It's Summer in the Southern Hemisphere

   There seems to be some question about the seasons here in Australia.  A brief lesson: Earth tilts on its axis. When the Northern Hemisphere is tilted farthest from the sun, it is cold and the season is called winter. This means that the Southern Hemisphere is now tilted closest to the sun, it is warm and the season is called summer.   The real questions is what can one do about it? At least for those of us in the southern corner of Western Australia.

   A lot of people head for the Indian Ocean. It's close, lots of beaches and a Christmas and New Year's swim is very Australian.  This holiday season, with a few extra days off from work and tired of staring at triple digit temps (no, we don't have air-conditioning), we fled south. Very south. To the Southern Ocean where cool breezes from Antarctica are most welcome and higher elevations support green vegetation year round.  A perfect escape from a hot, dried-up interior.





   Let's head out to Wave Rock first. OK, wrong direction but it is an iconic natural phenomenon here in WA.  Temperatures are now over 110F with a hot wind coming from the interior (and the public swimming pools are near empty?!) so it is quite alright to trot quickly to the eroded wall of granite, artistically colored by algae during the rainy season.  A really cool  effect.  A brief look-see at some similarly eroded boulders --which gave them a very whimsical animal look-- and you have my sympathies for hot-footing it out of there, especially if you don't have air-conditioning in your car (we don't). 
 
   O.K. make a quick stop at the Dog Cemetery to count how many dogs died from snake bite. Also note how much money has been raised in a quirky Dog in a Ute (El Camino type car) competition proudly held in this dustbowl. Count on drinking a half gallon of water every couple of hours.


Are we there yet?   

 

  Slowly we start to climb in altitude. This is a good thing. Green is evident. A single dusty road seems to hopscotch amongst the trees giving a very interesting optical illusion. (No, don't have a picture of it- still figuring out this new digital camera I received for Christmas.  But you can see the Stirling Ranges in the background of the Grill Meister in action photo.) Kevin has hiked a number of the peaks in the Porongurup & Stirling Ranges, but on cooler days and without a wife with a gimpy right foot  accompanying him.  He has a plan for the future....

Yes, the Southern Ocean is this blue.  And the breezes just as cool. Kev is standing by a blow hole which would be spouting mist nine feet in the air if the ocean waves were stronger. Whaling was big in the Albany area, indeed a large part of why it existed, although no whaling  is done now.  An exciting feature of Torndirrup National Park is that the coastline fits like a jigsaw piece into the northern coast of Antarctica near Windmill Islands. Very rugged and beautiful this southern seaside coast is.  Crave humanity?  Keep your wallet handy. Every building in the city wanted an admission fee.  Reluctant to wear out too much leather, I skipped many of the buildings.


   Eventually, all escapes come to an end. We headed through familiar areas: Pemberton (excellent pub grub, wineries and where we were extras in a movie on our last visit) - an excellent value region very underappreciated by Perthians; Northcliffe (we spent New Year's Eve here with 16 other displaced people at a country pub) ; and Harvey - there is something right about Harvey. I like its land, feel,  products and festivals--a worthy detour anytime.  And every mile further north was one degree hotter in the oven called WA summer.