12-26-08

Graham was telling me about the black cockatoo’s and I had the opportunity to see them in action today. They are really big black birds and I could hear this commotion long before they came by the hostel. Graham said they were like a bunch of bikers and they sure seemed that way. The only other thing I can say is that they seemed like a bunch of drunken bikers. Man, they came through wheeling in circles and yelling at the top of their lungs. There were maybe 12 of them and half would land in a treetop and the others would wheel around doing loops and circles and then they would work their way to a new treetop. They just moved through the neighborhood seemingly not eating or doing anything other than creating a disturbance.

Lisa told me about them coming in and ripping off the bottle bush in the yard. She said they came in and just destroyed the bush and left a mess like after a hurricane. I thought  the ones I saw were just loaded on some fermented berries but evidently that is just their way of operation. If people did it this way they would be in jail.

It was a nice day so I went out for a ride and ended up at the beach. It was a nice day and I talked with this kayaker for a short while. He had a sail as well as a paddle attached to the side.

He jumped in and just seemed to drift off out in the ocean without paddling. There was a guy standing with me and he said he has some sort of paddles under the thing that he uses peddles like a bike to operate. He said he can go faster than if he used a paddle. I saw them in the boat but didn’t understand what they were. I wish I could have paid more attention, as I would like to know how they work.

Beach flowers.

Some town flowers.

This being Boxing day it is a big Cricket match deal today. I sat down with a couple of cricket watchers and they tuned me into the finer points of the game. It sure seems to be a complicated game or at least that is the way they are explaining it to me. The match evidently is for five days and it is between Australia and South Africa. It is a BIG deal here as I guess they are arch rivals. The South Africans have a black guy or two on their team. Around Australia so far I have found that most folks are sure anti black. One of the first things that they ask me is what do I think about the ‘new’ president. Most think that he will be assassinated or maybe that is what they want to happen. The people here are sure against Bush, as I guess most of us are now finally. It sure took a while but Bush is finally going out in disfavor as is fitting for what he has done to our country and its reputation. Several guys said that America used to have such a great example but now that sure is not the case. A lot of folks are seeing the US economy failing as what is dragging the rest of the world down with it. I think the whole world was just waiting for something to crash it as the way it is going is sure unsustainable.

12-27-08

I woke up last night with a bad headache. This morning I took some asprin but soon threw that up and I went back to bed and have been there most of the day. Now this afternoon I am finally feeling a little better. That is good because I met a guy yesterday on a walk downtown that was riding a V-strom. It sure looked like a plastic piece of shit to me. He said that he and his wife bought two of them and were going to go riding but his wife didn’t like hers so bought a smaller something. He was riding the one he wanted to sell and I see it had a price of $11,000 on it. It had all the plastic saddle bags and top bag but no protection bars. It sure looked like it would be fatal if it ever fell down and there is a oil cooler that is right behind the front tire that looks vulnerable. We are going to go for a ride this afternoon after he gets off work. He said he workes at a motel cleaning rooms and dunnies (toilets). I’ll get a better look at it and hopefully get a photo of it.

He didn’t show up and I finally went and laid down. He called and Graham left a note saying that he was unable to make it. It has turned over cast and just spitting a little mist of rain. I understand from the locals that this are is prone to overcast skies for days/weeks at a time. They just went through 6 weeks of overcast. The temps here don’t vary much from day to night. I will be riding out of here tomorrow and going? Not sure where. I will find out when I get there.

The roads in the costal areas are wonderful curvy rolling little roads with almost no traffic. They sure remind me of the costal roads in California.

I finally got out of those heavy trees and came out into the wheat belt where it is nice and dry and I can let my eyes relax and focus out to twenty, thirty or even sixty miles. Ahh, how wonderful to be out of that green prison of leaves and trees and let my eyes rest on some brown dirt and fields.

I came back into wheat country and found these big guys resting as it is Sunday.

check out the size of that grain wagon. The fields around here are huge and rolling hills that are covered in wheat. I guess this rig collects the grain from the combine out in the far fields and brings it to an area where the trucks can be loaded. When these guys go down the road, everybody gets off and lets him go by.

This little ‘Sunshine’ combine was along side the road near the radio station. Instead of a reel that sweeps the grain into the sickle this had a little bar that grabbed a batch and pulled it in to be cut.

I liked this nice old sign that must have been given out the oil company that delivered oil.

I could see this ariel from miles away. It is an old station that broadcast the ABC to rural south west region. I talked to some kids that were there and they said it still broadcasts but nothing is in the building now. I suppose it is sent by wire or satellite from a big city.

How do you like this railroad track? I don’t think I have ever seen such a rolling ride as this track would be. The track is a lot narrower than what we have in the US. I don’t know if it would be what we call narrow gague but it is pretty close if not. I would imagine that it us used primarily for grain shipping.

As I rode across the lake I could see that there was some water in spots.

Not far away was this little rest area where they had this.

I see quite a few jars out for donations for the ‘flying doctors’.

This was an interesting field that I rode by. Finally it donned on me that the field was paved and this was a water catchment system for the little town just down the road. The lake at the bottom of this was nice and full. There are lots of catchment systems in the fields that I think are used by the ranchers for stock water but this is the first one I found that I think is for town use. In the country all roofs are guttered and the rain water is piped into huge tanks. I don’t think there is ground water in this dry western country. Down near the coast there are rivers and I saw some pipes where they evidently pipe water to towns, or industry?

I like this big country. the nicest thing is that the roads are really good shape and no traffic to speak of.

What the heck is this? I never saw one but looks like maybe a turkey?

These big fields are mostly wheat.

the day started in Denmark then to Manjimup to Bridgtown to Arthur River to Lake Grace to Lake King to Ravensthorp where I am camped in a Caravan camp in an old trailer. Nice big bed and cooking facilities as well as a TV. Just turned it on and see that the Paris Dakar race is tuning up down in Argentina and Chile. Wow, the route sounds really cool. 250 motorcycles and 100 cars and trucks and they will be going in some of the places I rode when I was there. That Atacama desert ought to eat a few machines.

I didn’t make it very far today. I got up early and left Ravensthorp and rode over to Esperance and stopped in at the hostel where I stayed before. I checked if he had a lower bunk and he said he did, so I will stay the day and maybe get to get into the museum here.