Not dead, just bad at blogs

Slacker indeed. Someone was joking around at dinner last night about how they too pretended they could keep up a blog, and as far as the internet knew, they were still in Thailand. Which kind of reminded me. Interweb's stupid expensive up here, so this'll be Ben's Bullet-Riddled Australia:

last last monday - I did Rottnest Island. No cars, just rent a bike and a snorkel set. Class operation. Great snorkeling, but I didn't sneak down into the closed off Fish Hook bay, which is apparently awesome. If you're in ever in Perth - which you should be at some point - do Rotto, and do Fish Hook Bay. Little Salmon, and Little Parakeet bay were aces too. Met a salesperson at the EMS/REI equivalent out here that got married in Little Parakeet. That's how nice it is.

last last tues/weds/thurs - did some museums in Freo, the maritime museum was decent (had the Australia II and the boat of the guy that triple-circumnavigated the globe, which were great) the motor museum was also decent (the private collection of some mining dude), but the shipwreck museum was awesome - and free! the huge chunk of the Batavia alone was worth the price of admission.

last last friday - king's park in perth was great, i think i like it more than SF's golden gate park. met a dude - Terry - riding a motorcycle with his pet dingo - Brandy - sitting on the gas tank. Cool guy, cool dog. Talked to the caretaker of the belltower on the barrack street jetty, had some entertaining stories about travel. fyi, don't take your kids to a turkish bath without doing some research.

last saturday - After a few days of my fruitless attempts at trying to mooch time on a sailboat, Katharine - a college friend of my brother's living in Perth - managed to sneak me into the weekly yacht races from the Royal (Royal! Dress whites required. I looked sharp, if i do say so myself.) Perth Yacht Club, and it was rather excellent. Mark (the captain)'s boat was a 24 footer, and I hope I get a chance to spend more time on similar boats.

monday - first day of the tour with Red Earth Safari's. Hit the Pinnacles in Nambung NP at sunset, which was wild.

tuesday - kalbarri NP, nature's window, z-bend gorge. also good times

wednesday - i have the short term memory of a chipmunk

thursday - i'm not being fair to chipmunks. but i did sleep at a sheep station, and it was great fun, and touristy as it sounds. great marketing, that , convince people to pay to sleep in seasonal worker accomo. still, fun. i found the weirdest thing about being in the southern hemisphere is that the stars rotate the wrong way. and if you're setting up a sunset shot, the sun cuts right to left as it drops here. stupid sun.

friday - snorkling in coral bay. i came this close (hands 4m apart) to a reef shark. Rather fun. had a minor scene over complain about the planned, non-included dinner being a bit steep, but glad there was - met a pair of rather cool san franciscans - Jon and Jen - while eating elsewhere. Future Ben, when you read this, get in touch with them. The paper's in your wallet. The wallet is in your pants. I also emailed you their info. Or should have.

saturday - today - did the scuba here in exmouth. with Jon, no less. Grand time, still wondering what i missed ditching the tour's trip to tourquoise bay, and whatever else they did.


so, like everyone asks for, this was less words and more pictures.


ha!

hopefully i'll write on something insightful at some point (don't hold your breath), but until then, eat bullets. picturewise, the uploading scene's a little screwy, and one of my cards full of pictures is... ill. but not dead yet. kind of developed a hidden partition. we'll see when i get back to perth. until then, i'll be picturelessly yours. just use your imagination.