Author: Chris Riley
A short walk to Quinninup Falls along the Cape to Cape track
I picked up my friend, Kaye, on my way to drop Paul and grandson Josh off for today’s walk on the Cape to Cape walking track. They were doing more than 20 kms today, which is more than Kaye and I care to walk. Never-the-less, we couldn’t let them have all the fun. After they set off towards the south on the track from Moses Rock North car park, Kaye and I set off for a shorter walk towards the north.
The broadwater wetlands
We live in the suburb of Broadwater, so named because of the broad expanse of wetlands at the rear of the suburb. The suburb is approximately 1 km deep from the centre of the Broadwater part of the wetlands to the coast. Our unit is in the middle of the complex directly under the B of Broadwater on Bussell Highway on the map below. That means we’re approximately 500 metres walk from the bay, and approximately 500 metres from the wetlands.
Continue readingMirrors in the garden
When a friend first saw our little unit for the first time she tentatively asked if we would find the closeness of the fences in the rear courtyard claustrophobic. Living on a large property bordering the beach I can certainly understand how this would be the case for her, but coming from a small suburban block I had no doubt the confines of a courtyard garden wouldn’t bother us. However, her comment still prompted investigation into successfully creating an illusion of space.
Lag in IPad keyboard
I’ve been having difficulties with my I-pad again. The touch screen types ok for about a sentence, then it starts to lag, a little at first, but after a few sentences it’ll lag behind for a full sentence. Because of the lag all of the automatic punctuation and corrections don’t happen, so typing has become very frustrating, and has required a mountain of corrections.
The cape to cape walk
This 123 kilometre walking track runs from the Cape Naturalist lighthouse, approximately 13 kms from Dunsborough, to the Cape Leuwin lighthouse close to Augusta. It’s a beautiful track with a mix of easy, moderate, and challenging sections. Some of the easy sections are on good, wheelchair friendly, paved tracks. Some of the challenging sections are on lengthy stretches of beach with what I’ve heard described as ’soupy sand’. Many years ago Paul and I did a day walk along one of the sections. It was so long ago that I don’t remember which section we did. However I do remember that it included a short section of that ’soupy sand’, an experience I won’t be repeating any time soon. It was only about a kilometre in length, but geez, it was tough going.
Our grandson, Josh, came down here with a friend last autumn to make a start on the track.
Reclaiming my life
Do you ever feel like technology takes more from your life than it gives? Computer games, News on line, and googling everything and anything as little queries enter your head, My computer usage could easily be termed an addiction, and I know I could be a lot healthier in both mind and body if I made better use of my time. Some weeks my daily average screen time exceeds four hours, and if i’m to be honest with myself, more than half of that time is just mindless time wasting.
Whale Spotting
December until April is feeding time for whales in Antartica, however, when breeding time comes they must leave for warmer waters. Their young, born with only a thin coating of blubber, wouldn’t survive the first few months of their lives in the freezing waters, so the parents travel up towards the Equator to give birth. The adult whales don’t feed again until they return to their feeding grounds in November, losing an estimated 25 – 50% of their body weight between their last meal in April, and their next meal seven to eight months later.
By June their babies are born, and they can be seen heading back down the coastline of Australia. Whilst the mums don’t feed at all for approximately seven months, they frequently stop close to shore to rest, and to feed their calves who need to develop some insulating blubber before they reach the krill rich, icy waters of Antartica.
By the time they’re passing the bays close to where we live, the adults are feeding their young and resting as much as possible before they leave the protected waters close to Australia’s shoreline and head into the open waters which will take them to Antartica. Whale watching is now a big industry with whale watching cruises taking thousands of people out each season to get an up close sighting of these fascinating ocean mammals. Being a local though, we know the bays where, on a good day, its possible to see dozens of whales only a few metres off shore, with no boat required. From September to November we often head up to the bays between Dunsborough and Cape Naturalist for a chance encounter of seeing some up really close. Some days we’re lucky, some days we’re not.
Sunday we put on on our walking boots, packed a picnic lunch and headed towards the Cape. First stop was Point Picquet, which is a consistently good spot for close whale encounters. It’s so good in fact, that there’s usually volunteers there from daylight to dusk recording all the whale sightings. The volunteer on duty when we arrived advised us we’d just missed a Blue going by, and that three Blues had been past that morning. Damn – we never seem to be there at the right time to see a Blue. He showed us a photo – it was HUGE! We waited around for a few minutes. A few humpbacks were out towards the horizon, to far away though to get a good view.
Continue readingOur Lifestyle – our village
You may remember that recently we sold our little cottage by the sea, and moved up the road a bit, into one of those Lifestyle Village thingies. We’re still close to the sea, but about 100 metres further away than we were before. Mr Tilly still gets his morning walk on the beach almost every day.
I’ve given you a glimpse of the unit we purchased the lease for life on, but I haven’t shown you around the village yet. So get yourself a cuppa, get comfy, and I’ll show you around.
Life of Riley - on whatever 