Stockman Collin and his Whip

For your entertainment pleasure we have two videos for you.  Both were taken at Perth's Caversham Wildlife Park last weekend.  They have an Australian farmshow with sheep shearing demostration, petting barn, sheep dog trials, cow milking, and bull whip snapping.  I volunteered to crack the whip.  First 5 times to no avail, but the 6th attempt equals a sonic boom!

Captial City Perth

Perth has over 1 million residents and is called the remotest capital city on earth.  Because it is so far away from other cities, in Australia and over the ocean.  Like, several thousand kilometres away!  But, residents make up for it with many, many events, festivals, parks, attractions, museums, wharfs, shopping, markets, beaches, cappacino strips, sports teams, food and wine.  There is so much to see and do that I am sure not all sights will be seen in our one year exchange.  The reason for our visit was to ride a camel and to pet a koala.  Both checked off our list by 3 pm Saturday.  Below are a few shots from Calammunda Camel Farm on the outskirts of the city.

I always knew that one day I would once again face burping camels.

Becky and her mom, Claire after their 1 hour ride.

Ships of desert transporting the Walkers into the bush.

Caversham Wildlife Park is a hands on zoo with scores of Australian mammals and reptiles, plus a farm show and plenty of animals to pet and feed.  We could of spent a few more hours inside the park.  We saw dingos and blue-tongue lizards, and a few more native wildlife to tick off our list.  The wombat is noctural, but one was still available for petting and picture taking.  What our boys will remember the most is that when it came to our turn, it started pooping and the handler said "Heys, guys free wombat souvenirs".  That was repeated all the way home and the next day and the next day.

Grandma Hughes came to visit us from Canada and got her wish to pet a kangaroo.

Thumbs up for the owl.

Jill is one fat wombat!  Souvenirs are below.

And Caleb's birthday wish... to pet a koala.

School Days

A few people have asked how is school down under?  There are definitely more similarities between Canada and Australia schools than differences.  Kids are kids anywhere in the world and no better way to prove this than to show a youtube video that the Japanese language teacher, Mr. Newton, created about the week long stay that 14 students from Sasebo Kita junior high school in Nagasaki Japan had at Harvey Senior High School and their host families throughout the community.

http://www.youtube.com/user/HarveySHS#p/u/0/is3Lu00etgc

http://www.youtube.com/user/HarveySHS#p/u/0/is3Lu00etgc

"A video I edited and put together as a memento for the students of Sasebo Kita Junior High School, during their week long 2011 visit to Harvey and Harvey Senior High School.
The song is called 会いたかった which means 'Wanted to Meet' in Japanese. It is sung by a J-Pop band called AKB48."

A few of the highlights in the video include:  Japanese language classes at the primary school using chopsticks, recess and lunch break mingling with each other, the going away bbq, song and dance performance, Aussie rules football lesson,  a drive in the senior school's 14 passenger home-made car, and the Harvey Show.

Margaret River - Surf the Seas, Drink the Wine and Splunk the Caves

Margaret River is probably the one of top tourist destinations in WA.  There are 95 or so wineries, dozens of breweries, plenty of galleries,  hundreds of caves, and THE best surfing waves Western Australia has to offer.  Margie is a Top 50 surf destination in the world and this week she was host to the Surf Pro world circuit.  On Sunday, we watched some excellent local and international amateurs trying to get one of four wild card spots to enable them to compete with the pros during the week.

Surfer's Point, Margaret River




If an 'old man' with a grey beard can do it.



So can I!

Hey, there's a prairie boy body boarding on some foamy surf!?  Too bad the little girl in the shot actually out paced him!  Caleb and Jackson enjoyed body boarding as well, but Becky was the one that wouldn't come in until after the sun had set.  I think we might of found our favorite beach - Red Gate Beach, Margaret River.

Walker family at Red Gate Beach.

We must thank John and Annette, a generous Canadian exchange couple, who open their home to us and showed us such wonderful spots.

We drove to Hamelin Bay to see rays that come to scrounge leftovers after the fishing boats come in and fisherman clean their catches.  There are 3 types of rays that some in and they swim right up to the shore line in mere inches of water and within touching distance of the wading photographers. Hamelin Bay is much calmer than Margaret River beaches, so swimming is nice and easy.

Jewel Cave.  The area around Margaret River has many, many caves, with about 10 open for public exploration.  Jewel Cave was highly recommended for us.  It had a tour guide and an easy 2 km boardwalk underground [the 1000 or so stairs were not mentioned though - huff and puff] with spectacular cave formations and stalactites and stalagmites.  Well worth the trip.

So many formations - these are stalactites
and if this photo is upside down - stalagmites!



The camel - can you see it sitting?

Straws - so delicate and only grow 2mm every 4 years.

The orinigal cave opening and 3 types of tree roots.



 

Harvey Harvest Festival

March 20th was the Harvey Harvest Festival.  We heard about it before we left Canada and looked forward to seeing and tasting some the best that Southwest Australia has to offer.  Sorry folks, our photo taking opportunities were limited, so our pictures don't do it justice.  The Harvest Festival has local entertainment, food venues, wine/beer/cider tasting, some local produce for sale, grape stomping competition, car show, and some free stuff (and not so free stuff) for kids.

1961 Holden Ute

Captain Quirk and his bull whip act.

Captain Quirk was entertaining.  He had a juggling act, plenty of one-liners, and a few 'death defying' stunts.

Zipping around on the merry-go-round.

We ate and bought an eclectic mix of food consisting of homemade wholemeal walnut bread, Hungarian salami made from kangaroo meat, hot bratwurst sausage, a baked potato with Hawaiian toppings, washed down with Australian wines - a French grape white and Spanish grape red.  Harvey is known for its Italian heritage, but we missed out on the lasagna, seafood and pasta dishes.  To make another point about multiculturalism of Australia - the grape stomping competition was won by a Taiwanese team.
Harvey Primary School Disco
What better way to end a week of hard work learning at school than to unwind at the disco.  From Kindy to year 7 Harvey kids ran, limboed, screamed, danced and boogied for 2 hours.  Caleb brought home a song request sheet earlier in the week.  Caleb's top 3 songs were:
1. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash
2. Yellow Submarine - The Beatles
3. Poker Face - Lady Gaga
(None of that Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift from this house!)

The video has Caleb showing off his moves.
Jackson had lots of mates to run around with including Kindy boys and year 7 girls.

Jackson didn't care what music was played, as long as he had a cold drink.

Although Collin doesn't have any photos to post, he did attend the Harvey Senior High School Ball in Bunbury the same weekend.   The high school ball would be similar to the American prom with gowns, hair/ makeup, limos and tuxedos.  The kids looked fab out of their school uniforms and not too many of them laughed at his Canadian white boy dance moves:)  [And the answer to last post's question... Caleb knew it was a boy ram because of it's big, curly horns.  Girl sheep don't have that!]

Wagin Woolorama



Wagin's Big Ram

Wagin Woolorama - the second biggest country fair in Western Australia (only Perth's Royal show is bigger).  http://www.woolorama.com.au/

Wagin is about 200 km inland from Harvey.  It is wheat and sheep country and the Wagin Woolorama shows off what is best about being country.  Wool judging, sheep judging of Australian breeds and European breeds, best ewe and best ram of the show, sheep dog trials, garden fair, display booths, wool fashion show, kids area, utes (utility vehicles) on display, tractors and farm implements, olde tyme museum, rodeo, side shows and carnies, and plenty of bogans - the Aussie version of rednecks.  Needless to say - we had a blast!

Wool Judging.  I couldn't imagine wearing a wool coat in the outback throughout this year's summertime heat.

My wool princess.  Just before this shot was taken we were doing our own judging of 7+ varieties of wine from a Margaret River winery.

Sheep Dog Trials.  Babe the Pig was a no show at this year's event.

The Aussie Ute!  I could do a whole blog on the variety of utes here in WA.

I cheered on Mutton Chops - pun intended - for the sheep shearing competition.

Some shearers shaved 5 sheep in 10 minutes flat!  Wow!

March Long Weekend

The Walker Family went camping north of Harvey at Dwellingup for the long weekend.  Nearby Dwellingup is a forest preserve with plenty of camping spots.  As this was a long weekend and thousands of Perthites were heading south to Margaret River to drink wine and watch a Michael Buble concert, we bucked the trend and decided to head north.

Tent spot at Nanga Mill

During our camping trip we enjoyed swimming in the Murray River, exploring the trees and bushtrails, finding neat spots like a fish ladder (hopefully the water levels return after this year's drought) and a rock slide.  Lane Poole Forest Reserve and the Dwellingup area are known for its hiking trails and canoeing routes - we hope to visit it again in a different season.

On the Sunday, we did a side trip to the city of Rockingham and its best known attraction, Penguin Island.  Just a short 5 minute ferry (or if you are brave a 500 or so metres wade across a sand bar - best to know your tides!) across to a little spit of sandy island where thousands of fairy penguins reside away from land predators.  Unfortunatly, they just finished their summer molting and were all out at sea fishing.  But, the Discovery Centre has daily feeding of a few rescued penguins.  Spent the rest our time walking around the island, enjoying the beaches and snorkelling.  Now we can say, we have been to the southern hemisphere and we saw penguins!



Penguin Island - view from up top.

  

Fairy Penguins - the world's smallest penguin.

 


Penguin Island - note the sand bar to mainland.



After one more sleep in the tent we stopped on our way home in Pinjarra and the local zoo.  Great to see more Australian animals, reptiles, and birds.  Plus this was a family friendly zoo with a many places open for the kids to feed and pet animals.  Caleb's favorite was the koala.  Collin's favorite was the Tasmanian Devil - just because I've never seen one before.  Jackson's was the roos.  Becky liked the deer and alpacas, because they ganged up on Collin and stole his animal food bag.

Listen closely to the video... as Caleb tells us he knows it's a boy!  Email us if you think you know how he figured that one out!?

 

Below are more animals at the zoo.  Note: Many Aussie mammals are noctural (and smart) - its too bloody hot in the daytime to do anything! So, just as you see with the wombat, many were sleeping.


Wombat.




Pink and grey Galah that bit Jackson.

 


Tassie Devil - always liked the cartoon version, but obviously different in real life.







Koalas are just naturally lazy!