Hi, everyone!

I did a few things this week around my work schedule – most notably visiting Hillary’s Boat Harbour, Point Walter Sandbar, and the Attadale Conservation Area. I’m trying to find the time to go out and explore. Even if I work in the evenings, I like to try and do something in the morning. But… other mornings, I just sleep in haha.

Hillary’s Boat Harbour

I hadn’t seen my friend Liam in a while since our schedules haven’t synced up, but on Wednesday we managed to get together. I took the train up to Greenwood station (about 40min away) where Liam picked me up. He suggested we go to Hillary’s Boat Harbour. I had been before briefly with my roommate Kory and one of our friends, but we weren’t there very long.

Hillary’s is sort of like a large strip mall – they have “bazaar” shops, restaurants, salons, and a large aquarium called AQWA which is host to lots of different marine life. It is also right on the ocean, so there is a little beach where families spend warm days in the sun, and also a big harbour for boats.

We went to eat at Grill’d which had some yummy veggie options for us. Liam is a vegetarian as well. I had told myself I’d be open to not being vegetarian while traveling, but I haven’t felt compelled to eat meat yet. I’ll occasionally have seafood but I just don’t really miss it at all and there are plenty of amazing veggie options out there.

ANYWAY… we both got veggie burgers and then walked around the harbor. We walked down a path that had a wall made up of large boulders. On one side of the wall was the Indian Ocean, its’ waves looking a little intimidating. On the other side of the wall was very calm water, protected by the harbor. Liam and I sat around for a little while, observing different fish feeding on algae clinging to the rocks. My favorite were the little blowfish.

We walked around the harbour for a little while longer and then Liam took me back to the train station.

Point Walter Sandbar

Point Walter sandbar is something I’ve seen numerous times at work. As a deckhand on a “river cruise,” we are taking the exact same path to get from Perth CBD to Fremantle, and pass the same things each time. One thing I see a lot is this sandbar, so one morning I wanted to check it out.

Kory joined me for the adventure. It was about forty minutes by bus and then was going to be a 40min walk, but Kory said hell no to walking and ordered an Uber haha.

The sandbar itself is a pretty cool concept. Essentially, when the tide is low, you can walk far out into the river along this thin strip of sand. Keep in mind, this river feeds into the ocean, so you can see jellyfish, dolphins, occasionally sharks, etc.

We walked along and Kory collected some seashells while I wandered along. Unfortunately, you can’t go to the very end of the sandbar at the moment… but for good reason! There was a sign that said fairy terns (birds) are nesting further out on the sandbar and human activity disturbs them. They put up wire fencing so people wouldn’t walk to that part of the sandbar.

There were also lots of other birds taking advantage of the low tide. It provides a good opportunity for them to feed on things that have been exposed. I actually am not sure what exactly they were feeding on – perhaps crabs, or little fish… maybe even jellyfish? I’m not sure.

It wasn’t the most exciting place ever, but I’m glad we checked it out – especially since I see it every day at work, I wanted to know what it was all about.

Attadale Conservation Area

After the sandbar, Kory and I wandered along some more. I looked on GoogleMaps and saw there was a nature area nearby. We walked along and by the time we got to the Attadale Conservation Area, I felt duped.

It was a perfectly manicured park!

Then I saw a sign to the left for a bush walk. It’s so funny how in Australia, you can be in the middle of the suburbs and right next to a playground or park district, there is suddenly a bush walk you can take that makes you feel like you’ve traveled an hour outside the city.

The bush walk itself was kind of spooky. I mentioned in my recent post about Kalbarri, some of these hikes have very narrow trails and you just KNOW that there are snakes somewhere. Along the trail, we saw three skinks, but luckily no snakes. I’m sure I will see a snake at some point while in Australia. Hopefully at a distance, and hopefully I will not get bitten haha.

Pride Month

It is Pride Month here in Western Australia. The day of the parade/celebration is actually November 24th. In honor of the queer community, there are a bunch of rainbow lights all over the place. It’s quite nice to see!

Kory and I went for a night walk to see a bunch of the rainbow lights. Yay, Australia! Lovin’ their gays.

Reflections

Foreshore = shorefront
Salvos = Salvation Army
Good on ya = nice job/nice going
Lemonade = Sprite

A few observations and things to note…

So many women have long hair here! In the States, I feel it’s somewhat rare for someone to have hair down to the small of their back. But here, there are LOTS of long-haired beauties.

Apparently, there is no Hulu in Australia. There is, however, a streaming platform called “Stan.” that seems to be the same sort of platform.

At work, we have these events called “schoolies,” where the students and teachers celebrate the end of the school year. At one such event, all the students and staff dressed up as if for Halloween. To my surprise, two girls had fake guns on them and it kind of stopped me in my tracks. Coming from America, I just don’t think that would fly. There’s no way you could bring a fake gun to a school event. I pointed it out to my coworkers and they were like, “Yea – they’re fake guns.” It didn’t seem alarming in the slightest to them. I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this yet, but people do not own guns in Australia. The only people who really carry them are farmers and police, from what I understand.

One night recently, we had the best rainstorm ever. It reminded me a little bit of my time in Johannesburg – where there was just an entire day of rain. While it wasn’t 24 hours, the rain started in the evening and continued on until the morning. I love the rain, and pretty soon it won’t be raining much at all here in Australia. It was a definite treat. Earlier that night (I think?) I saw a HUGE snail. The hugest I’ve ever seen – it actually scared me for a second because I didn’t know what it was when my eyes first saw it. When I showed Kory, he was like “that’s nothin’ – they get way bigger than that.”

And also, I found out some mildly devastating news. I have had it in mind that I was going to see the total solar eclipse in Exmouth on April 20th, 2023. That was sort of going to be the marking of leaving Perth and moving along to another Australian territory. I had seen a total solar eclipse once before in Carbondale, IL and it was the most amazing, otherworldy experience. I was really looking forward to seeing it again.

Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t done any real planning and after a quick search online, I discovered that everyone else in the world has the same plan as me. Exmouth is a town of 2,000, and they are expecting 50,000 people coming for the eclipse. All accommodations are booked out, and I was reading that they will likely have rangers posted on the road into town checking cars for proof of accommodation. Not only that, but there won’t be enough services for people (food, water, etc.) and it could be a disaster.

The “problem” with this eclipse is that Exmouth is essentially the only developed region in the world where you can see it. Majority of the totality happens over the ocean, and the only places it’s visible from land are Exmouth, Papau New Guinea, and Timor Islands (the latter of which are undeveloped and hard/expensive to access).

I suppose I’ll have to look forward to April 2024, when the eclipse is in the states once again! I have been planning for years to see it with my family.

On another note… my birthday is this Friday! I’ll be 31 years old. I have the day off work, and I’ve booked a ticket to Rottnest Island to see the quokkas and hopefully do some snorkeling. In the evening, I’m treating myself to a fancy dinner. The day will be spent alone, but sometimes that’s exactly how I like it.

Art of the Week

That’s all, folks! Until next time.