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.