Logistics in Perth

November 5

Perth served as a launching ground for getting ourselves outfitted for our field work.

Our first order of business was a meeting on Sunday morning. Aaron, the person who was doing the job I will be doing before he left for another job, came and picked Maria and me up at the hotel. We ended up spending most of the day together, and it more or less ended up being a long conversation about many, many things as we traveled around Perth. We first visited Kings Park. It is a large area of naturally vegetated land right in the middle of the city. This was on the one place I wanted to see, if we had the time and means, while we were in Perth. We walked, talked, and saw some beautiful natural parklands. There were also some nicely landscaped areas around some of the park facilities. The one place Maria wanted to see was the beach. Off we went, less than ten miles east of downtown, to the local beach. There was quite a bit of traffic and we had to park a long walk away from the beach. Aaron bought us dinner and when we were done, Maria was able to put her feet in the "bracing" waters of  the Indian Ocean. We then went to a nature reserve wetland with birding spots along a boardwalk, for sunset.  We got back to our room around nine o'clock. It was a great day. We started the day with no vehicle, no clear sense of where things were or how to get around, and a need to get going on figuring out how we were going to get things done down under. By the time we got back to our room we had been the two places we had wanted to visit while we were in Perth, had been treated wonderfully by someone I needed to talk with, and had learned a lot about my work and the people that I need to collaborate with here in Australia.

At the end of the day I was exhausted, again, and slept great.

Monday was our day to visit with Jonathan Majer and go to Curtin University. We were picked up at our hotel at nine o clock. Jonathan is the head of the biology department at Curtin and has been here for a long time (30 years). We had to straighten out administrative stuff, gather some field equipment, and garner all the information we could about many things - from driving directions to the ants. We also were set up with a University pickup truck that we will use for the time Maria and I will be working in the field. We went for a little ride with Jonathan, with Maria and Jon risking their lives as I navigated around campus at low speed, driving on the left side of the road. My biggest problem seemed to be turning on the windshield wipers every time I went to put on my blinker. Our second full day in Perth proved to be as succesful as our first. I was able to get a vehicle, straighten out a lot of things, gather field equipment from sheds, labs, and offices, and once again was treated wonderfully by a gracious host. We also met quite a number of folks as Maria and I made our way around campus with Jonathan.

Making our way back to our hotel, Maria and I began our transition from dependant-visitors-in-a-strange-land to independant travelers getting on with our work. Under Maria's watchful eye and with her encouraging admonitions (stay to the left!), we were able to make our way to the commercial Albany Street. With its endless collection of stores we were able to find some things we needed and, eventually, made it back to our hotel.