Italiensk for begyndere

or ... "Italian for beginners". What a perfect film! I highly recommend it to everyone.

Trip to Kiama

A quick blog post before bed. Had another great day today. Xiaopeng, Maria and I took the train down to Kiama and spent the day walking around on the volcanic rocks, watching the blow-hole and trying to find our way to Bombo beach (which we did in the end).

Trying to keep up

Good morning from Canberra. I was sitting on the flight yesterday from Melbourne thinking that travelling non-stop is fun! This week I've been to Hobart (where we arrived in the wind and rain with plenty of snow on the mountains), Melbourne (where we had a great Greek dinner), Canberra (where I'm staying on the 14th floor of a posh hotel - I just went to put something in the wardrobe and discovered that it was a second bathroom) and will be flying back to Sydney again tonight.

Next month seems just as crazy. I have about a week in Parkes, another week in Narrabri, 3 or 4 days in Albury and should fit in a week in Melbourne. I was meant to go to Puerto Rico and California, but there just doesn't seem to be enough days in the month. I'm jealous of Marta at the moment - she's about to go on a trip around Mongolia!

I've attached another movie of the train going through the Nullarbor. The movie in a previous post was just on the edge of the nullarbor - this movie is right in the middle!

Always behind

I'm always behind with this blog. I've just had an exciting cross-wind landing in Hobart (with my ears about the explode because I have a cold). Hobart looks amazing (unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera and so I won't get any photos) ... lots of snow on the mountains and a beautiful looking harbour. I'll be working at the University tomorrow before getting on another flight to Melbourne. The day after I'll be travelling to Canberra and then back to Sydney. I'm certainly gaining lots of frequent flyer points!

The train ride across Australia seems ages ago. Since then I've seen Les Misérables which has made me want to read the book (anyone recommend it?) and watched lots of "young" Catholics amble about in Sydney. I have a new travel rule: never fly out from an airport on the same day that World Youth Day ends. It was very busy!

I thought that I'd just put up some more photos (and a movie- taken while I was still lying in bed) of my train trip ... I'm off to find some sea food now.

Always behind

I'm a Western Australian Astronomer!

Have a look at this link!

Crossing Australia by train!

What a trip! I'm exhausted after 65 hours in a train (we arrived about 1 minute early into Sydney) and then going straight to work. I have no clue how to describe the journey in words, but will just put up a few photographs today and write some text around them in the next few days. It was wonderful!

Photo 1: my carriage on the Indian Pacific at the town of Cook (population 4) - this is where the stowaway was thrown off the train!

Photo 2: travelling through the beautiful hills outside of Perth ... seeing some beautiful waterfalls.

Photo 3: the incredibly green farming areas after the hills of Perth (also the phenomenal green colour returned - for a while - after leaving Adelaide.

Photo 4: starting to get into the outback!

Photo 5: a camel walking through the Nullarbor plain

Photo 6: a dingo in the Nullarbor. I also spotted kangaroos, wedge-tailed eagles and smaller birds of prey.

Photo 7: a rainbow over the Nullarbor!

Photo 8: looking down at the train from a mine in Broken Hill.

Here are the facts! The journey is 4352km and takes 65 hours. The main stations are Perth, Kalgoorlie, Adelaide, Broken Hill and Sydney. The highlight by far must be crossing the Nullarbor plain. We stopped at Cook which is 1100 kilometers from Adelaide and 1500km from Perth - it's a long way from anywhere! On the train, I had an entire sleeping cabin to myself. Throughout the day, I was in my little cabin with a table or ambled around to get a drink in the restaurant car or in the lounge. During the evening, I pulled a lever and the entire room changed - a bed popped out of the wall, a sink suddenly appeared .... It was fun!

I guess the only disappointment on the entire journey was Kalgoorlie. We arrived late at night and I was wondering whether to go out into the mining city. I had pictured old men with huge long beards walking into tough looking bars with a pick-axe and shovel over each shoulder. I also assumed that the whole place would be covered in dust and I'd be immediately mugged as I got off the train. In fact, it was the complete opposite. I got off the train and found myself in an immaculate town where all the shops were shut. The "Goldfields Repertory Club" were doing adaption of Terry Pratchet's "Mort" and the local shop was selling "Fresh Sushi" and pumpkin soup! Anyway, I did find a rough looking pub open with terrible music blaring out of it. I went in for a beer and felt terribly out of place with lots of teenagers cavorting around and playing pool. I must be getting old!

Anyway, the town of Cook was much more fun. A stow-away was discovered on board the train somewhere after Kalgoorlie and was unceremoniously kicked off the train at Cook! That's not a good place to be left! There were three signs in Cook. One said "No Food or Fuel for the next 862km". Another said "The gift shop is now behind the gaols" and the third (in the gift shop) noted "Any arsehole that steals from this camp will be gut shot + left for the eagles to feed on" (next to a cute little "Nellie Koala $15").

Oh whoops ... I wasn't go to write much tonight ... I'd better get to bed.

Ready for the train

After breakfast I'll be heading to East Perth railway station. Here is the schedule:

Depart Perth 11.55am (Sun)
Arrive Kalgoorlie 10.20pm (Sun)
Depart Kalgoorlie 1.40am (Mon)
Arrive Adelaide 7.20am (Tue)
Depart Adelaide 10am (Tue)
Arrive Broken Hill 4.30pm (Tue)
Depart Broken Hill 6.30pm (Tue)
Arrive Sydney 10.30am (Wed)

A final day in Perth

Just some photographs for today. I spent the day walking around the botanic garden which has some really stunning views of the city. The long, thin photo is a panorama that can be enlarged by clicking on it. The highlight of my day (by far) was spotting two tawny frog-mouths sleeping in a tree (see photo)!

Only in Sydney

"Lifesavers say it is the first time they have experienced a shark in the baths."

What an adventure!

I've just had an amazing day. The conference finished yesterday and so I decided to take the day off and go to Rottnest island. The weather was stormy and so I was looking forward to a slightly rough boat ride across the open ocean! I got to the ferry terminal and booked a ticket. The lady at the counter asked me if I "was mad" and whether I had eaten lots of "sea-sickness pills". In fact, I'd just had a reasonably big breakfast with Rob at the hotel. Anyway, the first hour of the journey is just down the river to Fremantle. I got chatting with a student from Melbourne who was very friendly and told me that she was going to spend a few weeks in Kalgoorlie (seems a strange place to visit for a holiday). She got off at Fremantle and I transfered to the "ocean" going boat. I expected it to be big. It wasn't. In fact it seemed a bit like something you might play with in the bath. The few of us on board were told that we could only sit downstairs (and inside), had to remain sitting and to hold on! They then handed around sea-sickness bags ("Do you think you'll need one or two, sir?") and off we went.

Well, I think that the boat was trying to be a submarine. We climbed to the top of a wave (which seemed terrifyingly high from where I was sitting) and then plunged down leaving our stomachs a long way behind. It was fun! Apart from thinking that the boat would fall apart at any moment, I really did enjoy myself. It was like being on a roller-coaster for about 40 minutes (and I wasn't sick)!

Rottnest island is stunning. The weather cleared up (although there were short rain showers throughout the day) and I decided to walk around the island. I ended up walking about 20km (which is about half way). The scenery is amazing. Lots of empty sandy beaches with turquoise water. Beautiful inland salt lakes covered in various birds. In fact, I saw pied oyster catchers, cormorants, ospreys, shell ducks, pelicans, kestrels, terns and heaps more that I've probably forgotten now. I found a quokka! They seem to hide in the winter and so I actually thought that I wouldn't manage to spot one. The one I found was sitting under a bush and let me come up and stroke it!

After finishing my walk (which included amazing views of rainbows out at sea, partially submerged ship wrecks, wonderful light houses and heaps more) I got back to the main village, had lunch (at 3pm), saw the Rottnest museum (very interesting) and then caught the ferry back. Again it was rough!

I've now just had a big goat curry and am planning on trying to warm up and dry out my clothes before bed!

A relaxing day in Perth

Just a few photographs from today. The highlights were seeing the "Da Vinci Machines Exhibition" and also walking for about 10km down the river.

Trip to Joondalup

I went to Joondalup today. I had spotted the name near the end of one of the Perth train lines and thought that it sounded like an interesting place to go. My first thoughts were of great disappointment. You get off the train into a huge shopping centre with the largest car park that I've ever seen (even bigger than those in Texas!). I then walked down the main highway for ages before finding that the path simply ended. I turned around and walked back feeling a bit stupid. Back in the shopping centre I found a bookshop with a road map of Perth and discovered a huge lake within walking distance from the station so I set off again in a different direction. By the way, I now discover that "Joondalup is named after Lake Joondalup, which is derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'place of whiteness or glistening'." The lake is huge. There were an amazing number of water birds flying/swimming around including a few black swans. Even more impressive was the number of grass trees that seemed to be everywhere.

Earlier in the day, I had been at the Aquarium of Western Australia. This also was impressive - particularly their display of marine creatures that will kill you! Faith will be glad to hear that a bite from the sea-snake we went swimming with in Shark Bay "causes general aching and weakness, paralysis and muscular spasm that can lead to respiratory and cardiac failure". However, the "best" bit was watching a video of a cone shell (which really does look just like a normal sea-shell that you might pick up on the beach) killing and then engulfing a fish!

Oh, and just to keep trying to catch up with this blog I attach a photograph taken a few days ago at my house after I had given Anne a 'cello lesson and Jeff gave me a guitar lesson, Christine was teaching Jonathan to play backgammon and Xiaopeng and Kate were chatting in Chinese!

Catching up

It's a bit sad when my only online skype contact happens to be the "Skype Test Call". Anyway, it gives me a chance to catch up on my blog (it's raining heavily outside). My talk went well today (in front of about 60 PhD students) and I returned back to Perth by ferry. The 1 hour ride was stunning. Huge thunderclouds were all around and the colours of the sunset reflecting from the water were beautiful.

Back to the past ... a few weeks ago I went hiking with Christine and Heike (both exchange students at ANU). As they happened to be an hour late arriving (women!), I found the time to photograph a wonderful fig tree and watch the spit bridge go up and down to let the boats under.

The Spit-Manly walk really is good! We got a little wet as the tide was a little further in than expected. Christine and Heike also decided to complete the walk in record time. They had agreed to meet their friends later in the City and intended to do the entire walk in 2 hours (a bit different to last time with Faith and Mel where it took about 2 hours to pass the first Banksia tree that we came to)!

Probably the most exciting part of the journey was when I was returning by ferry from Manly (oh, did I mention that Marta and I spotted a penguin in Manly a week or so ago?). The water was incredibly rough and we were all told to sit down and hold on to something. It was great fun sitting outside and wondering whether the boat was about to turn upside down (it didn't).