Christmas in Denmark

12-25-08

I met a really interesting man just now. I was walking back from the store and was walking by this really nice Land Rover when the guy that owned it came over and was just about to get in. I told him how much I liked his rig and that I used to have a Land Rover several years ago and loved how it was made to work on. He started telling me about how he had added a gas system to the diesel engine and how much better it was. He opened the hood and showed me how the LP gas is heated in a regulator and added into the turbo intake. He said it added 30% more horsepower and gave him 20% more mileage. Amazing! He also said that by adding the gas to the diesel fuel mixture the diesel burned a lot cleaner, up to 95% rather than the 70% fuel used in a regular diesel engine. He said the oil took a long time to get dirty because there was so little carbon unburned. I haven’t gone there yet but he said search for ‘diesel gas Australia’ and I would find the system. I have not been keeping up with the ‘new’ diesel technology, but sure never have heard anything about this system.

We got to talking then about what he does. He worked for a university system on research on whales. He told lots of stories about the singing of the male whales and the different breeding groups in the world. I told him my whale story and he was not in the least surprised that the whale communicated with me. (A long story that happened when I was whale watching down in Mexico a few years ago)

I went yesterday to a masseuse to hopefully relieve the mussels that are all tight in my neck and shoulder. I rode a little too long when it was cold the other day and spitting a little rain. I should have stopped and put on more clothes but just kept going thinking I am tougher than needing another layer. I actually sent my coat liner back to myself thinking I didn’t need it after it got so hot. It would be nice to have that liner but I can do ok with several tee shirts and a couple of long sleeve underwear I hope. Anyway the woman that worked on me didn’t understand or I think she just does a routine service because she sure didn’t get the kinks worked out of those mussels. She would do a long rub up the back and come across those mussels that would make me jump but she would just go on over them rather then work on each one and get them relaxed. So I tried to work on them myself that evening. They are still tightened up but hopefully I can get them worked out or find a better masseuse. She said that she has done this for thirty years and never had a back she couldn’t ‘fix’. Well, I bet that there are lots of ‘backs’ that go elsewhere to be fixed.

I really like these trees. I have seen several of them but this one was just so nice I had to take its picture. The area around Denmark is sort of a high value area now. It used to be just a sleepy little village but now with the tourist thing as well as a lot of rich folks coming down from Perth to buy property for vacation homes the prices one guy said have tripled in the last five years or so. There are some really fancy homes being built as well as several signs for new subdivisions that I have seen in my travels around the area. A lot of these new homes are using the old style corrugated iron roofing and siding to make them ‘fit in’ to the old style houses that are the type in the village. It doesn’t work. They are just big McMansions like they build in Montana. I wonder if the economic melt down will finally stop this desecration of good farm/ranch land.

There are not a lot of horses that I have seen but the few I have seen have these fly protectors on. I was digging around in my emercency medical kit and found a fly net that somehow got in there. I have not used it yet as I am trying to get used to the bastards but I am keeping it handy for my next nap on the road side.

I rode out to check out the Walk in the Tree Tops and took a alternative route and came into this nice stand of old growth trees. You can just make out my little bike along side the road.

another area of big ones. I took a little walk in the under forest and it is really nice and quiet with huge ferns and lots of little bushes.

I knew better than to go into this damn thing but I some how talked myself into going in and taking this elevated walkway to the top of the tree ecosystem. These were very fancy sheep chutes. They were forty meters or 120 feet in the air and it was much like walking on a swinging bridge.

When I got to the top of the trees I just spent a quite a while just watching and listening. The whole forest top was almost sterile or that is the way I felt about it. I could hear one bird call but not sure if it was actually a bird or just a damn recording that they played as I did not see ANY birds or flies or anything up there. The only thing moving was people walking along the walkway. I was so disappointed. I guess from reading the eco friendly info at the start that there would be parrots and lots of other birds and maybe even little tree climbing animals. Well, there was absolutely  nothing up there but tree limbs and leaves. I was really bummed out about it and when I came back down I told the kid that sold me the tickets that I was dissaponted. He said that there wasn’t much up there unless you went up in the early morning or late evenings. Well, guess what? They are not open in the early morning or late evening. Damn…. Snookered by the damn government again. I knew better than to go through those sheep chutes….. and it was just like all the other sheep chutes. They take you money, run you though the chute and then back through the ‘gift’ shop to take the rest of your money. Damn….  A couple of kids one Japanese and the other Korean booked a tourist tour of the walkway and they said it cost them $75 each for the three hours tour. They really got fleeced in the sheep chute!!!

The only really neat thing I saw and photographed is this Red Gum tree flowers. They only flower every four years and I was lucky enough to be able to reach out far enough (and not drop my little camera) and take this photo.

OK, some lower down flowers now.

I liked this simple one the best.

I bought a kilo ‘rasher’ of bacon. I don’t ever remember seeing bacon in this shape in the US. They must have funny shaped sow bellies. It is really good bacon and while I was frying it up at the hostel everyone that came in said how wonderful it smelled. Well, then everyone naturally needed a taste. With a kilo of the stuff I had plenty of tastes to go around.

A nice quiet Christmas morning here at the hostel. Yesterday Graham made a sign up sheet for what a person wanted to contribute for the Christmas (he calls it lunch) supper. I told him that I wanted to cook some Roo meat I had bought but I could tell he wasn’t keen on that idea. About the only thing I could think to make that might be welcome to all would be to make a loaf of bread. So I went to the store and finally found dry yeast and looked all over the flour selections but they did not have any whole wheat flour. I finally went to one of the health food stores and bought a sack of whole wheat flour but it sure doesn’t look anything like my flour. I went ahead and made a loaf last night with added suntana (raisins) and a few walnuts. Jeez, they want a fortune for walnuts down here. The loaf looks pretty good as there is no such thing as a bread pan here so I used a round tin that maybe is for pizza? I sure hope it is good and everyone liked the smell last night and would like a taste this morning. One of the guys in my room is from Japan and he and his buddy have been eating a lot of rice for their meals. On the sign up sheet I see he was going to make fried rice. I asked Yushi what is the normal menu for Christmas in Japan and he said chicken and rice. I don’t think I have ever had rice for Christmas so this one will be a real change, sort of International Christmas.

There is a computer here at the hostel that anyone can use. You are supposed to write down the time spent and you will get charged for that time when you leave. I usually take my computer down to the little store Internet café and they let me hook up with the network cable, that way I can download several pages for reading later.

This being Christmas morning all the folks here at the hostel got in Graham’s little bus and went out to a nice little beach and went for a swim. The dog liked it too. I didn’t take my camera so you don’t get any photos of the group but I will have to say that some of the gals looked really good in their bikini’s. I found this nice fragile little shell, which is the only thing you get to see of the trip.

After we all came back from the beach it was time to start cooking Christmas meal. I had the ‘chief’ cook the Roo meat as he said he had done it before. The Roo I bought at the grocery was already cut in small pieces and put on a skewer stick and marinated.

The Roo read for the table.

It turned out to be quite an International feast. There was Swiss, English, Japanese, Korean, Australian, and American food. We all dove in and there wasn’t much left over. We finished up with apple pie and icream. Yumm, yumm. Nice folks to be with and a perfect day. There was even two small little pieces of Roo meat for the dog. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I hope you all had a great Christmas too.