Perth- Chocolate, Honey, Sand

This was a really full day trip, though we started out at around 11:00 am and finished at around 11:00 pm. Our trip included many stops in Western Australia (WA) including Margaret River Chocolate Company store, a honey place, some beautiful vistas along the way, sandsurfing in Lancelin and lastly a tour of the Pinnacles in Namburg National Park along with a gorgeous sunset and then stargazing in the park- more on that later.  It was nearly a private tour as our "group" was just the two of us plus one other person and our guide.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife on this trip with the exception of a couple of emus. There is not much agriculture in WA. Mainly what you see is native bush and livestock. The soil isn't great. We saw at least one field ablaze. They were also doing controlled burns somewhere south of Perth. We could see the smoke haze off in the distance but the skies seemed ok where we were each day. At night, though, I could smell the burning in our hotel room. Or else it was trash being burned outside during the night. I don't know what the regulations for this are in Perth.

We did see some cows. Cow fact: Those who do this sort of thing are breeding towards darker faced cows to avoid skin diseases and skin cancer found on the faces of lighter skinned cows. Poor cows!

The next two photos are of plants known as grass trees (balga).

This plant is a bush combo hardware store and supermarket. The Nyoogar people had so many uses for the Balga. If you mix the sap with charcoal and kangaroo dung you can make a great superglue. Young white shoots of the plant are edible. The leaves were used to make mattresses and spears; they were also used as thatch for huts, roofs and for starting fires.  The bushes get infested with "witchity grubs"- a great source of protein. The grass trees only grow about 15mm (2/3 inch) per year.

Here we saw sheep and alpaca. The alpaca act as "guard dogs" for the sheep.

The chocolate shop (full disclosure, they also had wine tasting if you were interested in that).

The chocolate shop was interesting simply because there was excellent chocolate. We brought back several small bars to keep our chocolate habit going. An interesting one is dark chocolate with red grape. This bar combines the benefits of chocolate and grapes into one delicious morsel.Neither of us  could really detect the grape.

At the honey shop we tasted quite a few of the options but found all of them too intense in flavor. There is a parrot bush honey. The parrot bush grows all over WA. Before we lived here, my favorite honey was orange blossom. Now, it's rambutan honey!!!!!! Yum!

There are pockets of sand dunes in quite a few places but Lancelin is famous for this.  An hour and a half north of Perth, Lancelin is apparently the premiere location for sandboarding/surfing. We didn't get a photo but there are signs as you head into this place that say "take a photo of this sign, you may need the information." It contains contact numbers for people who will come and pull your car out of the sand should you drive beyond the roadway and parking area for cars. You can rent dune buggies but apparently lots of people drive their cars beyond the safe areas and get stuck.

It is extremely windy at this spot! B and the other guest on our tour were assisted by our guide Gavin as they gave the sandsurfing a try!

B sandboarding!

Perth- Pinnacles and Stars

After we had brief stops at the honey store, the chocolate shop and the sand of Lancelin, we drove on to reach the Pinnacles in Namburg National Park.

 Along the way we stopped a couple of more times at pretty beaches.

We learned about an important shipwreck at Ledge Point near the coast on one of our stops.  A Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship the Verguide Draeck carried 193 men (along with trade goods and coins) on a trading voyage to Batavia (now Jakarta).The ship struck a reef off the coast and within minutes started breaking up. Only about 75 men reached the shore with a few provisions. A few crew were sent to sail to Batavia for help while the others waited. Forty- one days later 2 ships sailed from Batavia to search for survivors. Arriving approximately 3 months after the wreck, the missing crew had disappeared. They might have been looking in the wrong place bur maybe the Dutch crew members found themselves a new home. We do know that Dutch DNA is carried within the Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal toilet paper ! So funny! This woolly bush was the best option due to its soft leaves.

We saw signs along the road to watch for emus and kangaroos and echidna. We did see a couple of emus but no kangaroos and no echidnas. Echidnas are the only animal that can live all over Australia in desert, mountain or forest.

Eventually we reached the Pinnacles. 

There are thousands of huge limestone pillars in a yellow sand and sandstone field. The limestone dates to about 500,000 years ago. Local conditions eroded the limestone into these pillars. They appeared about 6,000 years ago and then disappeared only to re-appear about 200 years ago. The area remained largely unknown to outsiders until about 1967. They could get covered again. There are a lot of theories about these formations. First we roamed around a while. Then we had a picnic in the desert.

 Yes, we were there!

The Pinnacle field stretches nearly as far as you can see.
Next came the sunset.

  No photo re-touch, the sky was really blue and pink.

Out come the stars. First Venus...

Later, Jupiter... look closely.

Similar shots from the other camera.

We were miserably unprepared to attempt good photos during our stargazing.  Venus.

The Southern Cross is in these shots somewhere.

 This is my shot! I tried to handhold a 10 sec exposure on my phone!  Funny.

Funniest of all is my attempt to rest my phone on a bench and still press the button hoping to capture something. I got something alright! Real "stars!"

Our guide, Gavin, sent us a couple of shots from a previous trip but the ones he took with us have probably been lost. He had trouble with his camera's SD Card. I'm sure the one he took of the two of us standing next to a pinnacle with the star-filled sky as a backdrop would have been great. There is an observation deck for star-gazers! B comment - we picked (OK, lucked into) the PERFECT night - no moon - no clouds!

 The Milky Way.

Actually seeing the stars under these conditions with absolutely no other lights and only the four of us was such a great experience. I didn't really mind the cold until the last 30 minutes or so. We piled back into the minivan and headed back to Perth. A very long, fun-filled day to be sure.

Perth- Cottlesloe Beach

Another train trip out to Cottlesloe Beach! The trip was mainly to enjoy another sunset of all things. Some people say this is one of the most beautiful beaches in Australia. We were "serenaded" by sulphur-crested cockatoos on our walk from the train station to the beach. We found a bench and watched the surfers trying to catch what looked like very small waves and enjoyed the setting sun. Very pretty and restful.

 A cockatoo adorns the very top of this tree.

Four to six surfers waiting to the left of the buoy.

Even when waves arrived, they were small. Much waiting for the surfers without much excitement. I felt a little sorry for them but they were able to enjoy a really pretty sunset while waiting for the waves.

On the way back to the train station we saw some black cockatoos with red on the underside of their tails- a first time sighting for us. Not exactly sure which species they were but they were pretty.