The Red Bull Air Race has returned to Perth after skipping a year and the day before the race they’ve started practicing.  I’ve actually been looking forward to this for quite some time and when the weather was bad at the beginning of the week I was worried they’d cancel it.  And then yesterday a guy crashed during testing.  But things are looking up.  The weather is clearing and the guy who crashed is fine.

I was able to see the warm-ups from out my window at work.  That was pretty distracting -jp

Red Bull’s Perth website.

They're racing to the bar

While we were in the Outback last year, one of the things that I wanted to do was go drinking at a feral Outback bar with the local ranchers and truckers and whoever else.  Needless to say, Monique didn’t want any part of that.  I didn’t want to go by myself so it didn’t happen.  But fast forward to Easter 2010 and the Quindanning Picnic Races.  We drove out to where the bush ends and the Outback begins to a little boonies town that has an Easter tradition of getting all of the locals together in a field next to a horse racetrack and getting them smashed.  There were a couple of bands and an endless amount of relatively cheap booze as well as plenty of drunk hicks.  They called us “city people.”  I thought that was funny.

Apparently, there was some horse racing.  Or at least that’s what my camera tells me.

On the way home we hid Easter baskets but my head hurt. -jp

An Ostern hat es uns nach Quidanning  verschlagen. Einem kleinen Städtchen irgendwo im nirgendwo zwischen australischem Busch und Outback. Warum wir da waren? Ja, eine gute Freundin von uns, von Beruf Tierärztin hatte Bereitschaft auf der Pferderennbahn des Örtchens. So kam es, das die “Stadtmenschen”, wie sie uns nannten auf’s Land hinaus sind und ein bisschen den Pferden gelauscht und mit den Ansässigen getrunken haben. Es war nett! Ja wirklich! Nicht wirklich viel Pferderennen – leider, aber trotzdem witzig mit dem ein oder anderen aus der Gegend zu quatschen und zu sehen, wie verbunden doch die Australier zu Natur und Tier sind!

Und auf dem Weg nach Hause haben wir in Pinjarra angehalten und im Park unsere Ostereier gesucht.

Anbei noch ein paar Impressionen in der Fotosgalerie. -mk

Quindanning is way out here.

Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man/101268

I’ve found that if you name an island after an interesting animal, you are guaranteed to not see that animal there.  Shark Island near Koh Tao?  No sharks for miles.  Seal Rock near San Francisco? Nothing but seagulls.  Turtle Island?  Yeah, they should’ve called it “You’ll Never See A Turtle Island.”  And the same goes with Penguin Island.

They claim the penguins go out during the day and only come back at night, but we’ll have to take their word for it.  They also claim that you can see penguins on the island during mating season.  Or you could, but the island is closed.  Your best chance then is molting season which is during summer.  So, we’ll go back then.  In the mean time enjoy the photos of No Photos Of A Wild Penguin Island as well as a few captive penguins that were rescued.  They are really cute.

By the way, they are called Little Penguins.  Seriously.  Too cute. -jp

Pinguin Insel – klingt als gäbe es Pinguine da, was!? Gibt es auch, nur nicht zu der Zeit wo wir da waren. Leider! Naja, sie hatten ein kleines Gehege, wo verletzte Pinguine gehalten wurden. Wir haben einen schönen Spaziergang über die Insel gemacht und an der Pinguin Fütterung teilgenommen und wir haben erfahren, wann die kleinen Kerle letztendlich auch mal auf der Insel zu sehen sind. Zwischen Ende September bis Februar sind sie dort und zu der Zeit darf man auch auf die Insel, da man während der Brütezeit nicht hin darf um sie verständlicherweise nicht zu stören. So, wir werden also nochmal hinfahren! -mk

Penguin Island is south of Perth, near Rockingham.

Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#101260

We finally got underway again.  It’s amazing how much time whizzes by when you get into the whole “real life” thing.  But it felt great getting back on the road, sleeping in the tent, seeing something new and doing stuff.

We went to the Margaret River region but didn’t make it to the town of Margaret River.  We did, however, see Bunbury, Busselton, Dunsborough, and Yallingup.  The sites were incredible especially since we had no idea what to expect since we did no research ahead of time.

We went to a few wineries (Saracen, Icon, Sandelford), the Duckstein Brewery, the chocolate factory, and a couple of other places.  All in all, pretty cool.  We’ll definitely be going back. -jp

Endlich hatten wir mal wieder ein komplettes Wochenende zusammen. Kommt ja leider nicht so häufig vor, wenn man im Verkauf arbeitet.

So haben wir uns entschieden in die Weingegend Margret River zu fahren, ein wenig Wein zu testen, durch die Weingegend zu cruisen und die Strände anzuschauen. Überrascht haben uns dann wirklich die unglaublich schönen Strände in Yallingup. Wir fuhren so gemütlich auf der Straße entlang und kamen um eine Kurfe und dann das – ein Strand wie du ihn wohl nicht oft in deinem Leben siehst! Eingeschlossen von grünen Dünen, tiefblaues Wasser und ein ewig langer Sandstrand. Faszinierend!

Die Weingegend selbst war zu unserer Überraschung auch super! Wunderschön hergerichtete Weingüter mit Wein- und Olivenöl etc. testen. Auf dem Rückweg haben wir bei Harey Cheese gehalten und uns mit Käse eingedeckt. Zu hause mußten wir leider feststellen, dass wir zu weich sind für den mega Stinkerkäse den wir gekauft hatten!  -mk

Dunsborough is here.

Photo gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#101252

Finally! A good night's sleep!

The Rhapsody of the Seas sails into the sunset.

Even though it hasn’t rained since November, we do occasionally have clouds.  So I figured I’d get a shot of a cruise ship leaving the channel with some clouds in the background.

The Rhapsody of the Seas came and went in one day and, had the mammoth Queen Mary 2 not been here on Saturday, it would’ve been the biggest ship we’d seen here.  I guess it’s all about timing. -jp

A quick HDR photo of sunset looking out our living room window at Monument Hill.  Sometimes even though the sunsets to the West, you’ve gotta look to the East. -jp

Don't eat here.

If you go to Hillarys in Western Australia (nice place), please avoid Sharky’s.  They serve shark.  They don’t even try to camouflage it by calling it “flake” like other places here.  It’s just a plate of bronze whaler and fries.  So yeah, add that to the “avoid” list.

The sun sets over wheat fields in Australia's mid-west

If you’re driving from Shark Bay to Perth, Kalbarri is an extra 120km detour but it’s worth it.  There are a few pretty cool sites like the Sea Horse Sanctuary (less of a sanctuary and more of a farm) and the Rainbow Jungle parrot sanctuary.  Both are worth seeing, especially the parrot joint.  On your way out of town, make sure to stop off at a couple of the sea side cliff overlooks.  Take a fly net though or you’ll be driven nuts by the flies.  Damn, I hate flies. -jp

Wenn man von Shark Bay nach Perth fährt, kommt man über einen ca. 120km Umbogen nach Kalbarri. Aber das Städtchen ist wirklich süß und vorallem gibt es nette Sachen wie die Seepferdchen Farm, den Rainbow Jungle Papageien Zoo, sowie unglaublich coole Klippen. Oh, nicht vergessen ein Fliegennetz zu den Klippen mitzunehmen, denn die Fliegen sind schrecklich penetrant da!! -mk

Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#101178

Find Kalbarri here.

It's like cute wrapped in a blanket of cute.

When we went to Monkey Mia we assumed it would just be tourist schlock.  Turns out it was really cool.  The scenery was idyllic and the water warm and calm.  Even the dolphin feed, which was packed and heavily controlled, was a good time.  There were maybe 8 dolphins swimming around.  If you’re in the area, it’s worth checking it out.

After Monkey Mia we went up the Francois Peron peninsula to the top end.  First we went to Cape Peron and as we were heading down to the beach, three people coming the other way said there was a tiger shark (Shark Bay is a congregation point for tiger sharks) near the beach.  Of course, we grabbed the snorkel gear and camera but there was no shark.  There was, however, a manta right off the shore.  We’d never seen a manta before so it was quite exciting.  I jumped in and was almost swept away.  Holy crap, there’s some serious current there.  I gave up without reaching the manta.

We went around the peninsula a couple of kilometers and saw incredible sight at Skipjack Point.  From the top of the cliffs we saw about 30 mantas, a hammerhead shark (which we’d never seen), dugongs (which we’d also never seen), as well as bull rays, other sharks, and turtles.  The shallows were full of fish and marine mammals feeding, and we couldn’t get down there because of the cliffs.  We need a boat.

After that we spent the night on a beach on the east side of the peninsula where we had the place to ourselves. -jp

Wenn du delphine sehen willst, geh mal nach Monkey Mia.  Da gibst delphine.  Als du da bist, geh mal auch nach Francois Peron.  Voll geil.  Alle die schwatze punkte in die bildern sind Mantas.  Mantas kann bis zum 9 meter sein, aber diese waren vielleicht 2-3.  Hammer. -jp

Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#101170

Monkey Mia is here.

1.5 billion years ago, this is what the world looked like. This was the only life on Earth.

Once upon a time there was no life on Earth.  This was about 3.5 billion years ago.  Then came stromatolites, which is basically just bacteria.  For two billion years they were the only life on earth.  They’re not much to look like and the shapes that they take on are actually just the remains of the ones that came before, like coral.  Eventually, life evolved on Earth and the first thing that life did was eat the stromatolites.  The colony at Hamelin Pool is one of the only living colonies still existing in the world.

When we started the trip we had a list of things we wanted to see and this was right up there.  Not to put too fine a point on it but the stromatalites of Hamelin Pool at the south end of Shark Bay are probably the single most important discovery of something alive in nature in the history of the world.  You may wonder if it’s worth crossing the entire continent just to look at something that looks like cow poo shaped rock.  Yes.  Yes it is.

Around the corner from the stromatolites is Shell Beach.  True to its name it’s a beach completely made of tiny shells.  We hung out there for awhile and then drove to Denham, the main town for Shark Bay. On the way, a hawk flew in front of us and I hit it.  We went back to look and he was still alive but his wing and leg were messed up.  We took it to Denham with us and dropped it off at the tourist office where the state department of environment people picked it up.  Hopefully, he’s doing okay. -jp

Die stromatoliten in Shark Bay sind super cool.  Vor es gab leben am Erde, es gab Stromatoliten.  Für 2 milliarden Jahre, es gab nichts anders.  Für 2 milliarden jahren die haben Sauerstoff gemacht, bis die Luft circa 20% Sauerstoff war.  Dann gabs richtige leben auf die erde.  Plankton,Tiere, du, ich.  Danke Stromatoliten.  Danke. -jp

Gallery: http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#101162

Hamelin Pool is at the bottom of Shark Bay, here.