70 Meter High Fire Lookouts in Giant Tingle Tree Forrests

I have the weirdest phobia, a fear of heights. Whenever I get on an open cliff face, a high balcony with only a rail to separate me from a fall, or similar heights where there is a risk that I could jump off, I get a giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach and have to grip onto the railing for dear life. It's odd, too, because it's also almost a pleasing feeling, kind of like being 'high', if that makes any sense.

In any photo of me in such places, you will always see me gripping onto something (usually with both hands) with either a giddy look or a look of concentration. It's a fact.

Yet, despite this phobia, I've managed to abseil and sky dive. I get the wickedest high when I do things like this and usually laugh like a maniac all the way down. It's a wonderful feeling.

Unfortunately, it's also stopped from doing things I would have liked to have done. Namely, in the south part of Western Australia, there are still giant Tingle Trees left that reach heights of almost 100 meters. They're the second or third largest trees in the world - simply enormous. Until just recently these giants were used as fire lookouts. These are now open to the public - anyone can climb up to the fire lookout on the bicentennial tree (the highest fire lookout of them all) at a whopping 70 meters up. Nicole and I made it to the first platform at 25 meters. At that height I found myself gripping the railing and quite unwilling to go any higher.

Give me a harness, a parachute, a bungee cord, something, anything mechanical, as a support system and, dammit, I would have made it!

For shame.

Cinco de Mayo

I just got back from a very nice weekend in the city (i.e. Melbourne) with a few other exchange teachers. Americans, Canadians, and British celebrated the Mexican independence with maragitas and salsa. Then we went for yum cha (dim sum) the next day and out to the comedy festival that night. Melbourne, and possibly all of Australia, does not have spectacular sushi (this is the collective opinion of the Canadians) but they do have good Chinese food. Damo thinks it has to do with WWII--Japan was hated for many years after Kokoda (and the larger threat of their almost invasion of Australia) . Kokoda is like Gallipolli of WWI for the Aussies. One word just sums up so much tragedy.

We were at Flinders station when one footy game was over and another was soon to begin and everywhere you looked were fans decked out in their teams colours. The MCG holds something like 100 000 people so you can just imagine the crowds. It was so exciting! Next week will be my first AFL match: Freemantle vs Melbourne.

Always wash your hands after being out in public. This little tidbit of information comes courtesy of the little drunk 13 year old who puked on the train, left her soiled tissues (given to her by some nice person) on the seat and then spit up again by the door, wiping her mouth on the handrails. Who does that? Well, drunk little girls obviously. Too gross. How many people unknowingly touched that the rest of the night?

Speedos...Time for Some Booze!

There's only one way to respond to Nicole's post with photos of men-folk sporting overly tight speedos. With booze...and lots of it! It's the only way to drown the images that have been forever etched into my brain. I mean it was bad enough being there, but having it reinforced with photographic evidence. Arg. It's enough to make a grown straight man cry.

So...ya, booze. Um...that's not booze, but it is the wonderful fruit (different from the 'fruits' in Nicole's post) called 'grape' that becomes the second best booze - wine. We hit Penola on January 20th. It's the gateway to the Cooawarra wine region renowned for its Cabernet Sauvignon and to a lesser extent its Shiraz. Since I had driven the whole way from Sydney down along the Great Ocean Road (over 3000 KM in total) Nicole had the pleasure of chauffering me around to all the cellar doors! We only hit about 8 or so but I was nicely buzzed by the end of it - and the price was right - FREE!

Now, that's better, clearly booze. This was taken after a wonderful dinner later that evening. We met Cathy & Mark at a pub who invited us over for Kangaroo steaks and wine. Never knowing when enough is enough as Wray and Marsh, and, well, just about anyone in the Calgary gang, can attest to, by the time this photo was taken we had made our way onto scotch. The walk home back to our cabin was quite enjoyable. Nico the babysitter looking after a completely innebriated & stumbling damo. Kangaroo steaks are yummy, I don't know why there was that big outcry when it was found that Aussie made pet food had kangaroo meat in it. Boohoo. There's over a hundred million of the things hopping all over the place. It's not like you're eating a panda or something.

And, to clearly wash the images of the previous post from everyone's mind, here's one for the boys.

Oh...hehe...let's try again here...someone not from the 1970's Russian womens' hockey team.

Ahhh...much better...someone that would make even the overly discerning Fearman proud! The horrors of the previous post are now clearly washed from memory and we can all sleep easy once again. Your welcome.

speedos on display

(photos carefully selected by Nico)

This is the action we saw this past weekend at Lorne for the surf rescue part of Rescue 06, the world lifesaving championships hosted this year by Geelong and area. As expected, Australia and New Zealand cleaned up in this portion!

These photos are from the flag race finals where one person is eliminated each round.



This is the ready position in the final round--between a Kiwi and a Japanese. The competitors have to jump up and turn around.









Then they race across the sand . . .






. . . and dive for the plastic stick thing. This photo is from the previous round where Australia got eliminated but it just shows you how brutal it can be at the end! The Kiwi triumphed and the Japanese second place finisher broke into tears (overcome by getting second place or losing first place, we're not sure).




Here we have the boys ready for the swim competition--the Team Canada competitor is the one with the solid red cap. There were lots of speedos on display but that's clearly not a fashion faux pas when dealing with world champion lifeguards.





And finally, the champion taplin relay (swim, board, kayak, race) team: the Kiwis perform a haka, derived from a traditional Maori celebration (or war) dance. This is the dance where they stick out their tongue.

catching a wave or two

Surfing is SO much fun! We had our first lesson down in South Gippsland with the other exchange teachers. It started off with some on-the-sand practice of jumping up on our imaginary boards.





Here we are ready to hit the surf with our foam G-boards--these are study and somewhat soft, just for beginners like us. They were really slippery and a bit unstable though. (Or maybe that was just my lack of balance?) Later, Damo tried out our host's $1000 plus fibreglass board and said it was much better, like surfing on a tub. There we are, running eagerly to hit the waves! We're the little people on the right.


No action shots of us catching a wave but here's an action shot of Damo waiting to catch a wave! Quite exciting. He's a bit braver and, by the time our lesson was done, had made it out further than me to catch the good waves--good because you get to ride them for much longer. Even when we couldn't get up to standing position or squatting on the board, it was just exhilerating to speed along atop the water.