Merry Christmas!

Valley of the Giants

With an early sunrise and a wide awake five year old, it wasn’t a problem getting on our way early this morning for a 3 ½ hour drive to our planned destination, the Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants. The southern border of Western Australia is a beautiful landscape where the forest meets the ocean. Half way into the drive Roo became restless and announced “I think I’m allergic to cars”. We made a brief stop at the park in Pemberton to view the Gloucester Tree. Ryan climbed the 60m to the top. Roo, mad that I said he couldn’t climb up wished out loud “awww, I wish I was a big person”. After lunch in Walpole, we made our way to the main attraction, the Tree Top Walk in the Tingle Forest. Built in 1996 to protect the delicate ecosystem from the expanding number of tourists, the Tree Top Walk reaches a height of 40 meters above ground. Species from the age of the super continent Gondwanan (when Australia, Africa, India, Antarctica, and South America were joined) still exist in this forest, and the trees are somewhat of a novelty for their primordial appearance. It was a long day, to and from, but well worth the effort. Another spectacular day in nature!

Horse Ride

Today's destination was Jester's Flat, which offers a good quality equestrian experience for us city dwellers. Outfitted with helmets and jodhpurs (ankle boots with elastic sides), we rode on a trail that winds through the bush. Roo's horse was Polly, Ryan's George, and my silly gal, Sausage. The mosquito head nets I purchased this morning was money well spent! I haven't noticed any mosquitoes, but the quantity of little black flies that come to rest on your body is shocking! A local explained that this crop of flies is recent, and yes, this year they are especially bad. Back at the stables, Ryan and I had a go at a trot and for brief moments, a canter. From the start, Roo surprised both Ryan and I with his level of confidence and little hesitation. Since he rode the pony around the circle at kodomo no kuni, I image he felt he was an experienced rider.

Ryan ate a GRUB!

Specifically, he ate a section of a witchetty grub marinated in a Greek yogurt sauce. Found and harvested by the indigenous people, this larvae was once an important source of protein for desert dwellers. On the Bushtucker tour, we canoed on the Margaret River, crawled though a tight tunnel in a cave, washed in the river, smell & taste tested native foods, and trekked through the bush. I’m a user of tea tree oil and today I saw the tree and leaves responsible for producing the antiseptic oil. At times Ryan and I managed to get our groove with the oars, but most of the time our pattern was a zig zag. Our lunch was a spread of nuts, berries, blood lime, kangaroo meat, emu meat, turkey, sun dried tomato bread, cheese, honey, crackers and various chutneys made from local ingredients. Our guide Gordon was pleasant and the group small. Our life in Tokyo doesn’t often intersect with this much nature so, despite the flies, we all took advantage of the opportunity and got dirty. Next time we won’t wear white shirts.

Leeuwin - Naturaliste Ridge

Today we climbed over 300 steps! First, we drove to the southern tip of the continent to tour the still functioning Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. This lighthouse serves as a beacon for ocean vessels as they venture near the choppy waters and rough shore where the Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet. For the benefit of us Americans in the group, the guide pointed out the small mass of rock in the ocean that is directly across from Washington D.C. if you were to travel straight through the earth. We tried taking the gravel “scenic” drive to our next destination but decided to turn around when we realized it would be a bumpy ride in our rental car. Now we have a better understanding of why Subaru chose to name one of their AWD vehicles the Outback.

Our next destination, Jewel Cave, a spectacular display of glowing underground calcite! Miffed that a jolly little red head girl in the group talked the tour guide into letting her be the “leader” down the steps because she’s been there before, Roo positioned himself on the defense. Of course he already knew everything about caves as he reminded us “I saw it on Little Einsteins”. Under the influence of the splendor around us, he calmed and eventually enjoyed the tour which took us down approximately 138 feet and across 0.4 miles of stairs and walkway. Towards the end, the little red head (who remained jolly throughout) announced she wanted “to give someone else a turn”, making way for Roo who happily led the group up stairs and around turns back to the top.

Bunbury

On our drive south, we stopped in the coastal town of Bunbury for lunch and a break from driving. In Tokyo our main mode of transportation is public, and Roo’s tolerance for road trips makes this obvious. Two hours into the drive he’s asking “is this the longest we’ve ever driven in a car?” Our lunch: an extremely large portion of fish and chips at Buck’s Diner. Fish and chips are everywhere here and Bucks delivers a tasty batter fry. After, we walked the rocky shore at Lighthouse Beach.Roo played in the waves, enough to require a quick shower and a full change of clothes.Arriving in Margaret River in the late afternoon, our first impressions are positive. Roo found a spot to hang his stocking in our rented apartment since this is where Santa will find us this year. We ended the day by watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and savoring our Sunday custom of Oreo cookies dunked in milk.

AQWA

Yesterday we visited The Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA). The aquarium is on the shoreline and is sorted by the unique species present at different points along Australia's western coast. If you enjoy marine life, this is definitely a great aquarium to visit. Our favorite was riding the revolving walkway to view overhead sharks, stingrays and loggerhead turtles from the Indian ocean. In the far north coast section we learned about saltwater crocodiles. We saw creatures us close and the danger zone featured deadly marine creatures. Roo briefly tried the magnifier in the touch pool. After the aquarium, we stopped at a nearby park on Hillarys Boat Harbour and Roo had a go on the trampoline. Perth is hot! Yesterday's high was 34C/93F. Today we travel south to the cooler Margaret River.