New Years Day 2013 marked the start of the
last of our 3 months as caretakers at the Eyre Bird Observatory , a lovely
remote location on the Nullabor Plain a kilometer from the beach in the south
of Western Australia. Janet was heading
home to Albany 1200 km west, after a great visit for Christmas, so we
celebrated with a golf game on the beach.
New Years Golf
on the beach
at Eyre
The month included a watching a war between
collared sparrowhawks over water rights at the birdbath when the temperature
rose to 47.6 degrees (a reminder of things to come in our warming future with
possibly increasing drought??), a
birding trip to Twilight Cove where the Nullabor escarpment joined the coast
(see photo 2) and a frequent entertainment by the Observatory's most
charismatic inhabitants, the Major Mitchell Cockatoos. Caretaking in January was a busy time, with
hosting two week-long courses of 8 to 10 people, as well as house-keeping,
maintenance, caring for other guests and birding. It was a great privilege to
be able to spend three months in such a beautiful place, and we thank the
Committee who run the Observatory for Birdlife Australia for making our stay
possible.
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| Sparrowhawk Water Rights Battle |
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| Impressive Limestone Escarpment at Twilight Cove |
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| Life is Fun for Some |
We left Eyre Feb 7th in the capable hands
of Pete and Meg McCarthy, and headed home by a longer scenic route. Bob finished playing the Nullabor Links golf
course – the world’s longest with holes at roadhouses across the Nullabor
finishing in Ceduna. (He had started in
October in Kalgoorie during our trip to Eyre and ended up with 111 for the 18
rather interesting holes). We continued east via St Ive Station
(north of Gawler Ranges), Port Augusta, Mambray Creek NP, Crystal Brook, Loxton
(on the SA Murray River), Swan Hill, Echuca, Shepparton, Mt Buffulo, Bogong
High Plains, Omeo, Orbost, Cape Conran NP, Ben Boyd NP, Eden, Merimbula, a very
wet round of golf at Tura Beach, Narooma (camped at Brou Lake and birdwatching
boat trip to Montague Island), Batemans Bay, Bathurst, Mudgee, Scone,
Girraween NP, arriving home Feb 25th after a 5369 km trip.
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| Kalgoorlie Golf Course - Nullabor Links holes not all like this |
The rest of the year we have mostly stayed
closer to home, enjoying Bribie Island, trying to put more focus on just being,
and on appreciating life including friendships, and less focus on the need to be
constantly doing. On the health side, we
have both been lucky to have no major problems, though Bob had cataracts
removed from both eyes in April – and Joyce had both her eyes done a couple of
years earlier. We feel this is
increasingly simple and common operation is worthwhile doing as early as
possible because it definitely increases one’s quality of life.
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| Stained Glass Hanging of Noisy Pitta |
Bob has focused on golf, with 2 or 3 games
a week social and competition, and being treasurer of Dad’s Army, the social group he plays with.
His involvement with the Community Arts
Centre on Bribie which he had supported in many roles for over 3 years, chiefly
as treasurer and IT expert, ended mid-year after a breakdown in
communication with the committee.
This
change in direction has definitely had a silver lining, as he is enjoying the
extra time and energy just to be, and to explore other options.
He turned 70 in August, and celebrated with
his first ever sighting of a noisy pitta, an uncommon rainforest bird which had
eluded him all his life.
He made the
stained glass pitta in the photo in celebration of the occasion.
Joyce has continued her musical interests
enjoying playing with a recorder group in Maleny, and with the Bribie Island
Orchestra, and singing with an informal group.
She greatly enjoyed a workshop on making glass beads early in the year,
but has not managed to resume her glass fusing and slumping interest yet. Instead her artistic energies have focused on
printmaking, which has led to this year’s Christmas card. She is also trying to focus more on
appreciating life, through regular explorations of the bushland on Bribie, and
on meditating weekly with a Christian Meditation group.
Joyce's glass beads by the front window (on left).
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| Joyce's Christmas Cards |
Both of us are active in the Bribie BUG –
Bicycle User Group (https://sites.google.com/site/bribiebug), and have
introduced several of the members to geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com), with rides to
find most of the caches near Bribie. We
hope to create some cycling-friendly geocaching trails on the island next
year. As well as regular Wednesday and
Saturday rides, the group has had several weekends away, camping, cycling and
kayaking, something we hope to continue in 2014.
BribieBUG Rides and Stalls
Joyce visited Janet in Albany for two weeks
at the end of July helping Janet tidy up and pack in Albany (400km S of Perth)
and find a place to live in Geraldton (400km N of Perth) where she started a
new job working on a project to help protect rare and endangered plants in this
area known for its wildflowers.
Our main trip away was in late August to
the Northern Territory to explore areas we had missed on previous trips. We enjoyed a 6-day kayak tour down the
Katherine and Daly Rivers (http://geckocanoeing.com.au),
which both let us explore some fascinating and remote country, and to enjoy
great kayaking in clear water with lots of interesting, but not too challenging
rapids.
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| Kayaks and Guide's Canoe on Daly River |
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| Bob navigating a Small Rapid |
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We also went on a 5-day tour by
4WD through Kakadu National Park to the Cobourg Peninsula
(http://www.venturenorth.com.au/cobourg-tours.html), again to explore a remote
area we hadn’t been able to reach on our own since Arnhem Land is an indigenous area requiring permits to enter.
| Sunset from Camp |
Tour Group |
Rock Art Guide |
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| Lotus Lily Flower |
There was also great birding in the wetland swamps of Kakadu National Park and in Arnhem Land. And of course there were also many crocodiles, freshwater and saltwater, so you had to be watchful.
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| Jacana (a lily walker) |
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| Jabiru (a stork) |
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| Lurking Crocodile |
We plan to finish 2013 in separate
directions. Joyce is going to the
Woodford Folk Festival as a setup volunteer and then an attendee, while Bob is
flying west to Geraldton to visit Janet and to spend the Christmas week with
her in the Exmouth and Shark Bay areas.
Bob’s mother Kath Matskows, now 92, is
living reasonably contentedly in a home in Toogoolawah, with Bob’s sister Noela
helping out when needed. Craig is still
in Boston working with VMWare and living with his partner, Karen.
The message on this year’s card – Dare to
be Vulnerable - is a reminder to try to explore beyond our self-set limits that
give us a false sense of security. We
are trying to and see our civilization and its future realistically instead of
through the rose-coloured glasses that most people, especially our politicians,
use to hide from the reality of the inability of humanity to comprehend and
solve the problems facing our increasingly complex world. This level of honesty is not pessimistic – it
just opens the window to truly accepting the complexity and fragility of our
beautiful world, and to being able to live with appreciation of all that we
have.
We wish you all a
beautiful and exciting 2014.
