ND Trip #3

I liked this ND trip the best.  I didn't dislike the others, but this one had less driving, less sleep deprivation, and less information flying over my head.  By now the ND kids and Martin and Jane are all more comfortable with each other and that helped the group dynamic.  

The trip was once again Friday to Sunday.  This means I have missed my single Friday class (Fluid dynamics) 3 times, but I think I can recover.

We left at 0740 and unlike 2 weeks ago I was not the last one on the bus.  You should be proud.  

We started with a tour of a mine.  We stayed on the bus and drove around while a mining engineer explained what happened at each part.  They mined for mineral sands...I didn't know what that was either.  Apparently it is in make-up and some random stuff.  What was really interesting is that based on the land ownership system, the mine had rights to this huge plot of land.  That same land was also used by farmers for grazing.

  So when the mine was ready to dig a hole, they just told the farmers and the farmers had to figure out where to move the cows to.  

The mining process was quite interesting becuase it was much different than the mines we saw earlier in the semester.  The other mine was just a huge hole and they pulled dirt out of the hole and built a huge hill next to the hole.  Here, they would put the top soil in a pile and then dig a big hole.The mineral sands would be sifted and otherwise removed from the dirt and the dirt from the new hole went to fill a previous hole.  The top soil was put back on and the native plants were replanted.  After an area was mined, it looked the same.

Also at the mine was an old farmhouse with plants growing out of the gutters.  I thought it was funny.

We stopped and made ham

 sandwiches for lunch where Elizabeth convinced me to try an avocado sandwich (shown in the picture).  After my recent discovery of guacamole, I attempted the avocado sandwich, but I can't say I was impressed.  Maybe it needed more than only avacado.  

We drove into Margaret River in the late afternoon.  The town was a typical tourist place.  A lot of little shops, a few cafes, a few tavs, and a chocolate shop I heard about, but never quite found.  Disappointing I know.  

We only had about 30 minutes in the town and then we met with the planning engineer of Margaret River.  I don't know if it was because we were in Australia, or specifically Margaret River, or just because I think individual rights are important; but I was surprised how much say the town and the townspeople had on what developers could and could not do.  You have this huge country and so much space, but Margaret River didn't want certain things in their town.  In one area Martin claimed that the builders weren't allowed to put 4 story buildings in and instead had to settle for 2 story because there was such opposition.  It was not becauses it would impede the view of the people living behind them...they didn't have any neighbors.  The people claimed that the reason was that they didn't want to alter the natural landscape.  I fail to understand this because there is so much landscape.  Based on what I saw over spring break they could build oceanfront houses for a long time here and not run out of space.  But either the Australian people really like nature, or they are jealous/ selfish and don't want anyone else to have such a nice place to vacation.

Enough rambling.  We grabbed take-away dinner at a local bar and grill and ate it at the beach.  We had pre-ordered the dinner (a good idea when you have 33 people eating) and it wasn't quite done when we arrived at the restaurant.  We waited inside and watched this guy (actually a contender on Australian Idol a few months ago) set up his equipment to play guitar and sing.  He was in the middle of his first song when the restaurant finished preparing our food.  So the guy finishes his first song and all 33 of us leave the restaurant.   He had been talking to Martin and Jane before he started to play, so he knew we had to leave, but it was still pretty darn funny.  We came back later that night and listened for a little while.  He played some John Mellencamp to humor us Americans.  

After chocolate cake and coffee at the motel, we spent some more time in Margaret River, visiting a local cafe and bar.  The cafe was interesting because we watched John Walsh (a ND kid who is always hungry and always full of energy) argue with the cafe owner about the US government.  The cafe owner was convinced that 9/11/2001 was planned by George W. Bush and John was trying to convince him that that was ridiculous.  The interesting thing is that John, who is majoring in both English and engineering atNotre Dame... a smart, smart kid with all of the facts and reason on his side, could not convince this Australian store owner that the United States did not bomb our own buildings.  It was an interesting insight into how the US can be viewed by other countries.

Back to the motel and sleep.

Saturday = canoeing!  We were in 3,4, or 5 person canoes, which was a new experience for me.  We would drift along, listen to a crocodile Dundee dude talk about the Aboriginal (native) people.  Which was interesting, because the aboriginal people were as far from crocodile Dundee as you could imagine.  We stopped at a cave along the way and had some bush tucker (bush = bush and tucker = food; bush tucker = bush food) for lunch then scooted through a tunnel in a cave.  It put my ROTC low-crawl training to the test.  

The river was beautiful, and if you actually read all of my ranting you will remember that the town has a lot to say about where people can build their houses.  Well they weren't allowed to build along the river.  There were two houses, one of which was the first house in the area (built in late 1800s) and the other was owned by the president of UWA (his vacation house).  

One particular canoe was having trouble with steering, so when the crocodile Dundee tour guide offered a bottle of wine to whichever canoe won a race at the end, he allowed them to get a head start.  Poor idea.  The rest of the canoes take off...And my canoe is ploughing along...when I look up, and see the steering-challenged canoe straight ahead about 1 meter.  I hear "I hate you, John Walsh" (John was in the front of our canoe) and watch as the boat we rammed turned upside down, dumping the three passengers into the (very cold) river.  There were good sports and the whole thing ended up pretty funny.  If you haven't already guessed, neither of our canoes finished first.  

Afterwards we visited a cave that was 1 million years old.  Pretty cool.  One of those things I could write a lot about, but not really capture for you.  It was a cave, it was beautiful, it was quiet, it was dark...  The museum inside did list a "hall of fame" of caves, which included Mammoth Cave in KY, which I got excited about.

We came back for drinks, appetizers, and dinner.  Since this was out last night together and we are getting a (useless towards engineering) credit for taking these trips, we had a discussion afterwards.  It got kind of long, but it was interesting to see what I had learned and how I viewed Australia and the United States differently (that might be a different blog entry).

After the talk we had chocolate cake and coffee and retired early...so we could wake at 0600 to go surfing!

In my opinion, if you have the ability to 1) walk in a straight line and 2) not drown, you will find surfing amazing.  I have found that both time I have attempted to surf, I have been able to completely focus on trying to swim, stand up, and keep my balance.  School, life plans, home...they all go away.  I'm not all that good at surfing, but I don't think that is the point.  (Don't think that each time I lot balance and fell off my board I wasn't super jealous of the person who was cruising, but I could deal with it).

At the right time, the surf instructor told us to try one more wave, then head in.  Except the wind died and the waves petered out for a while.  Finallly we finished and changed into dry clothes.  Then we board the bus.  Then we get to church at 1030 for 1000 mass.  Not all 33 of us were going to mass, but around 20 did.  We stroll in during the offertory and I spot a pew midway up that 3 of us could slide into.  Mistake: that was the pew the people who were taking up the offertory had been sitting in.  They came back, gave this confused look, then found somewhere else to sit.  

After mass, there was coffee and biscuits (Australian for cookies).  An older man sat down and I went with my typical question of, "Do you live in Margaret River?"  Its a quality question because it allows the person to have the option of giving a short answer which means they don't actually want to take to a random person, but it also allows him/her to elaborate on why he/she lives here and how long or where he/she is from and where he/she is traveling to.  

He choose to elaborate.  He said he did live in Margaret River and was dairy farmer.  He then said that he had lived in Margaret River his entire life, 87 years (this was especially impressive considering Margaret River was only settled 100 years ago). I told him that my grandpa was a dairy farmer and didn't quite understand why I wanted to go so far away.  I think the Australian farmer understood Grandpa's mentality perfectly.

After spending as much time eating cookies and drinking coffee as we had spent in actual church, we headed to Vasse Felix.  Apparently the rainfall comes at just the right time and the the seasons are just right that Margaret River is an ideal place to grow grapes.   We hung out at this beautiful vineyard long enough to taste some wine, have a light lunch, visit the visitor shop, and walk outside a little bit. 

 

The guide for the wine tasting was excellent.  He was really good at making the wines sound amazing...talking about full flavors and plum, cherry, sweet tastes and bursts of flavor.  At first I think I was drinking the wine, rather than tasting it, and had no idea what he was talking about.  Once I slowed down it was a lot better, but I still lack the class to be a wine snob.

We spent some time at the Aboriginal Warden Center.  The tour guide did a great job, but 80% of what the lady presented I had seen before.  One new and exciting piece of information was concerning the very useful piece of paper tree bark I am holding in the picture.   Can you gues what it is?

Afterwards, we were ready to get back on the bus so we could get back to Tommy (our dorm) for homework and sleep.

But Martin and Jane wanted to take us to this beach.  To which we though, "there is a beach in Perth.  Why do we need to go to this one?"  But we were wrong.  The beach was do much better than just a beach.  There were these huge rocks that was being pounded by huge waves.  It was great to just sit on the rock and ponder and feel the two forces, water and rock, put up such a battle, that both were competing so well in.  Then there I was.  Small, insignificant.  

It was a good reminder to tackle life.  I can't compete in that tough battle between water and rock.  I would get pummeled in a minute.  But I can watch such beauty and feel love and just experience all there is to take on.  And what kept coming to mind was the poem "High Flight."  I don't have the whole thing memorized, but the lines "done a hundred things you have not dreamed of" and "put out my hand and touched the face of God" kept running through my head.  It was nice and I realized how glad I am that I am here.  Don't get me wrong, at this point I have accepted the fact I might be homesick my entire life, whereever  I am or however  long I am there, but it's a small price to pay.

We got back on the bus, stopped quickly for pizza, said good-bye to Jane and Martin for the last time, and returned to Tommy.

This week I have a history research paper to work on.  The plan is to take my laptop to the beach and read and compile information.  We will see how that goes.  I figure I need to put in some significant blocks of time into the research anyway...why not be at the beach at the same time.  

Chelsea pizza Tuesday and Saturday.  Shopping Wednesday.  Football game Sunday morning

My finals schedule includes tests on November 8,15, and 21.  At 0050 on November 22 I am leaving Perth for Cairns (location of the Great Barrier Reef).

Have a great day.

Brittney