Breathe In… And Out….

What a busy few weeks! First Lisa visited for 3wks, then I was away with work for a fortnight, and my friend Nick has just left after a 2wk stay!  Now it’s time for whale season again!

Lisa had a wonderful time here.  Phil joined us for a trip up to Shark Bay in the first week, which was great fun.  Every morning we went down to the beach to see the dolphins – and each morning they came in to see us!  The same few female dolphins have been coming to the beach for years.  They wait patiently, swimming along a line of tourists wading in the shallows, whilst a ranger gives a 20min talk about the animals.  The ranger then chooses a few tourists to come out and feed each dolphin a piece of fish.  The dolphins are only fed about 500g of fish (a fraction of the ~10kg they need a day) to encourage them to spend time foraging for themselves, and teaching their calves how to hunt.  Otherwise there would be dolphins begging for food all over the place!  It was amazing seeing them so close up – and they were obviously just as interested in us, rolling on their sides to peer up at us.  Once, whilst Lisa and I were swimming, two dolphins appeared and swam right past us.  They seem a lot bigger when you’re in the water and out of your element!  We tried diving down with our snorkels, but the water was too murky to see them…  Which made it a little bit creepy!

Apart from the dolphins, we also visited the Ocean Park, Stromatolites and Eagle Bluff.  All of these attractions were wonderful:  the Ocean Park was small and initially looked a bit low-key, but the guides were all very knowledgable and full of interesting facts.  The stromatolites also seem a bit unexciting to look at, but are a fascinating look into the earth’s history.  Eagle Bluff is a boardwalk along some cliffs, looking down into the clear waters below.  We were lucky enough to see some sharks crusing through the waters of the bay.

Lisa and I then headed down south to stay in Dunsborough for a few days.  We visited Bunbury, various beaches, went whale-watching, had Simmo’s ice-cream (with the ice-cream-eating emu), and drove to Walpole to visit the Valley of the Giants.  This is a large treetop walk – bridges and platforms, letting you walk through the forest canopy surrounded by massive jarrah, karri and tingle trees.  We also stopped at a really interesting Aboriginal cultural centre in Yallingup called the Wardan Centre.  The folks there took us on a bushwalk and showed us how to make knives and spear-throwers.  Cool stuff!  Back in Perth we went to the Zoo, Caversham Wildlife Park, Rottnest, the beach, Kings Park…

After Lisa left I was away on tour with Scitech to Northam (via Kalgoorlie) for a couple of weeks.  Unfortunately I was ill almost the whole time, which made me a real joy to be around!  It was good to come home and have some more time off for Nick, my next visitor!

We headed down south again to Dunsborough.  We saw whales breaching from Meelup Beach, and enjoyed some more Simmo’s ice-cream 🙂  I also took Nick to the Valley of the Giants, and we were lucky enough to go out on a night-time wildlife walk:  we found quokkas, bats, lots of spides, and some possums (one with a baby on it’s back!).  In Perth we went to Kings Park, whale-watching, the wildlife park (where we got chased by a dugite), Rottnest, the aquarium, the museum and had a great laugh.  It was a bit warmer than when Lisa was here, so it was nice to take some time off to enjoy the sunshine!

Over the last couple of weeks, the first blue whales have been sighted down in Geographe Bay.  So I will be heading down there for a few days a week this month to continue our research efforts from last year.  I’ll still be working part-time at Scitech though.  We will be up our hill again (dodging snakes, kangaroos and flies) to track whale movements through the bay and record their behaviours.  Should be a good season!

Now off to work!  I’ll try and get some pics up soon from the last few months adventures!