Week 2 Australia photos

So our 2nd week in Australia we flew up the west coast to Exmouth for several days of diving on Ningaloo Reef. Ningaloo is very remote and far less trafficked than the Great Barrier Reef. Because of this, we'd read a lot of online forums saying Ningaloo was even better diving than the GBR. Plus, we were heading there during the annual whale shark migration, the world's largest and wiliest fish that  has been eluding Brian for years. So needless to say, we were pretty darn excited for this leg of the trip.

So our first afternoon we simply drove around the Cape and enjoyed Jurabi Point beach almost entirely to ourselves. The first time seeing the Indian Ocean for either of us!

Softest sand ever!

Surprisingly COLD!!

Termite mound...they were everywhere!

So the next morning it's off to the dive shop! Where we are told the dives are cancelled because of the weather. It was a beautiful morning, but eventually an impressive wind storm did come thru town. Frustratingly, day 2 of diving was cancelled for the same reason, even though it turned out to be a beautiful day. So we just lazed at the beach again.

There was a huge dune which kept us quite entertained...

FINALLY, we got to dive the next day.  Sadly, it started out as an utter disappointment. The visibility was horrible because of the earlier wind storm. We saw absolutely nothing. We froze in our 3mm suits (which the shop told us that was what everyone dove in, even though everyone we saw was in 5mm!) It was really cold, and my mood was about the same. Miserably waiting for the spotter plane to find a whaleshark, I would have gladly called it day. But miraculously the sun came out and we found two whalesharks!

A small one...about 18 feet or so. They can get up to 40'

 Then it was down south to Coral Bay for one more day of diving and hopefully some manta ray sightings.

Driving left-handed stick! Didn't kill it once!

Rush Hour

Coral Bay was essentially a giant RV park with a general store, gas station, one restaurant, a backpacker hostel, and a tiny motel. We stayed in the motel, which had recently just put in plumbing for potable water! Thankfully the reef and visability was far better in Coral Bay. We saw a manta ray and had a very long swim with it. We both wish we'd stayed in Coral Bay the whole time rather than Exmouth, but what can you do. 

Female, about 12' with a very fresh shark bite!

Overall though, neither of us were blown away by the dives in comparison to other places we've been. We're glad we finally got to see manta rays and whale sharks, but aren't convinced it was worth the trek to the middle of nowhere, especially with all the cancelled dives. So bring on the Great Barrier Reef!

Happy Valentines Day Babe! Now eat bugs.

Today is Qi Xi Jie, the Night of Sevens, the rough equivalent of Valentines Day. As a newly married woman, I'm supposed to be demonstrating my mastery of the "domestic arts" by artfully carving melons and trying to float a needle on water to prove my skills as a seamstress. Later today I will make offerings of fruit, tea, flowers and makeup, and then attempt to throw them 6 stories up on to the roof of our apartment so I'll be united in beauty with Zhinü (a fairy separated from her love in the sky, except on this day).

Instead, I'm now lying on the couch in my pjs, teeth unbrushed, rocking some fantastic bed head, watching my back-up husband beat the Yankees, and feeding my actual husband bugs. Yup, bugs. As any good Valentine is apt to do, I was making one of Brian's favorite dinners, arroz con pollo. About half way thru I realized there wasn't enough rice to soak up the sauce, so I went to add more. Only then did I realize the rice was alive. Cross my heart, I didn't see a single little black bug when I'd scooped out the first two cups!  I'm praying they were at the bottom of the container and I simply stirred them up, meaning our dinner was still bug free. Needless to say, I didn't add more rice, or bugs, to the pot. We simply had somewhat soupy arroz con pollo. That's right, we ate it. Somehow we were both very calm about this. Maybe it's a sign that China is rubbing off on us? Only as we crawled into bed last night, did we both confess that we had to convince ourselves with each bite that the flakes of oregano were NOT bugs with the legs cooked off of them.

Now, who wants leftovers?

Click to enlarge....

Inspiration please...

I've tried writing this post a few times, but the inspiration just wouldn't come. Maybe it's because I'm going thru a second round of culture shock after a lovely month in Australia. Even after a month of living out of a suitcase I wasn't ready to say farewell to the land of friendly people, clean air and beautiful grocery stores with their sanitary meat displays. But at the same time it was nice to realize that coming back to Jiangyin did feel like we were coming "home."  A home, that is, where flight attendants have to constantly remind passengers that smoking is prohibited during the flight, and yes, sir, that means even in the bathroom; a home where it's normal for a mom to pull down her sons pants in the middle of the sidewalk and tell him to go the bathroom; a home where children are taught there's absolutely nothing rude about stopping at a stranger's table in a restaurant, pointing and announcing "look ma, foreigners" in your loudest voice. Oh China, you couldn't ease us gently back into things, could you?

On the brighter side, we're being treated here to the biggest and best blueberries I've ever had. And man are they cheap! I've successfully cleaned out two grocery stores, just pulled a blueberry coffee cake out of the "oven" (it turned out much better than this one!) and still have a lifetime supply in the freezer. It's the small victories that matter here. Hopefully they don't turn out to be like the local watermelons. Now traditionally, I hate watermelon. But the watermelons here are so sweet I couldn't resist them. Then they started exploding. Not a typo. Exploding. When even the Chinese government is telling you not to the eat the watermelons because of growth accelerators, you know it can't be good for you. So here's hoping these mutant blueberries are truly organic as advertised.

But back to Australia...Week 1 saw us spend 6 days in Perth and 2 in Fremantle (awesome suggestion Claudia!). Here's the bullet points...

Perth was an absolute ghost town.  We wandered a bit each day, but mostly had a lazy week on the couch and got hooked on Australian home improvement tv shows. There were a few failed attempts in our effort to find a delicious, juicy hamburger. And how on earth did beets come to be standard burger toppings anyway? If you missed the photos of Perth I posted while we were there, click here.

We  drove north to Nambung National Park to see the Pinnacles limestone formations. It was interesting, but not nearly as breathtaking as all the professional photographs built it up to be.

The next day it was off to the Margaret River Valley wine county. We didn't realize how long it would take to get there so we only had time for one tasting. Oops! But what a beautiful area! It's amazing how green everything is in winter.

Unfortunately the best thing about lunch at the Bootleg Brewery was the scenery

Gralyn Vineyard--wines, eh. Ports--yummy!

Our first kangaroo sighting--the guys in the back were easily 6 ft tall!

Last stop in the Southwest was Fremantle, an absolutely adorable old port town. Filled with tons of art galleries, yummy restaurants, maritime museums, antique shops, and a Notre Dame campus, we had a great time just wandering. I found a yarn shop that had absolutely zero Australian yarns! Boo. Saw a bizarre free exhibit at town hall called "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death." I mean come on, with a name like that we had to check it out! Turns out it was sponsored by the Church of Scientology and basically blamed psychiatry for the rise of Hitler and the majority of 20th century world atrocities. Plausible, no?

The absolute highlight of Fremantle was dinner at the Iron Pot. We had the best calamari ever. EVER. With a tamarind sauce that was delish. Then came dinner--we both had steaks, but Bri was the winner with duck fat roasted potatoes. DUCK FAT. They were fantastic. FANTASTIC. As in, on our layover in Perth the following week we debated hopping in a cab to eat more duck fat (with or without the potatoes) but the cab ride would have probably tripled the cost of dinner and Brian had this fantastic idea anyway.

Fremantle

Gorgeous B&B we got to call home for two days

The Round House--the oldest remaining building in Western Australia. Built as a jail in 1830.

Preserved building facade

YUMMMMMMMMM!