Sea World versus Monkey Mia

There are three ways to see dolphins.

The first one is in the wild, if you are lucky enough to spot any.

Sea World provides another possibility for dolphin lovers.

And there is Monkey Mia in Western Australia. This is where you will get closer to wild dolphins than you’ll ever do in your life. But that’s not all. The best part about visiting the wild dolphins of Monkey Mia is that you meet them on their own terms. You read that all right.

Every day five wild dolphins come to shore to receive a daily ration of fish. The wild dolphins are not forced to come for their morning feed. In fact they may not come at all.

What is unique about this program is that it is really well managed. Dolphins (no more than five dolphins are allowed in the program at any one time) only receive about 500 grams worth of fish every morning at 7:30. This is about 1/10 the food eaten by an adult dolphin. This is to ensure that dolphins do not lose their hunting instinct. When the feeding begins, members of staff randomly select five persons from the crowd to hand-feed the dolphins. Touching the dolphins is strictly forbidden for both staff members and the public.

The dolphin experience in Monkey Mia provides the ideal way (in my opinion) humans should interact with wildlife. Contrast Monkey Mia with Sea World, which confines its animals to small enclosures for the sake of our egoistical enjoyment: we want to see the animals but we are too lazy to see them in their own environment.

Back to Monkey Mia - We arrived very early at the beach to watch the show. There were about 150 people standing on the beach hoping to be part of the Lucky 5.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I was selected to feed dolphin Picolo!!! It looks like my bright red shirt attracted the eye of a 75 year-old staff member. I gave Picolo her fish and she took a big bite.

Monkey Mia is an absolute experience that respects the basics of ethical interaction between humans and wildlife. Do yourself a favor and pay the dolphins a visit!

The Gorgeous Gorges

When we were talking to Australians we met on our way from Sydney to Perth, and we mentioned that we wanted to see Karijini National Park, nobody seemed to know what we were talking about. We thought that we might be pronouncing the name of the park very wrong but it turned out that Karijini is in fact a very well-kept secret.

When you approach the park, you can’t really see anything extraordinary – just a few hills here and there. You can’t see the reason why you came to the park until you are standing almost directly over it – beautiful gorges, sometimes around 100 meters deep and framed by red layered rocks.

Visiting Western Australia in cyclone season has huge advantages. Although we suffered through violent winds, we also had the gorges almost to ourselves. After the first afternoon we could almost recognize everybody visiting in the park, and by the second night, we knew half of them by name :)

Some gorges were very relaxing, with many beautiful pools to swim after walking in 47 degrees on easy walks. Some others were more of a challenge: we had to hug the rocks to get through some passages and at some point there was no way to complete the track other than swimming through it.

We very much regretted that we had to leave Karijini and only the anticipation of dolphin encounters in Monkey Mia convinced us to move on.

The Secret Gardens of Western Australia

Coral Bay is a rugged little settlement on the West Coast of Australia. It looks pretty rough at the first sight (especially in summer): burning sun, red, very dry soil, and violent winds. Fresh water is very scarce and even the water in the sink or in the shower has a salty taste to it. Two camping parks and a hotel (which make up pretty much the whole village) are trying to maintain a couple of green lawns, against all odds.

Once you get underwater, though, it’s a whole different world. It feels like being transported to a magic garden. Just 50 meters off shore corals cover all the bottom of the ocean, taking all possible forms and colors. Marc and I stayed underwater for almost 2 hours non-stop at a time. Why would we go out? The conditions were perfect: no strong currents, not big waves, it felt fresher and not so hot under water and the views was magnificent!!!!!

After Coral Bay we moved further to the north to Cape Range Park for some more snorkeling. As we were no longer staying in a campervan park, there was no green grass and no shade, really. What we were left with was pretty much: extreme heat, extreme (hot) winds, and… of course more great snorkeling!

Coral in Cape Range Park is a little less impressive than in Coral Bay but in exchange, we saw lots of different kinds of fish, some of them for the first time in our life. Although we were not lucky enough to spot a reef shark (not such a big loss, if you ask me :) ), we saw many other stunning creatures, among them beautiful spotted sting rays, and a huge turtle, which was patiently posing for pictures for us.

We suffered a good deal that day to snorkel in Cape Range: the temperature reached over 40 degrees, we had nothing cold to drink and no proper shaded area. During that night violent hot winds almost blew our tent away amidst a constant, humid, sticky 30 degrees temperature. It was all worth it.

However, we decided that even the most beautiful coral wasn’t worth another day and night spent in such hostile conditions. And just to clarify: the killer spider we encountered in Cape Range had absolutely nothing to do with this decision :)

Hot destinations getting hotter

If you’ve read the news recently, you’ve noticed that many countries are experiencing near-revolutions due to rising food prices. First it was Tunisia. Now Egypt is seeing vast protests against the ruling elite. The police already killed protesters. People have also taken their grievances to the street in Oman, which has now imposed price controls on staple foods.

We are due to travel to Oman and Egypt in May and June. Hopefully the situation will have improved by then or we may have to make alternate plans.

So we can all thank the Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, for creating the current explosive situation. The guy has been printing money ever since he was elected chairman in 2006. Now he’s printing money to the tune of trillions. With unlimited money printing comes unlimited price inflation. Emerging markets are simply paying the price first. We are next.

The ugly side of protectionism

Not all can be positive about the Land Down Under. One negative that Ania and I both discovered here is rampant protectionism.

We first noticed that one cannot buy wines from the United States or France here. If these wines are sold in Australia, they are surely very hard to find as Ania and I never managed to find any in the liquor shops we visited in Eastern Australia. But we never made a fuss about it.

It is in Western Australia that we realized the full extent of protectionism in this country. On a major broadcast station we heard a talk-show host discuss the crisis in the State of Queensland and how the destruction of fruit had resulted in the importation of fruits from China. The host was up in arms against the idea as he explained that “I would never buy an orange from Florida because it would just feel wrong”.

I was stunned. The whole show was about denouncing the importation of fruits and vegetables as apparently they are not “safe” and do not respect the high standards of Australian fruits and veggies (a Western Australia newspaper ran a front-page article that discussed how importing fruits and veggies from China would bring pests and diseases into the country). Even supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths bowed to pressure and publicly announced that they would not import fruits and veggies from China.

With such practices how did Australia ever get allowed into the World Trade Organization?

China bashing is popular. The irony is that Australia became a rich country in large part because China buys up all its resources. Australia is happy to sell its resources to China, but complains when China wants to sell its own goods in the country. World trade is a two-way street.

Suddenly Australian wines don’t taste that good anymore.

A tiny killer

This is a redback spider. It is one of two deadly spiders found in Australia, the other being the Sydney funnel-web.

Redbacks are commonly found in human shelters. Webs are usually built in dry, sheltered sites, such as among rocks, in logs, shrubs, old tyres, sheds, etc. As you can imagine redbacks love to hang out around pit toilets in the outback.

Although redbacks are deadly, there hasn’t been a single recorded death since the introduction of antivenom in 1984.

We found this creep in a pit toilet in the Cape Range National Park (south of Exmouth). Ania had used the toilet before but never noticed the spider. Once I told her of my discovery, she refused to use this toilet. I wonder why :)

Update on flooding

A few weeks ago we shared some terrible news concerning Queensland. Well, it looks like the calamity has moved to the state of Victoria, which now reports massive flooding. The sad irony is that we actually passed through some of the localities flooded, namely Horsham.

Apparently water is now receding in Queensland and the government is assessing damage.

Queensland is not out of the woods yet. After all, we are still in the wet season and much more rain can still fall.

All quiet on the Western Front

After visiting more touristy parts of Australia, Marc and I decided to go Western Australia. We arrived in Perth, rented a car and headed north.

There are about 2 million people in Western Australia (WA occupies one-third of the continent), and 85% of that population lives in or around Perth. So, as one can imagine, we didn’t pass through many settlements on our way.

Imagine a highway surrounded by red and dry soil going straight for hundreds of kilometers.
Imagine driving 800 km in a day and not passing through any settlement of more than 2k inhabitants.
Imagine greeting all other drivers you meet on the way (not much greeting to do, as you encounter few vehicles on your way).
Imagine passing iconic road trains – huge trucks hauling up to three trailers that can reach up to 50 meters.
Imagine seeing stray cows, horses, emus, and all kinds of lizards resting on the highway.
Imagine seeing warning signs about flooding on the road every 20 km, and occasionally, having to go around flooded parts of the highway.
Imagine feeling like in the middle of a desert, even though you are only 15 km away from the ocean.

If you imagine all of that you know how it feels driving along the west coast of Australia.

Very special.

Melbourn to Adelaide Wrap-up

The Great: Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road
They are ranked right at the top with the Great Barrier Reef and Ayer’s Rock (Uluru) as most visited attractions. Is it all hype? Absolutely not. The Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles in particular will assuredly make you go “wow”. A marvel from nature.


The Hidden: Hahndorf in the Adelaide Hills
Hahndorf sits in the Adelaide Hills east of Adelaide. If you visit Adelaide, do yourself a favor and catch a bus to Hahndorf, the perfect one-day escapade. You will enjoy the picturesque setting of Hahndorf, a town that clearly shows its German origins. The town also has wine tasting, delicious cheese tasting (Ania looked delighted – as usual any cheese tasting is always repulsive for me) and all other sorts of deli to try.


The Overrated: the Grampians (if we really have to pick something)
Many Australians talk fondly about the Grampians. All tours between Melbourne and Adelaide will stop in the Grampians. We did enjoy our stop in the Grampians, although maybe we expected something more grandiose. Not overrated that much, just a tad bit.


The Ugly: Mosquitoes around Murray River in Mildura
We had the foolish idea to camp next to Murray River in Midura. We had to cut short romantic bush dinner as the mosquitoes chose to simply bypass our 35 % Deet mosquito repellent and bite us right through our shirts and pants. Ouch!

Wine tasting the right way

We started wine tasting in Mildura, a small outpost in northern Victoria. The wine region in Mildura is a secret well-kept: the vast majority of tourists who come to Mildura come to the region to do fruit picking. Little do they know that the sun-drenched vineyards of Mildura produce top quality grapes, which is why the great Lindeman’s has a massive winery just south of the city.

Wine tasting can be intimidating for novices, particularly if you are the only one tasting and the staff stands ready to hear your comments. At least it was intimidating for both of us.

On entering the cellar door of the first winery, we were shown a list of wines. What I didn’t know is that they are divided in the order that the winemaker considers best on the palate, or tasting order if you prefer. I first tasted a shiraz and then a cabernet. But after that I went for a Petit Verdot, which was the first wine on the left.

Doh!

That’s no big deal though. I plan to make wine tasting in Australia a hobby of mine. I’ll have plenty of time to get it right! :)

Monthly Trip Summary (2)

Dec; 9 2010 – Jan.8 2011

Summary of the second month of our trip

Number of countries visited: 2

Number of flights taken: 2

Number of posts added to our blog: 17

Number of marital conflicts: 1. On the night before we were supposed to arrive in Melbourne, after seeing a penguin parade on Phillip Island. We ran into trouble finding the campsite where we were supposed to stay for the night. It was cold, we were already wet because it rained on Phillip Island, and the rain just set off again. One thing let to another and before we knew it, I blamed Marc for the rain and Marc blamed me for the lack of campsites. We ended up arriving to a nice (if pricey) hotel in Melbourne suburbs at 1:30am. A warm and dry room helped us make peace :)

Best overnight stay: Probably Enterprise Hotel in Melbourne. It was perfectly situated downtown and the price was unbeatable. Once you passed through the main lobby, the building suddenly opened up again in an internal court with picnic tables and palm trees at the bottom and elegant iron galleries all around. What can I say – Melbourne is full of architectural surprises.

Worst overnight stay: The night after visiting Rotorua on the North Island in New Zealand. We thought we would find a reasonable campsite 10-15 km from the town. 2 hours and over 100 km later, we finally found a rest area on the road. It was too close to the highway: throughout the night I had the impression that trucks were running over my head. The next morning we discovered that we set up our tent practically in the industrial suburb of a town.

Best Call we made: Choosing to spend New Year’s Eve in Mildura and staying there longer then planned. Apart from all great things I described in a separate post, Mildura was also the place where I heard my first real-life “sheila”! Until then I didn’t think people actually say it in Australia, but after being personally referred to as a sheila, I no longer doubt that the word was not invented by Crocodile Dundee :)

Worst Call we made: Hiking in the Grampians under a blazing sun with 1.5 litre of water was a stupid decision. Marc looked pitiful and both of us had to ration water to make it to the end. No more afternoon hiking on a sunny day without a reasonable amount of water.

Mungo National Park

Mungo National Park is not easy to get to. In summer temperatures reach well over 40 degrees, which makes it an unattractive destination for most tourists. Moreover, getting to the park requires driving over 90 kilometers of unsealed road –and I am not talking about the standard gravel road, I am talking about a road made of a mixture of sand, broken slabs of concrete, rocks and small boulders. As you can imagine, speeding was not an option.

The park is part of a chain of dried-out lakes in Outback New South Wales. Lake Mungo dried up around 14,000 years ago, and today a great crescent-shaped dune, called the Walls of China, stretches along the eastern shore of the lakebed.

As you can see from the pictures, erosion has sculpted the sand and clay into dramatic formations.

Rain and wind has also uncovered ancient artefacts, stone tools and animal bones. We saw some mussel shells that were dug from the mud for food before the dry times came, about 18,000 years ago. Christ was born a mere 2000 years ago!

Camping with wildlife

Camping in Australia will unavoidably bring many opportunities for close encounters with wildlife. Of course creepy crawlies (spiders, scorpions, and snakes among others) are always present, but chances are you will not encounter any of these (not that you would want to seek them anyway).

One of the first birds that will wake you up in terror the first time you hear it is the white cockatoo. This big bird produces a shriek that will send chills down your spine! You’ll also see all sorts of beautiful parrots (orange-bellied parrot, swift parrot, turquoise parrot, etc) flying in groups. There are no monkeys in Australia, although you’ll swear you hear one when you first hear the kookaburra. (Please open a new page and copy and paste this Web address: http://zigzagaustralia.com/lang/en-us/2008/10/24/kookaburra-monkeybird-kedvencnk-nevet-kookaburra/. You will find an MP3 file that contains the kind of racket produced by this very noisy bird ) What a nice morning call!

Kangaroos and wallabies will also make an appearance. They usually come out early in the morning or at dusk. They will graze close to your campground or, if tourists have fed them too much, they’ll try to snatch anything you put on the picnic table. Kangaroos and wallabies tend to stay in the shade most of the day. Ohh you’ll see plenty of kangaroos and wallabies during the day –dead on the streets (kangaroos are a huge driving hazard in Australia, that’s why most of the locals in the Outback drive around in cars equipped with roo bars. Some of the major rental car companies will even forbid driving at dawn and dusk in the Outback.).

Don’t forget to look up the trees and if you are lucky, you might spot a koala or two. They won’t move much though, but they are picture-perfect creatures :)

Mildura: coup de coeur!

After a severe deficit of Christmas trees, carols and generally, much of a Christmas mood in all places we visited after Hawaii, imagine our surprise when we arrived in Mildura, a small outback city of 30 000 inhabitants. It was filled with Christmas spirit, despite the un-chrimassy temperature of over 40 degrees!

It started with dozens of Christmas trees displayed in the information centre. It continued with the Christmas music playing on the streets lined with palm- and gum trees. And it was completed by Christmas decorations all around the city.

We had intended to stop for a night in Mildura and spend New Year`s Eve there solely because it was the only larger town on our itinerary. We ended up staying there for 3 days and regretting that we had to go…

Let me make it clear: there are no sight-seeing must-do’s in Mildura (well maybe with the exception of the Working Men Club, where I really wanted to spend New Year`s Eve but then learnt that they close at 10.30pm. What can you do – men have to work!). The charm of the town creeps upon you by a combination of many little pleasant things: a surprising number of little coffee places and patisseries; more churches of different faith and architecture style than one would imagine necessary for a city this size; a very nice and well-equipped library; and, to our delight, we discovered that the city was surrounded by fruit plantations and wineries, which we didn’t hesitate to try out!

Since the Working Men Club refused to celebrate New Year’s Eve, we decided to go to one of the two local pubs. As soon as we sat down, a couple next to us started a conversation and before we finished out first beer, we were already part of the group. It was one of the best New Year’s parties I can recall. Our new friends invited us to extend our stay in Mildura and to come and live at their place for a while. And indeed, we would have taken them up on their offer, if only we didn’t forget to take their email address….

We wont need Noah's Ark - hopefully

By now you’ve all heard the terrible news coming out of Queensland, Australia. Yes, there is catastrophic flooding happening right now. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology is also talking about 5 major cyclones developing in the Coral Sea.

Fortunately we are in Adelaide right now (see map). Adelaide is just south of the arid Outback, so the chance of torrential rain falling down is minimal to say the least.

That being said we are due to catch a plane to Cairns (Northern Queensland - see map) at the end of February. That’s where s*** can hit the fan. If weather conditions persist in Queensland there is a distinct possibility we will skip the area altogether. We’ll keep you posted.

But for now we are more at risk of overexposure to the sun. :)