Plan A: 5 Oceans, 1 Pirate Cow, & Fisting

Day 3 of Western Australia began with a drive to the small town of Augusta to have a quick breakfast. The most exciting part of the drive: I saw my first emus in the wild! Three of them to be exact! Two were grazing on the size of the road, and the other was also on the side of the road… dead. After that excitement we headed a few minutes south to Cape Leeuwin, the southwesternmost point of Australia. The Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse is open for tours so we decided to check it out. And what we found was…

A warning sign. Great.

A pirate cow that Cade was very fond of (why was this even here???)

And a sign alerting us to the divide between the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean.

What’s interesting is that I had never heard of the “Southern Ocean” until I arrived in Australia. In North America (at least in North American schools in the 1990’s), we learned there were four oceans: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic. No “Southern Ocean” existed. The three major oceans went down to Antarctica and that was it. But here, they declare that the body of water between Australia/New Zealand and Antarctica is the Southern Ocean. Further research revealed that they do indeed teach five oceans in Australia, but that scientists and oceanographers themselves are still a bit vague on whether or not the Southern Ocean constitutes an ocean. Some believe like I was taught – that the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans reach all the way down to Antarctica. Some believe like Australians are taught – that there is a Southern Ocean between here and the cold, penguin-inhabited continent at the bottom. Some believe that the Southern Ocean surrounds all of Antarctica – not just the space between here and there – but there are disagreements as to how far up the Southern Ocean extends. Is it 60°? 50°? Or even as high as 35°? And are we supposed to call it the Southern Ocean or the Antarctic Ocean as some sources indicate?

I’m going to stick with my list of four oceans until Wikipedia can provide an undisputed confirmation.

Oh yeah, and we also found a lighthouse!

And Karen then proceeded to fist it.

After our lighthouse adventure, we headed up to the Margaret River region – one of the premier wine regions of Australia. We decided to splurge a bit on accommodation, so we stocked up on groceries and checked into our cottage at Adinfern Estate, a local winery. In our backyard: vineyards!

We then drove around a bit to explore the region, starting with the Busselton Jetty which sticks out over a mile into the ocean. We were none-too-pleased to find only the first 200 meters open as the rest was closed for refurbishment. Refurbish this, Busselton.