Perth; located in Western Australia, is the most isolated capital city in the world. WA takes up 1/3 of the Australian map, Germany can fit into it 7 times and Texas (which is a pretty big state) can fit into it about 3 times. They say the wet season -which is now-is the greenest time and even still its not the luscious greens that we are used to during our wet season its differen shades of green that look like they have been faded in the sun yet some of the country side had the greenest grass with a back drop of a light blue that rolled into a darker blue with white fluffy clouds. Some areas were just sand with green grass sprouting randomly in spots like a young guys chest who is going through puberty. The roads were exactly how I have alwasy pictured Australia, straight, one lane going each way and dark clay like sand on either side, blue skies, white clouds and yup even kangaroos!
The day trip was 12 hours, a lot of driving and great sights. Our first stop was Caversham Wildlife Park. The first thing we got to see was roos. Even though I had some one on one time with roo's a few days earlier I was still excited. There were tons of them. They came to great us as soon as we walked in the gates. We were the first visitors of the day and they wanted to be fed. The hopped right up to us and followed us through the roo area over to the feeding area. They surrounded us eating right out of our hands. We even got to pet them. The Kangaroos at this park are the Red Kangaroos though there were white ones as well. These were also Red Kangaroos but had been genically (I know that is the wrong word) made to be white not albino. We only got about 5 minutes with them before we had to move on. Most of them stayed where they were to watch us leave, it kind of looked sad like they were saying "goodbye new friends its been a slice" while other hopped there way right to the gate. I can't explain the way they look when they hop but it is so cute! Our next animal encounter was a wombat. Now I know a lot of people have an image of a flying squirrel like thing but they are far from that. These things are huge, and heavy and fat and the one we met was Big Bubs which means Big Baby and boy was she ever. She literally sat in the park workers arms on her back and did nothing she was so cute and I wanted to keep her but after a quick pat and picture we were on our last encounter. Koalas. These Koalas were curled up sleeping in their eucalyptus but we still got to pet them. They are so soft, soft like a teddy bear. I am definatly going to get one as a pet and bring it home, I love them!!! Mom we are gonna have so many pets, I'm sending them all home via airmail! It was really amazing to be so close to these amazing animals, it was hard to say goodbye but it was time to go to the lobster factory. On our way to the lobsters we stopped at this roadhouse. This road house was literally in the middle of nowhere. They have this huge windmill called the Southern Cross Windmill ( I cant remember the history of it). There is a fence around the bottom and across some of the property because they have 3 emus that live there (the fence is for protection for them and us) these things are massive and kind of creepy. The one we saw mustve been over 6 feet with the redest eyes that were so intimidating and the feet were gross. It has three toes and the middle being the longest and biggest looked like an abnormal big toe. We could feed it fruit scraps, me not being an overly huge fan of birds - especially ones this size - I just watched one of the guys feed it!We then had about a two hour drive out to the Pinnacles Dessert. This was awesome! The sand was yellow, like yellow yellow and there are these massive things jutting out of the sand. Some small and some towering over your head. The dessert is about 850 acres. You are told to stick with your guide as you can get lost in them. E|very which way you look it was just yellow sand and Pinnacles sprouting from everywhere. When we first got there the sun was at a perfect spot and it was litterally like walking into a desert of gold. It's one of my favourite places -so far- in Oz. I just, I don't know I found it really amazing and that scientists still don't know 100% how they were formed make it that much more incredibly. An unexplainable natural beauty. The following is from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pinnacles_(Western_Australia) The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands which were blown inland to form high mobile dunes.
The mechanisms through which the Pinnacles were formed from this raw material are the subject of some controversy, with three mechanisms having been proposed:they were formed from lime leaching from the aeolian sand (wind-blown sand) and by rain cementing the lower levels of the dune into a soft limestone. Vegetation forms an acidic layer of soil and humus. A hard cap of calcrete develops above the softer limestone. Cracks in the calcrete are exploited by plant roots. The softer limestone continues to dissolve and quartz sand fills the channels that form. Vegetation dies and winds blow away the sand covering the eroded limestone, thus revealing the Pinnacles.
- they were formed through the preservation of casts of trees buried in coastal aeolianites where roots became groundwater conduits, resulting in precipitation of indurated (hard) calcrete. Subsequent wind erosion of the aeolianite would then expose the calcrete pillars.[1]
- on the basis of the mechanism of formation of smaller “root casts” occurring in other parts of the world, it has been proposed that plants played an active role in the creation of the Pinnacles, rather than the rather passive role detailed above. The proposal is that as transpiration draws water through the soil to the roots, nutrients and other dissolved minerals flow toward the root. This process is termed "mass-flow" and can result in the accumulation of nutrients at the surface of the root, if the nutrients arrive in quantities greater than needed for plant growth. In coastal aeolian sands which have large amounts of calcium (derived from marine shells) the movement of water to the roots would drive the flow of calcium to the root surface. This calcium accumulates at high concentrations around the roots and over time is converted into a calcrete. When the roots die, the space occupied by the root is subsequently also filled with a carbonate material derived from the calcium in the former tissue of the roots and possibly also from water leaching through the structures. Although evidence has been provided for this mechanism in the formation of root casts in South Africa, evidence is still required for its role in the formation of the Pinnacles.[2]
Though the aboriginals have their own beliefs. It is said thousands of years ago a young boy came to a point in his life where he had to go off into the wilderness and become a man. The elders would say "don't go into the dessert as you will be swallowed by the quicksand" The young men thinking the elders didn't know what they were talking about went into the dessert and were - as told - swallowed by the quicksand. It is said that the Pinnacles are the young mens fingers reaching up to the world. Though to be honest it looked more falical (is that spelled right) then anything, either way it looked awesome!
Our last stop was the sanddunes in Lancelin. That was fun. We got to ride boards on our but and go down these big sanddunes. I didn't have so much luck though. My board didn't move to fast or much at all, this upset me. I have put on some weight maybe about 10 lbs but I didn't think my ass got that big and heavy to make a sandboard non-mobile. Even after I waxed it - not my butt, the board - I didn't move to well. I was actually just riding on a tire track and not a soft spot which made me finally get down the hill but I was a little jaded at this point so I put the board away. I got some pictures of me on the board, they look great, to bad I was stuck in one spot and not actually moving - though you can't tell in the pictures :) After the sandboarding we hopped in our big bus/truck and wend 4x4ing through the dunes. Now that was fun. There were points where it felt like we were at a 90 degree angle and going face first into the sand the whole bus would go "ahh, oooooh" it was so funny. My my stomach and heart switched places a couple of times. The dunes themselves were a site. White, white, white sand and the sand was so soft and it was just massive white hills of sand with the Indian Ocean off in the distance and behind the white dunes was a periwinkle blue sky as the sun started setting.
Western Australia has been great. I wish I had more time here as there is so much I want to do so I am hoping to get back here at some point before I leave Oz. I am now spending another long night in an airport terminal. I am at the Perth airport waiting for an early morning flight to Sydney. Nights in airport terminals by yourself are long and boring and I am so exhausted as I haven't slept much in the past two nights. The hostel I was staying at just outside was nuts. It was really nice and small which is always nice but the front lobby turns into a nightclub Friday and Saturday nights and our rooms are just down the hall. Friday night I went to bed early - or tried anyways - because I had to be up early for my day trip, I only got 2 hours sleep. Then last night due to a long day and barly and sleep I passed out at 10pm with my earbuds in on full blast to drowned out the sound of the music. Then my roommate comes in and talks loudly on her phone. Then at some time in the wee hours of the night/morning some drunk cunt decides to run up and down the hallway banging on all the doors and screaming!!! Then to top it off everyone decieds to stand outside my door and talk loud, ughhh. I have stayed at party hostels before but WOW! this was too much, no night time security sucks. Though the manager did let me steal? a doona cover slip so I would have a blanket for the airport, "you were a good guest just put it in your bag and don't tell me" :) I'm hoping I catch some zzz's on the plane to Sydney.
No comments:
Post a Comment