Trekkin

4 September 2022 Sunday – Christmas Island day 6

Sue takes us on a crabbing & Brown Booby tour this morning & our first stop is not that far away, just near the residence of the Christmas Island Administrator. The big house & garden all remarkably well kept compared to most of the other homes & tourist lodges. We take a precarious walk along a concreted storm water drain to try & find some red-tailed tropic bird nests on the cliff top. We see a few red-tailed tropic birds landing, however, too far away to see any nest or chicks. On the way back one of our group hears some strange bird noises coming out from under a pandanus & Sue dives under the bush to see what it is. She discovers two wedge-tail shearwaters sheltering, they are migrating vagrants & not usually found on Christmas Island.

Our next stop is again not that far down the road at the former Casino Manager’s residence. (there is no casino as the licence was cancelled, thank heavens for a bit of sense). There is a concreted rock area out on the shorefront & here we find some red-tailed tropic birds nesting & some chicks. The views along the coast are fabulous & we spend a bit of time here admiring the birds & the views. On the way out Sue explains the workings of the cat trap at the start of the track & the strategies for the feral cat eradication program. No new cats are allowed & all existing cats must be de-sexed. Apparently there are now only around 40 domesticated cats on the island. Previously there was a huge problem with feral cats roaming the settlement, not to mention the rest of the island.

Lily Beach is our morning tea location & here there are lots of nesting Red-footed Boobys in the trees. Lily Beach is a very narrow beach with surf coming in over a rocky reef. On the left side of the beach on the cliff faces there is a colony of nesting Common Noddys, they are very difficult to see as they blend in so well with the colour of the cliff. We see some feeding their chick but have to be mindful all the time to not get wet feet with the waves rolling in. At morning tea a very cheeky Christmas Island Thrush flies onto our table looking for a feed, completely unperturbed by our presence.

After morning tea we climb the stairs to the headland & walk the boardwalk around to a breeding colony of Brown Boobys, nesting on the bare soil after scraping together a few sticks to make a very poor nest. There is a fair collection of birds & nests, with the parents being very protective of their territory. In the distance at the next cove we see the old failed Casino buildings, apparently being renovated to be converted into an upmarket tourist accommodation. The boardwalk stops at a nice viewing platform & there are more Red-footed Boobys nesting in the trees.

Sue then takes us out to Grants Well to have a look at a collection of Robber Crabs grouped near a large tree. She explains their life-cycle then picks one up to show us the large smell sensory organs that are so adept at finding food, the antennae that they feel with & how the females hold their eggs under their tail. All very interesting. These Robber Crabs are very large & Sue explains the strength of the grip that they have, amazing.

On the drive back to Lily Beach for lunch we spot some Wood Sandpipers on the road feeding & stop to look & photograph. These again are rare vagrants to Christmas Island, stopping on their migration path between South-east Asia & Australia.  Our lunch is again buns with cold meats & salads & again fresh & tasty. After lunch Sonia & Annette venture down to the edge of the water to photograph the Common Noddys nesting & get caught out by a wave, they get soaked up to their waist & struggle out of the surf.

Our next stop is the nearby Ethel Beach & here Sue shows us the many hermit crabs crawling around the broken coral & stones on the beach, they are everywhere. Sue tells us about this beach being a prime spot for migrating red & blue crabs to spawn. There are also Red-footed Boobys nesting in the trees fringing the beach & more Common Noddys on the cliff faces. It is a very scenic place & amazingly there are a few very adventurous people snorkelling along the reef out the front of the beach. Back to town a little bit early & I go for a walk down to the jetty at Flying Fish Cove, taking photos of murals & buildings I find interesting on the way. There are some very talented artists here & the art work is stunning. There are a few sailing boats moored in the cove as well as the Australian Border Force ship. Dinner tonight is at the Noodle House, again a selection of Malaysian food & it is very tasty, though the squid is not as superb as it was last time, still very nice though. Another great day.

3 September 2022 Saturday – Christmas Island day 5

Chris is guiding us today in his small bus to look for the Abbotts Booby.  After another good breakfast we head off.  We stop at the National Park entrance just outside the road into the Detention Centre. We spot a nest with an adult Abbotts Booby in it as soon as we pull up, it is very high up in the tree & is a little difficult to see. We then set off into the forest down a track, the forest floor is very clean & there are thousands of red crabs around as there was a little rain overnight & lots have emerged from their burrows. We spot one red crab eating a flower that had fallen, unusual as they usually eat leaves. There are also a few large robber crabs that we spot as we get a little deeper into the jungle, one of them is an amazing blue colour. We spend a bit of time looking up for the Abbotts Booby nests & we spot a few before heading back out to the road.

A little further along the road there are trees that have lots of the Abbotts Booby nesting & there are adults flying into the nests, feeding the chicks, then flying off again. These birds are magnificent in flight with a very long wingspan & they crash into the outer branches when landing, then walk their way along the branch to the nest. They have an unusual call, very loud & distinctive.  The Abbotts Booby is very rare & is found only on Christmas Island with only around 3,000 breeding pairs. We are very privileged to see them.

Our morning tea stop at LB4 Lookout picnic area is also surrounded by trees with Abbotts Booby nests. We are surrounded by birds flying in & out & hearing the distinctive calls. We are also treated to a display of butterflies, with lots of them flying around the picnic area. The table & chairs are special as they have been made from 300Kg of recycled plastic collected from the beaches of Christmas Island. There are also several large Robber Crabs appear after smelling our morning tea, apparently their sense of smell is ten times better than a dog.

We drive next back to the Blowholes to see a Brown Booby chick that is next to the boardwalk. It is out sitting in plain sight, none of our group saw it the day before, we were obviously too engrossed with the amazing spectacle of the blowholes roaring & gushing seawater high into the air. We are now engrossed with the chick sitting on the bare rock, however, the lure of the roaring & gushing blowholes draws us back to enjoying them one more time, they are amazing.

Lunch is at Soon Tiang Kong Temple on South Point that we visited yesterday & again lunch is a fresh bread roll with meats & salad, delicious. Afterwards we stopped at the nearby old South Point Railway ruins, a collection of derelict buildings with a simple railway station. The township of South Point had around 3,000 people living in it up until 1972 when the township was bulldozed to extract the phosphate the town was sitting on. The displaced people were relocated to Poon San, half way up the hill from the Settlement.

We drove nearly all the way into the Settlement to Phosphate Hill & stopped on Quarry Road. There is a very steep & treacherous track through the forest leading to the Golf Course Lookout. This track takes us through an old Chinese cemetery where the decayed old limestone headstones have all been replaced with new stone. After the cemetery the track becomes very steep & we have to be very careful walking. The golf Course Lookout is spectacular with stunning views south over the Golf Course. The spot has lots of seabirds flying past all the time heading back to nests to feed chicks. There is a constant procession of birds & we see all of the major seabirds, some of them getting very close to us. It is extremely windy & cool up here & cloud starts to come in, with birds that are flying higher disappearing into the clouds. We watch enthralled for ages before it is time to head back. The walk back up the track is strenuous with lots of rest stops on the way back up, it is hard work. The cloud is drifting across the road when we reach the bus & when we drive back past the airport the runway is not visible because of the thick cloud.

Tereza is in the pool when I get back cooling off. Dinner tonight is at the Golden Bosun Tavern & before dinner Mark gives us an interesting & informative talk on the Christmas Island Goshawk. Dinner for us was a fish & prawn parcel with vegetables & mashed potatoes, delicious. We were very tired again tonight, another great day.

2 September 2022 Friday – Christmas Island day 4

It is Goshawk day today & Mark, our guide, takes us through the technique of luring & catching a Goshawk. Mark is a leading researcher & has specialised in the study of Goshawks on Christmas Island. The technique involves using the arm or leg of a teddy bear tied to a long length of fishing line dragged behind his ute travelling at low speed. The fake rat lures the Goshawk out of the trees & it swoops on the lure then alights in a nearby tree. The spotters in the back of the ute alert Mark & he stops, finds the Goshawk in a tree then attempts to catch it. The catching technique uses a telescopic fishing rod with a simple clothes peg style clip to put around the leg of the Goshawk. He only catches Goshawks that he has not banded previously, the ones he has previously banded he records their number & puts the bird & its location into his database.

Mark drives around the back roads of the island & we end up at a private house & doing a turn around when a goshawk is attracted to the lure & alights low down in a nearby tree. Mark tries to catch it but it is very skittish & keeps moving away. The Goshawk is a juvenile that has not been banded & Mark decides to let it be & keep going. We change over people in the back of the ute & I am sitting in the back trying to lure the Goshawk with Doug & Pam. Driving along one of the roads Mark stops as he has spotted an unusual bird on the side of the road. We all take photos & I get a few good shots, it is a Malayan Night Heron, a very rare vagrant that is not listed as visiting bird to Christmas Island & Mark is very excited.

We lure another Goshawk down to the lure but it flies high up into a tree out of reach, we take photos & the Goshawk is one that Mark has captured & banded previously. One of our group manages to take a photo of the leg band & can read part of the number, that & the colour on the other leg helps Mark identify the individual Goshawk, it was an adult bird in 2010 so he reckons that it must be at least 14 years old.  Their research also entails trying to find out life longevity of these birds. There is a giant strangler fig where we stop with lots of red crabs under the roots. We keep on trolling the lure with no more luck.  We drive on & end up at the Blowholes.

The Blowholes are a mass of very rugged limestone pinnacles with a vertical cliff into the ocean with the swells pounding directly into the shore. In places the water has worn holes through the limestone & as the swells reach the rocks it forces air & water through the holes & the water rushes into the air with a loud roaring noise. It is spectacular. The boardwalk is a very easy walk along the ocean front with some seats in various locations. At one blowhole next to the path the noise from the blowhole sounds like a primal dragon roar, it is so loud. It is difficult to leave, the sight & sound is so captivating.

We drive back with more luring along the way with no luck. Lunch is at Tai Jin House overlooking Flying Fish Cove. Again the lunches are nice, fresh salads, bread roll, cold meat & cake.  We spend a bit of time enjoying the view & exploring nearby. There is a gun emplacement left over from WWII nearby with the 6 inch naval gun still in-situ. There is a small war memorial overlooking the cove & a little further along a memorial to the 353 asylum seekers that lost their lives in a boating accident in December 2010 out the front of our accommodation at Sunset Lodge.

The slow drive the rest of the afternoon chasing more Goshawks with the rat lure was unsuccessful all the way to South Point. We stopped & had a look at the Soon Tiang Kong Taoist Temple, larger & a little more elaborate than the first temple we looked at. Mark lit some incense sticks & a candle in the hope of having more luck finding Goshawks on the way back, no such luck.

Dinner tonight was under a picnic pavilion near the Police Station in a small park. It was a Malaysian curry fest, with Lisa, her mum Wendy & Uncle Graham again helping with the preparation, cooking & serving. The food was all delicious once again then afterwards Sue had a display of hermit crabs, both terrestrial & marine plus some other small crabs that she had caught near the boat ramp in Flying Fish Cove. Another great day.

1 September 2022 Thursday – Christmas Island day 3

Another early start with breakfast again at the Golden Bosun where we chat with a few different travellers. A Nankeen Kestrel is sitting on the radio tower across the road also having breakfast. Our first stop with our guide, David James, is at the Golf Course, it looks beautiful with coconut palms lining the course & looking out over the ocean. Dave walks us around the course to the various nests of Frigate birds & red-footed boobys, there are chicks at all various stages of growth & there are lots of sea birds flying overhead. Dave explains the geology of the island, it started out as an active volcano & over 80 million years the island has sunk below & re-emerged from the ocean with coral growing on top that has been compacted to limestone, some as deep as 250 metres. The various cliff terraces indicate heights of the sea level at various times.

The Mar Chor Nui Nui Temple is the next stop on the agenda, with a walk down a track to some blowholes, with one working nicely in the gentle swells gushing air & water out. The larger blowhole next to it has some fish clinging to the rock cliff with a mouth sucker, they apparently eat the algae on the damp rock. They are hard to spot being well camouflaged & about 10 cm long, but there are few of them clinging on & wriggling around to change location. On the rugged rocks nearby we spot a number of Brown Booby nest sites, these bird nests are on the ground, often on the cliffs near the ocean.

The Hidden Garden is next & has a fresh water dam & is the most popular place in the world for Frigate birds to have a drink of freshwater, according to Dave. Apparently the frigate birds have evolved for long distance flight & have no salt glands, so they have to drink fresh water. The dam is a hive of activity with all three species of the Frigate birds found on Christmas Island coming in for a drink. They swoop low then dip their beaks in to scoop up the water, we counted one of the frigate birds coming in for five drinks. They are very graceful in flight & amazingly manoeuvrable for such a large wingspan. There is a chookpen nearby with lots of chooks roaming around, one has a nest on the ground with about 15 eggs in it.

We then drive off down a narrow dirt track in the jungle through a canopy of lush rainforest. In one place we come into a sea of fishbone ferns, an old phosphate mine site that has not been rehabilitated & the weeds have taken over. There are giant pandanus trees with very long strappy leaves. We drop down off the escarpment down a long steep scree slope with the limestone formations changing as we get to the bottom. The forest vegetation looks amazing. All too soon we break back out onto the main road & stop at the Crab Bridge, designed so that the migrating red crabs can climb up & over the road. The edges of the road have high metal strips that guide the crabs along the roadside then over the bridge.

At the Crab Bridge we walk a small bit into the jungle edging the road & spot an old railway locomotive that has been left abandoned to rot in the jungle. It is amazing how the jungle is starting to overtake it. One of our guides told us that his brother worked on repairing that locomotive as it was damaged in a fire & he used the parts from two old locomotives to build this one in Perth, then it was shipped to the island to be used hauling phosphate from the mine to the processing plant.

Our lunch is at Territory Day Park, this park is high on the cliff & has a stunning view over Flying Fish Cove, the wharf & mine buildings plus the Settlement. There are lots of Frigate birds & Bosun birds flying & gliding below & in front of us. We are very fortunate in seeing so many absolutely beautiful Golden Bosun birds, they are stunning with their golden sheen & long trailing tail streamers. The Territory Day Park is also stunning with the trees covered in epiphytes growing along the trunks & branches of the trees. The picnic lunch is delicious again with nice cold meats & fresh salads & we talk with a few more of our fellow birders.

After lunch we drive down to the Dales, passing the Secure Detention Centre along the way, this place is a lot more serious than the Asylum Seeker lodgings, with barbed wire & very high fences. It houses prisoners that are being processed for deportation from Australia after committing serious crimes.

The Dales is a series of seven freshwater streams along the coast flowing into the ocean. It is crab central, with lots of red, blue & robber crabs, including lots of baby crabs in the freshwater streams. We take the walking track to Hughes Dale Waterfall, a gentle boardwalk through the stunning rainforest with lots & lots of steps & near the end some very steep steps. It is fairly humid under the canopy & we break out a sweat. The fresh water in the creeks has flowed through many layers of limestone & as it drops over the waterfall some of the calcium stays behind, hardens back to stone & forms a tufa flow down the creek bed. It looks just as if someone had poured cement along the creek bed. Dave tells us that this tufa is a living organism. One of our group has a shower under the waterfall. The walk out is mostly downhill & we see even more crabs of all sizes & variety, our eyes are becoming accustomed to picking them out amongst the tree roots & rocks lining the creek.

On the way back to town we spot a goshawk sitting on a mining sign.  We stop for some photos, it is not banded & it flies off as some of the group get a little close to it. Dinner tonight is at the Tracks Tavern & Dave gives us a very interesting talk on the formation of Christmas Island from 80 million years ago until the present. The island is growing slightly taller each year & is moving north slowly. The dinner was a delicious roast with a choice of chicken, pork or beef with lots of sides. A few had fish or vegetarian. We again had a nice chat with Lisa (the organiser of Christmas Island Bird’n’Nature Week) & her mum & Graham who are both helping out with breakfasts & lunches. We are very weary after the big day with lots of walking & are soon in bed, another great day.

31 August 2022 Wednesday – Christmas Island day 2

Up at 6am for a 7am start to breakfast at the nearby Golden Bosun Tavern. There are frigate birds & bosun birds flying overhead & out the front of our unit all the time, the frigate birds are so graceful in flight. The breakfast is a help-yourself light breakfast with toast, cereal, fruit & juices, then sitting with our fellow travellers & chatting, a nice start to the day. After breakfast it is time for a group photo shoot next to the red throated thong bird, a caricature of a frigate bird made from discarded thongs.  The lurking patrol boat was closer to shore this morning & a lot easier to see.

Our first stop is the Mar Chor Nui Nui Taoist Temple overlooking the clifftops, relocated from Waterfall Bay when the casino was built on Christmas Island. An Earth Temple was built next to the Mar Chor Nui Nui Temple to atone for the relocation. The temple is simple with small statues of the goddess & her helpers either side. Perched on the rugged limestone cliff overlooking the sea are a few brown boobys (birds) & they do not seem to be too disturbed by our presence.

Our next stop is at the Grotto, a small open cave in the limestone that the sea washes into, it looks pretty, however, must be wild on a day of rough seas. Down near the water edge is a red crab, the first we have seen so everyone crowds in to take a photo. I bang my head on a stalactite, watching my feet rather than my head. The path in through the rainforest is also a nice walk, the jungle is very rugged with big jumbles of broken limestone & lush vegetation.

Our bus driver then takes us for a trip around the settlement to show us the house, shops & other buildings. The detention centre for illegal immigrants is a sad shamble of portable mobile houses cobbled together. Across a sports oval from the detention centre is a big new sports centre with swimming pool, very nice. The phosphate mining is still in operation & the large buildings & conveyor belts are still in use. When we stop the bus parks next to a large bush with a Christmas Island Imperial Pigeon sitting on top, a bird that is endemic to the island. The school is large & looks new. We then call into the George Pham Centre where Christina Ricci, a PhD student is studying the brown booby & Christina gave us an interesting talk & how she counts the nests.

Our next stop is the Pink House, a research & rescue centre for endemic lizards that are facing extinction. We have a picnic lunch to start to start with fresh buns, cold meats & salad, delicious. While having lunch we spot some robber crabs, they are really big with large menacing claws.  We admire some white spider lilies & some colourful butterflies flitting around.  The Lizard Lounge is where the scientific research takes place with a breeding program for threatened blue tailed skinks & also geckos endemic to Christmas Island. A young scientist explains the problems of why the lizards are facing extinction, primarily due to a feral introduced snake that feeds on skinks. She shows us through the breeding programs with the opportunity for Tereza to feed the baby skinks.

The orphan bird feeding program is our next stop & here there is a collection of orphaned or injured brown booby birds, some of them are such cute little balls of white fluffy feathers. Hanging around the site are a few juvenile frigate birds looking for a free feed as they have graduated from the program & are free to fly wild. As each bird is fed they explain how old they are & any issues they may have. The chicks all eagerly await the fish, or even chase the handler around looking for a feed. It is such an amazing opportunity to get up so close to these magnificent birds, we thoroughly enjoy the experience.

Back to Sunset for a rest where I sit out on the verandah & have a cheeky little Christmas Island Thrush come up to me. There are Frigate birds & Bosun birds continually flying past & overhead, this is a very special place. Dinner tonight is at the Christmas Island Golf Club, established in 1955, we have a Corona beer before a BBQ dinner with salad is served out on the top deck with lots of chatting with fellow travellers. There is a plague of moths flying around all over the place, landing on tables, plates, glasses & in people’s hair, they were very pesky. Another great day.

30 August 2022 Tuesday – Perth to Christmas Island

Up at 7am for breakfast & pack again for our flight to Christmas Island. The shuttle bus from the motel departs at 9.30am & takes us all the way to the T1 International Terminal. Thankfully check-in is open as we are a little early & we only wait for a few people before we present our Passports & get our boarding passes. Upstairs we were the only people bothering the Passport control & similarly we were the only people at the security check. I got patted down for some strange reason, there are weird places that are highlighted on me, like the top of my head (maybe the bald patch had a metallic shine).

I had a video meeting that started at 11am local Perth time so we found some comfortable seats & I settled in.  Tereza got some coffee & lunch before the plane started to board a bit after midday.  The meeting was nearly done, so I excused myself & packed the laptop & boarded. We were delayed leaving as the plane was still refuelling then after that there were still some flight checks that needed to occur so we were around 20 minutes late taking off. The flight to Christmas Island was smooth, the plane had no frills to it, so it was good that Tereza had the foresight & got us lunch.  The plane wi-fi worked, however, the movies that were the only things available on it did not. We both had a little snooze & after 3 & a bit hours we started to descend with a little bit of movement as we came down through the clouds. We were sitting near the back of the plane & it took ages to get off as all the locals had lots of hand luggage & some young children. Warm humidity hit us as we got off the plane, 26 degrees.  We hardly got off the plane & we already got into trouble, there was this great sign on the wall “Christmas Island Airport” Tereza thought that it was great to take a photo with, an official came across & told us that photo taking was forbidden. Hints of our experiences in some parts of post-communist Europe here.

Our luggage was some of the first pieces on the luggage carousel, so we were out & through immigration & greeted by the Christmas Island Bird Week hosts. We received a welcome pack with shirt, hat, other goodies & importantly, our schedule for the week. Our bus was right there & we all loaded on ready for the trip to our hotel. Surprisingly the trip was a lot further than we expected, around 9km from the airport winding through thick lush rainforest with lots of ferns. There are lots of wild roosters & chooks with little chickens roaming around the island.

The bus delivered us to our accommodation for the week, the Sunset Hotel, with views looking out over the ocean from our room. In the distance we could see some patrol boats that circle around the island looking out for illegal fishermen & boat people. We settled in, then headed off for dinner at the noodle House around 400 metres away. Here we met all the others in the bird group plus our guides for the week, they all seem very nice people (amazingly they all seem to be around our vintage). We watched the sunset from the deck & the food was simply delicious with plenty to go around. On the walk back to our hotel a group of birders were gathered together & we stopped to see why. A Christmas Island Hawk-Owl was in the palm tree & flitting to the frangipani. This is such a beautiful bird, so we stopped and we looked at it & took a few photos. The night was balmy, the walk back was pleasant & helped settle down dinner & finished off another great day.

29 August 2022 Monday – Perth

Today is a day of leisure, we spend most of the day sitting & chatting with Denise after Craig goes to work. We put the washing on & hang it out then collect after lunch. Denise looks after us with a lovely homemade fruit cake for morning tea, very nice pumpkin pie & left over from last night chocolate desert. When Craig gets home from work they very kindly drive us out to the airport hotel. It has been a real pleasure staying with them the last few days, meeting up with Jessica & Dane & having a lot of jovial time with Melanie, playing with their puppy dog, Poppy & Smoky the rabbit.

We book into the airport motel, Sanno Marracoonda & after settling in we head to the restaurant for dinner. After staying the last few days in the 7 star Hotel (with Denise & Craig) this place doesn’t even rate adequate.  Another very pleasant day.

28 August 2022 Sunday – Perth

Denise cooked us a delicious pancake & fruit salad breakfast this morning & we sat & chatted for ages.  Craig & I mounted a new weather station for Denise on the back fence then we had a leisurely morning tea.  Denise then drove us back out to Jarrahdale & the Millbrook Winery. The beautiful Serpentine Forest, full of grass trees & tall eucalypts adjoins the Old Chestnut Lane as we drive down to the newly established Millbrook Winery. The building is big, new, stone & two storey overlooking a large dam with a small island hosting a statue of Dionysius, the Greek god of wine.  The large tasting room has a very high ceiling, a long wooden bar & a roaring open fire & we fortunately find a vacant table near the fire. We order a large tasting platter full of delicious cheeses, olives, meat, bread & pickled vegetables. Plus some tasting glasses. We spend an enjoyable afternoon savouring the delicious cheeses, eating food, chatting & tasting some delicious wines. We purchase some of the best wines for our dinner tonight.

We get back home late & prepare for heading out again for dinner tonight at Virasat Indian Restaurant in Shoalwater. Craig’s old friend & his wife join us for dinner & we share a variety of Indian food, all very tasty & filling, with some bottles of Millbrook red to wash it all down. Then back home to enjoy a decadent chocolate dessert that Denise had prepared earlier, absolutely delicious. We all had a nice relaxing long chatted before Bill & Evelyn left.  After a very enjoyable day it was time for us to go to bed & it didn’t take any rocking before we were fast asleep. Another great day.

27 August 2022 Saturday – Perth

Up at 6.00am & no breakfast as we are off to the Jarrahdale Parkrun, Denise is an avid Parkrunner & is out running every Saturday morning with Craig typically volunteering. Jarrahdale is around half an hour drive & is a lovely small rural community out in the bush. The running track is nicely laid out & well maintained wending through the park. We meet the fellow Parkrun people, they all seem very nice & just before we start we get a shower of rain.

The fast runners disappear into the distance & Tereza & I follow all the runners along the trail in the company of Craig, who is the official tail walker, to ensure that all runners are safe. The trail is very pleasant winding through the bush near a running creek, there are lots of wattle out in flower & lots of other flowering native plants. We are joined by more rain for a while & soon the fastest runners come back the other way to start the second loop of the track. There is a large collection of grass trees amongst the Jarrah trees & other eucalypts, looking a treat in the rain. We pass the remnants of the sawmilling era with the old manager residence being still intact & very prominent.

We do two laps of the circuit & finish the Parkrun under the trunk of an amazing tree that leans in an arch over the track. It is now time for breakfast & we head up the road to the Jarrahdale Bakery & have a delicious breakfast & coffee with the fellow Parkrun people. We get an email from Parkrun telling us that we have both finished first in our age category. (the only ones in our age category)

Back to Craig & Denise’s place for a freshen up then we head off to Fremantle to the Western Australian Maritime Museum, full of the history & beautiful boats, such as the iconic Australia II, winner of the America’s Cup & some of the old sailing boats that so many started out sailing in the Swan River. The history of immigration through the port of Fremantle was also very interesting & Tereza caught up with a couple of immigrants outside the museum.

Handily, right next to the Maritime Museum is the Gage Roads Brewery & we popped in there for a tasting paddle & a snack, again, very nice. The brewery is located in an old cargo shed & was absolutely packed, it is very popular. We sat outside next to the Swan River & watched the boats as they motored up & down the river. Back home & Denise cooked some delicious pizza for dinner & we had their daughter Jess & her husband join us. It was lovely catching up as we had not seen Jess for such a long time and we also celebrated her 27^th birthday. Another great day.

26 August 2022 Friday – Rottnest Island to Perth

A more leisurely start this morning with breakfast at Lontara, again in the sunshine at the front of the restaurant. Another couple wanted to sit in front of us at the low tables in the full sun, however, the waiter advised against this as the quokkas jump up onto the low tables & help themselves to your breakfast. Afterwards we head back to our room & pack our bags then checkout, leaving our bags in the reception area, very handy as our ferry departs at 3.30pm.

Again we use the wonderful facility of the hop-on hop-off bus & travel to the track leading up to the Oliver Hill gun emplacements, another relic of World War II. The track leads off through the sand dunes inland & takes about 20 minutes to reach the first of the gun emplacements. The guns were left in-situ after the war as it was too expensive to remove them. They have been restored & made safe & the guns & ammunition storage bunkers & tunnels are now a tourist attraction. During weekends & school holiday periods a small train carries tourists along the supply railway tracks to Oliver Hill from the Settlement. Unfortunately, walking is our only option. The view from the gun emplacements are great & we spend a bit of time exploring them before taking the long walk back through the dunes to the road so we can catch the bus. As we get near the road we see the bus stop & pick up the small group walking in front of us. We are too far away & resign ourselves to waiting the 45 minutes till the next bus. We are only waiting around 10 minutes before another bus comes along, it is a supplementary bus as there is such a large demand for the bus service, we are in luck, the bus is nearly empty.

We ride the bus around the rest of the island & only stop at West End to drop off & pick up a few more tourists before getting back to the Settlement. It is well past lunch time & we decide to try the Bakery today, so select some pies for lunch & sit outside to enjoy them. As we are eating we notice that the seagulls & crows that are hanging around looking to steal food have disappeared. We soon see a woman walking around with a tethered Peregrine Falcon on her arm, with people stopping her to talk as she walked around. After a while she changed birds to a Barn Owl, the owl kept the seagulls away but we noticed the crows started to make their way back. She then went & got out a Wedge Tail Eagle & this bird moved the crows off again. We had finished lunch & went & chatted with her. The Rottnest Island Authority had hired her & the birds of prey as a 3 day trial on Friday, Saturday & Sunday to see if this was an effective way of reducing the nuisance of the seagulls & crows from stealing food from people as they were eating. We think it was a great success.

Next we went to the Pilot Boat House on the beachfront of Thomson Bay, the boat house has a whaling boat on display plus a montage of stories around the walls of some of the history of the crews and the work they performed in guiding ships into Fremantle in all types of weather. Very interesting and informative.

All too soon it was time to collect our luggage from the Samphire Resort & walk onto the wharf to wait for the Rottnest Express to take us back to Perth. The first half of the journey back was a bit rocky as the wind direction was pushing the waves side-on to the ferry. After we pass the line of anchored cargo ships waiting to berth the wave action decreased & the ride was a lot smoother. We admire some of the big houses on the waterfront & are amazed at seeing so very many beautiful big sailing boats, motor boats & yachts.  We stopped at the Gage Roads Wharf in Fremantle to disembark around half the passengers before journeying slowly up the Swan River for another hour to Barrack Square Jetty. The views were great as we motored slowly up the river, in places the water was very shallow & the tide was rushing out. A few sailing boats from some of the different sailing clubs were out racing or training, a great sight.

Our bags were waiting at the gangplank as we disembarked, then we walked across the adjacent wharves to the nearby train station for the trip to Warnbro. The concession tickets were $2.20 each & the train carriage was nearly empty for the hour train trip. My cousin Craig & his wife Denise were waiting at the Warnbro station to drive us home, we are spending the next few days catching up with them.  Their home is a lovely big house & our room is very beautiful. Denise gives us a delicious pumpkin pie for dinner (we might just move in permanently) & we sit chatting for hours before bedtime. Another great day.