Dateline Down Under - Feb 7-11, 2008

Dateline Down Under – Perth
Thursday, February 7 through 11, 2008

Well, Carol and Steve have seen yet another record in our world travels. Remember when we went to England in 2004 and experienced the “wettest August on record since 1955?” Remember on our trip late autumn and winter when it stayed so nice (we even recollect a 77-degree (F) day in Washington DC the day before Thanksgiving?) Well, today we experienced the WETTEST February day in 16 years in Perth, Western Australia, according to the Weather Channel this evening!

It has been HOT, HOT, HOT and HUMID, HUMID, HUMID since our arrival last Saturday afternoon. We were awakened this morning at 5 a.m. by the sound of a torrent of rain hammering the roof here. It was just DUMPING! We had to run around and close windows before going back to bed. Well, it just continued to rain and rain and rain all day. We went out shopping and almost had to row the car back home. The streets and gutters were flooded, people were scattering into buildings and the rains continued to fall in a relentless attack all day. According to the Weather channel there has not been ANY rain here since they began counting for the year. It had not rained in Perth for 50 days prior to this event. Remember, it is summer down under. The official tally of rain was 2” when the show aired at about 5:30 p.m. our time, and it is still raining outside at 7 p.m., with more expected through the night. You can take a look at pictures of our home and the rain at our Google Picassa Photo Album.

However, they are expecting all of this moisture to end by Noon tomorrow, and then they are forecasting another 15 days with absolutely no rain at all, with temperatures climbing back up to 35 degrees (that is 95 degrees F) by Saturday afternoon, and staying that way for the next few weeks. We have decided to intersperse our daily travels with trips to the beaches in the local area for the next week or so to take advantage of the hot weather and the great beaches here.

Friday, February 8, 2008:

We are learning something about the weather here. Get up and get going early under clear blue skies every morning, because by about 3 p.m. each day, it totally clouds up. It’s almost like sierra thunder storms in the summer, without the rain (except for yesterday!). We met a couple of Brits at the beach today, and they were roaring at the Aussies due to their dress for the “foul weather” yesterday. The woman said, “That’s a GOOD day in England. We were out in shorts and T-shirts all day!” We ain’t in California any more, Toto. We also remember England during August, and we are glad we are here.

We have been paying a lot of attention to the bird and plant life here. We have run into crows, ravens, rooks, or whatever you want to call them all over the world (I am sure some bird geek will correct us on the names, but for us generalists….), and they ALL sound different. The ones here are pretty amazing. We first heard them along with Morning Doves and a White Backed Australian Magpie – Photos you know where) early in the morning. These guys sound like a cross between a bawling calf and a sheep when they call, and they are ALL over the place. Obnoxious little suckers.



After the morning run, we headed for our favorite beach today for a long dose of sunshine, as tomorrow is Saturday, and we have been forewarned, “Stay away from the beaches on the weekends when it is hot.” The water is so nice here in the ocean; you get in and sort of forget to get out for awhile. Here are some more photos of the Indian Ocean and the Beach located at our Google Photo Album. We especially like the picture of Dingo Flour!

By the way, check out the photos of Stevie the Driver on the wrong side of the car. Still takes a little getting used to, but we drove along the coastline north of Perth and Fremantle to check out all of the cool little beach towns today, and the driving here is pretty straight-forward. Nothing at all like the nightmare we experienced in the U.K. a couple of years ago. We even drove home in the Friday afternoon commute out of Perth, and wow, even during the commute rush people are a LOT cooler-headed than the commuters from Rancho Cordova to Pollock on ANY day of the week along Highway 50. Turn your turn signal on and they let you in! Amazing.

We’d like to thank Danny Boag, our tour guide for the Penguin and Koala tour we went on for his advice about the gas prices here. He let us in on a little secret that I guess most of the petrol people know. The rates on gasoline go up significantly on Thursday and stay that way until after Monday. Danny said to make sure we fueled up on Tuesday or Wednesday and then watch the prices and sure enough, we checked the prices today during our outing and found that the price of a liter of gasoline went from 1.24 to 1.37 and upwards to 1.50. An amazing increase… By the way Danny is a professional photographer who takes photos for Lonely Planet and other publications. You might want to check out his work at www.danielboag.com.au. Special note to Tim and Cindy Stockman, take a look at the photos, they are simply amazing. Not sure if you guys can use his work in your art gallery, but he really captures the faces of humanity in his work!!!

The other funny thing Danny told us about was the fact that his brother is an airline pilot and he flies into China. Apparently the Air Traffic Control people have a different way of telling the pilots landing in China that they need to wait for a runway. The first is to tell the pilot that “airport closed, go away.” Then when the pilots say they have to land they tell the pilots to “Make circle.” If you are thinking of flying to China this summer for the Olympics, you might consider a train or the Slow Boat to …!!!

Had a great chance to view the “Southern Cross” up close and personal this week. It looks like a kite laying on its side, and lights up the lower quadrant of the sky at night. We also learned another aspect of Australian culture, as they neighbors are having a big party tonight. How do you know? All of your guests park their cars on your front lawn! No kidding. We went out to look at the stars and the neighbor’s yard has about 15 cars parked on the lawn. Not a one on the street.

We are having a wonderful time in Australia and wish everyone had a chance to visit this wonderful country. The people are so friendly, the country is so beautiful and we are learning so much about our neighbors down under. Sunday, Carol has decided is garden day, we are going to weed some of the beautiful gardens Sheena and Trevor have and just enjoy a weekend. Of course we’ll take pictures and you’ll find them on the blog!!!

Sunday, February 10, 2008:

G’Day Mates (that is pronounced Mites if you are here – this bloke was telling us we needed to be careful about the “Bloody Snikes” in the neighborhood the other morning during one of our runs and it took us awhile to realize he was talking about “snakes,” which Carol just adores!), unless you are part of my poker group. You all should just about be breaking up on Saturday night back in Pollock. Sittin’ here pecking at the keyboard and sucking back a few “EMU Bitters” while Carol takes a shower.

We boo boo’d BIG TIME Friday somehow. Slopped on the SPF 30 (Steve) to 70 (Carol) Friday, but spent a lot of time playing in the water. We did re-apply it, but obviously not enough. Waterproof and Sweatproof my arse! That be Banana Boat as a brand name!

Also a good thing we stayed away from Cottlesloe Beach last night. About 500 of Heath Ledger’s best friends and family celebrated his life last night there during a sunset party on the Indian Ocean at the Indiana Tea House Restaurant. As many of you know he was from Perth and there has been a lot about hum in the news this week. He returned home day-before-yesterday and was cremated here.

Anyway, we decided to retain today as a “down day” and get out into the garden early, as we both look like “Crispy Critter Yank” all weekend. One of the neighbors was telling us that one can get sunburned standing under a shade tree here abouts, and she was correct-o-mundo! Cranked up to 35C or so and very little breeze. They are looking at 40C tomorrow (that translates to 104 F!).

Exciting news today is that the burglar alarm broke, but it was good news, as we got to meet another set of new neighbors who were on Trevor and Sheena’s call list. Seems a battery puked in one of the door sensors and set off the alarm while we were working in the yard. We never heard a thing. Neighbors came by, we chatted for a half-hour, and Steve called the Help Desk at the alarm company (better than India, but not by a long stroke…) and resolved the problem with a new battery ($13.50 AUD here!!).

Steve went to the only grocery store open on Sundays in these parts to collect all of the supplies we need for this weeks’ road trips, and of course got into a HUGE bullshit session with the locals while standing in line waiting to check out. That boy will talk to ANY stranger. The folks here have a real interest in America (Americer here) and California, and unfortunately, a lot of what they get comes from Hollywood on the television. But everyone is so much fun to talk with. They ask all about the U.S. and California, and Steve peppers them with questions about Australia. Biggee of the day is, “Why do you guys all park your cars on the lawns here?” Answer: “So no arse hole will run into them on the street!” Right to the point and sensible, eh?

Every time we leave the house we are so happy we do these cultural exchanges. People are just so cool where ever we visit, no matter which country we are in. anyway, Trevor and Sheena, your roses and flowers are lookin’ REAL good and I am off to the shower.

Monday, February 11, 2008:

Today was our first of a week of serious planned “Road Trips,” daily visits to areas surrounding the Perth metropolitan area. Carol got first pick, and she decided we’d go north. So off we went to “Two Rocks” and Yanchep National Park for some sight seeing, hiking, a picnic lunch and a little driving. Again, it was just NASTY HOT (102 degrees F) and HUMID (still about 80 - 90 %), which all of the locals keep telling us is unusual, so we must just be bringing the joy with us!

Australia has some really cool names for cities and places, and we are having a lot of fun trying to figure out how to pronounce them while driving along in the car. For example, today we passed through Joondalup, and before the week is out will be passing through or visiting Pinjarra, Waroona, North Dandalup, Mundijong, Mundaring, GinGin, Bindoon and Wundowie! Of course, there ARE some boring named places as well, such as Northam, Bullsbrook and Gidgegannup… we almost have Perth down, however…

The people we meet are all friendly, ask a lot of questions about us and where we come from, and are very helpful when we do stupid stuff (like drive into the petrol station the wrong way, and try and figure out how to use the “credit card machine” at the gas pump (there are none). Petrol is still up to $1.38 PER Liter (read quart) which translates to about $5 per gallon US, so we’re hoping prices drop a touch tomorrow (Tuesday) before we run out of gas.

As we were driving through Joondalup, we came across a hilarious incident – one which you would probably never see in America (because it might be bad for someone’s ‘self-esteem’). We were sitting at an intersection (which was not busy at all) and we saw a policeman get out of a civilian car. He walked up to the car in front of him, made this young male teenager get out of the car, walk into the other side of the intersection, and pick up some litter he had just chucked out of his car. The kid has this real sheepish look on his face and all of the rest of us in our cars were watching and snickering at this kid who got caught red-handed. I was watching two other young men in the car behind us in the rear-view mirror, and they were laughing like hell.

The Indian Ocean is just beautiful all the way north along the Coast of Western Australia. Beaches are plentiful, all white clean sand, and the water is a light green-to-blue-green-to-deep blue as you swim further from the beach. It is also really cool here in that you can read the signs as you travel along the beaches – they read “No Dogs,” “This is a Dog Allowed Beach,” “This is a Nude Beach,” etc., etc. No way can you tell your wife, “Ah, gee honey, I didn’t know this was a nude beach when we got out of the car….”

Freddy, you were correct in your phone conversation with Carol this morning. When we got to “Two Rocks,” that’s pretty much what we found: a rock that has been sort of fractured into two pieces (see photos at the usual place) sticking up out of the ocean. However, we did not find any gators or crocs there, so you still have the edge in your back yard (sorry to the rest of you – this is sort of an internal family joke between Carol and her brother-in-law from South Carolina).

However, staying with our tradition of finding weird stuff, we did come across a minefield, or an area with tons of warning signs reading “Keep Out,” and explaining that there was “live ordinance” in the area, and not to touch it if you came across any of it. Got that right!



We drove from there to Yanchep National Park, which is a haven for Australian parrots, Macaws, and a host of other fascinating birds, as well as some really cute little Koala bears. All of the Roo’s were smarter than us and slept through the hot afternoon. We were going to take a 6K trek through the bush, but it was so hot we made it about a mile and decided, “this probably ain’t one of our brighter ideas,” so we settled for a picnic lunch with a bunch of cheeky Australian Magpies on the shores of Loch McNess under a nice large shade tree. Take a look at some of the sites at our Google Picassa Photo Album of Two Rocks and Yanchep National Park.

Our visit ended with a trip to the YNP gift shop and back home to Canning Vale. Along the ride home we began noticing something quite unusual, at least to us. As we have written before, the Aussies are really into American stuff, which includes are television shows. It appears that some how in watching American T.V., a subset of the population here has gotten into graffiti “tagging” and we have been noticing a lot of it on buildings, road signs, and such. Another lovely export from the U.S.



Finally, Carol also found the perfect "Man" television for Steve. She was flipping through the channels on the tube and found this screen. Steve is really excited and is calling Comcast as soon as he gets home. It is 9 (that's right 9) sports channels all in one place. Not sure if we can find it in the states but Steve is saying we may have to move to Australia, if only for this!!!

So until tomorrow’s adventure begins, we remain, Steve and Carol, wandering around the world!