The Saga of Seal Island

I must admit, I stole all this pictures from Sean (remember him, our super awesome tour guide over Christmas)? He was also the super awesome tour guide who took Anna, Markus, Sarah and me kayaking on day 7 of our 6 day tour.

After a little maneuvering, rope tying, and squeezing into a 2-door wedged underneath kayak paddles, we headed down to Rockingham with the intent of paddling out to Penguin Island and Seal Island. There are penguins on Penguin Island, and Sea Lions on Seal Island...go figure. Sarah has gone with Sean before, where they went swimming with them. The math went like this:

1 solo kayak + 1 tandem kayak + 5 people = a tactical plan-of-attack.

Plan A: Penguin Island is separated from the main beach by about 500 meters of sandbar. So you can walk across it (there's also a ferry, but what kind of adventure is that?!). Anna and Markus were going to walk across to Penguin Island and Sarah, Sean and I were going to paddle over, go to Seal Island, then back to Penguin Island where Anna and Markus would swap into the tandem kayak and paddle over to Seal Island. A perfect plan!

Unfortunately, as we were getting ready to shove off the beach, Anna and Markus were walking back towards us. The sandbar route had just been closed by the surf lifesavers because it was too windy and too dangerous (apparently someone drowned out there a few years ago). The notorious afternoon westerly was definitely kicking (as evidenced by the bunch of kite surfers cruising around).

Plan B: Anna made all attempts to rent, beg, borrow, steal a kayak or a ride over to Penguin Island on the surf lifesaver boat. Surprisingly, that didn't work. Now, Sean, Sarah and I would paddle over to Penguin Island where Sarah and I would look around, and Sean would tow the tandem kayak back to the beach where Anna and Markus would then paddle over to Penguin Island, and we would take turns going over to Seal Island. Now worries, Sean is super tour guide, kayak tour captain.

Skirts on, bungs plugged, and deck hatch covered with makeshift plastic bag cover, we jumped with our awesome life jackets and headed out towards Penguin Island. 100 meters (if that) directly into the headwind, we realized that even if we made it to Penguin Island, it would be crazy for Sean to tow the tandem kayak back. Abort mission! Well not completely.

Plan C: We decided we could still go across wind, check out Seal Island, then go back to Penguin Island, and back to the beach to swap with Anna and Markus. Because my family is awesome, we had two kayaks growing up, but it's mostly been flat water kayaking on ponds and lakes. Most recently the Howie family went on a fishing expedition that resulted in me in one kayak, my brother in another, both of us tied to my parents in the canoe, which was anchored. If you saw us, you'd think it was ridiculous. I'd call it pretty ingenious. I wasn't sure we'd even make it to Seal Island! Over the rolling waves (don't worry, they weren't that big), Seal Island seemed to be staying in the same spot. Were we even moving? We made it, just as the sea lions were all taking a nap on the beach. Not a single one in the water. As you may know, I'm not an animal person, so it was irrelevant to me if we saw them at all. I had no intentions of swimming with them! After a few attempts to get them up an moving, we decided to paddle back to Penguin Island, into the wind...

Yeah, we didn't make it 50 meters. We were still behind the protection of some rocks and moving nowhere. This was not going to work...

Plan D: Turn around and paddle back to the beach with a tailwind and run to Anna and Markus, who would then come meet the kayaks and have their turn going to Seal Island. We  basically drifted to shore, just fighting the wind that was grabbing the stern and trying to spin us around. Sean and I ran 9 minutes along the beach (he timed it, not me), dodging kite surfer's strings (an ready to hit the sand if they got too close), we met unsuspecting Anna and Markus, looking out into the water for the brave kayakers who had abandoned them.

1. Our basic proposed route.

2. Our actual route.

After that, everything went just as planned! Anna, Markus and Sean paddled out to Seal Island where the sea lions were now playing in the water, made it back, and we had a hodge-podge of leftovers from the tour while sitting comfortably out of the wind behind the protection of the restroom.

  

A sunset at South Beach, a couple throws of the football, a late night dinner in Freo, and we were on the train back to Perth. A great spontaneous Day 7 after all (thanks Sean!) We'll make it to Penguin Island next time...

Postcard Perfect

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

— Jacques Yves Cousteau

"Knee deep in the water somewhere

Got the blue sky, breeze and it don't seem fair

The only worry in the world

Is the tide gonna reach my chair

Sunrise, there's a fire in the sky

Never been so happy

Never felt so high

And I think I might have found me my own kind of paradise"

-Zac Brown Band :)

The southwestern coast has some of the most beautiful and highly rated beaches in Australia and the world. I literally felt like I was living in a postcard. White sand so fine that it squeaks when you walk on it. Teal blue water that was crystal clear (with a crispness I only imagine comes from the Antarctic). A rugged, unpopulated coastline. And with so many beaches and few people, we had some of these beaches practically to ourselves! Even during the Christmas holiday! This is not an exhaustive list of the beaches we went to but I kept it to single digits (don't want to make you too jealous). Hellfire Bay and Thistle Cove were also flawless. I attempted to rank them. But how can you say one of these beaches was your least favorite? Nonetheless, from spectacular to most spectacular...

9. Busselton- the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere and where the Busselton Ironman is in December

8. Breakers- home of surfing competitions in Margaret River

7. Gracetown

Enough warnings?

6. Natural Bridge and Gap

5. Green's Pool

4. Elephant Rocks

 See the Elephant?

 

3. Lucky Bay-"Australia's whitest beach", even if the tide left a lot of the beach wet

 About 100 meters from our Christmas campsite

 

This is a famous postcard taken at lucky bay. Our kangaroos were a little more hungry than this one. 

2. West Beach (Esperance)

This is about 11am, December 23rd, in the heart of Esperance. Where are all the people?!

1. Twilight Bay (Esperance)

I'm ready to go back. Who's coming with me?

It's My Party

Google knows it's my birthday! ;)

Growing up, I was always envious of my friends who had summer birthdays. While I had ice skating and roller skating parties (thank you mom and dad!), they had pool parties and barbecues. There's only so much you can do outside when it's below freezing in January. I even considered celebrating my half birthday, which conveniently falls just after the Fourth of July and I thought I was so special to have fireworks for my half birthday.

One year, I did try to fight my winter birthday and forced my friends to go on a polar dip in the Atlantic ocean. In January. In New England. It was snowing. (I have such good friends :)). Needless to say there wasn't much sunscreen or sunbathing involved.

So for my first summer birthday, I took advantage of the sunny day and warm nights (even if they are windy). When I decided I wanted to try Fremantle, my everything-Aussie guru picked the Norfolk Hotel for dinner. Growing up, instead of going out to eat for my birthday, I would request poor-man stroganoff and then mussels I got older and m palate matured with broccoli with American cheese (I know I'm weird). Keeping with my birthday tradition, we had mussels in our tapas spread.

As the wind continued to blow in the beer garden, we moved to the basement where there was a DJ. As every other bar in Perth, he started playing normal pop dance music, but then switched to "duff duff" or electronic music. I tried to request the wobble, but surprisingly, he had never heard of it. I just didn't seem right without at least one Wagon Wheel sing-a-long. But we made it work.

 "You've never heard of the Wobble?!"

This morning I woke up to the smell of wood burning. There's a bushfire 400km southwest of here, and the winds have carried the smoke and deposited it on my lovely city. That smoke was thick!

Since the sun wasn't bright through the smoke, I decided to wait for it to clear out to enjoy my beach birthday. So what did I do? I did what any person would do when the air is full of smoke. I picked an activity that relies on getting extra oxygen to your lungs though increased breathing. Of course I went for a run. By the time I returned, it was starting to clear up, so I headed to Cottesloe, picking up a birthday treat along the way from my new cupcake place, Bella's.

 

Overall, it was a relaxing summer birthday, even if it doesn't quite seem like my birthday without a chance of snow. And I did miss my birthday doughnut and Howie-family singers' painful rendition of H-a-p-p-y b-i-r-t-h-d-a-y (Mom). Luckily I have my family and friends back home and my new friends and Aussie adopted family to help me celebrate wherever I am. Thank you for all the love and wishes! Now I've got 364 days to start planning my next fun-in-the-sun birthday. I'm going to start planning while having another birthday treat, chocolate ice cream (with no Moose Tracks it will have to do) with melted peanut butter. A heavenly ending to any birthday.

Going Up

There were a couple of themes of my really cool super awesome Christmas Bus Tour. One was flies. Not so really cool and super awesome. Seriously, it's no joke. They are EVERYWHERE. It's a Western Australian thing. Another theme was walking UP. Mountains, rocks, steps. All of the above.

1. Going up Wave Rock. One of our first stops was Wave Rock. It's a granite rock formation out in the bush of Wheat Belt.

You can also walk up on top of the wave for a view of the country. It also offered the first taste of "At your own risk" attitude of Australia. Going back down the rock, you can take the safe way down the steps, or you can take the "steep descent" where you step over the knee high guardrail (which is really to catch rain water and not at all for safety) and walk straight down.

 

2. Going up East Mount Baron. We were up at 5 am on Day 2 to walk up East Mount Baron. Conveniently, our camp was in it's shadow, a stones throw from the ocean. At the top, there were breathtaking views of the coast.

We all made it to the top and followed a kangaroo on the way down. Can you spot it?

3. Going up Frenchman's Peak. Our next climb was Frenchman's Peak in Cape le Grande. It was not a trail. We walked up a rock. The only 'path' were some sticks wedged into the rock face. At the summit, there were not the familiar warning signs, barriers, or park rangers as I've seen in America attempting you from plummeting over the side of a cliff. And it was windy up there.

4. Going Up Bluff Knoll. Christmas day, we took on the second highest peak in WA: Bluff Knoll. I do note that Australia is now known for it's mountains, and Bluff Knoll was only 3,606 ft (1,099 meters). Still, the path just went up. And up. And around the corner it went up again. Our conscientious tourguide made sure we were prepared with water and jackets (I was sweating at the top, but I was prepared ;)).

Bluff Knoll is in the Stirling Ranges and the contrast of the cleared farmland and forested park was beautiful.

At the top we found an older couple having their Christmas Day picnic. They watched our van park down below and were impressed with how fast we made it up (We were racing the sun. It's a 3 hr hike and we didn't start until 4ish). I was impressed that they brought crackers, cheese, and drinks up there!

5. Going Up Trees. From the rocks to the trees, we went to the tree walk in the Valley of Giants and climbed the Fire Tree. The Valley of the Giants is near Denmark (Australia). The tree top walk was built so tourists could enjoy the towering trees without damaging their shallow root systems on the forest floor.

On this whole trip, Sean peppered us with tree after tree we were passing in the bush. My brother-in-law would be so proud. Do I remember it? No. But I do know these giant trees were red and yellow tingles (types of Eucalyptus trees).

Red tingle on the left and yellow tingle on the right.

We then went to a fire tree in the middle of the forest. This is a 50 m tree that is used to spot bushfires. Metal rods stuck into the side of a tree. Again, in the Australian view of safety, it was climb at your own risk, no park ranger looking out for you, but there was a thin net should you step to the side. It is maintained, and the rungs were replaced in the 90's. Only a couple decades ago. At the platform halfway up, they did remind you to "Re-assess your situation and if you have nay doubts, please turn back." In the competitive spirit that seemed to be developing among our tourgroup, Sean beat his record and raced up in 1:30. I took about 3 minutes. It was my first attempt, I'm sure I'll be faster next time ;).

View from the top. No bushfires today!

6. Going Up and Down Ngilgi Cave. Our last set of steps was actually going down (but we did come back up) into the Ngilgi Caves. It's in Yallingup which may or may not be the aboriginal word for 'Place of Love' because of the many ceremonies that took place in this region. Lots of places around here end in '-up' which means "place of" in aboriginal languages. We learned about Aboriginal culture and learned about the Rainbow Serpent, boomerangs and had our own expert didgeridoo performance by Josh.

More steps!

Going up was always easier. As a graduate of the UNiversity of South Carolina Exercise Science program, I am well aware that eccentric contractions, such as walking down hill, cause muscle damage. Feels oh so good the net day! Good practice for trail running :).

And to prove I was actually at these places, here's my selfie montage.

 
Wave Rock


East Mount Baron

Frenchman's Peak


Bluff Knoll