I love this town.

Today I spent a really nice day in Townsville. They say this place is more of a stop-over for backpackers, but I could definitely stay here for awhile. Unfortunately, I only have two days.


Today I spent the morning organizing my travel to the rainforest. I'm REALLY excited to get back to a research station. Expecially one where I can learn about the rainforest and perhaps visit the Great Barrier Reef. I'm going to try to find some excursion offshore because I would love to go see it and perhaps try snorkling. Luckily, the people from the station will be in town on Friday so I'll be able to avoid at least one bus trip this week!

After making all my phone calls I headed up to vist the Perc Tucker Art Gallery. The Gallery is in the centre of town and has free admission. The exhibit on right now is called 12 Degrees of Latitude. It's a collection of work from the top of Queensland to the bottom, spanning that distance in latitude. There were so many pieces that I really loved. The Gallery is beautiful and the art was quirky.

A painting of the giant strawberry, somewhere in Queensland.


I then headed up to the Musuem of Tropical Queensland. I'd been looking forward to visiting this place for awhile and I was not disappointed. They have recently put about 18 million dollars into an expansion of the museum and a series of archeological dives to one of the "most significant ship wrecks in the southern hemisphere". The museum houses the conservator's laboratory and all of the pieces of the wreck. The displays were incredible, to say the least.

Clay jugs from the ship.


I also really loved the ecosystem floor. They have a huge collection of coral and all of the species are labeled and described. It's very cool.


This afternoon I headed up a strip of shoreline they call the Strand. It's a series of about 5 beaches with swimming areas (they have to exclude the poisonous stingers), built in pools, icecream places, and parkland. I walked all the way from one end to the other and back. I also went for a dip in the biggest pool, but I am not acclimatized to salt water, so I really couldn't stay in for long.



Another big thing! Five huge coconuts under some trees along the strand.


At the pool I ran into a family who had been in the same section of the train as I had the day before. The little boy had found a tiny crab and brought it over to show me. He was very proud of his catch and had named it Shelley and was returning it to one of the tidal pools in the rocks.


After my swim I stopped at Cold Rock for some coconut ice with a bounty bar smashed into it. When people ask we about my favourite place in Aus I'm going to tell them it's any place with Cold Rock because that's the easiest answer ;)

The past few days.

I decided to leave Alice on the ground. Once they have you there, they crank up the flight prices so that when you're desperate to leave the desert they can take all your money. I decided I would pay half price and take two buses and a train to the coast. I would have to make a couple stops, but I don't mind seeing the small towns too.

So, my two new danish friends dropped me off at the bus on Saturday night. They hugged me good-bye and promised to write. Hopefully I'll catch up with Kasper in the south-east. We were the only three left from our tour group and it was sad to leave. The bus dropped me off in a tiny little town called Tennent Creek at 2:00 am. The owner from the hostel was there to pick me and a few other backpackers up. We headed back to the hostel and went directly to bed. The next day was a hot, dry one. I did my laundry and by the time I was finished hanging it on the line the first items were already dry. I spent the afternoon listing to the AFL final on the radio with a guy from the Torres Strait. He was not so interested in the game, but I was. The Geelong Cats won a thriller with a free kick in the last six seconds. I also met four boys who were flying across the country in a little plane. They had just completed pilot school and wanted to get some practice so that they could find employment. One was nice, one was the instructor, and the other two were morons. They were heading out to a small town on the east coast the next day.

That night, we got a lift back to the Greyhound and headed off to Mt. Isa. The Greyhounds here are huge and new and very nice to ride around in, but I wasn't really excited to spend the second night in a row on one. Anyway, I arrived in the Isa at 6:00 am and walked about 400 m to the next hostel. There's a saying around here that "you're not a real Aussie till you've been to the Isa." I think they will say anything for a few tourism dollars because there is absolutely nothing to do or see in the Isa. It is sort of an interesting place however. With a population around 23,000 it is one of the biggest towns in the entire world. It covers are area the size of Switzerland and the main street is 180 km long. Yeah. Unreasonable. I wish you could all see how barren this place is. It takes two hours to drive from one end to the other! At least. And, since I was there on a Sunday, nothing was open. Except for Cold Rock Ice Creamery. This place is fantastic. It's a bit of a chain and they have really delicious ice cream flavours which they will mix up and add things into. I had Aussie vanilla with a Tim Tam chopped in. So tasty.

This is me with my ice cream, a palm tree, and a skinny little magpie that you probably can't see. Magpies are much smaller here than they are on the west coast.


I only spent one day in the Isa, but I had a really fun night. The four pilots turned up at the hostel. Their plane had leaked fuel so they had to make an early landing. They said they should have given me a lift. I told them my mom wouldn't have liked that especially since they had to make an emergency landing (and I would not have flown with the morons anyway). There were a lot of other interesting people at the hostel too, though. The son of the hostel owners was really nice. He is coming to Canada in January to start a two-year work visa so we had a lot to talk about. Also, my roommate was an Estonian guy who has been backpacking across Australia. He was really proud to show me his Canadian hammock he's been sleeping in and he cooked me dinner. We talked about knitting. he said Christmas is never a surprise for him because he knows he's going to get mitts, scarves, and sweaters. We stayed up and chatted with a Swedish couple he had caught a ride with. They were thrilled to meet someone who knew about the Oland Islands (alvars are there) because that was where the girl grew up.

The next day I caught the Overlander Train at 1:30 pm. It brought me into Townsville 22 hours later. The ride was okay, but the landscape hardly changed at all. This was my view. All of the little bumps are termite hills (I'm guessing). I also saw some huge red kangaroos, which was really exciting.


I need to go find some dinner, but you might hear from me in the next few days. The internet here is pretty great, but I have a lot to see and do! :)

The West Macs.

The day after I returned from the Rock tour I decided to hop on a day trip bus to see the West Macdonnal Ranges. Mom and Dad had seen a show about them and Chris had camped there so they were highly recommended. I had a great day out there too. The West Macs are the mountain range that borders Alice Springs. They are full of gorges and waterholes.



And dry sand rivers and rock wallabies!



We also stopped over to see an ochre site. This was used as the currency in the aboriginal trading system. This was actually a poor quality site, but I thought it was pretty spectacular.

The Red Centre.

Last week (actually, I have no idea how long ago or even what day it is right now...I've been on a train for 22 hours and I'm exhausted, but I wanted to post this while I had the chance). So, awhile ago....I went on a tour to see the Red Centre. The trip included a hike at King's Canyon, a visit to Kata Tjuta, a stop at Uluru and two nights camping in the outback. I boarded a bus at 6:00 am with 20 other tourists and a guide, Sarah, who drove us around, cooked our food, and told us all about the place. I had never done this sort of traveling and was really wondering about how all of this would go. I was also completely unprepared because I had booked at the hostel desk and when I asked them if I needed to know anything special they said I didn't. I packed up ALL of my stuff which was WAY too much and didn't pack enough water, but we stopped at a lot of places so I got extra anyway. And, I ended up having a fantastic time and making a bunch of new friends along the way.

The first stop was King's Canyon. This is a huge crack in the earth that is starting to become a very popular hiking destination. We did the rim walk and it took about three hours. We all had to carry three litres of water. I definitely drank every last drop of mine. The wind and air at the top is so dry it's hard to remember how to breathe. This picture was taken in front of the area they climb through in Queen of the Desert :)


A cycad, or dinosaur plant and a ghost gum.


Me beside the canyon. That lighter area is where the most recent chunk of rock fell in 60 years ago.


Sunset over the desert.


Day two. Kata Tjuta. Or many heads. This is a sacred man's place where boys were taken to learn how to hunt.


The Mala walk at Uluru. Mala were giant people from the creation time who formed the earth and the brought the people to these lands. All along the base of Uluru are places where important events occured in their time. These stories are passed down through the generations.



An ancient boy's classroom cave in the bottom of Uluru. These paintings are probably 1000 years old and you can see how they overlap like they would on a chalkboard. There are all sorts of interesting little places like this around the base of Uluru. We did the entire walk which is 9.5 km on flat ground. Several of the areas are sacred so you can't take pictures. Noone in my group climbed the rock. It's very dangerous and the aboriginials ask that you don't climb it because it is so important to their culture. The first day we were there the climb was closed, the second it was open and it was as busy as the 401.


Uluru at sunset, the most spectacular time.


The last night we all went back to the hostel I stayed at and went out for dinner. I had a traditional Aussie burger with friend egg, beetroot, and pineapple. It was delicious.

No post!

Luckily I went down to the bus station earlier today because I actually need to catch a bus out of town tonight.

I don't have time to post any pictures, but I'll be online tomorrow.

Stay tuned for some good ones!

Love, Cass

A lovely day in Alice.

I feel a bit bad for questioning why people would even live here the other day! I had a really good day in Alice. I spent the morning at the fabulous Todd Markets, which were extra fabulous since this was the Desert Festival Edition. Then I spent the afternoon at the Cultural Precinct which contains the Museum of Western Australia, the Art Gallery, the Craft studio and outlet, and the Australian Museun of Flight and Aviation. I've spent the evening at the pool with my roommates, two girls from Japan, who are envious of my pale white skin (I thought I had a tan).

Here are a few quick shots that I've taken over the past few days! (I'm under time constraints here).

Out the window where the landscape starts to transition from Western Australia to Central. The captain said he'd take us past Uluru if the skies were clear so that, "the people on the right side of the plane could see the rock". Unfortunately, skies were not clear and it actually rained a little in Alice when we landed.
The airplane food on Qantas was pretty bad. I did receive the miniest Tolberone of all time. They LOVE this chocolate bar here all year round. I should have used a penny, but there's a bread crumb for scale.


The top of Annie Meyers Hill. Typical scenery around here. Actually, quite beautiful once you stop freaking out because you're in the middle of the desert on the other side of the world.


One of the booths at the market. The, ahem, toque booth (the people here wouldn't even know the word toque. They call them beanies and they are unnecessary).

The knit grafitti installation! Done by machine, of course.

The reptiles and birds at the Museum of Western Australia (I was allowed to take photos). The museum was small, but so well done.

I found a phone here that I can use for free with my calling card. Unfortunately, I didn't find it till now and you're all just waking up and this place closes in five minutes. I leave on my tour tomorrow at 6:00 am, but you may hear from me slightly later in the week!

Arid desert environment.

If you spill a drop of water here it dries in about 30 seconds. I don't know that for sure though because there aren't any clocks and nobody pays attention to the time.

O, I should also add, the sun sucks the water right out of people too. And I think I'm the only person here carrying a refillable waterbottle. Most of the time I don't even realize I'm overly hot because I'm not sweating, but then I'm thirsty.

Aussie Rules.

I just finished watching a preliminary final footy match with a young Brit named Duncan, an old man named Joe, and a German couple.

Duncan seems really nice. He's from London and has been traveling in Australia for the past 10 months. He's going on the same tour as me on Monday. He feels the exact same way about Alice as I do and he doesn't know anything about footy either.

Joe is, apparently, the biggest fan the Geelong Cats has ever had. He yelled at the TV for the entire match. Until he left to go down the road for a camel steak burger. That seems even more repulsive than kangaroo right now. Anyway, he was back to see his team win 120 - 47 over the Collingwood Magpies. Interestingly, over the past three years the Pies have had the most winningest record in the AFL since a team in 1929. The haven't won a final since 1961, however. And they won't be winning this year either.

The AFL has 17 teams in Australia and 13 of them are in one city. They have about 90,000 fans in attendance at each game. This place is nuts over football.

The German couple ate all of the Tim Tams in a package and didn't share any.

To say the least, I feel much happier about being in Alice and the weather in the evening is absolutely lovely.

Talk to you later, Cass

Better.

I'm starting to understand Alice a little bit better now. People either come here to escape the rest of the world or they were born here and can't leave because they don't know anything else. I'm only going to be here for a few days and I am going to see some incredible things, so I feel better about all this right now. Earlier I was regretting leaving the west, but there is just so much more to see and do.

I spent the morning out at the Olive Pink Botanical Gardens where a community festival was being held. That was really interesting. Good music, and I could have eaten kangaroo, but my stomach isn't doing well with this dry heat and eating roo sounds pretty repulsive right now. I did, however, climb the Annie Meyers Hill to have a lookout over the town and the festival. I just can't resist climbing hills these days, for some reason.

I'm heading back to the hostel now to swim. I think the best thing about the place is its two pools. You can pick between either real grass or artificial grass. I'll probably have a popsicle too because there are about 700 varieties I need to try out here.

Culture shock.

Hi everyone,

I'm in Alice Springs. I arrived yesterday on a small Qantas flight. The food was okay. Far superior to that of Air New Zealand.

Alice is sweltering hot and red and flat. It is so strange to me. The hostel I wanted to stay at was full so I'm staying at one of the bigger hostels. Everyone is either here to party or to live and work at the bars. I don't know why anyone would ever want to live here. I felt really overwhelmed when I arrived.

The good thing is that I'm here during the Desert Festival. It's a gathering of all sorts of artists and musicians and they have a huge market on tomorrow. I already found a knit graffiti installation where someone knit a huge sweater for a tree.

On Monday, I head out on a tour of Uluru (the red rock), the Olgas (another huge rock formation), and King's Canyon. Then on Thursday I'm going on a day trip to see the Macdonnell Range. Then on Friday, I'll probably fly to Cairns because even though it's nice to not be cold, I don't know how much desert I can take.

Talk to you all later, Love Cass

King's Park.

I came back up to Albany on the bus yesterday. Just driving six hours north has brought me into an area with much nicer weather. Even though I've been caught in the rain about three times today, it's much warmer and that is such a relief. Tomorrow I fly to Alice Springs and I can't wait to wear some of my summer clothes.

Last night I met my friend Katy. She works in the sustainability department of one of the huge mining companies. Sort of an interesting job. She took me out for dinner at a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Leederville, a section of Perth. I had Sapporo and I think the Guelph variety is just as good as the Japanese one.

This morning I got up and headed out to see King's Park. I'm really glad I had the chance to visit because it is an incredible botanical garden. There were a lot of people there, but it's huge, so it didn't seem crowded at all. It's within walking distance of the CBD, but they have free buses everywhere here anyway. I walked out to it, then caught the bus back into the city.

The view from the park is great. It's at the top of Mt. Eliza, also known as Kaarta gar-up (hill water place in language of the Nyoongar people). The hill has been used as a meeting place by the Aboriginal people for over 40,000 years. From various points you can see all over the city and right out to the Darling Range, which are the granite mountains bordering Perth. From the first look-out I could see the Perth Conference and Exhibition Centre, where I attended the conference. It's the saddle-shaped building right on the edge of the harbour.


One of the first flowers I saw in the park was a Kangaroo Paw. This was one thing that I really wanted to see during my trip. There are 12 species and they all live in South Western Australia. I was worried that I wasn't going to see one because we never came across one in the wild, but there are a lot of them in captivity in King's Park.


These flowers are called Scented Boronia. They are native to WA and are produced commercially for use in perfumes and things. They are the most beautifully scented flowers I have ever smelled. They have huge gardens of them and they smell like roses and strawberries and are just wonderful.


This is what happens if a grasstree doesn't get burned. It grows into a huge, fat grasstree.


One of my favourite parts of the park was the elevated bridge through the eucalypt forests. It was so neat to see the tops of all these trees.


From one of the other look-outs I could see the Swan Brewery. They make great beer.


There are art installations all throughout the park. This was a bronze book, with the pages blowing across the rocks in the wind. At the bottom the pages turn into leaves.


I saw a few birds that I could identify in the park. I'm pretty sure this is Johnny Twitchytail (or Willy Wagtail, for all you purists). I also saw Black Cockatoo, ring-necked parrots, and woodducks. The cockatoo was a new one for me. I new it wasn't Carnaby's because they only live down near Perth then I found a sign about the Black Cockatoos and new what it was.


Pink Everlastings.


Me with one of the species of Kangaroo Paw. Just so you can see how tall some of them are. There were also yellow ones that were much taller than me.


Tonight I'm heading to Katy's capoeira performance. It's a type of martial arts dance that the slaves in Brazil used in order to maintain their fighting skills. I saw it on one of the dance reality shows once and it looks pretty cool. I think she also drums. It's down in Freo, so I'm also going to go for a walk along the ocean. Tomorrow I catch my flight to Alice Springs at noon. O, and Leah, Katy's three guy neighbours play bike polo in the street! I saw them out practicing this afternoon.

Talk to you later, Love Cass

Potoroo tracking.

I decided to stay in Albany for an extra day so I could go out to the field with Steph Hill and help out with the potoroo tracking. Steph needed to catch some potoroos and check if they had pouch young. Some of the long-nosed potoroo foster mothers are ready to take on some new babies. Potoroos were the most endangered mammal in Australia, but now there are about 50 in the wild, so they are only the second most endangered.

Steph had baited the traps (on 5 permanent traplines) the night before. She uses a mixture of peanut butter, oats, and essence of pistachio. The bait smells delicious at first, but then starts to be sickeningly sweet when you follow her through the scrub for a few hours.

We managed to trap all sorts of little guys including 6 potoroos. The first little animal we came across was a bush rat. They are good rats, not bad ones, and are very important in the ecosystem. They are also very cute with fluffy little noses. They don't actually eat the bait, they just explore and trip a lot of traps and then end up staying in them for the night. They are also very quick and bounce around the trap and climb up the sides when we are trying to release them.


When we catch a potoroo we put it in a bag and then Steph checks them out. It's hard to get them to leave the bag because they are more scared being outside of it than inside of it.


We saw a lot of other interesting things on our trek up Mt Gardner. I heard about 5 Noisy Scrub-bird individuals. I'm glad I definitely heard one because that was the reason I went down to Albany in the first place. Chris tried to find one for me at Two People's Bay, but they don't sing reliably out there. On Mt. Gardner they don't stop singing and they're definitely noisy.

This is a Christmas Tree. It has a particularly interesting shape. I'm not sure why it has that name, but maybe it flowers during that time of year. On that note, the other volunteer who came along with us, Virginia, is currently writing an article for Lonely Planet (what a cool job!) about the three Christmas Islands in the world. One is Australian territory and another one is just off Cape Breton. She went to visit the Canadian Christmas Island last February! And ended up driving through blizzards on the side of the road she isn't used to. I think she's a bit crazy.


I also got some good close-ups of bandicoots. They are another small marsupial and they get caught in the traps quite often.


Another type of banksia. I can't get enough of these plants. Apparently the lumpers have been at work because all of the dryandra species are now in the banksia family too. They still go by dryandra, commonly, but the genus is now Banksia.


Near the end of the day, we actually trapped a potoroo with a one month old baby. It doesn't have any fur and it didn't want to come out of the pouch. We actually had a hard time getting it back into the pouch and I had to hold the baby. My hands were so cold, I could just feel it's heart beating so hard.


And, of course, the view off Mt. Gardner was spectacular. The little island is called Coffin Island, named for an explorer by the name coffin, not because it looks like one.

Big knitting.

Christien Meindertsma makes all sorts of giant knitted things. I want a rug like this someday.


Thanks Mom for always letting me know when my pictures don't work. Hopefully this shows up now.

Twitcho.

In Australia there is a well-developed culture based around birdwatching. As is common in these parts, birdwatchers have developed their own set of jargon to describe their activities. To twitch is to head out into the bush to find a specific species of bird. To tick is to find that bird and add it to the list of birds you have seen or tick it off the list of birds you wish to see. Chris likes birdwatching. He seems to have worked in a lot of jobs that require birdwatching skills. He just finished reading a book called The Big Twitch. It's about an Aussie who quits his job as a comedy writer and heads out across Australia to break the birdwatching record. The record stood around 650 different species of bird in one year. I think that this book has pushed Chris from interested participant in the activity of birdwatching to entering the twitcher designation. Over the course of the past couple weeks I've actually learned a great deal about birdwatching and am starting to form an appreciation for the skills involved. I've always wanted to improve my ability to identify different families and species of birds and this has been a good start. Chris owns a bird book be Simpson and Day which is one of the best keys to bird species in Australia. The book is also really well designed and interesting to look at, so I've picked up a few things along the way.

One thing that twitchers really like to do is keep a list of the birds they see over certain periods of time or in certain geographical locations. Chris came to Australia aiming to see 200 different species during this trip. He's at 197 last I checked and he's on his way to the Broome Bird Observatory to volunteer for a few weeks so he's going to smash his goal. For his lifetime of record keeping he's nearing 800 birds. I can't wait to get an e-mail when he reaches that milestone (I'm actually excited about that).

To follow this great tradition of twitching and in honour of my time spent at Two People's Bay I've decided to keep my own list in the back of my journal. I really enjoy seeing all of these new creatures and trying to figure out what they are, so my list includes all sorts of mammals and reptiles too. I'll post an update once I make some more progress. Hopefully I keep adding the birds after I leave Two People's Bay.

King's Skink - Coastal Trail, Albany WA - August 30/09
New Holland Honeyeater - Coastal Trail - August 30/09
Galah - Middleton Beach - August 30/09
Bandicoot (Quenda) - Coastal Trail - August 31/09
Quokka - Two People's Bay - August 31/09
Fur Seal - Coastal Trail - August 31/09
Western Grey Kangaroo - Two People's Bay Road - August 31/09
Gilbert's Potoroo (in captivity) - Two People's Bay Conservation Program - September 1/09
Long-nosed Potoroo (in captivity) - Conservation Program - September 1/09
Carnaby's Cockatoo - Coastal Trail - September 1/09
Common Bronzewing - Coastal Trail - September 1/09
Crested Tern - Little Beach - September 2/09
Australian Pelican - Two People's Bay Beach - September 2/09
Red-capped Parrot - Two People's Bay - September 3/09
Elegant Parrot - Moingup Campground - September 4/09
Wedge-tail Eagle - Bluff Knoll - September 4/09
Little Eagle - Cocanarup Timber Reserve - September 8/09
Emu
Numbat
Barn Owl
Fox (invasive predator)
Brush-tail Wallaby
Bobtail
Chestnut Teal
Malleefowl
Sooty Oystercatcher - Little Beach - September 11/09
Bristlebird
Whip Bird
Carpet Python - Two People's Bay Tool Shed - September 12/09
Humback Whale - Two People's Bay - September 12/09
Osprey

Hopefully, this week I'll see a Gilbert's Potoroo in the wild. I'd have to see a Long-nosed Potoroo outeast in the wild.

The Malleefowl is special because it is a rare bird in these parts. There is an aviary near Ravensthrope that is attempting to protect the Malleefowl, but I saw it in the wild. Malleefowl build a huge sand mound in which they lay their eggs. They don't sit on the eggs to incubate them because the sand and decomposing vegetative material keep them warm enough. The chicks are fully feathered when they hatch and can fly within 24 hours. I also saw one of their mounds in the bush. Chris really wants to see a Malleefowl in the wild, but he went on a different trip last week. When I told him I saw one he accused me of gripping (birdo-speak for bragging about seeing a specific bird, I think - have to check the glossary on that one). Then he stomped around the granite shore for a bit. Even still, I really hope he does get to see one this trip.

Also, I still haven't heard a Noisy Scrub-bird, which is the creature I came here to help survey. We've had lousy weather for birding and we haven't been able to enter the wet areas for fear of spreading dieback fungi. I've got one more chance to hear one tomorrow, so fingers crossed that I don't dip (birdo talk for going to an area to see a special bird species and not being able to find it).

Little brother on the cover.

John made the front page of the Peterborough Examiner the other day. The annual wakeboard championships were held at Beavermead Park and the photographer, Clifford Skarstedt, caught him crowdsurfing. I think this is a really great shot. I love the way his red t-shirt looks. And at least he isn't in the paper for doing something really bad.

Party in the Park, by Andrea Houston, Examiner Staff Writer.

True to their word, local band The Spades brought out the sunshine with the first song of their set on Saturday.

And, despite fears of thunder and lightning all day, the sunny weather stuck around through the afternoon at the 2009 Canadian Wakeboard Championships at Beavermead Park.

"We plan to bring some sunshine today," lead singer James McKenty assured the crowd.

By the time headline act Bedouin Soundclash took the stage, the crowd was dancing, singing and hardly talking about the weather at all.

"I have been waiting to see Bedouin Soundclash for so long!" said Tim Grant, 26. "I love their groovy, mellow reggae sound. Perfect for summer."

Bedouin Soundclash, who met while attending Queen's University in Kingston in 2001, were accompanied on stage with a horn section.

During their encore, fan John Stabler, 20, showed his appreciation by crowd surfing across the hundreds of heads in front of the stage.

Co-organizer John McNutt said about 4,000 people joined the party on Saturday.

Although some were content to sit on the beach and watch the wakeboarding, most filled the area around the main stage or lounged in the beer garden.

The Wolf 101.5 FM set up a large cedar deck complete with a hot tub in the middle of the beer tent.

"It's not so much a hot tub. It's a warm tub," said Mike Heartlib, who was sipping a Coors Light while he soaked.

After The Spades, The Birthday Boys performed, followed by The Arkells and then Bedouin Soundclash closed the show.

"It's great to be involved in the festival," McKenty told The Examiner after the show. "We always love staying in Peterborough."

Singer Max Kerman from Hamilton-based The Arkells said the band loves visiting Peterborough, especially to have dinner at a certain George St. restaurant.

"We love Hot Belly Mama's," Kerman said with a laugh. "This is a great way to edn the summer. We're friends with all the bands playing today. We're stoked."

Although the bands would have performed rain or shine, McNutt admits he was a little concerned when he arrived in the morning in the midst of a thunderstorm.

"Thunder and lightning become a safety issue, but I got a feeling that the Lord's a wakeboarder," he joked. "By early afternoon the sun just started peeking out and people have just streamed right in."

Baughn Deleff said he came to see The Arkells, but loved the whole event.

"We're really excited that this event is here in Peterborough," he said. "I would like to see more youth-oriented things in Peterborough. It's really great."

NOTE:In between bands, Jason Thorne from Thorne FMX (freestyle motocross) entertained the crowd with his high-flying stunt show.... Spades lead singerJames McKentysaid the local band will release its new album (a five song EP) on Oct. 1.... ThoseExaminerbeach balls that were handed out for free on Friday could be seen throughout Beavermead Park over the weekend. While the bands played, a couple of balls bounced through the crowd in front of the stage.

"We love Hot Belly Mama's," Kerman said with a laugh. "This is a great way to end the summer. We're friends with all the bands playing today. We're stoked."

Although the bands would have performed rain or shine, McNutt admits he was a little concerned when he arrived in the morning in the midst of a thunderstorm.

"Thunder and lightning become a safety issue, but I got a feeling that the Lord's a wake-boarder," he joked. "By early

Article ID# 1722654

Whale season.

This morning was clear and cold. A beautiful day at the Bay. We hiked down from the house to see what we could see before the afternoon wind and rain came in. The water was incredibly blue.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the flowering showy banksia on the trail down to the beach. A few days ago all of the little red spikes were looped into the centre. I love how they unfold as the flower opens up.


Chris (scanning for seabirds - and whales - in this shot) spotted the whales a few minutes after I took this picture. We had only sat on the granite for a short time when a humpback whale and her calf came swimming by. We watched them for quite some time. The baby was quite playful. We could see their tails come out of the water, their fins, and their humps. We could also see the water come spraying out of their blowholes. This was the first time I have ever seen whales in the ocean and my heart was pounding the entire time.


Just after the whales left the bay this huge osprey flew onto the granite shore with its catch of the day. Its talons were just sunk right into the fish. Seeing it fly in with this thing was incredible.

On the hike back we went through the She Oak forest. These trees are really interesting because their leaf structure is similar to the horsetail plants I see back home. I don't know if these trees are related.


After lunch we hiked over to Sinker's Reef. This is another part of Two People's Bay Nature Reserve. I had never been over there before. I saw this Grand Banksia on the way over.


The coast at Sinker's Reef is really beautiful.


There are all sorts of tide pools along the shore.


And the waves were actually really huge. I stayed back because I didn't know how far up they would come. Some of the waves had to have been over three metres high and they crashed into the reed with incredible force.