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.

pobrecita nicolita

How did we spend our last 'free' Australian weekend? Not out to lunch with a colleague nor off to Ned Kelly country for a day, as planned. Instead, I was tied to the toilet and the bed battling a virus. yucky. Damo fed me soup, gatorade and made me take pills. I'm still not well but not feverous anymore. Oh well, we have a week of time off to travel so we might have to modify our trip to go west into Kelly country.

Birds Pt 2 - Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise Wedding

As Nico mentioned in the previous post we hit the Jerrihlinga wildlife reserve on the weekend where we met the talking birds included in this video.



Their repertoire also included "How's it going?" and a cat's meow...funny stuff.

our surrogate child, Basil

goodness gracious, and we thought wombats and huntman spiders were cute! look at our new, but alas temporary, pet: baby orphaned hopping mouse Basil. We found him yesterday night huddled, alone and a bit battered on a busy footpath in St. Kilda (part of the Melbourne), near a parking lot. We took him home to our hotel after some debate and then off to Jerrihlinga, a wildlife sanctuary, today. He just wanted to be held, cuddled and fed--he had no fear of us giant humans. We didn't do very well at the feeding part although we rigged up a q-tip nipple to feed him watered down milk until he could get to his new home and a proper diet of special rodent milk. We learned that he's a rodent, not a marsupial, and he and his relatives arrived in Australia around 5 million years ago.

Perth at Night

MMMmmm pretty.

Introducing Our New Pet

Samina has a cat, Wray and Colleen have cats and a dog, Miko and Shan have a dog, etc, etc. Frankly, we've had it up to here with the never ending stories and updates about their four legged friends. So, if you can't beat'em, join'em...we will no longer be ostracized for not being part of this exclusive club.

How did we join? Well, we are the proud owner of Bo Spangles. We just bought him a brand new plastic home and he seems happy hanging upside down on his lid.

I'll describe him for you. He has eight legs, two chelicera ending in two large fangs, his body is about 3/4 of an inch long and his legs span about 3 inches across his body. He has eight eyes in two rows of four. He's cute but not very cuddly and eats crickets.

By the way, we know he's a he, he has big bulbous palps making him a male huntsman. Here he is in his new home cleaning his fangs before an early evening meal on a cricket:

Wombat Hunting

The Birds, part I

What’s camping without your friends? Every mealtime, our neighbours arrived:




Harriet the Seagull, Crimson Rosella, Magpie (aka Computer Bird), Honeyeater, and hey, what's a picnic without ants . . . bull ants, that is.

Wilsons Promontory

Our last long weekend was spent escaping the city to camp in beautiful and pristine Wilsons Promontory, the most southernly point of mainland Australia. Several trails and back country campsites were closed due to bush fires and we wimped out of the 22 k hike to the lighthouse on the tip of the Prom but, goodness gracious, there were enough spectacular hikes and sights near the Tidal River campsite.

The wind was biting and it rained yet fires were not allowed--in January this part of the park was consumed by fire. The campsite was saved but much of the nearby forest and bushland was burnt. However, the fire created its own beauty. It exposed the granite peaks of Mount Oberon and this spring brought regeneration: little fragile wildflowers, spiky cones growing out of grass tufts which only appear after fire, and leaves covering the blackened eucalypt trunks like moss.


If you hold your mouse over the pictures, we've tagged them all with labels.

Duality of Human Nature

Last post we showed you the Good Sammy. This post shows the Evil Sammy. And so, with these two posts, I intend to show the classic nature of human behaviour. That is, we all exhibit Christlike goodness yet, at the same time, are capable of the greatest evils.

Sammy was there to persecute Jesus:

A new look at the Zupruder Film reveals the truth about JFK:


Sammy collaborated with Vader to take Obi Wan down,
bringing tears to millions of children:


Sammy claims she respects all wildlife, yet this image
shows her bloodthirsty side on a Japanese Whaling boat

Apparently her appetite for ultimate evil was not
satiated by taking down Obi Wan...she now
turns her attention to forwarding Sauron's cause
by slaying the noble Boromir:

The Good Sammy

We saw this sign in Perth and a wave of sentimental thoughts overwhelmed us cause we do, certainly, miss the Good Sammy!

Then came Samina's rantlike comment on the Oprah post. Sammy, like all humans, exhibits behaviour that specifically identifies the classic duality of human nature (the Good Side that we miss and love versus the Evil side that we don't.) What evil side? Read the post!

Damo, in search of justice and cold hard vengence, shall search for a photo opportunity that represents Sammy's other side and post the results.

Helmets Are Important

Helmets are very important for your personal safety and Australians take this very seriously, more so than anywhere else in the world.

Helmets are used for a plethora of activities that, while not particularly dangerous, could cause mental trauma.

Elsewhere in the world, such activities would be untertaken in a carefree manner with a complete disregard for personal safety. Not so Australia, where law requires you to wear a helmet for activities as diverse as climbing a tower to view a city (you could fall and hit your head,) standing under said tower (something could fall from the tower and hit you in the head,) riding a large megafauna emu type bird statue in the park (the bird, being made of stone, could suddenly shatter, a piece of which could hit you in the head,) or even while walking beneath a cliff (a hoon, aussie for hooligan, above you could toss rocks off the cliff that could hit you in the head.)

Elsewhere in the world, governments are complacent and willing to let their citizens encounter these dangers without any regard for their safety.

Not so Australia, where blatant disregard of the laws will land you here:

he's a housewife anyway

when i got home from work this afternoon, damo said, "Oprah had a really sad show on today." it's too bad he's picked up the stereotypical afternoon tv habit but not the vacuuming, dusting and laundry habit. can't complain too much though because there's usually a good supper (curry) ready to eat when i get home from work and the dishes are often done.

in other news, some of my year 9 boys were complete jerks today but afterwards i went out on yard duty in the year 7 area and felt a lot better hanging out with my kids (note the possessive). as one teacher remarked today, "They grow on you, don't they, those year 7s? Like fungus." I just stroll from group to group and even if I don't teach the kids, they all say hi and want to chat for a bit. Back in Canada, I won't even know 1/2 the kids I pass in the hall. I'm going to miss these guys, despite all the heartache and annoyances from the start of the year. misty eyes.