Albany on a Sunday afternoon.

I spent the day today hiking around Albany. And I mean hiking. This town, like many port towns I have seen this summer is built on the side of a hill. I saw a lot of cool things, but I am exhausted and it's only 4:00 pm. The sun goes down around 6:00 pm these days, so I'm going to spend the evening in the hostel eating dinner, knitting, trying to keep warm, and watching Aussie TV.

This is what Albany looks like from the bridge walkway over the highway along the coast. Please note that Australians also shop at IGA.

After I went for a jog and had breakfast this morning, I set on out my adventure at about 10:45 am. My first stop was the boatshed markets. It's a little Sunday market they set up in one of the big, open boat sheds on the shore. There was a lot of fish for sale. There was also a lot of really tasty baking and many other treats from local farmers. There was no wool for sale. I sort of wanted to knit myself a toque, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen because I don't have any appropriate supplies. It should be warming up soon anyway.

After the market, I walked out to a hiking trail that would take me to Middleton Beach. It was a really nice walk, up a few hills, but that's okay. Along the route I saw a lot of historical plaques and a lot of interesting wildlife.

The first thing I came across was the ruins of the pilot station. I'm not exactly sure what it was used for, but these little stations look like places to mount cannons. I stopped and rested in the next one, which wasn't flooded.


This is whale's head rock. A big boulder along the trail. All of the big boulders have names around here.


This is heartleaf poison (Gastrolobium bilobum).


This is a common honeyeater.


This is the ruins of the coastal searchlight emplacement. During WWII they had a light here to watch out for enemy attacks. They also strung a huge net across the entrance of Royal Princess Harbour to catch enemy submarines. I don't know how well that strategy would work and I doubt that they needed to try it anyway.


This is a little reptile creature called a king's skink (Egernia kingii). When I first saw his tail i thought it was a snake. Startled me a little until I realized what it was.


This work of art is called Avenue. It was installed in 1998 when they decided to make some shoreline art. The plaque says that the air and light around this piece is actually more important than the sculpture itself. I don't really get it. I'm also not totally convinced that I didn't take a picture of some sort of water pump pipe and miss the art completely.


This is looking back at the track I had traveled so far. The water going into the right is Ataturk Entry and that's how the ships get into the Royal Princess Bay, where Albany is located.



I'm pretty sure this is the showy dryandra (Dryandra formosa). I will have to check this one because I might have mixed it up with a banksia species.



I still miss having lots of things around a little bit. This one made me wish I had my loom with me. I was really getting into weaving just before I left. Thanks, Albany Weavers.

At the end of the path, I came to Middleton Beach. I walked along the beach for awhile. There were a lot of families out and people picking up things. I think they were collecting shells. I saw a lot of really nice ones, but I didn't take any because I will never get them into New Zealand. Here is a particularly nice scallop shell I found:

Middleton Beach and the Middleton Bay. I have recently found out an exciting detail. Australian authorities consider the waters to the south of Australia to be part of the Southern Ocean. That means I've actually been to 4 of 5 oceans in the world this year!

Parrots fly around here like seagulls back home. I love these guys with their big pink heads. They were eating all of these huge seeds that came out of the coniferous trees on the shore. And french fries people had left behind.

A cool little sitting area on the edge of the beach. I sat up there and had a snack and wrote in my journal for a bit, until I got to cold and decided to head back to town.

On the way back to town I ended up climbing Mt. Adelaide. The Aussies call anything that is more than an anthill a mountain. And, everyone I've talked to has been embarrassed about that. They say, " yeh, Mt. Adelaide is that way, but, of course, it isn't anything like the mountains YOU have". Um, I don't really have any mountains either. It was still quite the hike up the hill. At the top, I found Princess Royal Fortress. I didn't go in because it was expensive, but I did buy a Fanta at their cafe. The Fanta here tastes way better than our Fanta back home. Everything here tastes better than things back home. Why is that? Makes me feel less bad about the price because I know I'll be having a quality product, at least. Why do Canadians settle for so much less, though? I mean, the Fanta here is still made by Coca-Cola. It just seems like Coke knows Aussies won't accept an inferior product.

Okay, end of food rant. You'll probably hear more about that, though. The Cadbury chocolate bar I bought last night is one of the most delicious things I've ever tasted. Here's a pretty little flower I found at the top of Mt. Adelaide before entering the Princess Royal Fort.

Tomorrow I will be heading out to Two People's Bay Nature Reserve to work with a conservation officer named Louise. There are a couple other volunteers living out there already and there is free internet. I'm really excited about that. We'll mainly be working in the area taking Noisy Scrub Bird inventories (they thought it was extinct, but have found it again at the reserve so their are monitoring its population), but they have also told me about a few other trips that will be taking place in September and I am welcome to join.

I'll let you know how this all goes tomorrow, Love Cass

Fremantle and onward to wintertime.

Last night I met Meaghan in Fremantle. Fremantle is not quite a city. It's the port of Perth, so even though it seems like a separate town, it isn't. It's a section built up around trade because the big ships can't come down the Swan River into the CBD. I had only called her that morning and luckily she was finished work at 7:00 and able to meet me in the evening. I had planned on being in Perth today as well, but Australia shuts down on Sundays and I needed to take the bus to Albany. Even though we had only met very briefly (were introduced one day while crossing paths in the old Axelrod lab) about 3 years ago, I've been really looking forward to seeing her since Uta mentioned she was in Perth months ago. We'd been chatting about my trip for awhile via e-mail and she had suggested some restaurants and interesting places to see.

We met at the train station. I was the one trying to go through the pass holder exit, holding up the line and setting alarms off, and I recognized her right away. She had a little, borrowed car, and we drove over to the restaurant we wanted to try to get into. Driving on the other side of the road still feels very wrong to me. Also, Aussie cars are small and just don't seem sturdy like Canadian cars do. The streets of Fremantle were empty anyway. The 'cold' was probably keeping all the locals inside (it was about 10 degrees Celsius last night), well for awhile anyway, until the Fremantle late-night bar scene started up.




The restaurant that Meaghan picked, Gypsy Tapas, was fantastic. (Em, you would have DIED. Downtown Guelph needs a tapas bar). She said it was her favourite place in town because it reminded her of the Guelph scene. And I completely agreed. The music and atmosphere was great. We ordered the tapas buffet and the waiters just kept bringing us little plates of food. All of the ingredients were fresh and really well prepared. Meaghan also ordered us a half litre of Gypsy wine, which is basically grape juice that has fermented in a big bucket and is served by the pail full. It goes straight to your head and since she was driving I was responsible for finishing off the wine. It was really, really great to hang out with Meaghan. We laughed and had a great conversation about life in Perth, Australian guys, school, work, Canadian guys, and of course, the lab (Uta if you're reading this, Meaghan says, "hi!" and she misses you! - and I say the same thing!).

Meaghan and I at the restaurant:

Some mostly eaten Tapas plates:


Gypsy wine:

After dinner we walked through Fremantle and then Meaghan dropped me off at the train station. The train dropped me off right at beside my hostel and I fell right asleep, thanks to the Gypsy wine.

This morning, I woke up slowly, thanks again to the Gypsy wine, and said good-bye to Perth. I caught the train for three stops and then boarded a bus down to Albany. The bus drives across the south-western tip of Australia. It took about 6.5 hours to drive to Albany from Perth and the entire trip was through sheep farm country. The little sheep and lambs were all out grazing. The grass here is so green. I don't know how that happens because there really isn't any water anywhere. We didn't drive past a lake or river at all.

If you look closely you can see tiny white spots which are actually hundreds of teensy tiny sheep in a field.

I arrived in Albany at 4:30 and chatted with the women at the tourist information centre for awhile. They told me about all of the interesting things to see and do. Unfortunately, none of those things are open on Sunday. Perth is like Guelph and Albany is like Lakefield. There is a Sunday market that I will be attending though and there is a really nice walk out along the coast. This is whale season, so hopefully I'll be able to see some from the shore. There are whale tours, but they are really expensive. As is everything in WA. It's also very cold here (about 5 degrees Celsius this evening). The hostel I'm staying in is fantastic, great view of the harbour and really nice set-up, but it is very poorly insulated. I would definitely buy some mitts tomorrow, but there won't be anywhere open to buy them. I'll just have to wear all of my clothing in layers.

Okay, the internet is not cheap here nor is it reliable or fast, and my fingers are starting to freeze. I'm off to bed, night and have a lovely summer day in the northern hemisphere!

Perth City in pictures...so far.

Despite the abundance of Tim-tams, I haven't actually sampled any flavours yet. I did eat Mud Cake today and that was quite the treat. It was about the size of a small brick, rich chocolate cake completely frosted all the way around. I actually only made it half-way through. On my way here I passed a billboard for coffee flavoured milk, so yes, they are still crazy about their flavoured milk products.

I'm about to go back to the hostel and pack up. Tonight I'm meeting Meaghan (an old member of our research group) for dinner in Fremantle, a sort-of section of Perth. I'm catching the bus tomorrow morning at 9:00 am to head down to Albany. It's a 6 hour drive, of course, because nothing is nearby in Australia.

Here are a few pictures from my time in Perth City and environs.

The conference organizers planned a series of fieldtrips for all of the attendees. I decided to go see the massive restoration project at the Alcoa Bauxite Mine. The mine is the largest bauxite mine in Australia. Bauxite is a red rocky soil that contains aluminum. The top few metres of soil have about 30% aluminum and this is what they extract from the earth. Therefore, the mine is very shallow, but covers a HUGE area. Also, the bauxite is underneath the world's only Jarrah Forest. This ecosystem is mainly composed of eucalypt species, merri and jarrah. Since this whole operation is so close to Perth the company has been held accountable for the restoration of the forest. They've been working on restoration here since the 60's, so they're starting to really get the hang of it. They do a lot of seeding, topsoil saving, tissue culture, and they have a large nursery operation to produce all of the plant material required.

These are some eucalypt seed pods. The seeds are the size of 'pepper flakes'. The seed pod hangs on the tree from the fat end and the little opening has a cap on it until the pod is ready to release the seeds. The cap is gone from these pods and I could shake little seeds out of them. I just picked them up from the ground.


This is what a one year old restored area l0oks like with a tour group walking on it. In the background you can see an unmined, but logged, section of the Jarrah Forest. The aluminum is deposited in a very patchy pattern across the forest. They only mine areas with the required concentration and over the 100 year life of the mine they will only be mining 5% of the entire forest.


I can't remember what this is called, but it will grow up into a tree. It's name is starts with 'grand' and you will see why once you see the seed pods that a mature one of these has.


This is me in the unmined, but logged, Jarrah Forest.


This is the seed pod from the grand-something tree. It's very prickly. And used to have a grand flower around it.


This is very, very long conveyor belt that takes the bauxite to the crusher. They keep adding length to it as they mine deposits farther and farther away from the crusher. After 15 years deposits are too far away from the crusher so they pack up the crusher and move it too the next spot.


We had lunch and a tour at the nursery. They are growing many legume species there and harvesting the seed. This is an example of one of them. They flowers are all very colourful.


This is a coldroom storing 1 million dollars worth of seed. They use half of this amount each year.

Today I spent a little time touring around Perth. I went to WACA (Western Australia Cricket Association) to see the museum. They just refer to everything around here with acronyms. The WACA is what they call the entire cricket stadium. It's huge and really cool. The museum is very well-kept and is run by old cricket player volunteers. There is serious history behind this sport.

These are some tickets for a match in 1969. I liked the lady's ticket vs. the member's ticket.


This is how they make cricket balls.


This is in the entire room dedicated to The Don. Don Bradman was the best cricket player in Australia. Ever.


Then, of course, I found a little wool store. I couldn't buy much, but I needed a project! It was wild. Horribly organized, no prices labelled at all (the Aussies aren't really into signage), just like home. They really do carry a beautiful selection of merinos though.

British Columbia in pictures.

Tonight I finally have a chance to upload some of my pictures! I'm quite organized with everything, but it's been tough to find time on a computer that's fast enough and economical enough to actually put a bunch up at once. I'm at an internet cafe across from the hostel right now and it's cheap. I haven't taken many pictures as of yet in Perth, but the next few days will be quite busy with picture taking. I'm going on a field trip tomorrow, spending Friday wandering around town and visiting the huge botanical garden here, then hanging out with a friend on Saturday.

This first picture just cracks me up. Geoff and Crystal took me to Spanish Banks for a picnic one night in Vancouver. Crystal kicked some sand into our picnic bag, so Geoff took the tomatoes and washed them off. Just as he arrived back at our blanket, the tomato popped off its stem and hit the sand again. It was funny because Geoff was so surprised that the tomato fell and nobody likes sand in their teeth.



Crystal working on the fancy bread from Terra Bakery, a cool little shop just up the road from their house.

The sunset over Spanish Banks.


The crazy gelato place, La Casa Gelato, I visited with Crystal and Geoff. It's all pink and lovely with waffle cones all around the outside and cheesy music played way too loudly.


Just a few of the 218 flavours.


Blueberry picking with Jill and Megan. We filled out buckets in 20 minutes.


Jill and I with a few of our berries.


Jill's mom has the most fabulous collection of pottery. Some day my kitchen will look like this. I'm actually well on my way.


Me on the front porch of Jill's farmhouse. You can see the barn in the backround. My head is blocking the view of the water and the marina.

A tiny puppy we met at Jill's friend Tracy's house. He's a mix of an assortment of things including border collie. He also has 6 other little brothers and sisters. This one was exploring my backpack a lot.


A lovely example of an Arbutus tree that Jill and I found while swimming at Matheson Lake.


Jill's car! It's the coolest little thing. We took the topside windows off and drove all over the place in it. I can't remember what it's called, but it has a Z in the name and leather interior. And it's a standard and it includes music ranging from Justin Timberlake to Ron LaMontague.


Jill in her garden. You can see the abundance of dill. Unfortunately, she didn't plant any cucumbers.


Me on the Pacific Ocean, the second of three oceans I've seen this summer. Um, who wants to send me to the Arctic Ocean and the Southern Ocean?


Jill climbing around a fallen tree on the 'nature hike' we did at Aylard Farm on the coast in East Sooke Regional Park.


The petroglyphs was saw in the same park. I think this one is a giant sea monster, or a salmon, a giant salmon monster.


Treehugging on the front lawn of the parliament buildings in Victoria, BC. This is the first time I had seen a Giant Sequoia. This one is only a little over 100 years old. It was so incredible.


Dinner we made with Leah! Such a fun night. Just a really good time catching up with good old friends. The drink in our cups is Mead from the local meadery, Tugwell Creek, which Jill and I visited in Sooke.