Dolphins - Up, Close & Personal

Some of you may remember that we spent a few days in Monkey Mia, a magical place on Australia's west coast where dolphins like to come & play with the tourists.

Here are some really close-up pictures.

Now the dolphins come so close to the shore in the mornings foraging for food. You can see in the 2nd picture the one happy dolphin with a fish in her mouth.

Yes, her mouth. Apparently the fact that humans give fish in the mornings is a well kept secret in the dolphin community. Only female dolphins come here. And when they have calfs, the'd only bring here the young 'girls', never the 'boys'.

Now this is really unfair ;)
 

Driving @ night

Driving at night in Australia, especially in the west, it's normally a lonely time.

But that doesn't mean at all that one can just happily speed on his way home.

As soon as the sun sets, all the animals come out to 'play', like this kangaroo here that was lucky enough to pass the road before us without harm.

We've been told that a kangaroo or even an emu is enough to damage your car to the point of leaving you stranded in the middle of nowhere.

But we've seen better: imagine cows standing on the road, sleeping. Apparently they like the warmth radiating from the asphalt.

But the animals are not the only danger - the road trains continue on their long voyages across Australia at night.
 

Road Trains

Whenever you'll be driving down under, especially in Western Australia you'll hear warnings about the road trains.

These behemoths can be up to 53 metres long, they go @ 120 km/h and stop for no one. They are one of the main reasons why there are so many kangaroos laying by the side of the road.

You can't imagine how it feels to have these guys thundering by you.


 

Good Bye Hat

Eh oui, my fancy Outback hat decided to leave me somewhere on the way between Uluru & Alice Springs.

When I arrived in Alice Springs I couldn't find it and looked everywhere for it - only later Eva found it under the car in this picture - see zoom in below.

Frankly I'm happier to know that it's now roaming free in the middle of the desert than having been found out by some guy, forgotten in my hotel room. 

The wedge-tailed eagle

Here he is, a majestic bird.

They say that it can grow up to 3 metres in wing span and that it's a very brave bird though sometimes to the point of stupidity.

These days, with all the road kill available they tend to eat whatever they find laying by the side of the road (see the 2nd picture).

The problem with them is that they think they're so big & tough that they don't necessarily fly away when a car passes by - so sometimes they get hit by it and join the poor kangaroo they were eating.

 

Webify Yourself

Ladies & Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Eva to the wonderful world of blogging :)

Go to http://progressivewinding.blogspot.com/ for a fresh new look at the world through her eyes.

I have to say i'm impressed - she posted more interesting things in one night than I did in one month ;)

You can also link to her blog from the right hand link list on this blog.

Enjoy !!!

The flightS home

Our holidays are coming to an end, sniff sniff.

But there are still adventures to undertake! Like this scenic flight above the Whitsundays islands on the smallest plane there, Cherokee 6 or Small Piper for the connaisseurs (even a bit smaller than the one on the picture). Exciting but short flight, it took us just about 5 minutes to get to our destination - the 'real' airport.

And from there, back to Melbourne!

 

Whitehaven Beach

We are in Paradise now!! Pure white sand, blue sky, clear water, sun is shining, birds are singing... :))

All that is very inspiring for the good old Bay Watch moves. As you see, we couldn't resist it.
 

The trip back - and Whale Spotting

The trip back was an adventure in its own right.

Not only was the fierce wind and the great ocean waves giving us a fun time, but some humpback whales coming to these waters to give birth to their calves decided to put on a show.

The last picture of the whale breaching the water is not the one that we took but it looked exactly like this!!! Amazing!!! :)))

Here are some quick facts about these whales: the adults may reach up to 40 tonnes. Baby whales weigh up to a ton when they are born.


The mothers bring them up south (oups, I meant north... still in the European frame of mind ;)) in the warmer waters in order to protect them from the big sharks that roam in the cold waters.

While here the calves drink up to 600 liters of milk a day and mind you this milk is 34% fat therefore it has the consistency of toothpaste :)

Snorkelling

Unfortunately we took these pictures after coming out of the water - so you can't see us in all our glory with the wet suit and the life vests on.

But snorkelling really is about having the mask and the nice J-shaped tube through which one can breath while he is looking in the water.

At the beginning is a bit overwhelming, with all this strange equipment on, the cold water around you, having to breath through the mouth but once you catch a glimpse of what lies down below you adjust just like by magic :)
 

The Corals & The fish

Nothing could really have prepared us for the richness of colour and life out here.

These pictures are but a pale blue representation of what we saw because they are taken from a submarine via the window and for some reason everything looks green - blue through them.

But when we went snorkelling we really discovered the real submarine world.

 

The Great Barrier Reef - Reef World

Now we couldn't have come all the way here without exploring this world wonder. The locals proudly boast the reef can be seen from Space. I don't know about that but it's really big - 2900 individual reefs that span over several thousand kilometres.

We booked a tour that took us to a special platform out in the ocean - The Reef World - where everything was at our disposal to help us discover the corals.