We got up early to meet the engineers from Perth at Tilos office. We fetched sandwiches for lunch, I got some gum boots and off we went to the wetlands north of Esperance.

 

The problem there is that tue to all the farmland around the vegitation doesn’t need so much water any more. So the remaining water goes into the wetlands and on its way there  washes out a lot of salt from the soil. Even though the vegitation is used to salty water the concentration of salt is now much too high and the trees and scrubs die. One approach to solve the problem would be to keep the water going till it reaches the last lake closesed to the sea and then pump it from there into the sea.

 

We parked the car at lake gore and made our way along the main flow channel of the water. Soon I was very thankfull for the gum boots. Its now autum in Australia and the water level here in the wetland goes down. Since our walk took us along the flow we walked most of the time on land that has been covered with water not so long ago. After a few steps on this wet and slippery soil you’ve got a few extra kilos of mud on your shoes. I you are lucky. If not the mud has sucked the shoes off your feet.

 

Wandering through all those white, dead trees was like wandering through a ghost forest. But the engineers had a jolly good time taking notes and GPS data and scribbling on the maps in their binder.

I saw my first living kangaroo vanishing in the bush and the second and third where faster than the camera too.

 

The weather was perfect for hicking. Cloudy and around 22 degrees. Tilo showed me tracks of kangaroos, emus, deer and wild cats. All the tracks where very good to see in the wet soil but that was all I saw about the animals. Exept for a kangaroo skull  and a little crown snake.

While Tilo tried to make the snake attack a stick one of the engineers tried to get as much distance between the snake and himself. He was the same who thought that he had seen a really poisones snake vanishing under a tree just minutes before. Enough reason for him to risk wet feet by not going back the same track but choosing to cross a channel as deep as our gum boots where high.

 

On our way back through dense scrubs one of the bushes grabbed my camera and I realised it only a minute later. Had to walk back and was very lucky. Found it hanging from a branch.

Naughty bush!

The soil is after your boots and the scrubs are trying to nick you gadgets.

 

Back at the car we drove around to the other side on to the hill between the lake and the sea. On our way there we went over the land of Mambenup winery and finally:  there where my kangaroos! Alive and all jumpy!