Somewhere Else

A few weeks back we featured several miniature caravans. But there are plenty of even smaller caravans out there. We spotted the one above inside a teardrop caravan belonging to Ken H of Canberra.

We also see lots of model caravans at the car, caravan and model shows that we attend. The impressive collection of caravans below was on display at Super Model Car Sunday in Perth a year or two back.

As travel writers, we always carry a few books of crosswords and sudoku to fill in time at airports, on planes, etc. But we don’t just buy crossword puzzles – we also write them ourselves.

Here is one of our crossword puzzles. This one contains a variety of Australian themes – placenames, famous people, slang and so on. If you want to print it out, click on the crossword first so you just get the puzzle and clues without this text.

We will post the solution on Tuesday 2 Feb. And we’ve added a new category “It’s a Puzzle” so you can find our crosswords in future.

This sculpture stands on the corner of St George’s Terrace and Milligan Street in Perth. It’s called “Conic Fugue (Enigma)” and was created by Charles Perry in 1991. At a glance you might figure wonder what it represents, and think that Enigma is a good description.

But a mathematician would see it quite differently. This is a Mӧbius strip – one of those weird, single-surface, 3-D objects that you get from a strip of paper glued end-to-end with a half twist in it. The artist MC Escher was fascinated by Mӧbius strips and included them in some of his prints, including Mӧbius Strip II. Ants walking on the strip show that it only has one surface.

The Mӧbius strip in the sculpture above is unusual in having one and a half twists. But it still has only one surface.

We saw some blueberries at our local fruit shop today, which reminded us that …

Blue seemed to be a recurrent theme during our recent trip along the south coast of Western Australia, with blue skies and dazzling blue ocean everywhere we went. But one place we visited could claim to be the bluest of all – Eden Gate Blueberry Farm.

This is a pick-your-own-blueberries farm on Eden Road, between Albany and Denmark. Owner-operator Amanda explained that they have different varieties of blueberry, so the picking season extends from December to April. In addition you can buy a range of blueberry products including jam, chutney, wine, icecream topping and vinaigrette all year round. So if you’re feeling blue, you know where to go.

Yesterday was Australia Day and there were fireworks in many major cities around the country in the evening. We went along to the “Fremantle Cracker Night” fireworks in Perth’s port city of Fremantle. This display is overshadowed by the even larger fireworks display in Perth – which is great, since it means that you don’t have to contend with large crowds in Fremantle.

We had a picnic dinner on Monument Hill overlooking Fremantle and just after sunset the fireworks started.

The pyrotechnics became more spectacular as the sky darkened, and the finale (below) drew cheers from the onlookers.

There was a rather unusual Australia Day event at Perth’s Cottesloe Beach today. It was an attempt on the world record for the longest line of thong-shaped lilos. The previous record was 908, and was set at Bondi Beach, Sydney in 2009.

We don’t know if they set a new record today, but hundreds of people with giant inflatable thongs were obviously having a great time.

It’s Australia Day. On 26 January 1788 the First Fleet left Botany Bay, sailed up the coast to Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), and took formal possession of the area.

Oddly enough, two French scientific research ships under the command of Jean-Francois de Lapérouse sailed into Botany Bay on the very same day. They had arrived a few days earlier, but were prevented from entering Botany Bay by rough seas.

The French and British were apparently quite polite to each other. The French stayed in Botany Bay for about six weeks, even planting vegetables. Then they sailed off into the Pacific and were never seen again. In the Sydney suburb of La Perouse, you can see this monument to the French navigator.

The famous poet Robert Burns was born 251 years ago today, on 25 January 1759. Most people know parts of two famous poems by Burns – Auld Lang Syne and To a Mouse. The latter poem gives us the common expression “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray”. But that’s not quite how Burns put it. The exact quote is:

   “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men,
    Gang aft agley”

No, the English language hasn’t changed quite that much in the past few centuries – Burns wrote in the Scottish dialect of English and is often considered to be Scotland’s national poet. You can see the above statue of Burns in the Domain in Sydney.

The great West Australian civil engineer CY O’Connor died 108 years ago today, on 24 January 1902. Among his many lasting legacies to this state is the 530km pipeline which carries water from the Perth foothills to Kalgoorlie in the goldfields.

During the gold rush of the early 20th century, water was almost more precious than gold in Kalgoorlie. O’Connor took on the seemingly impossible task of piping water all the way to the goldfields, and succeeded spectacularly. The pipeline still operates and runs alongside the Great Eastern Highway from Perth to Kalgoorlie. It is one of the engineering wonders of the world.

The section of the pipeline above is near the town of Merredin. And since the pipeline is often described as the “Golden Pipeline”, one section near Cunderdin has been painted gold (below).

But there is a sad side to this story of amazing achievement. O’Connor was criticised mercilessly during the construction of the pipeline and finally committed suicide before its completion. So he never lived to see water flowing out of the pipe in Kalgoorlie.

Renewable energy sources are all the rage these days. But do you know where Australia’s first wind farm was located?

While you are thinking about it, here are some details about that first wind farm. It was built in 1987, had six wind turbines and has now been decommissioned. One of the turbines is still standing as a monument at the site (above), and the support pole for another has been turned into an unusual viewing platform.

So where is it located? At Salmon Beach in Esperance, on the south coast of Western Australia. We were there last month and you can see what we found by reading the Feb 2010 issue of Caravan World magazine. Our video about Esperance is also on their website.