Travelled Exmouth to Perth on a Propeller plane – everyone else’s first trip on one.  Then after a long wait at Perth Domestic Terminal – long cross-continent flight to Sydney.  Immediate impressions of back to city life – noise, lights etc. 11 pm on a Thursday.  Staying near Central Station on the 17th floor of an apartment hotel block.  A step down from the Novotel but comfortable and clean!


Suffering mild jet lag from the Perth-Sydney flight.  Ridiculous given the trials ahead! Manage to get up and out and leave Janet, Alice and Jack sleeping, then looking for breakfast – will meet them later.  I head out for the Northern Suburbs on the train from Central Station – fortuitously just a few mins walk from the apartment at the southern end of George Street.  I’m on my way to meet Sandy Schuck and Matthew Kearney at the Kuring-Gai Campus of the University of Technology of Sydney who’ve written about DV in Education and might just be one of only a handful of people who’ve actually cited a paper of mine!  Ridiculously happy to be sitting upstairs on a train with an upper deck over the Harbour Bridge, sipping a casppucino.  Sydney now feels like somewhere where people live and do things, not just a place where the likes of me gawp at the majestic bridge and Opera House.  It’s cool this morning, low cloud cover and rain from the night before.  As the train climbs through the northern suburbs, I get glimpses of huge houses, apartment blocks and sudden bays.  It’s a different view of the city from last time and closer to the Melbourne  experience of having something to do here.

Arrive in Lindfield and find the Kuring-Gai campus after a ride on a 565 bus.  Then locate Sandy’s office in the labyrinth of the Faculty of Education.  But she’s not there.  Just as I am about to give up I turn to ask a woman coming down the corridor where she is.  IN fact this is Sandy and she turns out not to be expecting me. The second Potter diary mess- up – hadn’t quite sealed the deal on email.  But she is great – very friendly and welcoming – so is her colleague Matthew .  Talk awhile about all the projects we’ve been engaged in and mutual friends in ICT and Media in Ed.  Very relaxed – nice lunch in Lindfeld with Sandy’s sister and two colleagues called John and Ann.

John gives me a ride back into Sydney and I catch up with the others who have breakfasted royally at a local café and then enjoyed the Powerhouse Museum.  We wander around Sydney, catching up on the sights from five years ago.  Jack didn’t remember too much from five years ago, Alice a little more.  Wandered through Darling Harbour and caught the ferry back round from the Aquarium to Circular Quay.

Can there be a better located city anywhere in the world?  It is so beautiful from the harbour, views to the Opera House, back across to the bridge.  We spend ages fussing over photos and angles and it’s all very difficult to capture in a picture.  Get the commuter train back up to Central and feel the thrill of the double decker train one more time!

Spend the days in Exmouth in the Cape Range National Park.  From the town the road bends round the Cape and heads down the western side.  You pass a rangers station and show the pass ( I Bought a membership for a year – same price as a two day pass and may be able to apss ti on to someone coming out here – well you never know).  The landscape on the right is Martian again – red low rise mountains and scrub.  On the left, levelling out to dunes and  crazily beautiful bays – luminous sea.  Stop in at the Myerling Vistors Centre for maps and warnings about drfit currents.  Linger awhile in the cool building, every single piece of information is here and I am tempted to weigh the luggage down with maps and plans.  Head out to Turquoise Bay where we eat a packed lunch and nead out to snorkel in the safer Bay Loop (we heard about drownings here  in the Visitor Centre!).  It’s a very beautiful spot, a perfect bay with the reef just a few metres from the shore.  We glimpse all the life we’ve seen at Coral Bay and more – including a Sea Turtle, majestically swimming a long. 

Then it’s sitting and reading in the sun.  We heard about leaving the park before dusk if possible owing to the Kangaroos but still can’t quite believe that we will see thenm in the wild as we head home.  But there they are!  First just one a long distance away, then one in the road, then more become visible in the Bush as your eyes get accustomed to it all!

On the second day we drive all the way round to Yardie Creek.  This is at the very southern end of the park – a gorge millions of years old.  Here we join a tour with a real zen like atmosphere – just a few people and two men called Dave.  Gently drifting along!  My camera battery has failed so I try and snap a few on the phone but I don’t think any picture could convey the serenity of the place or the experience.  Dave and Dave guide us very slowly through the flora and fauna of an environment that really hasn’t changed in thousands of years.  It’s a privilege to be here.  In a way this mirrors last time in Mossman Gorge in 2002.

We snorkel again at Turquoise Bay – and drive again at some speed to the Dive Shop to return the gear  by 6.  At the counter we talk about the day with the woman who carefully and patiently had sized us for the masks and fins the day before.  We tell her about the Yardie Creek tour and how it was and so forth. “Did Dave take you out?” she asked.  “Why yes, “ we replied.  “He’s my husband.  It’s a small town.”  “Ah so you know about the tour then?”  “Oh yes.”  It all made sense.

Dinner and cards and my usual gambling kamikaze tactics which see me out very, very quickly. 

Finished “Dirt Music” by Tim Winton today – brilliant descriptions of Western Australia and characters great too.  Shortlisted for Booker in 2002 – don’t know what won that year but it must have been close.

We had a wonderful day’s snorkelling and hanging out at Coral Bay the next day.  Too rough to do the kayaking that Janet wanted but ok for hanging out and swimming. We managed to get some snorkels and fins for use on Paradise Bay and Janet and I swam out over the nearest bit of the reef and it was great.

Had the second portion of the Wahoo in the evening with yet another nice bottle from the bottle shop.   This time accompanied by the noise of something really good happening for the West Cast Eagles at Aussie Rules down there in Perth at the Subiaco Oval.


Later walk to the Observation point and watch the sun go down over the Indian Ocean – right down to its last gasp, melting into the sea.  Fantastic.

Got everything packed up in the evening before bed.  Went to c heck out in the morning and managed to confuse everyone.  Basically I had convinced myself that the 19th was in fact the 20th and we should be on our way. Instead we unpacked the car and trudged back up with one of the big bags and all our hand luggage.  Yes, we were in fact staying another night.  After a moment or two of family tension the day unfolded quite well (all things considered).  We watched the ceremony for the switching on of Ningaloo Reef Resort’s connection to the town grid.  Then we did a coral tour on a glass viewing boat with large numbers of older people.  It was very beautiful and we learned a lot!  Not least the names of some of the many things we’d been seeing.

Yet more snorkelling and then a dinner at the Reef Café (Snapper and Chips).

In the morning check out for the second time – but this time because we really ought to.  Head off back down the wide open roads again to Exmouth.  A strange low rise town, moving itself away from it past as a US Navy settlement and out into the future of tourism and so on. We visit the centre for coffee and for getting to know shops etc Then to the visitor centre and then finally part way out into the resort where we are staying.  Through some kind of feverish internet error back in February we seem to have ended up somewhere a cut above our normal accommodation.

A luxurious two bed apartment, all stone and chrome and wide open spaces.  An infinity pool, direct beach access and hi-falutin cuisine.  Not sure how everyone will cope with the sudden upgrade from no-water apartments. The answer is to the manner born. Especially Alice who luxuriates in the spa bath and floods out the ensuite.  A nice meal in the hotel costing the proverbial arm and leg and then bed.

We flew an hour and a half north of Perth on Skywest Airlines to Learmonth airport.  Nearest town is Exmouth – est. 1967 (so, it’s  younger than both me and Janet).  And headed in our small white 1998 Hyundai Excel (courtesy of Autumn at Allens Car Hire in Exmouth, and following a protracted struggle with bags) down our first long genuine Australian outback road down to Coral Bay (one street and a bay – more later). 
The airplane window had revealed miles of red mountains, nothingness and dirt tracks and a few sealed roads to the east.  Jack and Janet had views on the west of strange salt lakes and bizarrely shaped estuaries.  Strange unearthly colours on both sides made me think of other planets as being more homelike.  At ground level the landscape through which we were driving was red and covered in strange cacti and scrubs and punctuated by giant orange-red stacks (termite mounds?).
 

Coral Bay was one street and we piled down to the end of it to the Ningaloo Reef Resort.  This was really like Tangalooma on the last trip.  Comfortable (at least initially) with bar, pool and beach view.

And what a view.  We have winter light and summer heat.  The bay view is fringed and framed by palm trees.  The sea beyond is turquoise with darker and lighter bits denoting the presence of the Ningaloo Reef Marine Park.  An area of outstanding natural beauty- as they say.  The Reef here ios much shorter than the one so far, far away on the other side of the continent.  Much smaller and closer to the shore. A plethora of tours in glass bottomed boats and numerous offers of snorkel hire.

The first day was orientating ourselves, the second was spent trying to remember how to snorkel properly.  We had fins, mask and breathing tube for the day before our trip to the outer reef.  We walked out to the 5 knot sign on the edge of what is known as Paradise Bay and waded in.  The sea was a clear pale turquoise deepening into a shelf which then changed again over the reef.  It was a spectacular moment – moving from swimming pool type conditions to feeling like you were in an aquarium.  There were fish of every size and shape and colour in amongst the coral.  It took us all a while to get used to it and the sea temperature was on the cold side (even as a hardy northern hemisphere boy) –although tropical to look at.  With a wet suit we would have fared better but we stayed in for a long time letting the current swing us back round to the bay and then walking back up the shore to where we had left our stuff under a hanging red rock just poking out from the dunes (this is a weird landscape – did I mention that?).

In the evening we ate at Fin’s Café next to the trailer/caravan camp – packed with serious long distance aussie holiday makers. Barbecues, power, light, satellite dishes for the Fox-Tel so they can keep track on their favourite Aussie rules teams. At this time the people on the move are generally without children of school age.  Retired couples, younger families, single people, world travellers.  The food was good and so was the wine from the Bottle Shop (combined with a serious, male-orientated wild west bar and huge Australia map and photos of great nights there!).

The next day was our trip out to the outer reef. Meeting at the Eco tour shop in the morning with 8 others – mother and child and three couples of all ages (one young Swiss couple going slowly anti-clockwise round Australia.  We collected our wet suits, loaded our bags onto the dinghy and then onto the boat.  The crew were a young woman called Fran (possibly European but her accent was really hard to place) and the captain of the boat – an Aussie called Pedro.  Headed out towards the outer reef and beyond.  First up – some whale watching.

Big Coincidence of the holiday so far…
On the way out got talking to Lisl and her daughter Niamh.  Turns out that Lisl is a teacher from Perth researching computers in education for her MA and that she heard Prof Richard Kimbell speak about e-assessment on PDAs last year.  What are the chances that you can travel so far and be on a random sample of 12 people and one of them turns out to be someone who knows someone you’ve worked with? (I did a couple of days of field work and some meetings with Richard last year and the year before on that very project!)

After work talk for a while (which started to make me think work thoughts previously missing from the trip), headed out to the front of the boat and watched the water deepen in colour and take us out of the reef area to the open sea, the blue of the Indian Ocean.  Watching now for Humpback Whales on their migration up the coast from Antarctica to calve in the warmer waters of the tropics (we are just above the tropic of Capricorn here!).  When we do see them there is a flurry of cameras and trying to stay on your feet as you try and line up a shot. Much better to stop and forget about the camera and juts watch these beautiful creatures jump out of the sea – mother and calf sweeping along.  We keep a respectful distance.  This is an eco tour after all and the whales are probably watching us too.  It is an awe-inspiring sight.

Next up – looking for rays to swim with – but we fail in this search.  Although we do see a dolphin and then some Whale sharks – dugongs – beautiful creatures and the inspiration behind the tales of mermaids. 

Pedro throws out a line to start fishing and after a long ride around there is a huge bite and t he sight of a beautiful fish streaking through the water alongside the boat.  “Fastest fish in the sea” shouts Pedro and between himself, Fran and a passenger who can fish, they land this great creature on the back of the boat.  “You can take this home for tea later if you want,” he says after administering the final blow to the head.  This is as close to the kill as I’ve ever been and it is a strange feeling.

Finally head back to the reef to a shark cleaning station where reef sharks and others come to the coral reef be cleaned by the parasites and organisms and little fishes before setting off on the hunt again.  Here we all don our wet suits and ease into the sea off the end of the boat.  Cold shock.  Even huger numbers of fish – Emperors nearby with smaller fish in attendance.  Someone from the boat is feeding them crackers or bread and they crowd round us snapping (Alice gets a little bite).  Then it’s off all of us bunched together swimming away from the boat through the coral looking for sharks.  If this doesn’t confront our fears (esp Alice and Jack’s head on) I don’t know what will.  See the dark shape 11 m below parked and cleaned setting off so fast back up to the gap in the reef and the open sea.  We have been swimming for some time now and there is no sign of the boat initially – so this is one of the adrenaline moments you get.  I am reassuring people but actually in need of a bit myself.  Then Fran points it out – about 50m away – I had been completely disorientated by the swim and the cold and everything…

Back on board – we are all a little stunned by the day – how amazing it’s been.  Quiet chatting with other people and then putting ashore.  But not before Pedro has gutted and prepared the fish for us to take away with us – our remaining two nights’ worth of fish here.  A beautiful Wahoo (nope never heard of it either). Cooked back at the apartment with garlic, lemon and butter and eaten with take away chips and a bottle of cold something or other from the bottle shop.  A great day out.

Only downside of the whole thing is the lack of water at the resort.  They are expanding and the workmen doing the job keep cutting the pipes and cutting the supply.  This is Ok for a bit but becomes a bit more of a problem with no showering for two days ands intermittent washing up.  Late in the evenhing it finally returns and the next days looks a little more hygienic than this one.  But this is the wild west.  This is a tiny, tiny settlement with one street and we can see the outback from the end of the road to the bay!

There’s a lot to write but…Internet cafes tend to disable the USB ports so I haven’t been able to get pictures or text onto the blog since Perth (where there was wireless access in the hotel).  Also – as I think I might have mentioned, the 12" Powerbook died in Melbourne – total hard disk failure. In the middle of backing up the Tokyo and early Melbourne pictures.  I suspect that’s all just gone.  Now travelling with John’s old 15" powerbook and uploading whenever / wherever possible.  Currently writing this on Saturday 18th in an Internet Cafe in Coral Bay which hasn’t let me tell all about the reef, the whales and sharks and our outer reef adventure yesterday.  So that may have to wait until we move to Exmouth tomorrow to a Novotel (which may have a wireless network  fingers crossed!)

Only a day and a half really in these cities.

Perth first impressions as follows:
Perth Water / Swan River
Calm vista of a large estuary a welcoming carpet of still (ish) blue-green-brown
In front of skyscrapers projecting a modern and firmly utopian-capitalist vision
In town – buses that cost nothing to travel on – 3 city Cats in blue, green and red to get you around
In fact no transport costs anything in the central zone – trains or buses
So this is the first strangeness
In the evening we wander down Hay St mistakenly looking for restaurants. But this is the business and shopping district, closed down and full of after-dark end-of-the day people.
Including our first sighting on this trip of the hitherto hidden indigenous people. Dislocated, drunk and shouting things.
This is the Bill Bryson version of things – where the invisibility and lack of talking about it becomes an issue in itself. But of course people are talking about it now after Mal Braff and John Howard’s interventions. More of this later…

We abandon Hay St and head in a cab over to Northbridge with a Chinese-Aussie cab driver – very friendly. Full of chat. Not for the first time on this trip we are struck by the friendliness of strangers. He lands us in Sorrento. An Italian family restaurant presided over by a woman who has a hairdo like my mother used to get. This is karma I think and so it proves to be with a friendly atmosphere and lovely service and nice food. We had been touted at some length by the Fishy Place over the road and on the second day we went there. Not so great.

But the second day was really good with two outings/activities. In the first of these we rode the red cat round to ABOUT Bike Hire and borrowed four bikes.

We then cycled down to the Narrows Bridge and round the south bank of the river and back over the Causeway and Hennison Island. Only 10k but it was good to cycle again and the views were lovely. The park in South Perth allowed us to see all sides of Perth. A tidy beautiful area of parkland, strange birds, the Swan River, the views across to the WACA, the junkie needle depository in the toilets, the big houses, the trees of all different shapes…all of it memorable. But best of all – seeing the Black Swan. Picture the scene, a serene and beautiful pair of black swans in the middle of Perth Water, drifting idly across – an English tourist in a cycle helmet and dark glasses desperately running along the bank trying to get the perfect shot in front of Perth’s skyscrapers with the swans in the foreground.


Reminded constantly in the city of the Triffids, the late, great David McComb and that brilliant last album (well all of their brilliant albums in fact).

The other thing we did was ride the train out to Fremantle. And here the atmosphere was so different. This town was founded by the modest Captain Fremantle in 1829 when he declared the whole west coast of this vast continent for George IVth. As such there are loads of older buildings, no high rise, lots of reminders of smaller English municipalities, probably more echoes of New Zealand in fact. Very beautiful. Cafes and shops and sailboats and little malls. And we see and smell the Indian Ocean for the first time and look across to Rottnest Island – holiday destination of many South Western Australians. Some echoes of the actions of the founding fathers of this land are in the history of the Roundhouse – a building at the convergence of the new and old harbours, next to Bathers Bay where indigenous peoples were held prior to their deportation and enforced exile from the lands around Perth/Fremantle. It’s a sobering thought amongst all the undoubted beauty of the scene. There is also the gorgeous area in the middle around the parish church and town hall and statue to Australia’s wartime leader – Prime Minister Curtin – the only WA MP ever to hold that high office. Overall impressions of Fremantle are of a great, human sort of place.

Next up for us is the remote and strange Ningaloo Reef and Coral Bay. We have the good fortune to have our flight changed and moved back to 10.30. We are all a bit weay and the extra couple of hours sleep is most welcome………

John and Gina’s wedding…

Lots of very happy memories to take away.
From the ceremony in the Victoria State Parliament right through to the dancing after midnight to eighties music with a mixed group of hairdressers and anaesthetists. And everything in between. I’ve never been at such a do that combined being posh and well catered with being human and friendly. I managed to stay clear of the after hours in the nightclub and call it quits with the lovely wine and beer at the reception in Champions in Federation Square. Family and friends seemed to get along so well. There was a great Quicktime movie which Joe (best man) had edited with stills from photos of John and Gina in their respective childhoods so far apart. He made a lovely speech – great balance between the usual dishing the dirt and the unusual and frank admissions of love and respect for John. Janet had a tricky mission with absent friends after Bill’s death last year but managed a lovely, subtle speech which mixed humour, warmth and emotion together. The same in equal measure went for John, Gina and Dennis (Gina’s dad) – great words from all. Lots of drinking and dancing ensued (including the knee dance – but mainly for Jack’s benefit – he will inherit the gene and it’s best not to hide it). The children had a great do – Alice and Jack both loved being members of the wedding. And I have a horrible feeling that this has set the bar for Alice’s do one day! I feel a little sorry for Debs – Joe’s girlfriend – because she got the full- on GoBetweens story from me (and very probably the Brian Eno being a genius talk too). Accident of the seating plan. But she was polite and smiled through it all!
Janet came home really happy that we’d gone and smiley and needing sleep badly after coming down from the event and making that difficult but wonderful speech.
And that was that.

Melbourne has been – up to the time of writing – a mixture of meeting new and old friends, shopping, eating fine food and – particularly – drinking.  Especially yesterday at the Crown Plaza – the enormous 24 hour gambling city within a city.  In fact John’s stag do (or buck do or gentleman’s evening) stretched from lunchtime up to the small, small hours of the day after.  It introduced me to two things I don’t normally do – (and there’s a  good reason why I don’t do these things).  The first was formula 1 driving in a computerised simulator somewhere out in the far eastern suburbs (In Kath and Kim’s country), arriving there by minibus.  I came last or second to last in most races, crashing so badly on one occasion that I crashed the computer too.  Jack, who joined in this part of the buck, fared better.  It was really hard and I was absolutely useless – so it’s not a new career option.  The second thing, much later in the evening was gambling in the Crown Casino – just play gambling.  Whilst all my classmates were busy ripping each other off at my school, I just didn’t get it and still don’t.  But we had good tuition, it was great company (– very easy going and friendly.  A mix of family, Australian medics (anaesthetists) and the UK representatives.me and the best man, Joe)
and fascinating to get a glimpse of another culture.  This was a place in which the concept of night and day was lost (even more than being on a plane).  Money poured out of people.  Cash machines rang out.  Drinks were following faster and faster as the night hurtled towards its inevitable conclusion.  Kebabs in the centre of Melbourne at 3 a.m.

The day after was long and slow.  Jack and I used the web at Port Melbourne Library.  Alice and went in to the city to sort out some more of the wedding preparation and then we wandered into Federation Square.  Lots of new buildings and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. ACMI.  Fantastic.  Digital storytelling – archival material featuring Australians and their memories. Selections of students’ digital work which was great…

Seems churlish to moan about an undeniably glamorous sounding trip from Tokyo to Melbourne via Sydney but…it was something of an ordeal.  Began well at the fabulous Narita Airport.  Busy, busy, busy but guess what?  Calm, efficient, well organised, friendly even.  I was not homesick for Heathrow (as in abandon all hope etc.).  Neither was it the very lnog flight over the Pacific, over New Guinea in the night and all down the East Coast of Australia to Sydney.  Twas long and boring and sleepless and 9.5 hours but…OK.  OUr problems began at Sydney when we had to leave the plane, get re-screened and then get back on the plane for the Melbourne leg.  we did all this.  But the plane didn’t leave for three hours while they fixed something that was wrong with engine no. 2.  I’m glad they did this obviously but after a sleepless, uncomfortable night, three hours more sitting in those seats and then another  flight to Melbourne.  It was time for the trip’s first genuine AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHHH moment.

And then…
Great to be met by John and Gina.  I don’t think we were ver good company initially.  Grey, yawning people in your house…

4th August
Today – new Tokyo.
After yesterday’s shrines and older things.
By overground to Ebisu and then from there via underground to Rippongi to the Rippongi Hills development.  Built in 2003 with an observation deck overlooking Tokyo – at the height of Canary Wharf (well, two floors higher at 52), an art gallery and a “sky aquarium”.  Like a cross between that tower and the London Eye. Breathtaking views – the highest point in the city – great photocalls for the landmarks like the Tokyo Tower, just like the Eiffel Tower but red!  It’s almost possible to get a handle on where we were / are.

Some more impressions;
Food court
Quiet
Soup factory and Bagel Bagel
Spotless toilets (all with running water available to cover any noises – also with bidet feature)
Louise Bourgeois Spider, last seen at the Tate Modern guarding the entrance to the Tower
The Metro Hat – through which you emerge from the train
Le Courboisier creativity show, including model houses reminds me of the inspiration behind the Ferrier Estate in Greenwich)

After quick, late, light lunch – off to the shopping districts of Harajuku and then Shibuya.
Familiar names (Gap, Ralph Lauren), mingle with the unfamiliar (Irony Corner being my favourite).  Boutiques and restaurants, trendy shops, Gallop for shoes.  But it is much hotter and more humid today and everyone is flagging!

Hit Shibuya just as a hundred or so mobiles are pointed skywards by some young folk gathered at the statue of Hachiko the dog.  They are staring up at a birthday greeting for one of their mates broadcast on a giant video screen.  Here is Piccadilly Circus and the Clock at Waterloo Station combined – a mad meeting point and street crossing with neon neon, neon everywhere and half of Tokyo’s millions crossing from six directions at once.  This is the cliché of what it’s like to be here.  The senses are overwhelmed and no photo or video clip will quite do it justice I think.

Back at the hotel shower off the heat of the day and walk out for last meal on the 35th Floor of the Maranuochi Building – piano player, fantastic view of Tokyo by night.