Two peoples bay

[aladyforty]

This is about 25 minutes drive from my home so Hubby and I went out today to try and get some scenic shots, taken at around 4pm while the sun was still pretty warm on our backs.

[KENNETHD]

Hey Julie... Doesn't seem to be anyone around. Are those sand dunes?? My curiosity about your country spreads its wings here looking at your pictures. I will post some of our area for you to reciprocate. What about all the poisonous creatures? Trapdoor spiders, bird spiders...etc. You guys have like 9 out of ten of the most venomous critters on the planet I hear. Not to mention crocs, and snakes. Are you well out of the way of everything nasty? Do they all live out in the boonies? Or do you step carefully from time to time depending on where you happen to be at the moment? Can you tell a little more about that bay? Looks like it's next to farm land. Do folks swim there? Well, I don't want this to sound like an interrogation, but I am curious. I am retired now for 2 years and I am begining to itch a bit to travel. Whats the real estate prices like? Your currency is...what? Let me know if there's anything you wanna know about this wild place. I'd be happy to fill you in. Snow and ice 6 months of the year is a real motivator to find out about the rest of the world. Best regards,

KennethD

[aliasd2]

Cool Pics. Looks like a great placeto live. Really like the first pic. Any chance of getting a little more DOF in the shot? Like to see some more of that background.

[jeffm]

WOW! What a great place to live.

[thekelly]

Photo number 3 is wild. What an incredible landscape!

[aladyforty]

KENNETHD wrote:

Hey Julie... Doesn't seem to be anyone around. Are those sand dunes?? My curiosity about your country spreads its wings here looking at your pictures. I will post some of our area for you to reciprocate. What about all the poisonous creatures? Trapdoor spiders, bird spiders...etc. You guys have like 9 out of ten of the most venomous critters on the planet I hear. Not to mention crocs, and snakes. Are you well out of the way of everything nasty? Do they all live out in the boonies? Or do you step carefully from time to time depending on where you happen to be at the moment? Can you tell a little more about that bay? Looks like it's next to farm land. Do folks swim there? Well, I don't want this to sound like an interrogation, but I am curious. I am retired now for 2 years and I am begining to itch a bit to travel. Whats the real estate prices like? Your currency is...what? Let me know if there's anything you wanna know about this wild place. I'd be happy to fill you in. Snow and ice 6 months of the year is a real motivator to find out about the rest of the world. Best regards,

KennethD

Yes they are sand dunes.

Yes we have poisonous snakes all over this area, no one has died for years because snakes don't seek you out and I don't go looking for them, I see them crossing the road a fair amount on my drives with work (mind you this is way out in the sticks)but on the whole I think Aussies are raised to watch where they walk in scrub and to make a lot of noise as they walk and snakes will disappear.

spiders, well I have not seen a red back for ages, the funnel webs are in the eastern states of Australia and are only a problem at a certain time of the year.

No crocs this far south and again it is like America and bears, one has to be sensible. You get the rare shark attack but many times because the sharks mistake surfers for seals. No attacks in my area in my living memory and I'm 45.

Real estate is supposed to be cheaper on this side of the country. Sydney prices are very high. A nice home here will cost around 200 thousand dollars Australian(140,000US). A cheap one around 120 thousand (84,000US). We lease our home for $140 a week ($98.00US) but we live in an expensive part of town as we are right in the main shopping area close to our work depot.

Two peoples bay is national park, no dogs allowed area, there is a rare bird breeding there (noisy scrub bird). Farm land is around the park as well. Behind the sand dunes in the photos is Nanarup beach which leads out to the southern ocean, people swim and camp there, some time I will post photos of that area, very pretty. There are many beautiful beaches around me, too many to photograph in one day.

Our weather is mild compared to other areas of Australia, coldish winters but by your standards not, hot summers but not as hot as inland or up in the capital city of Perth. I'm surrounded by farming area, coastal and river systems, tall tree Forrest's to the east and dairy farms as well, North east of me is where I drive for a living and that gets very hot (and very cold in winter) and dry. We have mountains about 50 minutes away and on the whole a lot of national park protected areas around me. Albany and surrounding districts is a very desirable place to live and many people retire here. The town city of Albany has a population of around 45.000 including the outer shires and we have a modern shopping and medical system. I would not leave here for somewhere else although my Husband and I intend to one day travel by motor-home around the whole of Australia, could take us a couple of years to do all we want.

I always am amused by how Australia is portrayed on film to other countries, yes we have snakes and spiders and crocs and sharks, but in the USA you have bears, wolves, coyote's, sharks andrattle snakes, Do you guys worry each time you step out your door?:-)

[aladyforty]

aliasd2 wrote:

Cool Pics. Looks like a great placeto live. Really like the first pic. Any chance of getting a little more DOF in the shot? Like to see some more of that background.

Thanks, was very warm and hazy, had trouble getting any definition in this shot

[KENNETHD]

aladyforty wrote:

KENNETHD wrote:

I always am amused by how Australia is portrayed on film to other countries, yes we have snakes and spiders and crocs and sharks, but in the USA you have bears, wolves, coyote's, sharks andrattle snakes, Do you guys worry each time you step out your door?:-)

Well, thank you Julie. Very good information, the sort of thing I was curious about exactly. No, in North America generally we don't look one way or another when we step out the door. But that's because we live mainly in populated areas. It pays to be a little more alert if you hike in the mountains. Because North America is a huge place, I'll keep my comments relevent to around here. Calgary is close to the mountains and Banff is approx. 85 miles mostly west of us. Huge tourist attraction. Ski hills all over and in summer, hiking and rafting. Golfing too. Bears kill a few people now and then, (not all at once...just isolated incidents here and there) and from time to time there are hikers or tourists that get severely injured by grizzley bears. Seems there's at least one incident around Banff every year or two. A cougar (mountain lion) stalked and killed a cross country skier a couple years ago near Banff as well. I think that's the price we pay for living close to a national park. Compared to the zillions of people using the parks, and hiking trails, this is less likely to happen than winning the lottery, though. Personally, I have been lucky (or unlucky) enough to have had a couple of really close encounters with bears. While surveying (retired surveyor) in the bush when I was a young fella, my work partner and I split up, it was about 2 in the morning, we were trying to take a star shot with our instrument. I was walking back to camp came around the corner of some trees next to a meadow (brilliant moonlight) and walked smack face to face into a big old ugly black bear, who was using the same trail coming towards me. I froze. He froze. He stood up on his hind legs and we stared at each other for a minute. He dropped to all fours and charged me. At the last split second he veered off, scooted around me and was gone like the wind across the meadow. Lucky me. Roughly 25 years later I was watching a nature show and learned (finally) that this "mock" (mock?) charge is a bluff they will do if they feel threatened. Wolves I have seen, but rarely. Never ever been threatened by them. Only saw a cougar once. Too far away to do anything but gawk at it through binoculars. Coyotes we have up the wazoo. But they aren't considered to be a threat except to pets and maybe some livestock if they're small enough. Rattle snakes. Not right around here. Bears seem to be the worst. In my opinion, they're a lot like people. Some wouldn't hurt a fly. Some are just plain mean. Didn't mean to give you the impression that I think Australia is a hazardous to your health place. Probably same as here. When you're in the bush use some common sense. Between here and the west coast...to Vancouver and Victoria (Vic's on the island) we have mountains, lakes and generally milder weather. (Milder by our standards) Roughly half way to there we have areas that grow fruit (grapes, peaches, apples, cherries, that sort of thing) wine making vinyards there too. More ski hills and golf courses as well. The western hemisphere seems to be golf crazy. (maybe it's a world wide thing) In this province (Alberta) we have two major cities, Calgary and Edmonton. Edmonton's North about 180 miles away. Calgary's roughly 900,000 people and Edmonton's likely not far behnd. That's a mini description for you. I'll post a few pics to show you what our area looks like. Best regards, and thanks for your descriptive post...

KennethD

[KENNETHD]

oops...hadda double post there. sorry. I scrubbed the text but don't know how to delete the whole thing.

[aladyforty]

Thanks, I enjoed reading about your country, I think we are pretty much alike apart from the weather you get in winter (we get snow in Australia but it is in the eatern states) and of course BEARS :lol: