2019 AU-NZ: Hamelin Bay to Beautiful Valley Feb 28 - Mar 4

On a morning stop February 28 at Hamelin Bay to look for shore birds, we were fortunate to see Short-tailed Stingrays wafting in the surf next to the beach. People were standing out a meter from shore and the Stingrays were drifting close enough to be stroked (perhaps they approached the shore in order to be touched).

Shortly after leaving Hamelin Bay we finally spotted Red-tailed Black Parrots flying with graceful elongated wing strokes towards some tall roadside trees. That was a treat! A little further along, adjacent a Giant hay-bale Caterpillar in a farm field, we were suddenly in cell-phone range (four-bar signal strength out of five!) so uploaded some BLog material and then drove on to Alexander Bridge for a bird look-around.

Bob has been bitten, we think, by insects on bird walks a lot recently and he is quite uncomfortable, and sometimes the discomfort is intolerable, and then standing around is for the birds, or rather, is only tolerable for the birds. When there are no birds, it is for the birds - so, intolerable. He is, however, philosophical about the numbers game. We have seen many of Australia's approximately 800 bird species and Bob has photographed over 200. Pretty decent.

We were hoping to stay near Albany at Cozy Corner camp February 28, but found it full after an 18Km drive down a sealed, but rough road. It appeared as if the campers were long-stay, and we got waves and "g'days" as we drove the site's loops, but had to move on, as all the sites were occupied.

We drove back the 18Km rough road and then on a further 25Kms and found Two Peoples Beach camp just at sunset. Bob was able to call ahead ('cause we've often got bars with Telstra!) and the proprietor John had said to take any spot and he'd be by later to visit. It was a great camp with a washer & dryer, a $1/hr stove, and a grassy knoll for our tent. (And an oven! We could have baked - oh well, the things we eventually find out about places....)

In the morning March 01, we were delayed waiting for a dryer load to finish. It was fortuitous, as our tent took flight just as we were driving away late to Two People's NP. While there were none of the usual Red-headed Parrots to be seen at camp, our camp-mates took delight at seeing our tent in flight! We packed it into our car and headed off on our day's next adventures.

We hoped to photograph a Noisy Scrub Wren. It is a small bush-bird that is flightless. As with other flightless birds, it has no wish bone and its feathers don't zip. We met the park ranger Eddie and he shared some bird song recordings, including that of the elusive Noisy Scrub Wren, and he told us about his country-music sideline. We saw, but were not quick enough to photograph the Wren.

We visited the very beautiful and interesting Little Beach in Two Peoples NP. It is another "squeaky beach" due to the fineness of the sand. Yolanda made a brief recording of the squeak as Bob walked across a section of beach. The fineness of the sand also makes it a bit clumpy, similar to damp flour, and it is pure white in colour, which is very beautiful next to the varied blues of the Indian Ocean and red-dirt of Australia.

We drove to the spiffy community of Goode Bay before heading back to a second night at Two Peoples camp, and a second look for the red-headed parrots. Dipped! [Click to learn "Sh*t birders say."]

March 02, our last "down day"* for a while was, in spite of a sunrise start, not a day for photo documentation. A number of birds were seen and identified, but not photographed. We saw pectoral quail, white-bellied sea eagle, noisy scrub wren, and about 20 other bird species, and one fox and one ball of zippy fur darting into the under-brush. Dipped, again! The problem of a list of 800 birds is that you don't feel so great when you don't get the ones you are expecting. Bob is happiest when he thinks about the 200+ Australian birds we have seen and he has photographed.
* "down-day" is for not driving, but still driving around to see sights or get to birding "hot-spots" - it does not mean we were down, though we were until we remembered to think about the birds photographed, not the birds missed.

From March 03 until the afternoon on March 07, we re-positioned to the East Coast of Australia. March 07pm - March 17 are to explore the East Coast from UNESCO Fraser Island (north of Brisbane) to Port Fairy (west of Melbourne). We've recently heard there are fires near Melbourne, so we're not sure exactly how things will be for our final few days in Australia.

The March 03 highlight was finally camping at a Roadhouse! Yolanda has been doing the driving for the past 6,010Kms. Bob had driven 9,698 on the Melbourne to Exmouth section, so Yolanda thought to try out the right hand drive at 110kms/hr and liked it, so is driving the return route to Melbourne via Brisbane. Happily for Bob, his new phone service (same phone number, different company) has pockets of connectivity at most small townships and at most roadhouses/petrol stations. The connectivity bars just before a town and for a few Kms out of town enable Bob to work on his backlog of over 400 iNaturalist data base submissions. Also happily for Bob, not having to drive helps with the discomfort of the skin on his knees and elbows - we are hoping the cooler east coast will improve the condition.

We drove Australia's longest highway and passed through little towns, including Cocklebiddy, with its budgie aviary. We stopped for the day and set up our tent at the Western edge of the Nullarbor, at the Nullarbor Roadhouse. We ate what we now call "border stew" (made with the last of our fruits and vegetables before crossing the border from Western to Southern Australia) and chatted with our tent neighbours, Leslie and Gerry from Perth.

A Roadhouse is a restaurant, with w/c, shower, cabin and caravan/trailer/tent facilities. There is also usually a bar and, of course diesel and petrol, which is why most cars, caravans, recreational trailers and road trains stop at the roadhouse.

March 04 we stopped at the Head of Bight whale centre on the Nullarbor  ("treeless"), called Ooondiri ("waterless") by the Mirning people. Whales can be seen from May to August in the breading grounds below the cliffs every day, sometimes in the hundreds. The text panels at the centre spoke about the evidence of indigenous people in the area since over 20,000 b.p., and in Australia for over 48,000 b.p., and in which ways indigenous people continue to live off the land currently, in restricted territories. They did not hunt whale, but did use what they could of a beached whale. One discussion panel spoke of colonial destruction of the lands, including the water sources carefully managed by the indigenous people until the colonial push through of the steam train, which depleted the sources along the line in three short years, 1915-1918, as half the load a steam train carries is water for its engines.

We listened to indigenous genocide ("massacre") stories and the systematic colonial silencing of the process. An additional Colonial tactic to diminish indigenous communities was also used against indigenous populations in Canada. This tactic involved the giving of tainted products (small-pox Hudson bay blankets in Canada; smallpox and other germ tainted products and poisoned flour in Australia). We also learned about the Stolen Generation, the fallacy of terra nullius, the devastation of the Anangu people due to British nuclear testing and struggles with reconciliation processes. We were deeply saddened by the experience. We would like to learn more about the "Sorry Books" and why politicians deny and delay truth.

We see and hear constant evidence that indicates water is a critical resource in Australia, and the battles on how to manage the deluge and the drought. The recent flooding in Queensland followed a three-year drought, and the soil was unable to absorb any water, so it ran off or sat in pools and in a few days drowned cattle herds that had been struggling already for the three drought years. Destruction of the natural environment is a net result of colonialism and over-grazing by introduced herds. Most streams, rivers and lakes we have visited are seasonal. Rivers do not run, and the occasional eddies are full of salts. Lakes are dry patches. Streams are dust. The waterways are called "flood ways" and constant warning signs speak of road flooding. Sculpture in public spaces are waves, giant water droplets, or other water references. The welcome sign for the town of Moree had an enormous tap turned up with a stainless steel fountain gushing out. We have yet to find the name of the Margaret River area indigenous public leader whose plans to manage water resources in collaboration with nature were treated dismissively. The multi-million dollar desalination plants are the preferred approach, rather than managing the rainfall, which in Western Australia apparently falls at a rate that would fill Sydney Harbour in one rainy season.

We were on the road a lot of hours and ended at Beautiful Valley Caravan Park. True to its name, the Valley was beautiful. An undulating oasis on the otherwise flat landscape. We stayed in a lovely cabin instead of camping, as the proprietor seemed to suggest we'd prefer the cabin and gave us a great rate. We had camped nine days in a row, so the room, with kitchenette was a treat.