Our B&B in Kalbarri is located next to a national park. In fact, the whole town is surrounded by the national park. We were on our way home at dusk when we spotted about 15 emus strolling across the outback.

I didn’t realize that Jamie was taking photos of me as I tried to sneak from bush to bush to get closer to the emus for a better photo.

Stalking the wild emu is difficult. Stalking the wild emu stalker is easy.

We’ve now spent three days driving around Western Australia and we’ve already seen lots of kangaroos, camels, emus, one dingo and a very strange lizard. Unfortunately, the little buggers refuse to pose for portraits.

This kangaroo was sitting right next to the road as we drove by. Of course, by the time Jamie got her camera out he had hopped about 100 feet away. (Yesterday we had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting a mother and baby kangaroo that hopped across the road right in front of us.)

Look closely and you’ll see an emu in the center of the gum trees. He was standing in the open about 20 feet from the road, but by the time I got the car stopped and backed up he retreated into the trees. Pretty good camouflage, isn’t it?

We don’t have a clue what this reptile is, but he and a friend were sauntering across the road when we saw them. I know it’s tough to tell from the photo, but he was probably a foot long. We stopped to take photos and shoo him off the road to safety.

After a 12-hour drive from Esperance, skirting the edge of Perth to avoid rush hour traffic, we ended up last night at a lovely bed and breakfast in Cervantes, Western Australia.

When we told our hosts that we’d be driving five hours north and spending the next night in a town called Kalbarri they said, “Oh, Kalbarri’s too commercialized for us.”

We didn’t know what to expect. Was it going to have a Wal-Mart and wall-to-wall condos like Maui?

Turns out the population of Kalbarri is 1600. It’s 30 miles off the main highway. It has one grocery store, two gas stations, a few restaurants, and some real estate offices and motels along a short shopping strip. It sits on a wide spot on the highway where the Murchison River meets the Indian Ocean.

Apparently that’s what passes as “too commercialized” out here in Western Australia.

We spent last night at a lovely bed and breakfast in Cervantes, Western Australia, about two hours north of Perth.

We had breakfast this morning with the other two couples who were staying at the B&B — two New Zealanders, a Canadian and an Aussie. Our hostess was a Brit who had relocated to this remote corner of the world back in the 1980s.

Of course, we all had to tell where we were from. When we said San Luis Obispo, California, everyone in the room said, “I’ve been there.”

“I would have been willing to bet a million dollars,” I said, “that you couldn’t get seven random people together in Cervantes, Western Australia and find out that the one thing they have in common is that they’d all been to San Luis Obispo.”

They all agreed that it was a very strange coincidence.

In Cervantes, we ran into a situation that always amuses us when we’re in Australia.

We finally pulled into town at about 6:00 at night. The hosts at our B&B suggested a couple restaurants (which is made much simpler by the fact that there are only a couple restaurants in town).

We went around the corner to the restaurant that was recommended most highly and it was nearly empty. To be best of my recollection only three of maybe twenty tables were occupied. The hostess asked if we had reservations. When we said no, she said, “Sorry, we’re fully booked. We can’t accommodate you for dinner if you don’t have reservations.”

This is an odd Australian quirk. We first experienced it a few years ago when we tried to have dinner at a very nice restaurant in Brisbane. It was 5 o’clock and the restaurant was completely empty but the host said he couldn’t seat us because the restaurant was completely booked.

“But the place is empty,” I said.

“Yes, but we’re completely booked at 7:00.”

This was baffling. I said, “That’s two hours from now. All we want to do is eat. We’ll be out of here long before seven.”

“Really? Are you sure you can finish that quickly? If you’re not, I’ll have to ask you to leave when the other diners arrive.”

In America, restaurants try to turn tables as fast as they can and serve as many people as they can every night. Not so in Australia. They expect one party to fill a table for the evening.

This, and the fact that waiters and waitresses don’t get tips, may explain why service is soooooo slow here. You almost have to ask to have your order taken. You definitely have to ask them or “organize the bill” or you’ll sit at the damn table all night. They expect it.

And that, my friends, explains why we couldn’t get seated in an empty restaurant in Cervantes.

Just a few random beach shots from the area around Esperance. I always thought it was called the Antarctic Ocean, but the maps in Australia call it the Southern Ocean. No matter what you call it, the sand is as white and fine as flour and the water’s so clear that you can see through the waves as they break.

The first time Jamie and I visited Western Australia together, she announced that she wanted to see Wave Rock, a strange natural formation located out in the middle of nowhere hours east of Perth.

First thing to keep in mind: Western Australia is huge. Unbelievably huge. It’s as big as the continental United States west of the Rockies. But my role in life is to help make Jamie’s fantasies come true and in the case of Wave Rock, that meant driving about eight hours out of our way.

We got there and she was beaming. We got out of the car and meandered up the short path that leads from the parking lot to the rock. By the time we took about three photos Jamie said, “I’m done. Let’s get out of here. The flies are driving me crazy.”

I couldn’t freakin’ believe it. I had just driven hundreds of miles so she could spend three minutes taking a handful of photos?

“Are you kidding me? I told you the outback was full of big, horrible flies before we ever came out here.”

“I know,” she said. “But I never thought they’d be this annoying.”

We trudged back down the path to the parking lot, climbed back into the car and drove five hours back to Perth.

I tell you this story because much to our surprise we found ourselves driving past Wave Rock today on our trip between Esperance and Cervantes, Western Australia. I looked at Jamie and said, “It’s cold and windy. There won’t be any flies.” I paid the $10 admission fee and we again walked the 100 yards from the parking lot to the rock.

She again took about five photos and said, “OK, I’m done. Let’s go.”

So I think it really didn’t have anything to do with the flies. I think she just doesn’t like Wave Rock. Oh, I’m sure she’d deny that, but what other conclusion can I draw?

One thing has changed, however. Thanks to the miracle of digital cameras, we were now able to take selfies instead of asking a vision-challenged stranger to take our photo in front of Wave Rock.

Here’s a photo of the Langers in their back yard in January, 1971. From left to right: Johnny, Boxer Dog (yup, that’s what Johnny called him), Kathy, Tina and Vera.

Their house is gone, replaced by a modern beach house. The water tank in the back yard, which stored rainwater they used for drinking and cleaning, has been replaced by a municipal water system. The empty outback behind the fence has been replaced by block after block of beautiful new houses.

Amazing how much the world has changed.

This photo takes me back 42 years. And that, of course, leads to another of my long, roundabout stories that will eventually make a point:

My dream as a kid was to visit Australia. As soon as I graduated from college I bought a ticket, flew across the Pacific and hitchhiked from one end of the country to the other.

Coincidentally, my favorite college professor was Australian. When he learned my plans he said, “Call my brother when you get to Perth. He’ll put you up.”

Turns out I called him on Christmas Eve, but he and his wife greeted me like a long lost friend and took me home. I celebrated Christmas with them and on December 26 celebrated Boxing Day by driving around Perth visiting all their friends.

At one of those friends’ homes I met a couple named John and Vera Langer. When they found out that I was hitchhiking around Australia they invited me to visit them in Esperance, a small beach town on the south coast of Western Australia. Now the fact was that I had never heard of Esperance and when I found out that it would probably take me a couple days to hitchhike there, I had very little interest in doing it despite their kind offer. But Johnny Langer was a very persuasive man and he said, “It’s the best place in Australia, mate. We live right on the beach so you’d be crazy to not to visit.”

To make what could be an even longer story relatively short, I arrived on their doorstep on New Years Eve and spent two weeks with them on one visit and an additional week some time later. They were wonderful people. I was half way around the world from home, but Johnny and Vera and their daughters Tina and Kathy seemed like family.

I traded a few letters with Vera over the years, but we eventually lost track of each other.

When we were planning this trip I told Jamie that I’d really love to spend a couple nights in Esperance just to see it again. She, of course, agreed that we should do it despite the fact that Esperance is still far off the beaten track and a day’s drive away from anywhere else on our itinerary. What a great wife!

All I wanted to do is see how the town has changed and find out if the Langers are still alive. To tell the truth, I didn’t think I’d have much success.

Well, it turns out the town has grown tremendously. It’s now a resort destination and a very busy working port. It really has become one of the nicest little towns we’ve seen in all our Australian travels. It has a bustling downtown and all the small homes on the Langers’ street have now been replaced with large, modern oceanfront houses.

We went into the Esperance tourism office this afternoon to get a map and the women behind the counter were about my age (maybe even a little older). When I asked how long they’d lived in town one of them said since 1965 and the other said since 1960. So I asked if either of them remembered John and Vera Langer. Much to my surprise, they both did. I explained my reason for being there and one of them was able to bring me up to date on the Langers.

Unfortunately, Vera died of a heart attack about twenty years ago and Kathy, the youngest daughter, also passed away. Much to my surprise and delight, Johnny Langer is still alive and living outside Perth. His two remaining daughters, Wendy and Tina, live in a lovely old Victorian mining town named Kalgoorlie.

Here’s the crazy part: Jamie and I stopped in Kalgoolie yesterday and had lunch at a restaurant called Dome. The woman in the Esperance tourism office told us that Wendy and Tina own a shop that’s located right next door to Dome. We actually walked right past their shop and commented on its name.

Damn it. I was that close to them, but never knew it until I had driven four more hours to Esperance.

The woman at the tourism office couldn’t remember either of the girls’ married names, but she sent me down to visit Wendy’s best friend at another shop here in Esperance. That friend gave me Wendy and Tina’s married names and phone numbers.

The photo above was taken on the beach across the street from the Langers old home. The jetty was falling apart 42 years ago and looks like it’s continued to do so.

What a great day. Esperance is a beautiful little town. The beaches and views are absolutely stunning. And it looks like I’m going to be able to track down my old friends.

Fremantle is Perth’s port city. It’s like Long Beach to Los Angeles.

Tonight’s a huge night for Aussie rules football (known in the abbreviated Aussie venacular as “footy”) here in Perth. The Fremantle (known in the abbreviated Aussie venacular as “Freo”) Dockers are playing the Sydney Swans in the semi-final game. The game is being played in the Subiaco Oval and the winner goes on to face Hawthorn in the Grand Final, footy’s equivilant of the SuperBowl. The city’s very excited because the Dockers have never been in the Grand Final before and almost everyone in the city is wearing purple, the Swans’ color, to support the team.

So, you may ask, what is Aussie Rules Football? Damned if I can explain it. We attended an Adelaide Crows game a few years ago and Jamie always managed to stand up and scream at inappropriate moments. The other Crows fans kept looking at her like she was insane. I couldn’t blame her for cheering at the wrong moments because neither of us could tell a good play from a bad play.

The game is a little bit like our football, a little bit like rugby, a little bit like soccer, but not really much like any of them. It’s incredibly fast and violent, yet the players wear no protection. The action is non-stop and it’s exciting even if you don’t know the rules.

The Crows fans have a special cheer in which they scream, “Add-uh-laid! Add-uh-laid! Add-uh-laid Croooooooooows!” (jumping up and throwing their arms in the air as they scream the last word). Jamie really got into it and was soon screaming along and throwing her arms in the air as if she had been a lifelong fan.

We moved to San Luis Obispo immediately after that trip to Australia. She went out on a job interview and during her preliminary interview with the company’s human resources director she learned that Hamish Marshall, president of the company and the man she’d be working for, was from Adelaide. What are the odds?

I told her that if she really wanted the job she should jump up in the middle of the interview and do the Crows’ cheer. She said she absolutely wouldn’t.

She somehow got the job despite ignoring my outstanding advice and worked for Hamish for several years. Hamish and I became friends. One day at lunch I told him this story and asked him what he would have done if she had done as I suggested during the interview.

“I’d have hired someone else, mate,” he said. “I’m a Carlton Blues fan.”

UPDATE: Final score Fremantle 99, Sydney 74. “Freo” goes to the Grand Final.