Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 20/04/10 8:21 AM

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

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Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Time Event
8:15a Rottnest Island - An April gale

Well before last Tuesday we suspected we were in for a rough trip across to the island - the long range forecast had been
predicting it for several days and the weather boffins got it right. There was a brisk gale blowing from the northwest. The
ferry skipper had to cut the engine back several times to prevent the vessel from becoming a submarine. All around me I
could hear passengers regurgitating their breakfasts. I concentrated on trying to put myself into a yoga trance, but was very
glad the voyage didn’t take another five minutes. Thankfully, none of our family chundered.

Once ashore we could concentrate on enjoying the storm properly. Jill and I have always wanted to experience a decent
storm on Rotto. We didn’t mind the inclement weather one bit. Our bikes were unloaded and we made our way to the cosy
bungalow we’d rented for the week. Our baggage and self-supplied stash of food was efficiently delivered by a truck soon
after.

We were pleased with our bungalow

Once we were settled in to our accommodation we decided to take a walk to The Basin, reputedly one of the island’s safest
swimming spots. Our jaunt coincided with the norwester roaring in at 81km/h at about 2.30pm. Almost perfect, but I would
have liked 100 km/h better. Strangely the conditions were still warmish. I was happily dressed in a teeshirt and jeans. I had
a rolled up plastic shower jacket hooked on my belt just in case. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a bikini or budgie smuggler
in sight at The Basin or adjoining ‘Back Beach.’

A strong norwester flushes ‘The Basin’ and ‘Back Beach.’

I wrote about The Basin on 23 October 2008. For comparison to last week I also have a nice HD panorama online which I
created during some fine weather that same year for Google Earth.

© MMX Paul R. Weaver.

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Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia 20/04/10 8:21 AM

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Rottnest essays:

Click here to visit 'dogandcatwatcher', my YouTube website.

Original still photographs are stored online in a cache at my Panoramio website or my Picasa site. Most of them have a
brief description and a link back to a relevant essay. Images on Panoramio can usually be enlarged several times by
clicking them.

About the writer

Click here to see our backyard.

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st
century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to
write at least couple of million words. Zzzzzzzz!

Current Music: Stormy Weather - Lena Horne

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