Perth

It's been a bit of time since my last post - sorry about that, but touring the vast open spaces of Western Australia (and the time required for that) has left little time for hanging out in internet cafes!

I knew that WA was vast and empty, but I didn't really appreciate just how vast and how empty. Indeed, I haven't even seen the particuarly vast and empty bits yet (that's coming up!), though yesterday's tour involved more than 800 km of travel (thankfully I wasn't doing the driving; that's also coming up . . .). I learned that you could fit both islands of New Zealand, the two main islands of Japan, Great Britain, Ireland and Texas into WA, probably with space left over. And all that space has only about 2 million people in it, about 1.8 million of whom live in the greater Perth area. It also has more flies than one can possibly count. I'm sure I didn't read about the flies in the guidebooks (though I suppose I can understand why they might not mention them). Especially out in the bush, they're everywhere, and the moment you stop, say to take a picture, they're all over your face. They're even in the middle of the city! Oh well, part of the experience of travelling I suppose. (I had hopes for improvement in Melbourne until I met someone yesterday who lives in the state of Victoria and he told me they have flies too; I'm sure there weren't flies there last time . . . .).

Enough about that. The sun is shining, today's temperature was very pleasant, things are good. So, what have I been up to? The aforementioned long-distance touring the last two days has taken me to a couple of interesting geological formations. Wave Rock which, to state the obvious, is a rock that looks like a wave. (Picture at the top. Haven't quite figured out how to manipulate pictures - just having them at all is an accomplishment!)

I also saw the Pinnacles which are a really remarkable set of limestone pillars (pictures also at the top). I don't know if the pictures really do them justice. They're quite impressive, and interstingly, apparently no one seems to know how they came about.

Tomorrow I'm off start a week touring the Southwest. Will try to communicate more frequently (and without internet cafe time restraints!). Will also try to figure out how to manipulate pictures - anyone have any suggestions?

Bye for now!

Jennifer