Kombi, parrots, camping.

[silverai]

As some may be already aware, we have the Jekabsons kombi, and Zig has built a bed in the back of it. We planned to take it out somewhere and sleep in it last Friday night, however his uncle decided he needed help with something early Saturday morning. We decided on Saturday to go out that night instead, and ended up preparing, packing, and leaving early afternoon. We headed down to Serpentine, as I had an enjoyable experience there in highschool and had wished to repeat it ever since. On the way, Z graciously granted me permission to use his ultra fancy digital SLR camera of awesomeness, so I took a lot of snap happy pics, especially of power poles/lines (he and his sister have this thing of giving pics of these to each other as birthday and christmas cards). Upon reaching Serpentine we headed to the dam and I got bread out. See, there's these parrots there, and they love to steal people's food so much that they will flock to and cover arms, head, and whatever else is close to food to get it. I did not feel anything at the time, however after all the bread was gone and it was time to go I discovered plenty of little scratches all over my arms and shoulders, which stung a little with light perspiration *heh* soooo worth it. The parrots were well used to people with food, and took it surprisingly gently from my hand, never once mistaking a finger for bread.

Here is a few pics to illustrate the point of these parrots.

http://zorch.maow.myip.org/pictures/camp01/DSC_7703.jpg
http://zorch.maow.myip.org/pictures/camp01/DSC_7712.jpg
http://zorch.maow.myip.org/pictures/camp01/DSC_7735.jpg

There's lots more parrots out of frame. I managed to convince Zig to feed them the last mangled half slice. Most of the parrots flew away after they thought I had no more bread, but a few stuck around for the time it took to exchange camera and bread. I got pics of that, but Z has them on his computer and didn't put any on our server :( so I can't share at this time. One parrot decided that Zig's feet tasted like bread or something, because it followed him around after and kept trying to eat his foot. I got a neat pic of the parrot reaching for his toe.

After much fun and many pics - we were up to 250, many were bad, but we got good ones and some awesome - we decided to find a camping spot. We tried to do the right thing and headed for a camping site in Jarrahdale that was on our map, however it was gated and padlocked closed. We then headed for the info centre, where everything pointed out this camping site and nowhere said it was closed or that we had to call anywhere to get it opened. So much Hulk smash rage. So we headed way over to Albany Hwy and down gravel track which our map said would lead to another camping spot near the Bibbulman track. After much gravel and much lost faith in our map, we turned down another track, no gravel just bushy but it was signposted as a road. We headed down it for a long way and eventually decided that the camp site did not exist. *sigh* The map said that the road and the Bibbulman track were close, however a good way down the track we saw the Bibbulman track signs, so we were driving on the trail itself! We ended up just pulling to the side of the road and calling that our site. We did try to do the right thing, but there's only so much one can do. We pulled the gas cooker out and had snags and baked bean for dinner, then opened up the side and back of the kombi and slept with an occasional breeze blowing through. Wonderful. Z says he was woken up by kangeroos thumping around, and then later by a cicada going off loud like an alarm, but I didn't hear one thing.

Here's where we camped:

http://zorch.maow.myip.org/pictures/camp01/DSC_7897.jpg

We came back next morning about 9-ish with 360 pics under our belts.

Here's a cool parrot pic to finish:

http://zorch.maow.myip.org/pictures/camp01/DSC_7757.jpg