Page 193 - Mit dem Wohnwagen durch Australien 2

stroll around the parking lots to pick up garbage. Because I speak passable English I get to announce the various
documentaries we play in the little air conditioned cinema. Air conditioning is a major magnet since we are in a heat
wave. One tourist asks for the snorkelling area. A Japanese volunteer replies, that there is no smoking area.
Misunderstandings due to language barriers are rather common in the international volunteer crew. The German
volunteer who forgot to hold her hand up did not take well to criticism by Polish/Aussi volunteer and leaves. I soon
become the senior volunteer on duty and get asked if I could not stay on. I finally serve for 8 days getting to
supervise all the volunteer activities enabling me to pick the raisins out of the work dough but also the difficult
customers. One morning during the ranger talk of the first feed a rather irate Norwegian tourist comes to the window
and asks when finally, the feed would begin! I explain that it has begun with the talk. He then gets really nasty and
says he came for the feed not a lot of waffle from some ranger and could we not speed the procedure up! That it
was now 8 am and the dolphins were in the bay since 7 am, could we not start earlier. It was not his day. It went
beyond his comprehension that we gave the approximate starting time of 7.30 so people could be there on time and
we would not start earlier so that people would not miss out altogether. I guess my: “you enjoy it sir and have a good
day” was kafuffle in the wind. It takes all kind.

The whole volunteer experience was a real pleasure and also an honour. I understand that normally volunteers
have to apply for at least 3 months in advance to get a place and they are very coveted. I had some extraordinary
insights into the life of dolphins, rangers, tourists and international students.

SHIPWRECK COAST
We travelled south and pass the famous pink lake. It is a large salt lake which evaporates very quickly. In its very
salty water special bacteria lives which gives the lake its intensive pink colour. The bacteria are harvested to
manufacture cosmetic or to be used to colour foodstuffs. We were just in time to evade another Cyclone coming
down the coast. These heavy storms raged the coast for time immemorial. The coast in itself is ragged with lovely
sand beaches in between, high promontories and rocks protruding at low tide; a script for marine disaster. The
coast is aptly named. Many Dutch and English merchant sailing vessels were stranded here as early as the 17th
century. The Zuytdorp, which had carried untold riches and was recently found and explored, was revealing a carpet
of silver. Silver coins spilling out of old treasure chests covering the bed of the sea.

The most notorious however, was the Battavia. It ran aground near Geraldton on the Abrolhos Islands in 1629 on its
maiden voyage to Battavia in Java. The Museum shows a re-enactment of the gruesome happenings. They had two
longboats in which the 430 passengers and crew were rowed to the islands. The senior representative of the
shipping company together with some crew took one of the boats to try to sail to Battavia and get help. The rest
organised themselves for a long stay. Amongst the remaining people was a number of soldiers and some rather
unsavoury gentlemen one of them an envoy of the merchant company named Cornelius. He sent the soldiers
without their weapons to find water and food on other islands and started a reign of oppression and terror on the first
Island. The survivors had a council which defined their daily life, the amount of food and water everyone got, etc.
The tainted officer usurped power, dismantled the council gave himself fancy titles, wore flamboyant clothes and
tolerated no resistance. He slaughtered 143 civilian and instilled fear. The soldiers heard about that and remained
on their Island with ample food and natural water. They built a fort and took in all the fugitives which made it there.
The usurper tried with force and deception to beat the soldiers. Luckily at that very moment, the rescue ship from
Battavia arrived and the terrorists got gruesomely executed then and there.

About 10 years ago a group of enthusiasts started to rebuild the longboat of the Battavia. One of the leading
craftsmen was a Swiss still living in Geraldton. They took some plans from Viking longboats and got a lovely boat
together. We were fortunate enough to be able to go sailing with that longboat on a Sunday afternoon together with
some of the enthusiasts. Beat and I got to man the jib sail during the whole voyage. We even saw some sea lions
sunning on some rocks in the bay.

Further down the coast, near Jurien Bay we are going to look at the Pinnacles. We started early in the morning and
were the first and only visitors in this moonlike landscape just a stone’s throw away from the coast. Golden sand
with thousands of standing up yellow stone structures between low hills in the morning sunshine dazzles our eyes.
There are lots of animal tracks, Kangaroos, lizards, Goannas and birds, some leading to low shrubs where they
hide during the day. This unique scenery has us spellbound. There are various theories about the creation of the
pinnacles. The most credible is that million years ago it used to be a forest which was inundated by the sea and
covered with any meters of sand. Then the sand around it slowly eroded and set the petrified stumps of the trees
free.