Latest report from the Nomads

I am writing this from Exmouth. Today we are having a bit of a chill-out day, because the next few days we are going to be covering a bit of territory. I thought I would write a synopsis of our travels so far.

We are having a wonderful trip. The weather has treated us very well. Coming across the Nullarbor it was relatively mild, with a bit of rain around. From Norseman, we went down to Esperance for a week, then to Albany for a week. Thought Albany was a great spot. When I say that to W. Australians, they say it is too cold. Mind you it has a latitude about the same as Nowra! From Albany we visited Denmark, Walpole, etc seeing some of the big forests of karri and tingle, and climbed Bluff Knoll in the magnificent Stirling Ranges.

I have a cousin in Mandurah, and we went up and spent a week and a half with them, during which time we took the bus out to Kalgoorlie, and came back on the Prospector train. Bernie did the mine tour at the Mining Hall of Fame, which was fabulous. I checked out all the exhibits above ground. Lots of beautiful old pubs in Kalgoorlie, all prospering by the look of things.

After Mandurah, we went back down to the south-west, Margaret River, up and down the coast from Cape to Cape (there is a great 135km walk there - not that we did it), out to Manjimup, Pemberton, etc. - more forests of jarrah, tuart, marri.

Then up to Perth. (I'm afraid this is a bit of a Readers Digest version - there's just so much to see). Did some of the tourist things - beautiful Kings Park of course. Not wildflower time, but still lots of fabulous banksias flowering; the Perth mint; exploring the beaches and the city; out to Rottnest - a beautiful place, but bathed in sadness at the thought of all those aboriginal men who were imprisoned there over a period of 66 years. From Perth, up to New Norcia, Dongara, Geraldton, and then to wonderful Kalbarri - one of the highlights of the trip so far for Bernie. Beautiful town at the mouth of the Murchison River, and then the wonderful gorges of the Murchison R in Kalbarri NP. From there to Monkey Mia, and the dolphins. I was impressed the way the DEC (Dept. of Envir. and Conserv.) officers supervise the feeding - no touching or interfering with the dolphins, all very well managed and only small amounts of appropriate food in the morning so that they still have to obtain their own food in the wild.

Then Carnarvon - excellent .growers markets on Sat. morning. Evidently Carnarvon supplies 70% of WA's fruit/veg. This week, Coral Bay and Exmouth. The Ningaloo Reef is very close to land at Coral Bay, so we could go in from the beach and snorkel over the coral. Also did a couple of trips out to the reef to see sea turtles and dugongs. A big highlight of this area is swimming with whale sharks, which are majestic creatures. The cost of these trips is a bit beyond our budget, however. The boats go to the outer reef, and they use spotter planes to find the whale sharks.

Our plans from here - Onslow, Karratha, Port Hedland, then down to Tom Price and Karajini NP (can't wait), back to Port Hedland, then Eighty Mile Beach, Broome, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Bungle Bungles, Kununurra and then on into the NT and Katherine. Then we will truly have been "around Australia". To date on this trip we have travelled about eleven thousand kilometres in the car (that does not include the Kalgoorlie trip as we used public transport). We still have at least that much to go!

Petrol, Diesel, Fuel…………Lets say Oil

It’s a substance that everyone seems to be addicted to. All the signs are there. We all need our fix at least once a week. We feel better when we have it and we get grumpy when it’s taken away from us. This is what is happening now, fuel prices are rising and people are getting cranky as their supply, their ‘fix’ is costing too much. There are calls at the moment, lead by the federal opposition, for a reduction in the fuel excise or getting rid of the GST on fuel (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/26/2255420.htm).

I as much as anyone see and feel the pain that the high fuel prices bring. I earn a below average wage and I have a home loan. This makes me one of the least well off people around. Fuel prices don’t just cost you at the bowser they also lead into the increase in food and other basic necessities. Min and I (although I have to say Min more than me) also run a car.

Given all of the things above some might be surprised to hear me say that reducing the fuel excise or getting rid of the GST on fuel is the stupidest idea that I’ve heard in a while. I would say that the money could be better spent, but I would disagree with the fuel excise reduction.

Why would he say this you ask (even if you haven’t asked I’m going to tell you)? Well the government isn’t at fault for the higher prices. We probably in the middle of peak oil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil) and we are now seeing the effects of an oil supply that cannot keep up with the hugely increasing demand. The developing world is now starting to use oil in a similar fashion to the most developed countries. I’m going to say it now even thought it’s in the news every day and it blamed for so many things. China, China China China. The oil demand of China is looking to be double that of the US by 2030 (http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/05/22/wall_street_journal_peak_oil/). It’s a text book case of supply and demand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand). If supply stays the same and demand increases, the price will go up. The Australian government has no control over the world oil market and no real way to influence the price of crude in Australia. The general trend will see a continuing increase in the price of fuel this is unavoidable. The government could decrease the fuel excise and the price will rise. So they decrease the fuel excise again, surprise surprise the price of fuel will rise again. By the end of next year the price of fuel would still be at $1.70 a litre even though the fuel excise would be 0.

A much better way of moving forward is to use the current fuel excise moneys to move Australia away from its dependence on Crude oil. We need to stage an intervention. Invest more in public transport. Move public transport away from petrol/Diesel to Gas and Electricity. Promote Biofuels such as Syngas from Agricultural byproducts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syngas), Biodiesel from the Fisher Tropsch Process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process) and Ethanol/Butanol from Cellulose digestion. None of these ideas could completely replace oil and none of them are really ready for the market yet. In a few years with some investment from the government these products could completely move Australia away from using Crude Oil. We could then develop these alternatives into large export markets. The World population has a huge appetite for Energy. That is all these products are.

There is another benefit of the products that I’ve suggested. The first is that none of them use food crops. All of them can use Products that are currently thrown away from current Agricultural processes. For Example the Straw from the Wheat plant is spat out the back of the harvester and left to rot on the ground or burnt. This straw could be bailed and fed into a Cellulose digester (http://www.iogen.ca/) to produce Ethanol or Butanol. Due to these products not using food crops and increasing deforestation. They will decrease the Greenhouse gas output of Australia. Especially Syngas production. Syngas is one of the few Carbon Negative energy production systems. It also produces Charcoal which is excellent as an additive to soils for increasing production and locking away carbon (http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s2012892.htm).

I know its painful guys but there is nothing to do except use less fuel and try alternatives. I want to say this again PRICES WILL CONTINUE TO GO UP WHATEVER THE GOVERNMENT DOES. Stop complaining to the government about the high price of fuel as they can’t do anything anyway. Start demanding that they do some thing to help us stop using this addictive substance altogether.

The other thing that we could all do is, next time your grabbing your key to leave the house consider taking a pushbike instead.

Happy Birthday

Well Happy Birthday to Mum.

I hope you are having a wonderful time and I'll see you and give you some thing when you come and visit me up here in the sunny north.

L

Whereabouts of the Nomads

I hope everyone noticed I left out the Grey part of the normal phrasing of the title.

Well Mum and Bernie are travelling again. Lost in the wilds of Western Australia. Every now and then I get an Update with a couple of Photos. So here is the Latest.

Hi everyone,
We head off to Geraldton today from Port Denison. Will spend a couple of days in Geraldton - take Clarissa out tonight to a nice seafood restaurant for her birthday - then go on to Kalbarri National Park on the Murchison River. From all accounts that is a fabulous place to visit.
We had a rest day yesterday - just reading and lying about!
Hope you are all well.

Talk to you soon.
Bernie

Good to see they are well despite being lost in the "wilds" of Geraldton. Will keep you all as up dated as I can.

L.

OC1 Race

Well it's been a week or so since the OC1 race I had at the last regatta. It was a tougher paddle than I thought it'd be. For starters there was a strong wind warning and there was about 1.5m of chop all across the bay. Also My canoe is what's known as a small volume boat ie. it doesn't provide a great deal of extra buoyancy for floatation. This means that in a race where waves are a significant factor my canoe was behaving more like a submarine than a canoe. At one point I was completely underwater, a wave hit and went straight over me rather than my canoe going over the top. The extra drag from all of the water in on and around the canoe means that I didn't go very fast.

To be fair It's not all the Canoes fault, I haven't been out in big conditions like that and practised so I couldn't get the best out of my canoe. I still think there are two factor than would help me go fast though. A Large Volume boat like the Bladerunner canoes and more training for me.

After these things are sorted then I'll be unstoppable I'll, not come second last like this time. Oh well.

I am looking forward to the next race though which will be Hammo. A 250m sprint and an 8km Marathon.

Perth forthe Travellers

We're in Perth at the moment. Went out to Rottnest today. You would love it out there.

Bernie