iglooants

Cabin Life

2009-07-02T20:33:00.014+12:00

Kookaburra eating a frog. Monthly and overall winner
This blog introduces you to award winning photographer Wendy Dillon, after her third prize and two highly commended's at last years Biloela show. Wendy then won the monthly prize for best photo in the Kuranda Skyrail competition. This Photo won the overall prize for the competition. She won a Kodak camera and an all in one printer.

The reason for the above brag is because, in this years Biloela show, Wendy entered a series of photos and placed a first, a second and a highly commended. Cows fighting in the yards. 2nd place

To top it off I entered a few photos and I came in with a second and a third. Just as well Wendy got her prizes or I would have got it in the neck, she is really competitive. We won a whole $4.50, not even enough for a pizza to celebrate.

Up close & personal 1st place

Fraser Island sea shell Highly commended Taihape high country 2nd place. (Johnathan)

Just before Xmas Johnathan had the opportunity to do a scrub bush burn off on the back of the property that borders the National Park.
Johnathan and one other, set fire to over 900 acres of scrub, the burn off helps the grass regenerate.
They used a dribble pot and just walked along dribbling the fire behind them as they walked. He says it was exciting but scary stuff.

Arsonist, petrol/diesel dribble pot.

Apparently the fire raced up hill at such a fast pace the speed took him by surprise. The roar, crackle and the heat from the smoke and fire was phenomenal, and he could feel it on his back.
They had a vehicle set up with a rural fire fighting system on the back, just in case anything went wrong. They had to use water on the occasional tree/fence post so that the tree didn’t burn and break the fence. It was largely out 3 days later, with just a few hot spots to be watched. I find “controlled burning” a hard concept to grasp as I think of fire as being fairly free, and being way out back with very little water available to just walk away at dusk in a feeling of comfort and security just doesn’t gel for me. Just as well they had no issues.

A few weeks after the burn off we went out on horseback later to reseed. About 5 acres of prime river bank land. Some of the scrubby bushes left behind charred prickly vines, so we had to push the horses through this crap to seed the ground. Johnathan says the experiences here just keep getting better.

The boss checking Johnathan is doing it correctly.
Fireman, we had a rural fire fighting set up on the back of a tray back.
Anyway we have settled a bit more and finally got the phone on and satellite internet. Just to make things more comfortable for the next 18 months until Cassandra leaves school. Johnathan is so comfortable he suggests we might be a Kroombit for years, even after Cassandra leaves home.
She is currently getting ready for her year 11 exams, only one more week. When they are over she is going to NZ for a 10 days during the July school holidays. It is the beginning of our busy period so she will be glad to be away as my stress levels may go up.
We are then off to Rarotonga to see the Tobecks in late November, with a short stop over in NZ. Yeha!

Given we have settled here for a while the Easter bunny made a house call and dropped off a puppy, no Easter eggs, but a puppy! Actually she is very cute and has endeared herself to us very quickly. She has us all out walking or riding every day to try and reduce her energy. She has her moments when her life has come close to being very short lived, because she has chewed shoes, and laces, hats and anything else left within range. She also took a nose dive out of the truck window, about a metre off the ground, and hurt her leg and limped for about 3 days. We have learnt to tie her in or wind the window up further. We named her Sassy after the hairy Sasquatch from Gayndah we mentioned in a previous blog.
Shortly after Sassy arrived, we had to billet her out as we had booked 5 days off and went to Fraser Island, a gynornmous sand island (World Heritage) north of Brisbane and 5 hours south of us. Anyway we took an organized tour because Wendy didn’t want to cook or anything. The trip was ok but Johnathan got sick (food poisoning we think, from shellfish off the beach, he pigged out while everyone else only had a couple each). Anyway the reason we are telling you this is because it was so bad, that at one point, on a daytrip Johnathan started to vomit and then he felt he needed to poo. Everyone had gone on ahead so Johnathan dropped his pants and sat his bum over the back of a log and went toilet. If you still don’t get how sick he was, just remember there are poisonous snakes and spiders here and Johnathan didn’t give a toss, not that he had time to check if there were any over the log anyway. In fact I think there might have been a point where he would have preferred a spider or snake bite over the vomiting and diarrhea. So as you can imagine our break wasn’t so great, second to Johnathan getting sick was that Fraser isn’t so wonderful, it is full of sand!!!

The weather here has turn seasons and it is getting cold at night and in the morning. The woolies have come out and the fires are lit. It was so cold the other morning -2* that we had a frost. In fact it was so cold it was suggested if I wanted to warm up I should go stand in the food chiller as it was significantly warmer than the outside temperature. It is still about 22* most days though so I guess we shouldn’t complain given I have heard the weather in NZ is pretty cold at the moment.
Eli Creek Fraser Island.
Well warm thoughts to you all. Now we have internet we will blog more often. The adventures in Australia continue.

coming to you from outer space

2009-05-20T16:42:00.003+12:00

NZ Maheno Steam ship wreck on Fraser Island, succumbing to the tide, as is Cassandra.

Cassandra standing on the remains of a forest tree that has succumb to the fig that long ago constricted its life.

Just hanging around waiting, that bag contains every antiscoial electronic device known to man.

We now have our own internet conection yehaa

“On the road again”

2008-09-29T15:08:00.019+13:00

A full day doing cattle at Bluerock,Wendy operating the run and brent on the crush.

Well the busy season has been on for the last few months. It has been cold here but because it is the summer school holidays in the northern hemisphere people tend to travel. We have had several big groups of American kids, some polite, some rude, some with lots of money (parents credit cards) and others with no extra money. Unfortunately I have to say that the bad rep’ Americans have is duly deserved. This was reinforced for us when we recently went to Cairns on holiday. On one occasion we were given instructions about how things were going to happen during a trip to a bat cave. These instructions were repeated twice. There were several different nationalities there who didn’t speak very good English. However, guess who got the instructions bloody wrong, you guessed it the noisy, arrogant Americans. What is worse they spoke good English, this I know because they were loud enough for everyone to hear them.
The groups that come to Kroombit do horse riding and bush walking and seem to really enjoy themselves. Our groups that have been in are the regional schools for their yearly camps; they do things like abseiling, ropes course, orienteering, and horse riding with bush dancing or campfire as night activities’. Johnathan has been very busy during the day working with kids. As per usual I have been in the kitchen coordinating everything so meals all go out on time.

Cassandra meantime has been working very hard at school she has been doing ok and seems to be enjoying herself; she is a typical teenager in that she talks really fast about things that interest her. You should see her at the library pizza group with other girls her age. Basically I don’t know how they hold a conversation because the chatter just seems like a blur. They eat pizza and talk about allsorts of things but especially books the library should consider buying. Cassandra continues to be an avid reader, although I suspect this may change now as she just got a laptop computer for her 15th birthday.
Can’t believe she is 15 years old. Everyone keeps telling us she will start to show an interest in boys, oh what a scary thought. She just had a social outing at school where they went to Rockhampton to the movies. They are planning a final day one where she gets to go to Lady Elliot Island, offshore from Gladstone, for the day sounds like an awesome time. This is great because of where we live she doesn’t really get the opportunity to do things with her mates.

Cassandra just helped out with some puppies we adopted for a week. The park here has Meremma guardian dogs which look after the goats.

Mereama Puppies

Anyway these dogs had 10 puppies between them and Johnathan was given them to get rid of or sell. They were stinky, smelly ‘hell devils’ when they arrived because the dogs are essentially wild. They had had no contact with humans and were terrified but we persevered and washed and cuddled them and they came right. Man they were cute and fluffy after we got done with them, but they had very sharp teeth which Cassandra found out the hard way, when one little bugger bit her to show his appreciation of his bath.

While we are on the subject of Cassandra, she occasionally has driven the car around the park and sometimes home from town. Recently she was in the car on her own and was returning it to the carport. Your basic 4 uprights and a roof, we park our camp trailer at one end of it, you guessed it she hit the trailer head on, her first accident. She put her foot on the accelerator instead of the brake. Thankfully, there was no damage except she managed to move the trailer off it blocks and bunt it about a foot.

Now Cassandra is getting older we decided to go out for a date and leave her at home. Miley Cyrus was on TV and we would have had trouble taking her with us anyway. We decided to go into the big town of Biloela and have a night out. We choose Saturday night, you know the biggest night of the week. We headed into town and went to the restaurant, only to find it was closed and never opens Saturday. WHAT, who ever heard of that? Any way we went to a second location and you guessed it closed again. Saturday night in Biloela is no big deal. Any way the third place was open and as it happened we had the place to ourselves the whole time. As one of the locals said to us you could have fired a cannonball down the main street that night and not hit anyone.
So that was our big night on the town.

Biloela is quite small but not so small, it has a local show, and this is a big deal in Biloela, all the locals can enter their wares in various competitions. Like best chook, best marrow, wheat, cow, cakes, baking, I think you get the picture. Well Wendy certainly did, she entered a number of photos in different categories and got 3rd place and two highly commended. She was on cloud nine. As well she should, they were great photos.
I am now an award winning photographer if I may gloat, haha. I also won $1.00, that is, one dollar, yeha.

We have just come back from our holiday in Cairns and we had an awesome time. The first night in, we went to the local safari park and had a night tour amongst the hippos, lions, rhinos, and bears. It was cool seeing these things at night as generally we see Australian animals. Johnathan loved the Syrian bears; you should have seen the claws on them. What an excellent way to start a full-on holiday.

Syrian Brown Bear.

We rented a car so organized to travel inland to Cobbold Gorge 6+ hours driving, a place we almost got a job at before deciding to stay on at Kroombit. There were lots of termite mounds and it was hot. We went on a 4wd tour and small walk before hitting a boat to go down the gorge and look at fresh water crocodiles. http://www.cobboldgorge.com.au/
Very cool place but no regrets about not going to work there. Kroombit continues to offer us so much.

Cobbold Gorge, Crocodilus Johsoni. Johnsons Fresh Water Crocodile
A split second after this shot he bolted for cover into the water in a microsecond, the boat was less than a meter from him. He is about 1.2 meters in length.

From Cobbold we headed back towards the coast, to the Undara Lava Tubes, http://undara.com.au/ these are the longest lava tubes on the planet, we did a couple of tours there to soak in the experience, a day visit through the tubes and a night animal sunset tour, the location was amazing. Johnathan wishes he could be more complimentary about our guide Tim, knowledgeable he was, but dynamic he was NOT.
Undara offered railway carriages as accommodation. The bloke who purchased the place saw theses carriages rusting in a Brisbane rail yard and purchased them and had them trucked on site and refurbished into rooms. After buying the property (including the lava tubes) and the train carriages and turning the lot into a tourist park, the government forced a sale and turned the place into a national park, so now there are other tourist operators working at the place.

The next morning we were up at 4.45am because of the long drive ahead and because it was Cassandra’s birthday so we wanted to make sure we had at least the afternoon in civilisation. We went to Port Douglas and the Daintree, we however did not swim in the ocean as it was windy and beach was all muddy and rough. The Daintree River was not swimmable either as salt water crocodiles live there. So instead we did a boat cruise down the Daintree. This was relaxing and super cool as we saw both big and little crocodiles in the wild on their turf.

Then we went back to Cairns, we took in the Skyrail ride (cable car/gondolas) which travel over the rainforest for 8 km to Kuranda. We did all the tourist markets and watched hard rock candy being made. Basically they put all these coloured stripes of soft hot candy together in lengths and then rolled it together making it smaller and smaller as they stretched it out like spaghetti. The end result was a stick which said ‘I love Cairns’. Everyone watching could not believe it.

One of the highlights of our trip was a drive to a national park with waterfalls, Josephine Falls and Babinda Boulders. We had to walk a short distance in the bush to rock pools where Johnathan and Cassandra went swimming. At Josephine they went down a section of the waterfall, Cassandra was so brave and looked cool doing it. At Babinda, Johnathan met 3 locals who were jumping into a boulder strewn gorge and floating down a couple of sections. There are warning signs not to swim in this section and the brochure has a big warning on it, also on the left as you walk in is a commemorative plaque for a soul who came to visit and never left. Any way Johnathan was tempted by this adventure and decided to follow these locals (one of which had been drinking) so he proceeded to jump the 10+ metres, into the gorge below and floated down the two sections. He said it was an exhilarating buzz, and until the last day of the holiday it was the highlight of his trip. That was until we went out on the reef. Cassandra & Johnathan Under the Reef Magic dive platform.

We left the reef to the last day because the weather had been windy and the travel agent suggested it was going to be fine by Saturday. It turned out to be an awesome day. A full day at the Great Barrier Reef, it’s hard to put into words the sheer enjoyment we all had all day. That is if you don’t count the boat trip out there. Cassandra the smart little monkey had her head down reading, claimed she didn’t feel a thing. Johnathan walked around and ate all the time and I sucked on ice because apparentlyit cools you down and makes you feel better. Well at least I didn’t throw up on the way out. Lots of other passengers did. HA. Oops, I suppose I should not mislead you because truth is I loved those fish on the reef so much that on the way back I thought I should feed them. Not by choice I admit, my stomach was heaving on its own. Man I felt seedy. However this did not destroy my day though.
The reef is one of the coolest things we have done since being in Australia. When we got out to the reef we did a heli flight over it to get a birds eye view, it was awesome. We had planned on only snorkeling on our own but we ended up signing up for all the paid activities for an all-round experience. There were only 53 people on board so made it easier to access activities.
Johnathan and Cassandra did an introductory scuba dive while I went on a guided snorkel. Cassandra was amazing and took to Scuba like a duck to water, no issues. She also went on an advanced snorkel trip with Johnathan on the outer reef and loved it. We all loved the day it was awesome and I would recommend it to anyone who loves water and doesn’t get seasick!!!

For our last night out in town we walked the waterfront eateries looking for a place to eat. I (Johnathan) was astounded by the shocking prices and was damned if he was going to pay $30:00 for a steak. At Kroombit we eat a steak most days cut from the slab, and these prices were damn disturbing. We spent an hour walking and driving around and eventually gave up and went to McDonalds. Macca’s wins again. So don’t eat out in Cairns.

When we arrived back home we were greeted with a scene of destruction. It appears while away we had a visitor up to the verandah and he has torn up the grips and seat on Wendy’s exercise bike. Boss (the cockatoo) had missed us and decided to visit, not sure if his destruction was vindictive or just him being him. Usually he comes up and pulls all the screws and nuts out of Johnathan’s tool box and then runs for shelter if he is caught in the act. Apparently he went missing for 2 days while we were away. As soon as he saw us last night he came a running. It is nice to be home.

Well, as updates go that is it. We now have to save for our trip home to NZ at Christmas.

The great Barrier Reef.

Guess What!

2008-04-14T13:28:00.011+12:00

No real surprise we have signed up to remain working at Kroombit till Christmas 2009. We are staying to enable Cassandra to complete her all important exam year at school, next year. She has settled well to her new school, Biloela State High, and has made a few friends so it seems prudent to take advantage. She has been for a sleep over and went to a rock festival and she tells us her friends made her put on a little bit of make-up before they went out. She is growing up, but not too quickly. She is doing really well at school, and recently received a Certificate of Merit for Engineering Technology. Proud parents are we.
She has decided she might change her subjects for next semester (last half of year), she wants to look at Biology so might have to drop chemistry. She is considering marine biology as a career, but has changed her mind a couple of times so will wait and see. It is quite exciting seeing her considering her future.

It is currently the school holidays and we went to Rockhampton, we explored the Capricorn Caves a rare above ground cave system, Wendy then found another Animal rescue sanctuary (she has a knack of sniffing them out) we spent 3 hours feeding the animals and flattened the batteries on the camera.

We have been to Rockhampton a couple of times, shopping and relaxing. One time we went, we fished and I caught a turtle. Just as well we have a personal catch and release philosophy, as it was kind of cute. We are missing our pets now we have stopped for a while; however we are not allowed any pets here, because the boss says so. We have to be content with the farm dog, which lies around all day doing nothing and the cockatoo “Boss” who is currently being a real teenager; he is loud and showy and has a tendency to bite people for no reason at all. He also is less cuddly as a result. We have considered taking home a “stray” but don’t think the “stray” ploy will work.

We would like to share stories of our adventures but given we have decided to settle here for a while we have become domesticated so haven’t really been out to do much. We have been working long hours so the money is good as it will allow us to save to come home for xmas.

We are all well currently but this has not always been the case.The mind may remain young and vivid but the bodies are beginning to show the wear and tear of being in our forties. Johnathan has been wearing a wrist brace for a couple of months now. He was chasing wallabies on the motorbike but they have better turning dexterity than Johnathan had on the bike so he bit the dust, dislocated his thumb and hurt his wrist. Now he has some troubles lifting significant weights, or doing certain maneuvers with that hand. He also went for a cat scan recently because when he tips his head forward he gets tingles up his leg. I’ve told him to stop tipping his head forward, and that will solve the problem. Results from scan indicate nothing wrong, but his leg still tingles. He is going to go to chiropractor to see if they can help. He really wants to ride at the Biloela Rodeo in May but I have told him not until he is all fixed up.

I have been helping out with the stock work on my days off. For my efforts I’ve had some lovely black bruises, the size of baseballs, three; one on my upper arm, one on my hip and one on my thigh. This was the result of me getting too close to a kicking cow that caught 3 areas of my body with just one kick. I had my revenge though and she got the jigger (shock thingy) on her rump, good job that’ll teach the bitch.

Wish we had something exciting to tell you about but we are just like everyone else now settle into a routine. Johnathan still dreams of hunting and is excited about coming home at xmas as he thinks that is all he will be doing. We shall see.
A couple of cassandras holiday shots from her time in NZ.

Cassandra on holiday in New Zealand, catching up with Sean & Iokepta.

Sean & Cassandra at rainbows end hitting the slots.

The Luxury of clean toes.

2008-01-28T18:28:00.000+13:00

Let me just say we are proud to be Kiwi’s, but on occasion when we meet other kiwis, that are travelling the Oz Experience circuit we almost want to deny our heritage, only because some people we have met are complete and utter dicks. Mind you it is not just the kiwis, there are lots of idiots travelling, and I think it must be a generational thing, perhaps I am getting old?
Putting that aside it is interesting to hear some of the fears and uncertainty from a lot of the backpackers. They think that suddenly because they are in the outback they will see more snakes and spiders; it is great fun to take the piss, because we don’t think there any more out here than anywhere else. Anyway, we show them to their rooms (bush cabins) which are a bit like stables (unlined, with big gaps between the roof and the wall), which allows for airflow. You hear gasps and squawks when instead of spiders they see little geckos, big eyes and suction cup feet, and then exclamations of “I’m not sleeping here”. They are absolutely delighted when you inform them they should be glad they have geckos because that means there are no spiders. One girl even tried to go and claim geckos from other cabins for her room. Not sure why they care, as most of them are so drunk when they go to bed they wouldn’t even know if a spider or snake nested in their bed.
The reality of it all is there are some incredibly poisonous animals here. On the ground you occasionally see little perfectly round holes with webs over them. Of course the curiosity is peaked (Wendy’s’ curiosity) and out come the sticks and the poking starts at a good arm length away. There have been some really big spiders in those holes, poisonous hairy ones with big fangs. I have stopped doing it now just in case I accidentally piss one off that can jump. The other day one of the staff girls came to kitchen carrying a t-shirt which she had left on the line (for a long time), attached to it was a big spider, when it was poked with the ever handy stick, the f***** thing took off really fast shooting a ½ cm web out its bum. That was really freaky, especially given we decided it was a funnel web spider, very deadly. Scary, because I thought they only lived in holes in the ground, now I will have to check clothes that aren’t used for a while, like raincoats.
Since our December blog about Johnathan’s bronco ride there have been subtle little hints about when he is next going to ride, nothing is planned just yet but that is mainly because of scheduling. We are currently on holiday on the Sunshine Coast after dropping Cassandra off at the airport, she was nervous about flying on her own but also very excited and it was interesting to see our little girl spreading her wings. She in fact kept asking us when we were leaving, so she could go it alone. In the end we stayed until it was 20 mins prior to her flight beginning to board.
We have a luxury of an apartment with a bath and a shower. Johnathan has had several baths as we only have showers at home. You can luxuriate in a bath in way that you can just not do anywhere else and you feel clean and relaxed. This brings us the point of clean toes. It is amazing how little things can provide such enjoyment. At the farm there is so much dust and when not in work boots we all wear scuffs with holes in them as they are easy to slip on and off. Problem with these is your feet and toes get very dirty. Johnathan came back one day saying “look clean toes” to which Cassandra and I beamed back with smiles of full teeth. Now don’t picture this wrong, we all shower daily, but this standard routine does not get all the dust off that builds up round your toe nails. We don’t have to worry quite as much anymore though as we have moved out of the tent and now live in a little cottage with a big verandah. It is beautiful, as although we all still live in the same room, we now have our own shower and toilet. So our feet don’t get dirty walking from the shower to our home. The best thing about having a house is Cassandra now has a formal area to study which doesn’t get dusty and she won’t have to put everything away between uses to stop it getting dirty or wreaked from the elements.
While on holiday we also have a TV and have found ourselves watching that a lot. One of the highlights of this holiday was “The Police” concert we went to in Brisbane. Johnathan was in fine form and being a big, big fan of them he knows all the lyrics. He even suggested his singing voice was as good as Stings, I was quick to inform him this, may have been purely because we couldn’t actually hear him (Johnathan) singing over the music from the speakers. Oh, how deluded some people are! To finish the evening off we had a visit from the actual men in blue, back at our hotel, at 1.30am. The neighbouring room had had a computer stolen and had been verbally discussing (in loud voice) it for about 2 hours prior to the Police coming. They had heard our computer shut down and must have informed the Police during their visit so they came to check, sucked in, ours was a different brand. The police and the Hotel both apologised to us. Oh the city is an exciting place, not. We could never live in one again.
Not sure if you have been keeping up with the weather or the current affairs of Australia but big things weather wise have been happening, big floods and damage costs in the millions. Anyway it is hard to put into words which will evoke the emotions we have about our area. We have not personally had floods but we have had what would be close to a miracle. Imagine a mind-boggling experience which is almost unbelievable. We have for a long time joked about Australians not knowing what a creek is because all the creek crossings here are dry, just empty sand beds. Anyway we have one of these empty sand beds running through the park, where the horse trail ride and walks happen. There are trees and Lantana growing everywhere and this sand bed has been this way for over 4 years. Anyway we have had no rain except for about 11 mm over the last 3 weeks; everywhere has been getting storms and floods. We are in a bit of a valley and the rain goes around or dumps itself on the range about 12 km away. We had no inclination of the amount of water which had been rained on the range. Johnathan went to take a couple of staff members up the creek bed to a water hole about 6-9km from the park the other day. The track crosses over the dry creek bed several times to get to the place. Anyway Johnathan had got only about 2 km from the park and there was water flowing down the creek, he crossed that one, but by the time he got to the third one he had to turn the 4WD around and come back. When he called the park on the 2way radio to tell them, he was not believed. The boss’s son in law rushed out to check for himself. Back at the park the water was not running, so Johnathan and Andrew went out on the motorbikes following the creek bed backwards to see where the water was. They met the water coming down about 1km from the park. When they measured its speed by placing a rock in the water and one in front in the dry it was travelling about 1 metre every 30 seconds. Later in the day they visited the wharf at the park which when you stand under it you can not touch it and the water was slowing coming toward it. Standing under the wharf Johnathan said the water on his right was ankle deep and the area on his left was dry as the water hadn’t yet reached it.

This wharf is at least 7 feet of the ground, the following day the end was under water, 20 minutes before this photo the creek was bone dry.

When we got up the next morning the water was running past the park and this meant another visit to the wharf was required. This is the amazing thing, and I wish I could describe it so your heart wells up like ours did; the wharf was covered in water. We are talking about a creek about 10 metres wide and over 6 feet deep, appearing from nowhere, all within 24 hours. It was the coolest and most exciting thing I have ever experienced. We went for swim in that water, off the wharf. Johnathan even took a horse in for a swim with another staff member. He and Cassandra also headed back into the farm up to the first river crossing, which was now too deep to drive through. He suspended a rope across to help them cross then they went up stream and rode the rapids down using the body board. Cassandra said it was better than the Wet’n’Wild theme park.
We have been told the water will last most likely until about June and once it seeps into the ground it will provide water for the park for about 18 months.
Coming from NZ I had trouble comprehending it. What is also amazing is the floods that happened inland are going to cause floods on the coast but they have had 10 days to prepare for the torrent of water that will eventually make its way down the rivers towards the coast. It is like waiting for clock ticking, they estimate the flood will hit Rockhampton on Wednesday morning and the river will peak at 8.5 metres above its normal level. The water has had to travel approximately 400-500 km. Incredible!
Australia keeps giving us new experiences and we continue to love it.
We have a new addition to our family, his name is Boss and he is cool. He is cockatoo that fell out of a burnt tree and couldn’t fly. He was found before he was old enough to feed himself and we looked after for 10 days when he first arrived but have since inherited him because the girl that had him has left the Park. Cassandra has the job of feeding him mostly. He has the coolest personality and normally walks around the place picking up bright and colourful things. The other day he picked up a beer can and tilted it to his mouth. Boy, the backpackers loved that photo opportunity. He eats muesli and fruit but especially loves peas. He has been a bit adventurous lately as he is learning to fly. Unfortunately he has got lost a couple of times as he can get up but can’t get down from trees. It is silly as Johnathan and Andrew have been climbing trees to get him down as he looks really sad and pathetic after being up there for a while. To save ourselves the grief the boss trimmed his wings the other day to stop him flying off, this upset some staff but in reality he can not look after himself yet and his wings will grow back in about 8 weeks. We really miss having animals and Boss helps to fill that gap, but we are trying not to get too attached although I think it is already too late.
See you next time.

Yeha, Cowboy Johanthan Rides

2007-12-15T13:50:00.000+13:00

Remember we told you Johnathan had something in the wind we would share with you.

Well YEHA, he completed it. Johnathan rode a bronc’ horse in a rodeo.
The commentator introduced him, saying “I’ve just been told its this guy’s first ride”; “I don’t know if he is brave or crazy”. The reason for these comments was that Johnathan when initially asked was going to do a ‘Station Buck Jump’ (the semi tame version). Basically you take a regular stock saddle and strap it to a horse with a little gumption. However as luck would have it, the Rodeo season was nearing the end and Johnathan missed the Station Buck Jump so the alternative was a 2nd division Saddle Bronc’ Ride, (not so tame). But fate was to intervene and the Rodeo closest to Kroombit only offered the big boys ride, 1st division, and (the extreme ride for the professionals). Now remember Johnathan only learnt to ride when he came to Kroombit, so he had about 6 months experience under his belt, so is far from being called a professional. Anyway, he decked himself out in serious boots, spurs, chaps and ‘Bullzeye’ rodeo shirt, (At least he looked the part), Johnathan got in the shute and lowered himself onto to a horse. The commentator called for some gate pullers and he was away. Up, down, up, down, up, down, “Johnathan stay in that saddle” yelled the commentator while the crowd went wild. He managed to stay on that bucking horse for 5 seconds before being bucked off, yeha. He says he had the most amazing exhilarating ride, and “when can I do it again”. The smile is only just leaving his face now 2 weeks later. We have attached some photos taken from video so you can get an idea of his triumph. Yeha, cowboy Johnathan will ride again.

Well we're in no hurry

2007-11-23T13:57:00.000+13:00

Wendy took this shot at the Callide Dam, in the background is the Callide power station and coal mine.

The temperature here is hot, that is 24c+ by 7am, which takes some getting used to and cancels any ideas of having a sleep in as the tent radiates the heat and heats up like sauna. On the reverse though it is equally weird to find yourself hunting out a jumper in the evenings because it has cooled down to about 22c from the 30’s it was during the day. Sometimes we find ourselves missing the crisp cold air of Taupo.

Work has slowed down a bit at present so we just had 4 days off and went to the beach 2 hours away to do some fishing. We have bought a 4 person pup tent as it is difficult to take the trailer tent down for such a short period. Anyway we got to the beach and were putting up the tent when we got attacked by midges, not like ours at home. Remember here in Australia they do things by extremes, usually on the enormous side, however on this occasion, the buggers are smaller than a pinprick (not a pinhead, but the smaller end). They are so small you can hardly see them with the naked eye. Anyway they bite quite severely but don’t swell up for about 6 hours and only get itchy after about 10-12 hours. These little suckers are not discriminate either because Johnathan was covered in bites within about 30 minutes and insects don’t normally bother with him. The story however does not stop there. I have had mosquito and sand fly bites before but they are nothing compared to these. These bites got incredibly itchy and it is very hard not to scratch. Cassandra could not resist and is now all poxy looking as the bites get infected quickly because they form a blister and when you scratch they pop. The worst of it is they don’t get better, in fact, they got worse after the first few days. It is now day 8 and the buggers are still really itchy but at least they have lost there power to drive you crazy. Our beautiful NZ skin is covered in scabs; that is all of us, not just Cassandra and Wendy. A hint if you come over put insect repellent on as they don’t like it but we didn’t know this and by the time we put repellent on we already had a few dozen bites.

About the fishing it was incredibly windy so ocean fishing was off for one day but the next day we persevered and fought the waves. We caught nothing but saw a few big turtles just 20 metres from the shore. Johnathan had a couple of good bites but the fish got away so all we can do is exaggerate the size of the fish we reckon bit the hook. The beach we stayed at had stinger warnings for later in the year, and shark buoys which have baited hooks and supposedly keeps the sharks away from the shore. Quietly, I had no intention of going in, but Johnathan and Cassandra put on wet suits and frolicked in the water. Its like all those nature documentaries, the likeness to seals was incredible and they must have looked delicious to anything swimming past, but on this occasion obviously the sharks were on a daytrip elsewhere because both of them left the water fit and well. Oddly enough a few weeks after we left this beach 2 crocodiles, 3 metres long were spotted in the surf and the beach was closed. Apparently it is breeding time and they might have been looking for extra food.

Apart from the stinger and shark signs, we saw signs at the local tidal estuary which advised that there were crocodiles about so to stick to the path. Yeah right, why would you even enter the path if there were crocodiles? I have seen those things move when there is food around, and personally I could not run fast enough. (Johnathan was not worried; he says he can run faster than me). It kind of worries me that there were no crocodile signs at the beach, which was some 5-10 kms from the tidal areas, but there are obviously crocodiles given the recent sighting. I think I am going to remain hot and sweaty for the rest of my time in Australia because it isn’t safe to swim anywhere.

You would have heard me moaning about the kitchen work a bit recently, it has been wearing a bit thin and we have passed our original commitment date we gave the boss. So I have been slowly whittling away at him asking to be trained on the horses. Finally my perseverance has paid off as today I went for my first ride as a guide. I learnt how to saddle etc. The biggest thing to learn will be identifying horses as they have over 30 horses.
I feel it is a bit of an achievement as I can be seen as more than just the ‘kitchen bitch’ now. Horse riding doesn’t really feel like work yet either, I guess once I have repeated the process a few times I will feel like I am working. Johnathan has been experiementing with different horses as he increases his horse riding skills. He has just started riding a horse called Buster (name earnt after he busted another staff members arm). Interestingly, the more experienced staff are scared of this horse, not sure what this tells us about Johnathan? It should be mentioned this horse was a wild brumby caught in the national park and can be very flighty and scares easy. Maybe Johnathan's brain is being addled as he has already been thrown (twice) off a horse just one step less mad than Buster, called Grasshopper.

Grasshopper

Talking of horses we had a new addition to Kroombit yesterday, nah not a horse but a donkey foal (not sure if a baby donkey is a foal but never mind). The most prominent thing about him are his gynormous ears, I guess he will have to grow into them. Cassandra was doing her morning chicken feed run and spotted him shortly after he was born. She feels cool because she got to see him first and was able to spread the news.

The boss needed some money so decided to muster in some of his Brahman cows to see if they have fattened up after all the rain. Anyway it was all going to happen over a couple of midweek days apart from the initial muster. Given I was working in the kitchen I asked the boss about going and he told me they would be mustering by helicopter on Saturday. Unfortunately the helicopter can’t take passengers but that didn’t worry me. Instead the boss and I, with a couple of others, went out in the 4wd drive to help with the muster. That was getting gates open and holding stock in position while the helicopter flew around. It was an awesome experience. I commandeered the front seat so I was the “gate bitch”, but it also meant I had access to a door to get out and take photos. Australia keeps opening up new experiences.
One of the eperiences offered close to Kroombit is the crash site of a WW2 Liberator bomber on the Kroombit Tops.The site is only 9kms as the crow flies or a 63km 4WD track over farm country and rugged hill terrain. Johnathan had the opportunity to go with Alan (the park owner) to check the track out before they started taking tourists up this season. This is Johnathan's account. Basically a day trip we headed up early and saw a host of Aussie wildlife along the way. When we finally reached the site I was filled with awe and found it a very solemn experience. I had heard the story many times, read about it and had even told the story to all the groups I had taken on the sunset hill walk.
In 1943 Beautiful Betsy rolled of the production line. Due to the recent bombing of Pearl Harbour the Americans sent about 34 planes to Australia to protect them from the Japanese. Beautiful Betsy and a few others were based at Fenton close to Darwin. They would fuel and load bombs there then fly to Darwin, refuel then fly to Indonesia to bomb Japanese fuel sites. The distance was at the outer limits for the plane and no combat could be engaged. On Beautiful Betsy first flight she landed heavy at Darwin and damaged her tail, she was repaired and went on to do many bombing runs. On one run she ran into weather difficulties and the plane went into a spin, the pilot corrected it and brought her home. The plane on inspection had a twisted fuselage. (The plane was never designed to fly upside down and this was the only reported case of a B24 bomber being flown inverted) Due to this she was converted to a Parachute jump practice plane and later used for supply flights inside Australia.In 1945 on one of the flights to Brisbane from Darwin, She had a crew of 8, 6 American Airmen and 2 British Spitfire pilots, one going to be married, and the other his best man. This was a “Fat Cat Mission” basically to pickup Coke, Chips & Ice cream for a function for the 308 Bomb Group. During this flight Beautiful Betsy encountered a storm, flew off course and crashed into the Kroombit Tops (a mountain range). She was looked for many times but remained hidden until 1994 when discovered by a forest fire warden. A combined Australian, British & American team checked the site and only recovered 7 of the 8 identity ‘dog tags’.

Alan and engine
The site has been left as commemoration to those onboard. As I walked the crash site I was amazed by the ruggedness of the terrain and the destruction of the plane most of the fuselage has been destroyed and burnt up, the wing and tail sections being the only recognisable bits. There have been stories of souvenir hunters coming to the spot (which is not easy to get too) and removing parts of the plane. Apparently one lot sawed off half a wing, (what would you do with it? and why do you need a wing?) There are some real low lifes in the world. I was moved by this day trip but it was not over yet’ we then took an extremely rugged section of road down to a dry water fall in a very narrow gorge with rock escarpments either side. Absolutely stunning. Visit http://www.a-b24-d-liberator.com/ for more info. We made a commitment to coming home in 2 years time but I feel that prospect is getting further away as we have not really done any travelling yet. We could be working and travelling for the next 10 years. Not sure Cassandra would be in agreement with this but who knows, she seems content enough. We have bought her tickets home for a holiday in January she is really looking forward to going home for a week. We have joked about making sure we get her a return ticket. While she is away Johnathan and I will have a holiday and explore some more, and also go to The Police concert. Yeha, a tent to ourselves.
We have decided to stay in Biloela until Easter and put Cassandra in school for a term and get her socializing with kids her own age. She needs to get back into it as she is very content to be on her and read. She is worried the uniform will be a skirt, but she is lucky because I know it is shorts.

Watch this space, Johnathan has some news after December 1st. Although it is not as exciting as the fact that my birthday is soon.

Visions of the past

2007-11-23T13:31:00.000+13:00

These are the photos we were not able to post previously, so a bit of a catch up.

In Rockhampton they had a myriad of these giant bulls around the town, look ath the set of 'jatz crackers' on this boy.

The tower on the left is the abseil tower Wendy dragged her ass up, 'YEHAA'

Australia Zoo visit with Trish & Bruce, Trish here feeds one of the Australians that did not refer to her as "darl'

This guy was crossing the road and was 75% the width of the road. And he was as round as a drain pipe. He is the bastard that lunged and hissed at Wendy as she drove by.

This is the blackboard that Wendy painted up for Al's bar.

Pot that chicken

2007-09-22T11:52:00.000+12:00

Have you ever stood behind someone on a video game or a side show and been quietly thinking you need to do this or that etc, etc. Well most of us can relate to this and most likely most of us would be somewhat discreet about our unsolicited advice but apparently not for my sister Trish. We have just been to Brisbane to catch up with her and Bruce and son Terry and his wife Amy. Anyway, we had a lovely few days and a few laughs as the saying “pot that Chicken” was bandied about. As the story goes (my accuracy may be a little off). At Dreamworld Trish found a woman playing in a sideshow type game and stopped to have a look. There was a rotating platform with pots or buckets on it and you had to throw a rubber chicken into the container to get a prize. Trish apparently thought she wasn’t doing so well and was giving advice (but not as quietly as she thought it seems) anyway Trish suggested the woman did it a little harder the next time, still a miss so then the advice was just a bit gentler, which was followed and a bulls eyes was achieved at which time Trish let out a “yahoo, pot that chicken” and a “you beauty” (or something similar). This allowed for some frequent piss taking by Terry and Bruce during our visit. Funnily enough Trish also took a liking to the saying made infamous by the Crocodile Hunter “CRIKEY” and when she wasn’t saying “pot that chicken” she was spouting that. Although she also picked up another euphemism which she absolutely loved (not), which was the word “darl”(darling), I think by the time she went home she was ready to slug the next unsuspecting shop assistant who addressed her as “darl”. We had lots of fun in Brisbane and it was lovely to catch up. However it was nice to return to the farm and away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Country life is very relaxed, yet tiring at the same time. We have been very busy with school groups. Kids are a drain, although Johnathan has enjoyed doing activities with them, of which Cassandra has joined in a few. Wendy and I are the mainstay for the early breakfast routines.
Staff have been a bit touchy and there is some conflict which can be very tiring. Management made us try a team building exercise the other day and I (Wendy) climbed a tower which was extremely hard work and I surprised myself and achieved the rock climb which would be about 15 metres. Pretty scary stuff, Cassandra has also done it on another occasion. I was not brave enough to abseil back down though.

Life although peaceful and calm is sometimes a little scary, we hit a kangaroo one day and were very lucky because it hit the front fender but didn’t leave a mark, but out hearts aged about 6 hours in that 2 minutes as they were pumping very hard. We have seen all sorts of animals on the roads here, echidna’s, snakes, roo’s etc. One day Cassandra and I saw a big python crossing the road and when I stopped and called out the window at him to get off the road he turned around and lunged and hissed at me. Another 6 hours of my hearts life. Actually there are days my heart ages more that it should. The weather has been really hot here and the snakes have come out of hibernation and started to feed. We saw a 1 and ½ metre red belly black snake (they are poisonous) fighting with a bird and then 3 hours later we heard this weird squeaking noise and when Cassandra and I went to explore we found another snake with its jaws spread around a frog and the squeaks were his death call. The snake refused to leave and had to be removed. But the bastard came back the next day. PS. I forgot to tell you this was right outside the kitchen, and when he returned I jokingly told the boss “I quit”. My stress levels and vigilance has just gone up now snake season has started. Bloody slimy bastards appear to be quite common here.

Yay, it is Cassadra’s 14th birthday and we have come to town so she can go to a movie
“Hairspray”, she thoroughly enjoyed it. I went as well because it was 9pm at night and didn’t want her sitting on her own. Oh, the things we do as parents, it was a rather torturous experience although John Travolta did look very authentic in his wobbly fat suit. She is growing up really fast and seems to be doing well. She gets on really well with staff as they are only a few years older than her.

A few weeks back Cassandra and Johnathan went to a local rodeo in a town called Moura, (pronounced Mara, that Australians for you). A couple of staff were competing so most of the other staff & guests were travelling out to watch and support them. Wendy was not going so Johnathan took a car full of staff and headed out early. Good thing he headed out early, as he went the wrong way and ended up travelling for 5 hours to get to a destination 50 minutes away. Get this we got there 30 minutes before the first event so all we missed were all the stalls and sideshow attractions, bloody lucky.

We are still doing the odd excursion and recently visited Rockhampton, We loved the place a nice mix of history and quaintness. Rockhampton is touted as the beef capital of Queensland because it produces most of the beef in the state. It should be the fiberglass cow capital as we have never seen so many bull statues around, every other building had a bloody cow on the roof looking down and the main centerpiece coming into town was a giant bull.

Snakes and bovines aside we are all still doing well and enjoying our relaxed lifestyle. Keep in touch.

Will add photos later as this current connection will not allow.

Kroombit Life

2007-07-28T23:49:00.000+12:00

We are all adapting well to life at Kroombit Park in Biloela, and we could give an account of it all, but you could be reading for a while, and our aim is not to bore you. We have been at Kroombit now for about 2 ½ months and things are progressing well.
We have been busy getting involved in local life as well as taking breaks away to explore.
We attended the local Biloela show/rodeo and were impressed, the rodeo was huge with bull riding, bronco horse, single and double roping events (where the cowboys jump from moving horses and wrestle horned steers to the ground). The bulls here are a lot meaner looking than the ones we have seen on the NZ circuit, so made for an exciting evening.
Cassandra got a chance to be a kid and drove Johnathan round on the dodgems, and then tried her luck on the rifle target shooting (complete with dodgy sights) she did really well, but unfortunately due to dodgy sights didn’t walk away with any of the tacky show prizes. Only thing missing was ‘hangi’ which has always been part of our NZ rodeo experience.

We have had a couple of occasions where we have had time off and taken road trips. One trip, we went to Gladstone on the coast, it rained for 3 days. Gladstone has very little going for it. It lacked some basic things for a big coastal town, for starters ‘atmosphere’, a bookstore (despite having a population of 20 000 people, apparently they are not readers so the bookshop closed down), an internet café and a host of things you would expect in smaller towns. Even the locals we met spoke disparagingly of it. We shouldn’t be too scathing though as we actually had a good time, we did an industry tour and visited the Aluminum Smelter and the Alumina plant. Cassandra later did a school project about them. Cassandra and Johnathan also had a go at archery at an indoor Archery café. It is quite interesting to watch the father daughter competitiveness.Other places we have visited were Cania Gorge, about 140 km away. The Cania dam is only at 5% water and the gorge was powder dry. We did a few of the walks through the rock escarpments and caves, the place is amazing. This weekend we have come to Emerald which is about 4 hours away to catch up with our friends Lyn and Gary. We were only 30 mins from Sapphire where you can fossick for real sapphires so we went for a look. We did a mine tour which was interesting, and then attempted to fossick but ran out of time, as we needed to dig a big hole to get to an old river bed, which is where the sapphires are if you get lucky. We will come back one day and have a real go at it.
It has been really cold here in Australia with temperatures dropping well below zero even in places where it is completely unusual. What’s news worthy is the death of thousands and thousands of barramundi (which can be as big as 1+ metre long). Barramundi are warm water fish so they died because of the extreme cold, and they have washed up on the banks of heaps of dams around Australia. At Emerald we saw them and it is such a sad sight to see all these gynormous fish just lying on the beach of the dam/lake. They reckon it will take up to 18 months for the dams to recover.

Sometimes when we have time off we just stay at the park and go horse riding and walking. Other times we work on the farm on our days off sometimes, (although it doesn’t feel like work because it is still all really new and we are having the opportunity to do things we didn’t at home.)We have watched Brumbies being drafted, wild horses which have been rounded up by helicopter from the station; they breed in the Kroombit National Park which borders the station. They were drafted into 3 lots; one lot to be re-released, one lot sold for dog meat and the rest will be broken in for guests to ride. We have watched branding and then Johnathan helped draft 400 odd Brahmin cows, Johnathan had the chance to jump in the yard with them and push a few at a time, into the drafting race. I had a “Claytons” job (you know the job you have when you’re not really working, that is I worked on the overflow gate, to stop those that accidentally get drafted the wrong way. Of the 400 cows I only worked once). Johnathan reassured me I did a very important job, even though I almost fell asleep just standing there. The next day Johnathan had the opportunity to muster the drafted cows into their new paddocks; they need to be lead to and shown the water source, the paddocks are so big they have been known to die of thirst without finding the water. Johnathan clocked up over 20km in the saddle. Johnathan says this was by far some of the coolest days he has had in Australia. He continues to say he is definitely retired and never going back to fulltime work like we did at home. He gave us a laugh one day when we were discussing the possibility of staying on in Australia longer than originally planned. He was reminiscing about school and the parents making a big point telling us to do well at school or you could end up cleaning toilets. Guess what, he is cleaning toilets, and absolutely loves our lifestyle and what opportunities are availed us as a result of his willingness to clean up after people (some of which are complete pigs).

Although Johnathan started at the park with less than 4 hours work a day he has now got his finger in almost all facets of the park life. He has been riding horses and taking guests out on goat musters and assists with the goat rodeo, clay bird shoot. He has been taking groups of American students for an ecological walk up the local hill, cooking their breakfasts at 5am, and teaching them how to throw boomerangs and use bullroarers. He has been learning to ride a motorbike. He is doing boy things with the owner’s son in law (30’s), like blowing up things. They put 4 small gas canisters together with a small fire within a couple of feet and then fired a shotgun at them. Apparently it was spectacular, heat wave, mushroom cloud and laughter as 20 backpackers witnessed the madness which is Kroombit. They also convince these backpackers that cattle prodders don’t really shock that much. Therefore they all grab hands and count to 3, aha, suckers, at Kroombit we only count to 1 so they are shocked before they have a chance to stress about it. The odd backpacker has got their arse out for the crowd to laugh at as he gets shocked. Johnathan and Cassandra are having lots of fun. Cassandra is a regular participant on the goat muster and rodeo circuit and has been brave enough to join in the shock circle. Cassandra went on a muster one day and during the ride riders have to yell at the goats to scare them into moving. We usually use “aye up up up” but one of the guides Joe decided to get everyone to yell “Wendy” at the goats, so they did. The goats mustered well that day and Cassandra thought it was a great joke. She has ridden the mechanical bull and did well; she hung on for 3 seconds. No photos yet unfortunately.

There are lots of animals here, Cassandra feeds the donkeys Ned and Kelly, and they can be a bit naughty sometimes. One day they got through the gate when they weren’t supposed to and other times they wander the park, licking breakfast dishes and knocking them off the tables. They visit our tent site during the middle of the night licking our fry pan and making lots of noise. Cassandra gets to play with different animals that are here, Monty the baby python, Harry a ring neck parrot and some newly born kids (goats), Trigger and Princess. She is doing really well with her schooling and recently sat some mid year tests and scored 83% in a Math, 68% in English & 74% in Science, we are very pleased with the results. She is reading Harry Potter at the moment, she gets very deaf and we need to yell at her to get her attention. She is trying to get it read without other people telling her what happens, 2 of the staff are reading it and can tease her a bit by giving away bits.

We are letting our presence be felt and want people to know we are he, so have placed a signpost atop the local hill. There is a tree up there that has signposts marking local places of interest. Our sign marks Lake Taupo NZ and a directional arrow with distance, and is the biggest and most colourful. Already tourists have curiously asked what a NZ sign is doing up there, so it is getting the desired effect. Well on a final note Johnathan turned 42 the other day and a couple of staff gave him a birthday present. Some “velcro gloves”, strange present you think, not really as it was only part one of his present. Johnathan then got presented part two, a dorper sheep, red party hat and ribbons included. She has since been added to the rodeo event as a novelty. Oh the sheep jokes can be very funny sometimes. What was even funnier though was that the sheep got out of the paddock overnight and wandered around the park the next day with her party hat and ribbons still attached, all the guests thought it was a great joke.

Betty the Sheep

Working Stiffs

2007-06-07T12:49:00.000+12:00

Well we have left Gayndah, which was with some relief. Johnathan reckons it’s likely to be a feeling many a traveller has experienced after leaving the place, or at least those who have had the privilege of staying in the camping ground.
We took a roundabout route to Biloela, doing a detour to the city of Bundaberg. Which was incredibly green compared to Gayndah, this is mainly because of the sugar cane which is grown there. The soil is really red, the sky and sea really blue and the cane vivid green, we really enjoyed the bright colours after 6 weeks in dry, brown Gayndah. We took in the colour contrasts and the sights of the city by scaling the ‘Hummock’ (tiny hill) it is the only bit of raised ground for miles.
We stayed at Mon Repos` beach, which is a famous Turtle rookery (where the turtles come ashore lay their eggs and then 6 weeks later hundreds/thousands of little turtles attempt to make their way back to the ocean). It is a stretch of beach less than a kilometre long. Unfortunately we saw nothing, our timing was out, as this process happens between November and March. We did a couple of tourist things, Bundaberg Ginger beer, a working Cooperage (they make traditional barrels). We found a brochure promoting some mystery craters so we went to see them. They are hard to explain but basically it is 35 odd craters in the ground that scientist can’t explain, there is speculation they might be alien, meteoric or volcanic. Now 35 odd holes in the ground may not sound interesting at all, but having seen them they are quite odd and very interesting. They sit in a patch about 10 metres by 50 metres, with no sign of anything similar anywhere else.
After leaving Bundaberg we headed in land to Biloela.
Having now arrived in Biloela (Aboriginal for White Cockatoo) and working we are beginning to understand the Aussie urge to drink. We are situated about 500+ km North of Brisbane and about 180 km from the coast and the weather is dry and hot, temperature between 25-31*c daily. By the end of the day you are very thirsty, and wanting a drink. This place has it’s own bar so it is slowly becoming a ritual to sit and socialize with anyone who is around. My main concern is about developing a beer gut which seems to be common place with many Aussie drinkers (male); some guts here would be the envy of many heavily pregnant women.
We need to make an observation here, the culture here is a drinking one, perhaps we were a little sheltered at home because we weren’t a social couple and never really went out. It appears nearly everyone drinks, usually starting early afternoon. The pickers we worked with in Gayndah all appeared to be heading to pub at completion of the work day. Also noticeable are those that drink and then drive, remember the drunks from the camping ground in Gayndah, well they had a habit of drinking and driving and it always astounded us. Johnathan found a story in a local paper which he found humorous and wanted to share with you. It goes like this “A police officer is keeping an eye on the local pub at closing time intent on catching drunk drivers. Whilst he is sitting watching, a guy stumbled out the pub door and fell over; he got up and staggered to the car park where he tried his keys in several cars. When he finally finds his car he promptly turns the lights and windscreen wipers on, it was a fine night. He starts his car and reverses back a bit then finds a forward gear and moves a bit forward and stalls, at which point the cop thinks he’s got a right one here and pulls up in front of him. During this time other patrons have been filing out of the pub going to their cars and leaving. The cop gets the guy to do an evidentiary breath test. The cop is stunned when it is totally clear. He asks the driver to hop into the patrol car so he can take him to the station for a blood test as his equipment is faulty. At this request the guy says I don’t think so, “your equipment isn’t faulty mate, tonight I am the designated decoy.”
This article/story was titled Queensland where drinking and driving is considered a national sport.”
Back to Biloela, this place is very cool and rustic, we have our tent set up overlooking a gully of trees (Johnathan saw 2 deer about 40 metres away his first morning and almost had conniptions, he is chomping at the bit to go for a hunt now. The deer were domestic stock, let loose to feed and have never returned). There are trees everywhere within the camp grounds, the backpacker/guest cabins are situated under trees as well, which acts to keep the sun rays down a bit. The kitchen, dining hall (outdoor) and bar are all situated together. The cooking for the main meals is either done on BBQ or by camp oven, and the menu is repeated several times a week. The guests generally stay only one to two nights so hence the ability to repeat the menu. There is a saying here in response to the question “what is for tea tonight” and that is “beef” as that is essentially all they serve, either beef stew, beef roast, or corned beef or steak(beef). Along with this is soup (yes, ‘beef’ and vegetable) and damper. The damper I have made a few of and am getting quite proficient at making, so as long as we have flour we will not starve once we start travelling. It is a really easy recipe, 6 cups of flour, 4 cups of water and salt and that is it.
We have really settled here, we have all been on the horse ride, Cassandra has taken to the horse riding, and really enjoys it, she seems to have a natural ability and confidence for it. The horse ride involves a muster, where we round up goats and then they put them in the yards and guests do a mini rodeo with them. A team of three goes into the ring and one catches the goat, one tips it over and one mock brands it. This event is timed. Johnathan got on a team with a couple of guests and he was the catcher, (apparently he was shit at it, his team took over 50 seconds to complete the challenge), I saw three girls do it in 25 seconds, Johnathan reckons it was because they gave him a big goat. It is really funny to watch the goats first run around the pen and then once caught; get all passive resistant when the catcher starts pulling on their horns to get them to the tipper. I will attempt to get some pictures at some point.
Johnathan has had lots of fun since he arrived here, a school of 80 kids stayed (they were about 10-11 years). Anyway one of the little darlings left Johnathan a gift in the bathroom, which he didn’t find until after they left. Just remember Johnathan is the resident toilet cleaner. Johnathan has a very busy day ahead of him because he has 2 extra blocks of toilets to clean. So imagine his delight when he gets to the toilets the boys used and finds his gift, shit smeared all over the wall. (Johnathan told me he used to gag just changing Cassandra’s nappy when she was a baby). He was not amused and was ready to string the little bastard up.
Now he has spots of some unknown origin, and they are all over his body. He has been cleaning a dorm which has had bedbugs in it and we wondered if it was this, but Johnathan says it isn’t because he hasn’t felt it biting him. Hopefully it will disappear soon or he might find himself sleeping in the hammock outside.
They have a mechanical bull here which Johnathan reports he had a go on the other day, (my day off so I was still in bed and I missed his first attempt). Anyway he claims he mastered it really well (not) and he came straight of the front every time the bull started. Next time we write he might be able to actually ride the thing.
This place is close to paradise in some respects, but there are some pitfalls to the job as shown by Johnathan’s experience. For me, the kitchen bitch (as Leanne would say) the biggest issue is the age and maturity of some of the workers here, they are between 17-21 years old but some of them behave like kindergarten kids, lots of sulking, backbiting and a big lack of common sense or consideration for anyone other than themselves. They stand in the kitchen and get in the way when they aren’t on duty, either that or they are on duty but just don’t do any work. However, I will have it all sorted out soon, either that or I will turn into an alcoholic to deal with stress of it all. Nah, it’s not that bad, at least I don’t have little gifts left for me.
We are thoroughly enjoying ourselves here it is a cool place to work and live.

These mandarins have no stickers

2007-04-26T18:17:00.000+12:00

All I can say is “give me a desk job any day”. We have left the relaxed week in Miles with an aim of finding work to supplement our finances. I initially opted for a job in a Roadhouse (café style truck stop), unfortunately we didn’t score that job so decided we should start seriously looking for work. This would see us traipsing around farms to see who needed labour. We are in Gayndah “The citrus capitol of Australia”. However, as luck would have it, 20 minutes after this plan was formed a guy literally came and knocked on our tent asking if we were looking for work. We scored a job without lifting a finger. This no finger lifting lulled us into a false sense of security though, as now we are picking Mandarins and let me assure you, we are lifting every finger, and every branch of every tree looking for the little buggers. These are not the mandarins you and I know back home, (for one, they don’t have any little stickers attached to them), and as with everything Australian (remember the insects) they are upsized. The mandarins here are the size of an orange. They are also bloody hard to pick because they are so temperamental. We have to cut them off the tree with little clippers as you can’t pull them or you rip the skin, and you have to be careful not to nick or cut them with the clippers as they bruise and then get chucked on the reject pile.
From this point, I send out a plea to you all, next time you eat a mandarin, spare a thought for the little people who picked them. We are, together, picking 2 bins a day @$75 per bin; unfortunately my back can only handle 2 bins. Some pickers here are absolute machines picking 2-4 bins by themselves a day. We have been picking for a week now and are completely over it, but will persevere, only another 5 weeks to go, until we are rich enough to move on.
The last time we wrote we were at the Lyngary Homestead and had been for 9 days. We had a brilliant time. We had a chance to perfect camp oven cooking over coals and open fire. We did some running repairs and also added a low voltage plug to the back of the truck in preparation for a 3 way camp fridge. Gary helped Johnathan install a shelf in the rear of the truck doubling our capacity to carry more crap. It’s amazing how much crap you pick up. Apart from the chance to just rest and learn heaps from Lyn & Gary who have been on the road for years, they showed us round the sights. We had a chance to see the Dingo fence (Rabbit proof fence, Dog fence, vermin fence, call it what you want) it is the longest continuous fence in the world. It has a maintenance track on either side and has regular crews maintaining it. I was absolutely blown away by this; it is a real piece of living history. (Hire the movie Rabbit Proof Fence).
We also saw a 900 strong herd of cattle on a drovers run right down the main route. The cattle just walk down the road and the verges. There were only 3 people & 2 horses controlling the herd and no dogs. That’s how they get feed and water by sending them on the run. There is a series of designated water stops along the way, and several cattle droves will pass by using the route.
Whilst at Lyngary we found a spider (in a little hole in ground which makes us think it was a trapdoor spider, with very big fangs)(after an internet check we are more inclined to think it is a mouse spider). Anyway, I digress the reason I thought it relevant to share this with you, is this sucker was gi-normous. It was the size of a small mouse. Gary our host at Lyngary suggested we kill it. “Go get something to kill it with Johnathan”, Johnathan proceded to attempt to stone it to death, and then picked up the stone to check to see if it had died. Oh no, the bloody thing, decided it wanted a piece of him, we all jumped back in horror as Johnathan threw the stone at it and then took the shovel to it. As you can imagine my nightmares were pretty rampant that night.
It was rather a shame to leave it (Lyngary) all behind for the safety of Gayndah. Life here is slow like the locals. (Nah just jesting) But must comment on the Australian women, a lot of them seem to have very high pitched squeaky voices (which is very irritating when you live in a tent and your neighbours are only 5 metres away). Talking of bloody neighbours, we are ensconced in the local caravan park and we lucked it (not) with our site. We got the one next door to the drunks, they go to bed, turn their TV up loud because obviously when they are drunk their hearing doesn’t work so well. Anyway, because they are drunk they then fall asleep with their very loud TV blaring only 5 metres from my head when I am trying to sleep. I tell you, I could bloody well near kill them, instead I resorted to only turning their power off in an attempt to reset the volume of the TV, thank god it worked or you might have seen my face on TV for some other heinous crime. Oh! With this travelling lark, you need to have a sense of humour and a pair of ear plugs.
Resident next to the park is the local Sasquatch or so we initially thought, so much so we snapped a blurry shot of it moving through the trees, it’s that kind of place. In fact it is just a very big and very, very hairy man.(photo attached) (Like I said you need to have a sense of humour).
When we aren’t breaking our backs with mandarins we have been fishing in the local river. There are Barramundi, Catfish, Perch and the oddest of all is the prehistoric Lungfish (Ceratodus). We have all caught one; they are over metre and really put on a good fight. They are protected due to their rare status only 3 locations in the world they exist. The Burnett River seems to team with them here.
Seen as it has taken us so long to post this blog we now have an update. We are still in Gayndah, but not for long. The Mandarins on the orchard we were on have all been picked, we picked approximately 29 bins over 2.5 weeks). Wendy is now focused on Cassandra’s schooling and I am working 8 hour days packing 18kg boxes onto pallets in the Gayndah Pack house. (Mandarins, oranges, lemons, grapefruits. limes & lemonades, it is apparently Australia’s biggest pack house) You will love the company name Gaypack, short for Gayndah Packers. (you can imagine the jokes about the place) Apparently a few years ago, some hoons came to town and defaced the town sign. They removed the “n & d” and left a sign announcing “Gay ah”, we’ve been told it made the newpapers as the locals got in an uproar.
On the weekend just gone ( April 22nd) We travelled to Biloela (3.5 hours, NNW of Gayndah) for a job interview on a farm stay. A dream job.
Kroombit Park – the real Australian Outback http://www.kroombit.com.au/ the farm is called Lochenbar Station and it is a real working cattle station. We start in 2 weeks, both of us will be working, good wages and free accommodation and a chance to do all the activities.
It offers outback horse trails, goat mustering, lasso roping, whip cracking, goat rodeo, clay target shooting, mechanical bull riding, among a host of other things. Cassandra reckons best of all it has a pool.
I have to prepare breakfast at 5am for up to 200 guests (bacon & eggs) then I become the cleaner and general handyman (yes, toilets and pool included) and Wendy becomes the Kitchen bitch/cook.
The cooking is all traditional in the sens,e it is done camp/outback style, in giant sized cast iron camp ovens, the owner was saying the fire underneath has been burning continuously for more than 9 years.
The place is really busy as it has 2 conferences per week this season, a bus tour stops daily with backpackers & weekly a group of kids from Catholic schools, so a diverse daily group. (Anywhere up to 200 patrons a night)
It is hard to explain the rustic nature of the place, not 5 star, just basic camp accommodations in a rough and ready farm style. The surrounding forest is so dense that in 1994 at Kroombit Tops (National Park only a hop, skip and a jump away) they discovered a lost WW2 plane.
We are very excited to be moving to this new job as it is ideal and we get to take part in all that is on offer, real working holiday stuff. We plan on being there for 4 months. Allan, the owner was saying they have just gone through the wet season and did not get any rain. The drought here is really affecting everyone.
We start this role on May 9th and will try and get some photos up shortly afterwards to let you know where we are. Yes, Trish it has been a while since our last posting, sorry we will try to be more punctual.
One thing about moving from Gayndah is we will now have to cancel our Video membership and our Library card, this is how entrenched we were in this little town. I must say though I won’t be sad to see the back of this Caravan Park, it is definitely a lifestyle for some people which I can’t really comprehend, (that is, living permanently in a small van, at least I feel that I am going to move on soon. Lots of people live in caravans here).
Ok another update, we sent you all an email saying we updated our blog and we saw 30 odd visits and no update from us, SORRY! We sent the mail first and went to do the update and the bloody computer we were using was useless.
Anyway more news. We went for a flight around Gayndah in a 4 seat Cessna. The orchard (Yellowstone Citrus) owner Ritchie whom we were working for took us for a flight around town and over the next town of Binjour. We all loved the flight, most impressive, (and free). The dry brownness of Australia is massive, we saw entire creeks dried up and really low rivers and farm dams.
Ritchie owns and runs Yellowstone Citrus; he bought it 5 years back from a lady that was a bit loco. She had claimed to have seen a bear on the property and it made headline news, and the mayor and all got into it, people flew in from America to look for it and all. Local legend has it that a mobile zoo/circus vehicle had an accident in Binjour in the 50’s and the bear escaped. So when she made the claim, the legend propped up her story, anyway Ritchie called the farm Yellowstone Citrus after the Yogi Bear cartoons where Yogi lived. There you are a nice piece of local trivia for you.
Oh my god, we just found our own resident redback spider in our tent awning. We (Cassandra and Wendy) sprayed it to get rid of it and then left it hanging in the web thinking it was dead, we could wait for Johnathan to come home from work to get rid of the remains. BAD, bad decision, we went out for a short while, and when we came home the remains are gone?? We have no idea if it is dead and the ants have it, or if it has crawled away to lay eggs during its last dying breath. Oh, give me the innocuous spiders we have back home any day.
Soon we will have saddle sores and housemaids knees, but will post another blog to let you know if Kroombit lives up to expectations.

It's tiring being this relaxed

2007-03-21T15:36:00.000+12:00

Since our last posting we have been busy as you can imagine; relaxing, fishing, sightseeing. We moved on from Maleny because the rain didn’t look like it was going to let up much, so we packed up the tent whilst we had a dry spell and went about 40 minutes up the road. This move gave us better access to the coast, Noosa, Maroochyadore, and Moololaba.
We were so taken with Noosa Harbour we decided to rent a small boat for a few hours and go fishing. Cassandra and Wendy caught fish called Tripods; this was in reference to the aerial type protrusion sticking out of its head. After fishing we headed to a local surf beach, this swim for Johnathan and Cassandra was a chore and a half, as the current was really strong and the gap between the swim flags was only about 5 metres wide. Every time you went under a wave you came up almost outside the flags and had to try and get back in. This type of swimming is outside my ability and likes (I dislike surf beaches) so I didn’t swim. So later we found out about another beach where you can float with the current. So we headed to Bulcock Beach at Caloundra and because it is the outlet to sea it is sheltered and has no waves but it has a good current. Basically we walked up the beach, got in the water, floated down to the entrance, got out and did it all over again. Was fun most of the time with the exception of the fish fleeing? I was contentedly floating when all of a sudden the fish (little tidlers) come towards us in schools, but leaping from the water (like a Mexican wave). I got very scared as Johnathan said they were doing this because something bigger was chasing them. My immediate thoughts went “shark”, but Johnathan assured me it wasn’t that big. I am still here, so whatever it was, it obviously didn’t like the look of our backsides floating in the water, ‘oh what a relief’.
We have found another walk through quite different forest again, this one was right in the middle of a populated area but you would never have known it was in the ‘burbs’. It followed a creek and was very peaceful. Some guy was swimming in the rock pool and it was obvious he didn’t see us as a few minutes after we moved up the track he let out a Tarzan call to which Cassandra and I to burst out laughing. We tried to encourage Johnathan to reply but he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

We have even jumped on the tourist wagon and decided to spend money doing the tourist thing, so we visited the Ginger Factory, which was very interesting and informative and very impressive for presentation.

We have since stayed privately; basically we stay with a host who provides accommodation, food and ablutions etc in exchange for work. We were lucky as the host was only working us a couple of hours a day which freed us up to do our own thing later in the day.
Johnathan was gardening and I painted. Cassandra did her school work so this was good as it doesn’t interrupt our own time later. There was also a young Korean lad staying there and we took him fishing, his first time and he landed a big fish. The look on his face was classic.
Our host Andrew turned tour guide and took us down to a set of lakes only used by locals, 4WD access only. Beaut, we were the only ones there in the middle of a forest. Driving back we encountered our first kangaroos in the wild when two bounded across our path. On the way there we also glimpsed the rear of a dingo escaping the scene too.
Andrews place was set on 30 acres of eucalypts about 35kms out of Gympie, the place just teamed with wild life, he had King Parrots coming down to feed on seeds he left out and he had a resident python that lived under the floor.
While in Gympie we went panning for gold and Wendy got gold fever when we struck gold (tiny flecks, but gold it was).
From there we travelled to Kingaroy. While there we walked the Bunya Mountains, where Bunya trees drop 10kg seed pods, carrying up to 100 seeds bigger than walnuts. We went skinny dipping ("no Johnathan, only you went skinny dipping") at Coombar Falls, the falls were dry but the rock pool was very deep, it looked very ancient with some weird grass trees. (Photo attached).
We walked an abandoned train tunnel at Muntapa, well not totally abandoned as it is now home to 8000 micro bats. They let us know they were there too, flying all over the place swooping very close to heads and faces so we quickly retreated. It was so dark it was just a case of pointing the camera towards the roof and pushing the button. Some photos turned out really well.
Next place we stopped for the night was at Archers Crossing on the Condamine River. The river looked like a shallow thick chocolate milkshake. This was 10kms down a dirt road, free camping, yeeha, no power, toilets or water, no cost. It was fantastic, teaming with Wallaroos. (Cross between Kangaroos and wallabies)That night we christened the outback toilet and outback shower we had got, sheer luxury. (Dallas the shower runs off a boats bilge pump) We did not see or hear a single soul the whole time.
The next two nights we free camped at the Chinchilla Weir. Love this free camping, this site was luxury as we had toilets and even got power (all for free).
The drought has really hit hard here and the weir was only a patch on its former glory, gone are the fishing and sightseeing tours, the ski lane had 6 foot of weeds growing in it.

Oh forgot to mention, we went fossicking again whilst in Chinchilla and found Jurassic aged fossilized trees (petrified wood). Way cool, we now have our own pick for fossicking. We might strike it rich later as there are sapphires and all sorts of gems to be found here in Oz.
Chinchilla was a neat little town, we went into town to fill up our water supplies free at the info centre, swim at the local pool then use their hot showers and use their library and get free internet access, we also took advantage of the numerous picnic tables in town to eat our cereal breakfast once we got fresh milk.

We have reached Drillham our destination on this our first leg of the trip and we are stopping here for a week to rest and visit with Lynn & Gary, more free camping.
Don’t bother looking on the map, you probably won’t find it.
It is 27 odd km’s out of Miles and it is called the ‘gateway to the outback’.
Today we watched a flock of Emus graze along the plains.
The cast iron camp oven has finally been christened, Wendy & Cassandra made our first batch of damper. We all sat round the fire and ate it under the stars, what a life. The sky out here where there are no street lights is expansive; you can see the Milky Way and millions of other stars. We have been also looking for satellites which travel across the sky like moving stars.
Life is becoming very relaxed and simple and we are learning heaps of things which will assist us in the future. Today we found out how to use that grubby brown water (picture runny chocolate instant pudding) from the rivers, drop a teaspoon of ALUM in the water let it settle and pour off the clean surface water, then you can do the dishes and shower in it.

Well it’s time to look for some jobs now to supplement the next leg of the journey, which we are yet to plan, possibly further into the outback. We will write again soon.

Faster than a speeding bullet

2007-03-06T16:20:00.000+13:00

The countryside around here is beautiful and in some places very dramatic. We have moved 1 hour north of Brisbane to stay at a place called Maleny. It is about 20 minutes from Australia Zoo (the main road to the zoo has been named after Steve Urwin as a tribute).
We have been on a Tiki tour around the district and saw some awesome sights. Unfortunately the rain has continued intermittently, but someone told us today this is the worst year for rain on the Coast. The weather is very tropical so even though it is raining you can be sweating profusely, (a very uncomfortable feeling). Just after you have showered you are ready for another. Anyway back to the Tiki touring.
We went for drive to look around and these Australians have some weird ideas about roads. Rather than going around a hill, they go straight up it. We encountered a road with a sign prohibiting trucks and caravans. Why? We asked each other. However the question did not go unanswered for very long because within 2 minutes we were heading UP, at a 35 to 40* angle, with a cliff face all the way to the top, straight outside the passenger side window. A good 10 minutes of white knuckles and shallow breathing. It was just amazing I couldn’t believe it. Mind you half the reason is they have built their towns/villages on the top of mountain ranges.
One place which is very quaint and aimed at tourists with themed shopping (ie India shop, Irish shop, Africa shop) was situated along the top of a range with the shops and houses placed half on land and the other half on stilts overhanging the side of the hills. Makes for awesome views but not sure how comfortable I would be in one especially after the landslides in NZ.
We also had spectacular views from another range, of the Glasshouse Mountains, which was breathtaking and a photo is attached.

We have also got out of the vehicle (of course) and walked. We found a reserve which is a remnant of an original rainforest. So very cool, we were walking along and Cassandra spotted some movement and there across our path ran little kangaroo thingys (later to be renamed by their real biological name of Pademelon (a small bush wallaby) we were lucky because during the walk we were graced with the presence of Pademelon about 7 times and they seemed to have no real fear of us.
Another walk we took ended in a nice peaceful lunch, NOT. We sat down at the picnic table and the magpies came and then through the shadowed bush I saw a lizard/dragon type thing about the size of a small cat. We all oo’ed and arh’ed about how cool it was, then we began to prepare lunch, ‘tomato sandwiches’. Suddenly, ‘faster than a speeding bullet’ Johnathan is standing up on the picnic table, very quickly followed by Cassandra. I was a bit slow catching on but made an effort to raise my feet off the ground and almost fell off the seat. What’s the matter? Johnathan thought he was going to be attacked, because the lizard covered the ground between itself and us at the table (about 2-3 metres) in a split second and then set an attack pose (or so we thought). When all had calmed down and before Johnathan got down a photo was taken and is attached for your amusement.

We found out the lizard was actually just begging for food because as soon as Johnathan threw him a piece of tomato he was on it. (Johnathan feed him in an effort to distance him from us, not to be kind.) Despite a moment of fear it gave a decent laugh, although we aren’t in any hurry to repeat the experience. We found another walk which took us to the top of a waterfall and a swimable rockpool, which only Cassandra and Johnathan braved; it was too murky for me. Lovely location, whilst they swam I roamed and saw my first live snake sliding along a rock face. Later the same day we saw two more snakes asleep in a tree and as the adage goes "poke it with a stick to see if it’s alive". It wasn’t me or Cassandra though, but Johnathan who violated those poor little snakes slumber. I have to admit he did however have the decency to jump like heck when the snake raised it head and slithered off.
Our adventures in Australia continue and we remain happy and anticipatory.

AND THE HEAVENS OPENED UP

2007-02-20T19:17:00.000+13:00

Well the Aussies can shut up now about it never raining, one downfall added 230mm to one dam catchment in Northern NSW. I will admit it was all costal towns that got it and very few inland farmers saw rain at all. Some NSW farmers got the rain as flood torrents as it swept through their property, drowning sheep in the hundreds, from one extreme to another.
The rain had an extreme effect on us too. When we got the trailer tent the salesman said we had to weather it a couple of times to make it water proof. He said set it up in the
backyard and soak it down with the hose, let it dry and then do it again. Good theory.
In actuality, for us it was bloody useless advice; 1) we had no hose 2) we had no back yard. So we resigned ourselves to weathering it on the road. Well, we were told it hardly ever rains here, so we thought it would be a while before we encountered any issue.

First few nights in the trailer were a dream, and the bed was “oh so comfy”, Wendy and I were very surprised. Then on the 3rd day in Ballina “the heavens opened up” and they had an unusually large tropical storm, lasting several days. You guessed it, we got flooded out as every seam in the tent leaked like a sieve. Litres of the stuff came in and the beds got soaked. So, at extra expense we booked into a cabin and spent 4 days waiting for the weather to change and the tent, and everything in it to dry out.

Well we are now back in the tent, and guess what, it bloody rained again, all night however not a drop came in. Thankfully Johnathan had spent the previous day applying silicone spray and seam sealer on all the seams, “what an angel”.

All good experience just part and parcel of getting on the road.

We have been doing a lot of fishing and the other night after dusk Cassandra & Wendy both landed a Shovel Nose Shark (Head like a ray & tail like a shark).

Whilst staying in Ballina we caught up with some of Wendy’s relatives, Lyn, Gary & Judy who she hasn’t seen for some 17 years. Excellent day and visit, as Lyn & Gary were a wealth of information as they have been on the road travelling for years and they gave us some great advice. We watched the rodeo, which was on at the showgrounds where they were staying. (They stay for $10.00 a night, whilst we are paying about $27 per night, all part of the learning curve)
We have planned to meet them in a couple of weeks in a town called Miles (300 odd Km’s inland from Gympie). Gary has said he will take me for a fox hunt. (One of my goals) They gave us heaps of practical info to get us started especially about ways to reduce our spending, and other very important things like how to go for a shovel walk, but more about that in the future.

Wendy has christened our tent trailer Lucy ‘yes’ after her pet pig (which we ate).
I have enclosed some pictures to give you an idea what we are living in. Basically it is a tent 18’x18’. We sleep on top of the trailer on a super queen size space, the tent has a tub floor 9’x9’ where Cassandra sleeps & we store stuff. We have a step stool to get into bed, as it is high up. Then we have an optional awning we can attach with 3 walls, so we can totally enclose it if we wish. When I stand in the centre of the tent with my arm outstretched I cannot touch the roof of the tent, the side height is almost 6’ so I don’t have to bend down to enter, luxury! This week’s pictures the tent. www.castawaycampers.com will give you more of an idea.

I must say it is nice to be finally on the road, I can’t wait to dispense with Brisbane and hit the small towns.

Were drinking it here!

2007-02-09T15:16:00.000+13:00

I have a small aversion to some spiders, and occasionally wake up at night from spider nightmares. Now that I have set the mood, let me take you on a visual journey.
Last night we had another visitor, (remember the gecko from the first week) this time the visitor was not welcome. I knew nothing of this visitor originally, until, Johnathan trying to be discreet, flicked on the light in the darkened room where I was merrily in nod land. Get this! he then informed me it was “nothing” he was just trying to “find something”, but I was “to stay where you are, don’t move”. By now you can imagine my curiosity had been peaked.
Johnathan is on the floor, on the bed, tentatively moving containers and items on the floor. Then he jumps to get a container to catch it, I’m going “catch what”, “just stay there”, he says.

Ok, now it is in the container; let me describe size to you. Close your eyes imagine your biggest daddy longlegs, now, imagine that daddy’s leg span being doubled. Ok, change the body to the size of your thumb and lastly add fine fur to the whole body.

I’m guessing my aversion is not going to disappear anytime soon. The books inform us this visitor was a member of the Huntsman family, and lives most commonly in gardens AND houses and comes out at night, yeeha.

On reflection it was incredibly funny Johnathan playing the gallant, while trying to be discreet, let me assure you, it took me some time to go back to sleep.
The following night he caught another one, unfortunately this tale is not so happy. He (the spider) was put in a jar “to show Cassandra in the morning”. The jar was placed outside on the table. The sun comes up early here (about 5 - 5.30am) and before Cassandra arose at 7.30am the poor little bugger had been toasted. Oops, guess he won’t be coming back for another visit.

Spiders aren’t the only things which are upsized here. One bug we found was dried out, which makes for easier handling. It had big horns on the top and bottom of its head; we gave it to Cassandra to find out what it was. (Part of her home schooling) It turned out to be a Rhinoceros Beetle. The body was over 5cm long, the width just over 3cm and the height 3cm, now imagine that with 6 big legs attached.
Putting the bugs and spiders aside, things in Australia are definitely different. Another experience which has caused us some humor is the Australian systems. Johnathan has been incredibly patient and I must commend him as I would have lost my cool very fast. Some of the systems here are incredibly frustrating and some Aussies are complete Wombles. Johnathan rang about 30 insurance companies, and none would insure us as we had no fixed abode. They need an address, so they can “set a rate”. Then they want to know where it will be parked at night and what address the vehicle would most commonly be returned to. Did they not hear the “no fixed abode” part at the beginning of the conversation? Anyway after many calls Johnathan found a lovely broker in Victoria who assisted with no issues, and insured the trailer & contents, to boot.

Another frustration is with the time things take. The car was registered and given a licence plate but the sticker needed to be posted out (could take anywhere up to 2 weeks) What’s wrong with these people? At home we can get everything there and then.
Tax number is going to take about 28 days, so we need to go all the way back to Brisbane to collect it from the Central Post Office.

They are very backwards here, we have found lots of places only take cash & don’t offer EFTPOS; we are absolutely dumb struck by it.
It is very frustrating at the moment waiting to get going. We would have been on the road earlier but the car yard we purchased our car from is buggering us about doing a few jobs I wanted done on the car. We had an RACQ (AA) check done on the car and there was a few minor things highlighted, the yard has agreed to do them but they move at the pace of treacle.

Mind you that has given us more time to explore Brisbane.
We went for a forest walk through the Karawatha forest, we came across termite mounds, massively big structures for little ant like creatures.
We also had a chance to watch the Wakeboard Woman’s finals on the Brisbane River; it was good to see a Kiwi chick first up. We made a day of it and wandered through the Brisbane Art Museum, most enlightening. Ask Wendy why one of the guards told her off. (I did not touch the exhibition despite what the uniformed Nazi thought.)
We finished the day by swimming at South Bank at a manmade salt water pool, which is situation in the park along side the river.

As you may have pick up on from above we have started Cassandra’s’ home schooling, so now a basic time structure has been put in place so the relaxing holiday part is over.

The Brisbane Art Museum was basically just a big yawn for Cassandra, but she did like the life size elephant painted in Bindi (Little dots) by Bharti Kher. The little dots had wee tails and looked a lot like sperm to Wendy and I, but that’s art for you.

We’re drinking their urine here.
Warning: queasy stomachs beware!

I know before we left, Steve & Dominic among others gave us advice on how to drink our own urine if we needed too, if caught in the outback. They seemed only too happy to regale us in stories of this nature. Dominic even tried to make a bet with us on how soon this would take place.
Well, the guessing is over, I have found out that in Brisbane, they already use recycled water to top up their fresh supply, due to the lack of fresh water availability. It was on the news recently as one Shire took a vote to recycle water and there was uproar. The following night on the main news they revealed 13 locations in Australia that already recycle waste water and Brisbane was one, it was a bit of a shock as most Australians thought their’s was a fresh water supply.
So we did not even make it to the outback before we lost the bet.

As we have begun to explore things we have come across some wonderful and humorous names and have decided to start sharing these with you.

One of the suburbs north of Brisbane was a place called “Humpybong”, this name gave me a giggle, however the belly laughs came from the name of a beetle learnt about as part of Cassandra’s schooling. A “cockchafer” is a beetle eaten by bandicoots.
We will continue to increase our vocabulary and share any quirky with those that are interested.

See Cassandra’s pictures this week.
Bindi Elephant (Brisbane Art Museum)
Brisbane River from River Cat
Water Monitors, dime a dozen over here, like sparrows back home.
Triceratops skull (Brisbane Museum)

A week of extremes!

2007-01-26T14:43:00.000+13:00

We arrived here to hot sweltering temperatures. Despite having a rental car we decided to start our week by walking and ferrying. The ferry trip into the city was just a short 10 minute ride, and we did this twice, however the walk to the ferry was 10 minutes in 30 degree heat so we flagged it after the second trip and went back to our lovely air conditioned rental car.

I would like to talk about the extremes, which have been excellent, with the exception of a reasonably bad case of sunburn. This is the result of a lily white body being exposed to the sun during a couple of hours swimming at the beach, (note this was not sensible me) but I can not say the same for Cassandra and Johnathan. Cassandra could quite easily adopt the name “lobby” (short for lobster) for the next few days; her face is shiny like a traffic light.

Our extremes have been awesome, we had a tiny visitor (some sort of gecko) in our apartment one night, he was the size of a match and had really big eyes and little suction cup feet and was incredibly cute but very vulnerable given his size so we picked him up in a glass and put him outside so as not to squash him when we were walking around.
On the opposite end of the animal/bug scale, we saw a stick insect about 15 cm length and the thickness of a pencil.

Another extreme was a chance visit to the local lookout point on Mt Coot-tha (just 5 minutes from us. When arrived just on sunset we were amazed to see a large group of people all facing the same direction. When we asked someone we were told it was a comet (McNaughts, I think) and it was pointed out, apparently it only comes around every 10 years or so. It looked amazing with naked eye; a long tail was glowing across the sky.

We have temperatures of 30c and teasing rain showers of 2 minutes.
The rain has been welcomed by the Australians, in some areas double the amount of last years entire rainfall for the year fell in one downpour and created massive flooding cutting some towns off from civilisation. It is hard to imagine that can happen.

On the good news front we are closer to kicking of on our first adventure. We have taken possession of a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser, Bronze over Champagne, License plate 066-JYC, I only enclose the number so if it appears on the headline news you know it us and can raise the alarm, Wolf Creek and all that you know.

We have also ordered a Camper Trailer, from http://www.castawaycampers.com/, they are making it now and we can pick it up on Tuesday.
The beast is all Terrain, 9’x9’ tent + 18’x 9’ screened annex, Sink/bench, 2 long range gas ports, storage box, LPG holder, Queen size bed, etc….

We have purchased a lot of camping stuff; we have easily visited over 20 shops buying stoves, single beds, gas lamps, tables, chairs, Dutch ovens and all the camping accoutrements.
NOT THAT THAT WE HAVE ANY BLOODY IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH THEM.

Today is Australia Day and we have finally found an internet cafe and the time to sit and update. We have tried to buy a local conection and you would not believe the nonsense you have to go through to get on line.

Yesterday the weather opened up and we had torential ran for over half the day, this will help the Aussie dams, Brisbane has a level 4 water restrictionon, L5 is the highest.

We have had a really hectic time sorting ourselves getting ready for the big off. In less than a week we will be on the way. Our first planned drive is a short trip to Ballina, Casino and Lismore where we can test the car, the tent, go fossicking (precious gems) and fishing. We are hanging out for the fishing.

Attached is the car and a pic from the Mt Coot’tha Japanese garden. We walked the gardens at the base of Mt Coot'tha, very cool heaps of Aussie creatures to see.

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Unemployed & Homeless

2007-01-07T21:39:00.000+13:00

Catching up with Wendy's sister Trish today, we visited Aramoana beach and explored the rock pools at low tide. The place is called the Te Angiangi marine reserve, it was stunning.

We are all unemployed and homeless at the moment and loving it.

Pictures
Walking the beach
Examining a starfish

Last night in Taupo

2007-01-04T22:19:00.000+13:00

Well it's finally here, the last night in the house. All 3 of us are sleeping on the floor. We head out tomorrow to travel round the North Island farewelling family and friends.
We went down to Palmerston North last W/E to catch up and say goodbye to friends, on the way home we bypassed state highway 1 and drove the back roads home. I highly recommend this route.
We passed through a series of small towns and found some amazing scenery.

The town of Kimbolton gave us a great view of the valley below. At Mangaweka we came across an old derelict pump house from an abandoned dam project dating back to 1938.

We walked along the Mangaweka river to the old dam, the dam was abandoned when a large log got stuck in the race. The log is still visible.
Just to think we are leaving this amazing country behind for a while, it’s hard to believe.

Top Picture is the Mangaweka stream.

Middle Picture, factory of a bygone day.

Bellow, Mangaweka rail bridge.

It was never really intended as a place for people

2006-12-14T15:01:00.000+13:00

Recently some friends of ours thoughtfully gave us a Snake bite kit. This was a great as we could cross it off our list of essential things to get.
I thought I would share the instructions that came with kit.

Snake Bite Kit Instructions
1st Requirement – Poisonous snake bite

2nd Requirement – Bite location = Limb

Once above requirements met:
- Do not panic
- Firmly bandage affected limb
- Go forth at speed to place where antidote can be procured
- Once antidote administered place band-aid over holes and laugh out loud
- Tell tale of lucky escape. Embellish as necessary to make story interesting to listeners

Getting things sorted

2006-11-28T20:05:00.000+13:00

Well, getting closer now. We have organised storage for the belongings we are leaving behind.
We managed to get a good deal on a container just down the road. So every thing is falling into place nicely.

We have found a new owner for Boris, his new home will be in Hastings. He will have a new friend to stay with called Cree, another Blue Heeler so we are wrapped with that.

We have managed to source most of the text books we will need to home school Cassandra next year.

We only need to re-home Rosie now.

Lastly, Johnathan handed his notice in today, so no going back as they say.

Challenger on Trademe

2006-11-15T23:01:00.000+13:00

The time has now come to advertise my car, things are getting serious now.

This is the best car i have ever owned a dream to drive and it would go anywhere.

So on to Trademe it goes. If i am lucky i may get the same in Australia to travel round in.

Getting closer now

2006-11-08T19:33:00.000+13:00

I have added a countdown timer on the right. >>>>>>>>> This is when we take of on our Aussie adventure.
We keep getting asked when are you going, i think people can't wait to see the back of us.

Boris the dog

2006-10-30T21:20:00.000+13:00

Popped an add in the Friday Trader to find a new home for Boris, our 4 year old Blue Heeler. It will be sad to leave him behind but we can't take him through the Australian Native Reserves we intend to visit so we have to find him a new home. Boris has been and is a beloved family pet so it will be really sad to see him go. We also have Rosie, Cassandra's cat to re-home before we go too.
Not looking forward to it, at all.

Can you see what i can see

2006-10-30T20:56:00.000+13:00

Both Cassandra and I got our eyes tested today, I picked up Cassandra from school she was just finishing a spelling test, and earlier in the day had done a maths test (top of the class) so a day for tests then. Cassandra was prescribed glasses and i passed with good vision. So now another step closer to Australia. Still the Dental and Health checks to go. Save any hassles in Australia.

Australia Trip

2006-10-27T22:34:00.001+13:00

The kick off date for this is January the 15th 2007. So not long to go.
Our start point will be Brisbane. We will be there for a few weeks to plan and buy what we need for the trip, then hopefully within a month we will hit the road heading down to NSW.

2006-10-27T22:34:00.000+13:00

Just giving this thing a spin in preparation for a blog we will probally use on our Australia trip.

The plan is to 4WD drive around Australia for a couple of years.

The idea for the blog is to post what we are up too so friends family etc can keep in touch.
Thats the plan.