wandering through the scrub you'd find more. No doubt some nasties, but "you'd have to be very unlucky to be hurt by them" (an oft repeated Aussie aphorism).

We did a little boat ride on Willie Creek to see the oyster farm and look for the "friendly" neighborhood croc who lives in the estuary. But he wasn't to be found.

The shop has lots of pearl jewelry but fortunately Kate isn't a jewelry kind of gal so we made it out without going broke.

The tie-dye T-shirt (Kate collects them) was quite a hit last night at the Waif's concert. A lady offered me $50 but I explained that it was Kate's shirt (no doubt one Cindy bought for her) and if I didn't bring it back I'd end up with two broken legs. And a newspaper photographer took our picture -- will have to see if we're published in the weekly paper.

Another day in Broome, on the road soon enough.

The Rotters of Rottnest

(14 Mar 2011, Rottnest Island) Just off Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is Rottnest Island where we went late in our visit to the city. We took our bikes and swim equipment on the ferry from Fremantle for the day. Did a bit of each, had a terrible lunch but enough of that.

They have these creatures called "quokka" which are only found on the island -- they're protected. The original Dutch explorers who were marooned on the island thought they were large rats, hence the name Rottnest. We call them "rotters". They're rather curious and will come right up to you as you can tell from the photo. They're about the size of an Ontario ground hog but have a rat like tail, large rear legs for hopping about. Reminds us of the "Welcome to Canada" beaver on youtube. We imagine this guy saying "G'day mate, welcome to Rottnest".

There's another strange story about Rottnest. It's about 20km from the mainland and every year they have a swim where thousands of people (2300 in the swim when we were there) swim all the way out to the island. It's quite the deal with the fastest times in the order of 5 hours. There's choppy waters, stingers, sun and Rottnest ferry boats to contend with. It's an iron-man/woman kind of thing.

Emu's near Exmouth

(21 Mar 2011, Exmouth) Emu's are as common as dirt in this part of Western Australia. It's the far north western corner of the country where we've come to snorkel on the Ningaloo Reef at Cape Range National Park.

Exmouth is outside the park so there was quite a bit of driving back and forth to the various swimming sites. e.g., Torquoise Bay is probably the most famous, there's a "drift snorkel" that's pretty good.

There's many road hazards you need to watch for in the park. Emu's are very big, about 5-6 foot tall and probably as heavy as a person. They're wandering about by the side of the road feasting on the bugs (locusts I assume) which are quite thick given recent rainfalls. You wouldn't want to run into one. Emu's I mean -- of course you run into the bugs!

By the same token you wouldn't want to run into a wild horse, or a kangaroo, or a large lizard (we met a Perentie one morning crossing the road .. it was about 5 feet long!). We're told that the Perentie is the largest lizard in Australia and the second largest in the world. It was the biggest one I've ever seen.

We're told to watch for large pythons and crocodiles in the Kimberley region but haven't met any of those. Nor do we want to.

Big Rigs in the Pilbarra

(March 22, 2011) My family drives trucks, long haul big trucks, but nothing like the trucks in the Pilbarra. We drove from Exmouth into the interior to see the Karijini National Park -- in a land as flat as Australia the Karijini and the Hamersley mountain ranges of the Pilbarra provide some interesting contrast.

That red dust of the Australian landscape is red for a good reason -- it's the rust of iron ore. This truck is on display at Paraburdoo where they have an open pit iron mine. The vehicle is huge and reminds us of one Tony, my brother, took us to see in Western Canada. He likes big rigs, he'd love this one.

We stayed nearby in the town of Tom Price at the Karijini Lodge run by Rio Tinto (there's another big mine nearby). A typical mining town with few options for tourists like us.

Sunset Camel Ride on Cable Beach

On March 25, 2011 Kate and I (along with another 8 or so couples, some younger, some older, some anniversaries, some singles) took a sunset camel train ride on Cable Beach. We rode the lead camel, Horris, who is an old hand at this game. He's from NT and has been in several movies including "Australia" of course. Weather was perfect with a stunning sunset. Today it's cloudy so we were lucky to have gone when we did.

There are three different companies who all conduct tours at the same time and for a similar cost. Ours was the "Ships of the Desert" and lots of fun. There were 9 camels who patiently put up with the punters on board. The crew of four had a couple from France, a young woman from Turkey and the captain, another young lady, whose family owned the company.

We took lots of photos, they took photos, and they even took photos with our cameras -- this is one with our camera. We bought a package of three photos they had taken. I asked about getting digital copies and the captain said sure, just contact us from their web page. I did and they kindly supplied a bundle of great photos they had taken.

We had quite the conversation with the guide from Turkey who, like us, loves to snorkel. We had snorkelled at many of the same places including the Ningaloo Reef at Coral Bay and Exmouth (we agreed that Coral Bay is the best) and, big surprise, Magnetic Island on the east coast!

The captain told us that she swims at Cable Beach all year round. Signs warn us this is not prudent. It's currently the season for nasty stingers -- Box Jelly Fish and Irrikanji can do real damage. We haven't seen any but are reluctant to venture into the water even with our full skins (ie. body suits). The captain says we should give it a go .... you'd have to be very unlucky to get hit by a stinger. Mind you, you'd require hospitalization if you were unlucky.

Weather is very warm. Our room at the Pearl of Cable Beach is a wonderful retreat. A joy after some of the places we've had along the road.

Starting these Notes

Kate and I are travelling in Australia and will blog some of the more interesting events and post a few photos.

We've been in Perth since mid February (Kate was working with colleagues at NDRI) and have been driving north towards Darwin since mid March. We're in Broome where our drive has met the predicted obstacle - roads are closed due to flooding, washouts, etc. We can't go any further.

We've cancelled rooms we've booked and flights we had arranged from Darwin. Our plans are to stay here a while and return to Perth. From Perth we'll fly to Melbourne for Kate's KBS meeting. Back to Canada mid-April in time for Dad's 97th birthday.

You're supposed to tour the Kimberley in the winter -- outside the rainy season when roads are closed.

Perth

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We were in Perth, Western Australia from mid February to mid March -- avoiding the cold of our winters and enjoying the warmth of their summer.

We rented a small apartment for the month near Scarborough Beach (that's north of the CBD but not as far north as when we stayed at Sorrento back in 2004). Kate was busy enough with work at NDRI/Curtin University and I had lots of time to explore the city. We'd often go on adventures, especially on weekends. The odd creature in the photo is a "Quaka" which are only found on Rottnest Island near Perth. They're large rodents, very curious and friendly.

We took a short boat trip out to Penguin Island near Rockingham (that's just a little south of the city) to swim and see the Little Penguins (sometimes called Little Blue or Ferrie Penguin). These were in a zoo like viewing area. If there are some in the wild we didn't see them. They're endangered and wiped out in many parts of the country -- they rest during the night in burrows and are easy prey for cats, rats and dogs. All creatures that have been brought into the country.

We of course spent a lot of time on Scarborough Beach, there are nice restaurants on the beach and lovely sunsets. You're on the west coast of Australia. And there's lovely sand beaches for miles and miles. We visited many of them. We learned about the distinction between "Bogans" and "Hoons" -- even went to an event where they celebrate Bogans. Both are Australian slang and derogatory. In our part of the world we'd say "red neck" rather than "bogan". "Hoons" are the idiots who jack up their cars and burn donuts -- we were told that Scarborough Beach was rife with them but nothing seemed out of place to us. Perhaps that happens more around the December - January holiday period. Kids were back at school when we were there.

One weekend we went south to the Margaret River wine region with our bicycles. Probably the best wine area in all of Western Australia. We bicycled around a bit (gosh it was hot), sampled lots of wines, good restaurants and went swimming in the ocean. At the South Western tip, Cape Leuwin, we did a tour of the Blackwood River on a small boats . Lots of birds, some wind surfers and even a couple of dolphin. At Hamelin Bay we met up with some friendly stingray at the beach. There's the beautiful Yarri forest nearby. On the way back we stopped at the Bussleton Jetty.

There's lots to see in Perth. Reabold Hill is natural parkland within the city near NDRI with good views of the city. I went one day after dropping Kate at work. At Cottesloe Beach, south side of Perth,  there was an impressive juried sculpture exhibition right on the beach. Lots of bright colors and thought provoking works. King's Park in Perth is always interesting. It's a huge park with lots of natural woods and grasslands. There are great views of the city and the Swan River. Lots of interesting trees including a giant Boab (bottle tree) that they trucked thousands of kms from the Kimberley region (up near Broome and Darwin).

Kate and I visited the town of Fremantle again. Our first trip to Australia was to a conference held here in 2003 (per-digital era). It's the container port harbor on the Swan River. At the local farmer's market you could buy free-range ostrich eggs. They're huge. We stopped into a funky bar, "Mojos", in North Fremantle and caught an afternoon of music.

I've mentioned already our bike trip on Rottnest Island. There are a lot of secluded bays where you can go snorkelling in crystal clear waters. I managed to gash my head open swimming under some rocks.

Perth is a lovely city to visit. The weather is ideal, the beaches go on forever, there's nearby vineyards and lots of great wine. We like visiting, it's unfortunate that it's just so far away!