Fetter's Travels: November 2014

Suzie:

I forgot to write about this nice paddle to Seal Island a few weeks ago. Krystin and I were very happy that it was nice and warm during the whole paddle (unlike our winter sun rise paddles)!

Krystin Rennie in the Shoal Water Marine Park.

We are paddling over to the island on the far right.

Pelicans in flight.

That brown lump turned out to be a Sea Lion...
who we woke up accidentally.

Since he acted like an angry bear coming out of hibernation,
we named him Bear.
And yes, he was big!
I was expecting to see some cute little seals
like what you see doing tricks at Sea World.
Oh, no. NOT the same species!

At this point we were backing up quickly and quietly!

But then we realized we stranded ourselves by leaving the kayaks between 'Bear' and US!

We made it home just fine. But we noticed another sleeping sea lion and a sign that said no landing on Seal Island (whoops). So we headed over to Bird Island nearby.
It was a beautiful clear morning and great to be out on the water.

Then it was time to find someone to help us push our car out of the sand. Turns out that deep sand acts just like deep snow. But rocking the car back and forth does not help! Except to bury your tire immediately into the sand!
We had a good laugh. Mostly we were just glad we didn't have to call Wayne to come help us. Stubborn pride :)

Suzie:
What a whirl wind visit during the past week. Rod arrived first and was happy to just hang out and visit. Then Isabelle came with her 'wish list' of things to do and see... and the days flew by. The good news is that she left with a lot of check marks on that list!

Half hour after getting off the plane... first stop a natural kangaroo habitat.

I love that face!

I couldn't believe these wild kangaroo's were so tame. They do live on an island in the heart of Perth, so they must be used to people. They were very friendly.

Rod and Wayne:

Having some champagne at The Lucky Shag in the heart of Perth.

Suzie and Isabelle

What a great first night. They're really here :)

The power of persuasion: Isabelle was dying to go SCUBA diving in Australia (Okay, not a good choice of words here. I agree.) Once I went in to price it out at our local Rockingham dive shop, I was easily talked into going too!

FYI the Aussie's really have no worries. They must not have many lawsuits here, because they never seem to worry about injury or death like North Americans. AND there is no way they should have let me dive after a 14 year hiatus and no refresher course. I couldn't even remember how to attach my reg to the BCD and the visibility was terrible. I literally had to stay 4 meters from our guide or rely on my compass reading skills. So I kept within reach of the guy!

(If you look closely at my expression, this is what I am thinking about at that moment).

A few sunken ships and planes to look at were cool. Some fish. But main attraction for me was the sea horses and lion fish.

Isabelle enjoying the dive.

Two very happy people:

above, one checking off her list, and below, one thankful that his partner wasn't eaten by a shark.

After a long brunch and short rest at home we were off to tour Fremantle:

P.S. Thank you Rod and Isabelle for the best dinner we've had all year. Imagine a drum roll here...

Sandrino's in Fremantle was outstanding. Oysters, a great Shiraz, and the best pasta and prawns ever.

Monday was a quiet day. Wayne took our tourists shopping. Then when I got home from work, Isabelle and I snuck in a quick kayak to Point Peron. By the way, I should say a big thank you to Ryan, my exchange partner for having a kayak here for us to use. And to Marie and Wayne Smith for loaning us theirs' on and off all year long.

I was lucky to get last Tuesday off of work and have a generous neighbour that looked after getting the kids to and from school that day, so we headed out for a road trip to The Margaret River Wine Region. That was a jam-packed day!

Bunbury

Dolphin watching in Bunbury and a breakfast picnic on the beach.

Can you tell which one of these two loves the water and which one doesn't?

A dolphin is just over this volunteers left shoulder.

Bussleton

This is the pier (or Bussleton Jetty as the Aussie's say) where Wayne will complete his Ironman swim. He's pointing to the end nearly 2km away! He will swim out and around and back to finish the swim, then head out for his 180km bike ride! (Last step is a full marathon of 42km to run). Think of Wayne this coming December 7th and say a little prayer for good weather.

That is the tip of the jetty behind us.

Just starting the walk out to the end.

Looking back to land about 300m out. You can see what Wayne will be looking at the whole way (sand, sea grass, and fish). Surprisingly, the maximum depth is only about 3m. So he'll be able to see the ocean bottom during the whole swim.

Still not at the end...

Those buildings behind Wayne is the observatory, almost at the tip.

Here's the view from the end of the jetty looking back to land.

Yikes!

And if Wayne doesn't make the turn, there is nothing but Indian Ocean after that!

Yellingup

Still a couple of 'studs'.

They've honestly hardly changed in over 25 years.

Except Rodney spends less on hair products, of course.

Hard to see, but behind them is about a 3 meter swell washing over Canal Rocks.

The spring wild flowers are still gorgeous here right now.

Margaret River

And the winery tours begin...

... and these two are serious wine tasters.

They kept up the pace all afternoon.

Lucky for me there was also a chocolate factory and nougat factory and Simmo's ice cream factory too. I personally invested heavily in the local economy :)

All in all, we were travelling 14 hours on that day. So a

very special thank you to our 'adopted in-laws', Wayne and Marie Smith. They not only looked after Noah and Ellise in the evening, but even took them out to dinner at Noah's favourite restaurant (Hog's Breath).

Last Day:

While I went into work, the troops enjoyed a great final day. Even the kids got to stay home and enjoy our company from Canada!

They stayed close to Waikiki (our community) and enjoyed another kayak. A second kayak for Isabelle and a first for Rod (who is not a fan of the ocean, or rather what lives in it).

This time they went to Seal Island and were not disappointed.