Travelling Devo: April 2007

Shell Beach, WA

Shell beach is formed from billions of tiny white 'coquina bivalve' sea shells. Only two such beaches exist in the world. It stretches for approximately sixty kilometers and is between seven and ten meters deep. The shells are mined under special license nowadays for production of calcium for poultry feed and exotic mulch for gardens and planters. In the early years of Denham, blocks of the solidified shell deposits were mined and used as materials in building constructions.

Stromatolites at Shark Bay, WA

Learn about Stromatolites!

Aboriginal Art in Kakadu NP, NT

Sunrise in Denmark, WA

Waterfall Way near Dorrigo, NSW

Local Fauna

A Sky of Bats in Woolgoolga, NSW

Stingray at Dunsborough, WA

Rock Wallaby at Granite Gorge, QLD

Emu, NSW

Parrots in Lamington NP, QLD

Mount Kosciuszko

Summit of Mount Kosciuszko (Australia's highest mountain)

Mount Kosciuszko Trees

Margaret River, Western Australia

Cape Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, WA

Water Wheel

Karri Forest

Out to Sea

To celebrate my NSERC scholarship I decided to do some boggy boarding out at Woolamai surf beach on Phillip Island. Despite trying to exercise good common-sense (which, frankly, I don't always try to exercise) I managed to get myself carried out to sea by a nasty rift. I DO NOT recommended finding yourself 400m from land with the realization that you have ZERO change of swimming back to shore. I tried swimming parallel to shore in order to move out of the rift, but much to my dismay I didn't have the strength to do it. Realizing I wasn’t going to get out of this mess by myself, my thoughts turned to how cool it would be when a helicopter came to my rescue. This calmed me down enough to bring my focus to the irony of “death from celebration”. It is at this point that "HELP!" started screaming forth from my mouth. Fortunately, a few surfers on the shore realized I was in trouble and started to come to my aid. Rejuvenated by the realization I wasn't going to die and thanks to a favourable change in current, I eventually managed to make my own was back to shore with no real damage apart from a bruised ego.