APAC'07 in Perth and travels in Western Australia

Trip to Perth, Western Australia for APAC’07 and the DERCAP Workshop

Saturday October 6^th, 2007: Left LA at 10:30 pm on United to Sydney. Upgraded – yeah!

Monday October 8^th, 2007: Arrived Sydney and transferred to Virgin Blue. Had to take a bus to the domestic terminal. If you check in at the International terminal you can drop off your checked baggage (VB only allows 7kg of carry-on) and with a transfer from United you get a free bus ticket. 5+ hour flight to Perth. AUS$50 taxi ride to hotel. Rendezvous Observation City in Scarborough Beach. 2 hours of time difference between NSW and WA.

Tuesday October 9^th, 2007: Woke up early so went for a walk along the beach on the sand (to the North - Trigg Beach). Reached some rocks and found an osprey to take some pictures of – he was posing for me.

Attended the APAC meeting for the rest of the day. Went to bed early since I was tired so I missed the APAC dinner which was at Freemantle Jail.

Wednesday October 10^th, 2007: Attended the APAC meeting. Dinner at Oceanus with the DERCAP workshop Organizing Committee in the evening. Greek owner is quite a character. It took 1 hour to get a cab back to the hotel.

Thursday October 11^th, 2007: Workshop all day. Workshop went well. Seems the attendees were well engaged and there was good discussion. Dinner in the evening at Frasers in a private room. Excellent dinner. Brazilian waiters. The restaurant proper has a fantastic view of the city.

Friday October 12^th, 2007: Workshop in the morning. Went pretty well. We’ll see if we can get delivery on next steps. In the afternoon I got a ride to Hertz at the airport with someone else taking a taxi there. Rented a Toyota Corolla and decide to drive North. I want to make it to the Pinnacles which is quite far ~250km. I try to go through Lancelin which doesn’t go through so have to take a detour. Lancelin looks interesting - small town lots of white sand dunes – no time to explore this trip. I get to Pinnacles about 30 minutes before sunset – good light but not really enough time to explore properly. Interesting place – limestone pinnacles everywhere – a bizarre landscape. I see some pink parakeets on top of one of the Pinnacles. Long drive back to Perth, I arrive around 10pm. Dinner is some French fries and a coke bought on the way.

Saturday October 13^th, 2007: Checked out of the hotel around 8:30 and drove south through Freemantle and along the coast to Bussellton – bought Bert a card!. This has a pier that is 2km long. Drove through the Ludlow forest – very pretty. Worked my way around the coast to Cape Naturaliste. Visited the lighthouse. Interesting how it was operated. Kerosene lamps (now electric). Big weights to drive the motors to turn the Fresnel lenses (2 tons) which float on a bed of mercury. White 2.5secs/7.5 secs. 3 keepers houses since each could only work a 4 hour shift at night. Drove on to Margaret River. Lots of wineries and picturesque farms. Then drove back to Perth for the late flight.

Sunday October 14^th, 2007: Virgin Blue flight at 00:50 to Sydney. Met Marla (from NLR) in Sydney Red Carpet Club - she has been in Australia for 2 weeks, at a conference with her husband in Sydney and then on vacation for a week in the Blue Mountains - she has quite some e-mail to catch up on!