Styles of Living

I found an interesting way to compare living styles - Google Map. Consider the section of Staunton, VA. This is a suburb that those of you in Virginia may well recognize.

Perth

While we were on the hill in Kings Park overlooking the city, I thought it time to take a few photos of the city.

War Memorial

King's Park in Perth is locating on a hill with a commanding view of the confluence of the Swan and Canning Rivers. Located on the bluff overlooking the Swan is the memorial to those lost in war.

The eternal flame burning above this reflection pool was lit in 2000 by Queen Elizabeth.

The Tawny Frogmouth

While in the King's Park, a fellow was all excited, he'd found a Tawny Frogmouth. Now, this is something to get excited about. This is a nocturnal bird related to the nightjar. In fact, he'd found three of them!

Above you see the backside of one of them sitting in the crotch of a tree. But it gets better.

Kings Park and Botanic Gardens

As our long-time readers know, pretty much every town in Australia seems to have a botanical garden. We visited one of the more amazing ones here in Perth.

Fremantle Prison

The prison at Fremantle was built originally to house convicts transported from Britain at the request of the Australians. They needed people to work, so they asked the motherland for help. Unlike the other sites for housing those transported, they were able to have a say in who they accepted.

The WA Maritime Museum

When we learned that there is a maritime museum in Perth we were excited. When we arrived we learned that there is a visiting exhibition about Pompeii and the evacuation by sea after the eruption of Vesuvius. This was going to be great.

Burns Beach

After leaving the aquarium, we drove along the shore to Burns Beach to enjoy the shore a little.

Aquarium of Western Australia

Out of Victoria Quay in the Hillarys suburb of Perth is the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA). We decided to visit to see what we could learn about the western sea life.

On the way in we saw this young fellow on the quay trying to catch a fish. He's not quite a excerpt from Norman Rockwell, but he does seem to capture the essence of being young in Australia.

New Norcia Cemtery

As is often the case, the high point of our visit to New Norcia is the cemetery.

New Norcia

In 1846, the Benedictine monks arrived at a spot about 132 km north of Perth on a mission to convert the local aboriginals. And, thus, New Norcia was founded. It remains a town largely inhabited by the monks. We spoke to the young woman in the hotel bar that served us our cider and learned that she commutes an hour each way to work.

Thrombolites

A ride in the country toward Waroona took us past some fields that were beginning to show signs of lots of wild flowers. Unfortunately, I could not capture the scene in any sensible way with my pixel grabbing machine.

On the way home, however, I did find a fascinating place that I could capture: Lake Clifton.

Araluen Botanical Garden

The Araluen Botanical Garden is located about an hour north of Mandurah. We decided to visit to see the flowers we've been hearing about. While it was surprisingly low on birds, it was a rich environment of flowers.

Samphire Cove

We also visited Samphire Cove to see what was happening here. We didn't much at all in the way of waterbirds, but there were a few old friends to see.

Above is the Magpie Lark in the midsts of his mating demonstration. Flapping his wings and making his call, he hopes for a mating opportunity.

Creery Wetlands

In Mandurah we visited the Creery Wetlands. Along the long board walk across the samphire out ot the water's edge we found a Splendid Fairy Wren. The male is bright blue all over. The Superb Fairy Wren on the east coast is only partially blue and merely superb. Being all blue makes you splendid.

Grasstrees

In a section of the highway between Perth and Cervantes is a field full of grasstrees. These are odd plants. Taking often more than a year to germinate and growing about a centimeter a year, these plants with grassy fronds on the top and tree-like trunks below are very common in the perth area. Because they grow so slowly, the ones in cities are transplants. We see trucks hauling them about nearly everyday.

Cervantes

Cervantes has a nice beach with a few holiday homes nearby and a pleasant holiday park.

Lake Thetis

After leaving the Pinnacles, we headed on over to Cervantes, a small town on the shore for a look about. We brought sandwiches and drinks so we had no need of a place for lunch. We just wanted to see what there was to be seen.

On the way into town, at the edge of Nambung park we found a muddy dirt road leading out to Lake Thetis.

The Pinnacles Desert at Nambung National Park

Our destination on our long northward journey is Nambung National Park near the coastal town of Cervantes. Here we find the Pinnacles Desert. This is a place filled with an endless array of limestone pillars.

Cockatoos at Seabird

Once we moved on from Rockingham to Mandurah were we have only a house a few fish to watch, we have more freedom to explore.

Just a note about Australian pronunciations. The emphasis is almost always on the first syllable. We naturally say Man-DUR-ah. Here is it MAN-d'ra with the last half of the world really shortchanged.

With our new-found freedom, we decided on a long day out and drove north of Perth along the coast. We turned off the Indian Ocean Highway toward the small coastal village of Seabird looking for diesel for the ute. Instead, we found a sizable flock of Carnaby's Cockatoos.