Queensland

Tal has really taken to learning to cook lately and is helping so much, he especially enjoys lighting the gas burners (pyromania?) When we left Coonabarabran I missed the turn off for Narrabri and I only realised we were on the wrong road after 25kms of some very steep up and down hills, very frustrating having to turn around and retrace our steps and ended up being a long day in the bus. She is not the fastest vehicle on this earth but we are getting there. We drove the car out from Narrabri to the Mt. Kaputar National Park to see “Sawn Rock”, an amazing example of the rock formation commonly known as organ piping. Columns of six sided basalt standing vertically on a cliff face, some having fallen down to the ground beneath and lying on interesting angles, quite a phenomonem. Have been collecting some great pictures of post boxes lately, the lengths some people go to is quite amazing and it keeps us looking as we are travelling. We have about a dozen beauties so far and I hope to get about 100 pictures by the end of our trip and maybe make a book of them. Rennie lost her two bottom teeth last week, they were very wobbly and she actually pulled them out herself, one day apart, maybe she will become a dentist? She also caught her first fish this morning at the caravan park in Goondiwindi, they have a dam at the back that they have stocked with fish. It is a great place here, they cook pancakes for the whole campsite on Sunday mornings, you bring your own plates and have a great feed. It has just started raining here, the first bit of rain we have seen for some time, and with the palm trees becoming more abundant we can tell we are heading into the tropics. It was Jarra’s 2nd. Birthday last week and I gave him some chocolate and marshmallows for breakfast, much to Helen’s surprise.

PIG CHASER

G’day Dame (Damian) here, I’m a pig chaser and me dad’s a roo shooter, we are getting’ a dollar a kilo at the moment, which is really good, and there’s heaps of work around. Had to go to town today to pick up some paperwork. Got meself into a bit of trouble ya see. Goin’ to court in a coupla weeks, but me brief reckons I’ll get off, no worries. Got a lift on me way back from this family in a bus, was waitin’ for arf an hour for a lift so I really appreciated them pickin’ me up, and we had a great chat as well. I had had a few but we had a good laugh anyhow, and I was their first hitcher on their trip…..cool eh? Their little fella sittin’ behind me was a beauty, I’ve gotta couple of kids meself ya know, but me and the missus aint getting on too well at the moment and we are livin’apart, I’m drinking too much ya see. Sorry about the swearin’ with the kids and all that, gotta try and remember. The sheila sitting next to me had an accent. Scottish she was, and a vegetarian too, no wonder there was silence when I was talkin’ about huntin’ pigs. I started to wind her up too, saying how good echidnas were to eat! Even her hubby who was drivin’ believed me for a minute! Ha! Ya goin’ to Moree are ya? Go to them hot spas, they are great. But I don’t like all those chinese that go there. No, I am not racist, just a few races I don’t like. Yeah I understand where you are coming from but I still don’t like em. Me dog got ripped a bit by this big pig he ran down the other day, so I’ve gotta let him rest up a bit now. I reckon what these people are doin’ is great, s’really got me thinkin’ about doin’ some travellin’ meself now. Just let me off at these silos coming up thanks. Am goin’ to me mates place and then we’ll go to the pub for a few. We’ll go and try and get us a few pigs after that. Hey thanks a lot for the lift, happy travels. .

Cotton pickin', telescopes and toilets.

We are now camped on the shores of Lake Yarrie – alleged Mecca for over 80 species of bird, but unfortunately most of them seem to have gone off travelling elsewhere. Having said that, this is a lovely spot. Peaceful and quiet, with very few other campers. We are about 25 kms out of Narrabri (“forked waters”) and just down the road from Wee Waa, home of cotton country. We have arrived just as the cotton picking has started and this morning we had a look at some of the huge fields of cotton growing. A sea of brown, dotted with little balls of soft fluffy cotton, just as if there had been a light fall of snow. All along the roadside are huge bails topped with blue tarp, big enough to fill a truck each, waiting to be taken away. When we asked the children what cotton was we had some interesting answers. They had never really thought about “cotton” wool or “cotton” buds and it was only when they had the cotton in their hands that they really put 2 and 2 together. Later we visited the cotton museum where we learned everything there is to know about cotton – apart from any negative impact on the environment. A lot of space was given to the benefits of using GM cottonseed and a persuasive argument set, but the old cynic in me thinks there was a lot they didn’t tell us. Anyway, the industry has certainly had to clean itself up in the last decade or so and it is good that less spraying is going on. We learnt a few interesting facts though… Cotton is used in American and Japanese banknotes, margarine, paper, soap, explosives and tents. One cotton bale weighs 227kg and can make 4,321 pairs of socks. Two billion dollars of cotton is exported each year. Only America and Uzbekistan export more cotton than Australia. From there it was on to the CSIRO Australia Telescope, just down the road. This complex was just as impressive as Parkes in it’s own way. Write more later.

WARRUMBUNGLES

It is nice to once again be out in the bush, surrounded by nature, mobs of kangaroos and emus grazing on the flats next to our camp, with the backdrop of the rugged mountains that are the Warrumbungles, which means jagged mountain in Aboriginal. On the drive here from Dubbo we passed through Gilgandra where the flat expanses started to give way to some rolling hills. It is quite lush and green around these parts, an added contrast to the flat dry plains we have been travelling through for the past month or so. The dark and dramatic outline of the Bungles appeared as we passed the turn off to Wallumburrawang, turned left at Tooraweenah and then right again at Gummin Gummin, and made it to Camp Blackman in the afternoon. A very picturesque setting with the sounds of kookaburras, carrawongs and other birds a constant soundtrack to the magnificent view. Jarra is becoming used to life on the move and has been sleeping well lately, he is even putting himself to bed at night time. We have resorted to taking him for a drive in the afternoon so that he falls asleep and we then transfer him to his bed, he does not think that he needs an afternoon nap but he gets quite feral without it. We reckon we are spending as much money on petrol to get him to sleep as we used to on family day care for him!! More in the next post about Tal cooking Post boxes Rennie losing her teeth Yarrie Lake Wrong turn oops, bad hills Jarra’s Birthday

T.C, RULING THE HOUSE

Spoke to the Hodges a couple of days ago to find out that our old cat T.C is now ruling their house, he has the dogs, geese and other animals all worked out and is sleeping on the end of Dave and Cara’s bed, we are very happy that he is happy. Our water pump completed it’s interstate journey this morning and is currently being reinstalled onto the front of the motor. I must admit that I was starting to get a bit worried that we might be stuck here in Dubbo for a while longer but it looks like we will be back on our way tomorrow. The light from the control tower at the airport has been cutting across the clear skies the last couple of nights and the moon has also been lighting up the night. Had a big electrical storm last night which brought a lot of rain but the strength of the sun in the morning soon had everything dry quickly. Visited Jedda Boomerangs the other day and the kids decorated one each with a hot wire instrument, we then learnt how to throw them properly, it was very interesting and quite easy to learn. They are thrown at a flock of birds in the distance and if it comes back it means you have missed! To check which way the wind is blowing you kick up a bit of dust and see which way it blows as a boomerang is thrown into the wind on a 45 degree angle. We have discovered the Melbourne band Cat Empire, and are enjoying listening to their funky tunes, if you haven’t heard them, they are well worth a listen. A great book we have read recently is The Kite Runner, which we would both recommend. The Wellington Caves complex which we went to yesterday is quite incredible, the Cathedral Cave has one of the worlds largest stalagmites, about 15 metres tall and 30 metres around the base. Considering that they grow at a rate of an inch each 100 years what we were looking at was incredibly old. The cave system was well lit and the series of caverns spread to 45 metres under ground. There is also a huge sculpture at the turn off to the caves called The Pod. It is made of steel, rock and some lovely mosaic, designed by an Aboriginal artist and created by a collaboration of local artists and the main steel girders were from a bridge in the area which collapsed in 1989 We are getting a refund for our canoe this morning, minus a bit, their policy is to not give refunds, only exchanges, so we had to lose about 10%, a lesson learnt. *****COUPLE OF DAYS LATER******* Well, it was a bit of a saga with the water pump, the one we received back was not our original one which was meant to be reconditioned, the guy who normally does them was away so they sent one off the shelf. It did not quite fit properly and after about 15 phone calls back and forwards to the suppliers and speaking to various different people in different states we finally came up with a solution. So, 24 hours later Matthew the young mechanic brought it back after grinding a section off which then allowed it to fit, we were ready to rock and roll (and pump water through the motor) once again. He had spent about 12 hours altogether working on it and he charged us four hours which was great. It was about 1.30pm by the time we finally left Dubbo so we did not plan to travel too far. There is a nice camp spot we found about 10 km North of Dubbo, next to a river and we had a beautiful dinner last night of barbecued tuna steaks on a bed of mash potato with fresh stir fried vegies, yum. We tried to catch a few fish but had no luck. Was a very cold night, our thermometer says it was minus 4 this morning, we know it is cold when we can see our breath, but the sun is shining brightly now at 8.20am, have had some nice porridge and are ready for the day ahead. It is really nice to be back in the bush after being stuck in a caravan park for the last 9 days or so, but we did have a good time in Dubbo. Found out some different names for those wicked prickles, some people call them cats heads and others three corner jacks, which gets shortened to three corn jacks, whatever they are called they are very nasty.

THREE THORN JACKS

The sign on the road as you approach Dubbo claims that it is the home to Australia’s best meat pie, something to really hang your hat on I suppose. I would like to counter that claim and say that it must be the home to Australia’s worst prickles, a fact we have discovered in a couple of ways. There are two main sorts, your normal grass prickles that latch on to your socks and end up everywhere, and these monstrous things called three thorn jacks which are wicked. Tal has had 2 punctures and Rennie 3 in a couple of days riding around the caravan park, we have heard that they can also puncture truck tyres, so we ended up going to the bike shop and buying some thorn resistant tubes!! They are made from thick, heavy rubber and I also used the old tubes as liners inside the tyres, am getting sick of repairing punctures, something I could now probably do blindfolded. We are just waiting for our water pump to return from its journey to Melbourne so we can get back on the road again, it has been nice to be in the one spot for a while and the kids have had a great time playing with the many kids during Easter when the caravan park was full of families. We are adapting well to our new surroundings at each new place we stop at and are getting into a comfortable routine, and enjoying the different communities we pass through and become involved with. Our canoe turned out to be quite a debacle which we hope to sort out this morning. We got her in the river on Saturday and all hopped in and it was so unstable that we were lucky not to all end up in the drink. We only went about 20 metres before turning back to shore with white knuckled kids hanging on for dear life and took it straight back to the shop, where we are trying to work out how to get our money back. It was very disappointing as we were so excited about our new red canoe and the adventures it would provide. We did not even have to warm it up, as we all know, you can not have your kayak and heat it too………. Check out Tal’s latest post on his blog, just click on the link on the right.

I LOVE DUBBO

This is what we were met with everywhere we looked when we ventured into Dubbo for the first time on Wednesday. The library staff all wore these t-shirts, as did every third or fourth person we saw. We were very curious and eventually my curiosity got the better of me and I asked someone what it was all about. “Just a local promotion to counteract the bad press/reputation that Dubbo has had recently and to raise funds for charity.” I was told. Nice idea and it certainly caught our attention; we were beginning to wonder about the place!! We have spent the last couple of days at the zoo as planned, despite waking up both mornings to the rain. After almost complete dry weather for the past month or so, it seemed a tad ironic to waken up to the gentle pitter-patter of the rain on the roof of the bus. But the rain is so important that you have to smile and I have to admit that any hotter yesterday and we would have struggled to cycle round the zoo. We took our own bikes (saving $60) and it was definitely the way to go. Western Plains is about a 6 km circuit, but after we finished I reckon we had covered almost double that. Highlights of the day were: • Feeding the giraffes pieces of carrot on their long, strong, curly blue tongues. Pretty tickly and wet! Jarra’s face was priceless! • Watching the otters tuck into their morning tea. They were even cuter than the meerkats. Otters have such beautiful faces and are so inquisitive. We all loved them. • The display at lunchtime by the siamang apes. A family live on a couple of little islands and at feeding times the keeper drops the wires that connect the two islands so that they can check out their home while we get front row seats to watch them singing and swinging on the other island. Their territorial booming is so loud that they can be heard up to 4km away!! • Andre being eaten by the deer in the children’s zoo! They seemed to think he tasted really delicious and kept on coming back for more. Rennie wasn’t too impressed when one decided to give her t-shirt a taste! • Learning that elephants sleep standing up. Did you know that? It is a great idea that the ticket allows access over two days. Today we took the video camera and filmed all our favourites, had lunch and were back by 1.30 to chill out at the caravan park. There are lots of kids here now and our kids are not going to be short of someone to play with this weekend. I am missing our open spaces though and after so long at campsites, Andre and I at least are looking forward to getting to the Warumbungles National Park north of here. Our other excitement is our new RED canoe – red ones go better or so Tal and Andre reliably inform me??? On Wednesday we finally found just the one and bought all the jackets etc and are now set to go. So over the weekend we will go for a paddle down the river. Buying the jackets I was amazed at the fact that Jarra’s one was double the price of ours and three times the price of the kids. Just hoping he enjoys wearing it. Saturday pm. We all got really excited. Today was the day to baptise the new canoe. Drove down to the local boat ramp on the river, donned the jackets, put on the cream, got the drinks and snacks ready, unloaded the canoe, got in the water and after about 20m had to turn round and come back. How disappointing!! The whole canoe felt extremely unstable and kept on listing from side to side, dipping down to about an inch above the water. Needless to say we went straight back to the outdoors shop and will now have to wait until Tuesday before they can order us something else in. Aaarghh!

Some Photos

Auskick(Crows Yuk) Shadows Possum feeding Rennie Talvale Percy the penguin

ANYONE GOT A SPARE WATER PUMP?

Tal and I drove back to Forbes to attend our first Auskick session of the year, we are going to try and find a clinic each weekend wherever we are and take part. It was a fairly small Auskick compared to what we are used to in Melbourne, there were 32 kids and they split into 2 groups, 8 yrs and older, and under 8’s. I was very proud of how Tal handled himself in the new environment, there was a 10 year old called Liam who was very rough and threw Tal to the ground in a few tackles, but Tal would not leave him alone, tagged him closely and gave him back some of his own whenever the bigger kid got the ball, was very funny to watch the two of them, I don’t think Liam was used to anyone not shying away from him. That afternoon I went to have a quick look at a rugby league match just near our caravan park. There was a very different feel to the crowd than at an AFL match, quite laid back. Had a nice round of golf on Monday arvo at the Parkes golf course, played with Jim Buckley, a local who was a very nice guy and he gave me a lift back to the bus, thanks Jim! We drove 20 km out of town on Monday to visit The Dish, the largest radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere and it really is quite impressive, a funny movie was made a few years ago about the part that The Dish (title of movie) played in bringing pictures of the first moon landing to the world. While Tal and Rennie watched a 3D movie about space in the next theatre, Helen, Jarra and I saw an informative 20 min movie all about the Dish and how it works. Helen and I were both amazed at some of the facts about the vastness of our universe like : Light year = how far light travels in a year at the rate of 300,000 km/second OR 9,642,000,000,000km ; the moon is 1 light second away, the sun is 8 light minutes away, our closest star is 4 light years away which is Alpha Centuri which is one of the pointers for the Southern Cross, it really makes you think about how vast our universe is. The other amazing fact is that the amount of light that they study there in a year would light up a 100 watt light bulb for about 1 millionth of a second. On the way home through the massive roadworks on the Newell Highway which was Jarra’s highlight of the day, heaps of diggers, rollers, compactors, bull dozers and other assorted roadmaking equipment, all of which he loves, Helen was telling the kids about when she was young, going to work with her Dad when he was working on the roads back on Mull. She mentioned that she did not even get car sick on the drive there as it would have been the last time her Dad would have taken her in his work truck. Rennie asked from the back seat,”but did you get truck sick Mum?” We left Parkes this morning after seeing Troy the truck mechanic at Triple T’s truck repairs. As I was doing the pre-trip check I noticed a little water leak coming from the water pump so made a few phone calls and found Troy who said he would have a look at it, but only after they had finished their smoko. Smoko consisted of five rather large, bearded mechanics in their greasy overalls sitting around a small table in a tiny, dark, dingy and extremely smoky room, with pictures of semi-naked women adorning the walls. After consulting with Troy we decided to nurse her to Dubbo as finding any parts for a water pump like ours around there was about as easy as finding rocking horse poo, he said. Saw a sign on the way to Dubbo that said 942km to Brisbane, not too far to go now, we are starting to get excited about our trip to Fiji, we so need a holiday at the moment!!! Ha! Fixed the plumbing problem at last, it was Plan F that finally worked, incorporating some of Plan D as well. In Dubbo I found Ray Payne in the Yellow Pages and he is sending his young bloke Matthew around tomorrow morning to pull out the water pump. I will then send it to Don Kyatts Spare parts in Sydney, who will send it to Melbourne to be repaired. It will then be sent back to us the same way and re-installed after Easter. So we have about a week here in Dubbo, we got the last site in the caravan park here, it is fairly ordinary and next to the airport (which is handy if you want to squeeze into a sardine tin with wings and fly somewhere) and the juvenile detention centre ( which might come in handy if the kids play up too much), but all the other ones in Dubbo were booked out as the school holidays start in NSW after Easter. We plan to spend a couple of days at the Western Plains Zoo which we have heard a lot of good things about, we are also expecting some mail at the Post Office which is quite exciting. There is a place near here that has boomerang making and throwing lessons that we might check out as well. NEXT MORNING Went for a run to the airport down the road this morning, I love the smell of aviation fuel in the morning…….. It was quite lucky that I did end up there as I had an early morning call and the toilet in the departure lounge seemed an appropriate place to go. Matthew the young mechanic was here bang on 8.30 am and had the water pump out by 9.15, a very nice, quiet young guy. So glad I did not attempt it myself as I fleetingly considered. So it is back on its way to Melbourne for a new seal ARF ARF.

PARKes RAGE

Today I experienced the down side of staying at a caravan park. A little after nine this morning I went to the laundry to put on a load of washing, to discover that there was a load in and another appeared to be waiting. I duly stashed my basket and took my place in the queue as only one machine is working at the moment. At 11.50 am I finally got my washing in the machine. I swear there was a conspiracy against me! Every time I headed back to check how much longer to go, I was told that it still wasn’t my turn and to come back a little later. By the time “later” had spun out to more than 2 and a half hours, I was feeling a little tetchy and just to keep me on my toes the machine stopped mid cycle and I had to do a bit of jiggling to get things going again. In the midst of this I was told that park etiquette says that one must wait for ones place in the queue – not really feasible when you have young children. Having said all that feeling annoyed didn’t last long as I went and read some of my book in the sun and played with Rennie and Jarra and realised life is too short to worry about such stuff. The washing got done in the end and a few other jobs as well!! I think it will be a bit of time yet before I lose all my city expectations though. Like being able to go out for a coffee on a Sunday afternoon – just not possible in Parkes. Some things we really do take so much for granted… We have decided to stay an extra day here as T & R have hooked up with Nathan and Zac, two young guys who live here at the park. They have all played so well together over the past few days and have really enjoyed each other’s company, that it is worth staying another night. Tomorrow we will head out to see the “Dish”, which will hopefully be interesting. I wanted to mention the book I have just finished called “English Passengers” by Matthew Knealy, which was recommended by Matt and Soph at Kangaroobie. It is a fascinating historical novel set in the early 1800s, told through the eyes of a number of people connected to Tasmania -Van Diemens Land, as it was then known. The ignorance that was portrayed about the Aborigine population is especially highlighted and the arrogance of the English, but it also opens your eyes to the amazing abilities of the Aboriginal people and gives a clear account of the misunderstandings of the times. The night after I finished the book, which also is very humorous in parts too, I picked up the book “Going Bush - Adventures Across Indigenous Australia” and there looking back at me on pg. 205 was one of the main characters of the book Peevay. If you get the chance check it out. The young lad in the photo taken in 2004 stood out in just the same way that Peevay did all those years ago. I hope the young one has a happier life than Peevay and that he experiences little of the said ignorance and arrogance I mentioned, but sad to say I am not sure that he will, even 150 years on. Here’s hoping. Watched a little more of The Three Stooges tonight with the kids and it was lovely to all laugh together. The kids just love them. It has brought back happy memories of tuning in each week on a Saturday teatime to watch Laurel & Hardy with my family and laughing until we ached. I will endeavour to find a DVD of L&H. So much laughter MUST be good for the soul.

OUR FIRST SCALP!

On the road from Narrandera to Forbes we were stuck behind a small truck with a large caged trailer surprisingly even less aerodynamic than us. Our top speed being about 5 km/hr more than him he finally got on the UHF radio and offered us the chance to go ahead. We found the right spot and got out the whip, racehorse style, “Come on Baby”, and overtook our first vehicle, a cause of some celebration as there is someone out there slower than us. I feel like painting a symbol of a truck on the side of the bus as our first “kill”! I spoke to Phil, the guy we bought the bus off and he said that they had kept a tally and had overtaken 17 vehicles on their trip around the massive stone. A massive congratulations to our good friends Ty, Matt, Willow and Thommo who took part in the Oxfam Trailwalker yesterday, attempting to walk 100 km in 24 hours. They completed 90km in 17 hours and arrived at the bottom of Mount Donna Buang at midnight in very ordinary weather, unfortunately the SES (State Emergency Service) and the Police had closed the mountain for safety reasons due to the rain and asked the teams to wait until daylight (7hours) when they would reassess the situation. The team retired as there was no guarantee that they would be able to continue. Even more impressive I reckon is that on the way they each ate 25 apples, 16 bananas, 8 litres of water, 4 litres of Gatorade, and assorted sandwiches, energy bars and more. Great effort Fellas, we are all very proud of you. Tomorrow morning Tal and I are heading back to Forbes for his first Auskick session of the year. We are going to try and track down Auskick centres along the way and join in the footy training where and when we can. Have been spending some time and effort trying to iron out a few bugs on the bus. One being the water coming through the overflow pipe when you let the plug out of the sink. Have tried two different ideas with no success, it is very draining……. I have got another plan which I will try tomorrow. Talking about ironing out bugs, we have collected quite a variety on the radiator’s mesh screen on the front of the bus. So we arrived in Parkes, quite a nice town and the home of the Southern hemispheres largest radio telescope, ironically we can’t get reception on the ABC so as to watch The Bill tonight, how disappointing. An interesting feature of the last few towns is the method of parking in the main streets, one of which is aptly named Bogan Street, Ha! It is 45 degree angle parking but you back your car in, ie. rear to kerb, a very good idea so you do not need to back out into the traffic. We watched a DVD of the 3 Stooges together last night and we have not laughed like that together for a long time, they are wonderful. Went to the library for story time this morning and I went to see a game of hockey this afternoon which was pretty good standard, but very rough. There was a tractor “start up day” at the Parkes Museum today, we were quite curious and went along for a look. Out the front of a house on the Newell Highway was a hand painted sign and we entered the front door of the run down looking house not knowing what to expect. A few steps down the floral, wall papered hallway was a piece of paper saying “pay here” and in a doorway on the right we handed over $12 to the old lady there who was sitting behind the similarly aged desk. Continuing down the dim hallway with the water stains on the ceiling, left then right and out the back door, past the old dog on the long leash and through the back yard, we heard the sounds of tractors and headed that way. When through the back gates it opened out into the most amazing collection of vehicles you will ever see in the same spot, mainly tractors, trucks, cars, lawn mowers, train carriages, most of them beautifully and painstakingly restored. Every four months they start up all the tractors and drive them into a fenced off yard to give them a bit of exercise and to show them off, it is quite fascinating. There are sheds and sheds of bits and pieces of rusted steel, old car parts, ploughs and all manner of things. The trucks and tractors are up to 100 years old, many examples of solid timber trucks, one of which used to take loads to Queensland and its top speed was 12 miles/hour, another vehicle that would be slower than us!!

“YOU’RE NOT BIG ENOUGH A WOMAN TO STEAL MY MAN.”

These were the words I heard as I tuned in the radio to the local station in Narrandera, home of the big guitar and Texas Rose. Like Andre said about the bakeries I feel about the local radio stations. Narrandera is certainly a country music spot. Have you ever REALLY listened to the words in these songs?? I never really paid much attention, so the other night while I prepared the dinner and the great fishing team did their stuff, I listened carefully. “Your not big enough a woman to steal my man” was closely followed by “ I remember _____ ( fill in any place that takes your fancy) where I had my first beer, I found Jesus and smashed my car” I felt something was amiss and contend that surely smashing the car was entirely due to the beer drinking and Jesus wouldn’t be able to help you much with that. On the way here through this wide open land – very hard on the eyes, just seems to be miles of crops and sheep – I couldn’t help notice all the local entertainment on offer. We have mower racing, camel racing and of course the ubiquitous mallee root toss. I was a little disappointed that we have managed to miss them all. Fishing, open fire and marshmallows about sums up my memories of Narrandera. We are now settling in to the rhythm of life on the bus and even within so much change we often have a semblance of routine. When we arrive at a new destination it is time to have a platter of nibblies and do a reckie (?) of our new spot. We are starting to realise that we need to read ahead a little more, so that we don’t miss some the off the track things. Jarra seems to be settling down a bit now and I think his teeth had been bothering him quite a lot. He even seems to have finally sussed out the whole sleep thing, which has lightened our load tremendously. Both Tal and to a lesser degree Rennie are missing school and their friends. We seem to have waves of it, just as I do myself. I suppose for us all it is mostly the just not knowing what everyone is up to. We have heard that Cash Grove (our old house) has been let and it is funny to think of another family in there. I hope their lives are filled with happy times as ours were. FORBES. The night was shared with hundreds of galahs instead of the usual cockies. The galas have a much more gentle squawk. Hundreds of them filled the sky at dusk and squabbled and squawked until they had all found there places in the trees above our bus. We had a bit of company of the human variety too. Six other campervans or caravans were parked alongside us, but most kept to themselves only taking time top warn us about “them blackfellas” in Dubbo. I find this all a bit offensive, but sometimes even I feel the less said the better. These people are not going to change a lifetime of prejudice in a moment. The town itself is a very pretty historical one. Full of period buildings and quite a few art deco ones too – we took photos Penny!! We will send them to you when we get a chance. We were just starting to think what an idyllic placed Forbes was when we reached the library, which is next door to the local courthouse. After Andre had spent half an hour in the park outside with Jarra while we were inside, he had met most of the local petty crims. Dodgey has never been a more appropriate word. When we asked a bunch of local lads what they thought of Forbes their reply was “ .. too many criminals” This certainly makes you think twice about a place. I have changed some of the settings on the blog and I hope I have now made it easier to post comments. If you have had problems in the past give it another go and see if it is any better. I have also added a few more links and the layout seems to have righted itself. I have to admit that one surprise on the trip is our lack of down time. I really expected to have more time to do the blog, study, read and play games, but the days just seem to roll on and we live the life we do. How could I possibly say to you all that I sometimes feel busy and feel like I am trying to catch my tail a little. The difference is that I really can put it off to tomorrow. We have also been having very chilly mornings and evenings (sunny during the day though) and I have invented a new piece of clothing to combat this. I have decided to name it a “bug” – short for belly rug. A piece of material that wraps around the area between my hipster pants and my not so long top, covering the area in between nicely. You girls out there will know what I am talking about! Ahh bliss!! H

Catch up

Hi there Managed to get some time on the computer at the local library in Forbes. Thanks for all your comments. Good to know that people are out there reading it! Thought I would draw your attention to Tal's blog. Link is on the side of this page. All the best H

THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY…

A Just north of Yarrawonga is Lake Mulwala, a very surreal looking stretch of water containing many tall dead trees. We camped here for the night along with the thousands of cockies who reside in the trees and seem to have endless arguments with each other at the tops of their voices. I imagine you would get sick of it after a while but their incessant screeching just makes me smile. We like to go for a walk when we arrive at a new place to get a feel for it and just generally suss out the surroundings. On this occasion Rennie and I met Trevor who was camping in his caravan up the road. He and his wife Pat had eyes that look like they are always squinting into the sun, even when in the shade. There are many of these camping areas which are free of charge and there are often some fairly “permanent” residents who look like they are well embedded to the spot. We also saw some amazing patterns of bark on the trunks of a few gum trees by the track, one looked like it had been twisted around like a corkscrew. While preparing the dinner, roast chook and veg, Helen was off on a walk with the kids and my phone rang. I grabbed the hands free and answered. It was Daniel from Optus, wanting to chat to me about better deals etc. Normally I would have got off quickly but this time I was quite in the mood for a chat and kept him on Morman style, it was good fun doing something a bit different. There were about six different groups of people camping at Kyffens Reserve, all men with boats, I am beginning to question my manlihood as I am presently boatless, although we are trying to find a canoe to take along with us. Jarra woke up at 6am when the cocky alarm clock went off we went for a walk and every one of these groups were up and ready for the morning’s fishing. Have been seeing some excellent letterboxes. Particularly interesting are the groups of them, bunched together at the end of a dirt road so the posty doesn’t have to travel all the extra kms to the properties. Unfortunately I am having trouble getting photos of these as it takes so long to get the bus going once she is wound up I am reluctant to stop in the middle of nowhere and start the long haul back again. There are many converted 44 gallon drums on pipe legs, popular is the box on an old crankshaft post, and of course in the dairy areas it is hard to go past a milk can, usually with black spots. As we left Mulwala Helen commented about the many properties that had a caravan with an annex attached, we were discussing the hows and whys of this when we passed a farm which had three caravans in a U shape together under a roof. Instead of building a house they just extended their original van with two more. 25kms north is the town (blink and you miss it) of Rennie!! We had always planned to go there and it did disappoint…!! Two houses and an unused pub, the Rennie Hotel. It was a good place to park up for some morning tea of Nachos followed by watermelon. Is a very quiet road, the only car that we saw stopped for a chat as they passed. They were a couple of shearers on their way to their next job, cans of Melbourne Bitter in hand at 11am, they reminisced about some great times they’d had at the Rennie Hotel . The roads being as quiet as they were, I had to feel sorry for the two pieces of roadkill I saw, the chances of them meeting a vehicle on that road were probably comparable to winning the lottery, but with extremely different results. The road north from there changed width often, at times it was as narrow as the bus and sometimes there would be room for two cars to pass comfortably, but it probably averaged at one and a half vehicles wide. We normally win the game of chicken if playing with cars though. The edges of the tarmac look like it has been torn off a roll, very rough, worn and uneven. There was not a lot of variety in the scenery today, very flat and if possible, drier than where we have come from, the long grass is a whitish yellow now, not golden, and the wind that we were driving into and which kept our speed down a bit was blowing these tall grasses over to the east. Some fields are being burnt, I presume for preparation for crops, and you can normally smell them before you see them. A great feat of engineering are the huge rows of sprinklers all joined together, some must be 120 metres in length, 6 sections of steel pipe trusswork with wheels every 20 metres or so. It moves in one long line and waters the crops beneath, incredible. We made it to Oaklands for lunch, found a nice park for a play while Helen made some turkey, cranberry, cheese and lettuce rolls. An old fella, Ron, stopped his blue ute and came over for a chat, he had seen us drive past his place and thought we were his mate who has the same type of bus as ours. Learnt a lot about the motor and a couple of ideas to play around with in regards to getting a bit better performance out of it. And finally, the one that got away. Mate, it was this big, you should have seen it….. After passing through Goorabin, Urana and Morundah we made it to our destination just over the Murrumbidgee River in Narrandera, a campsite called Brewery Flats, named after the five storey orange brick building that is now gutted, which is just next to us. A lovely big river beckoned us and we got ourselves set up to fish. Dug for some worms without success so got some frozen corn from the freezer and some cheese. Phoned up and bought a month’s fishing license over the phone and were all set. Rennie has decided that she really likes fishing so we all went down the steepish slope to the muddy banks and cast in while Helen prepared dinner in the bus. Had to constantly stop Jarra from eating all our bait as we waited patiently for the strike. We are not the most patient of families and soon the kids were wandering off, I was chasing after Jarra here and there and I ended up chatting to a guy who was walking his dogs about the bus and our trip blah, blah, blah. I said I better go and check our rods to make sure a fish didn’t drag them in ha, ha, and as we walked down to the spot Tal started shouting, “Dad, Dad, quick you’ve got one”. My rod was actually being dragged along the bank and into the water. Well, you should have seen me move. Action Manning down the slope, leaping into the mud and just got hold of the rod as it was about to be lost for good. Started reeling it in, it was pulling like mad, a flash of yellow, fighting and reeling in, handle difficult to turn as the reel was caked in mud from being dragged through it, heart and adrenalin racing. Here it comes, almost there now, the three kids shouting and whooping, then SNAP!! A metre from the bank the line broke and it was gone. Couldn’t believe it. Boots covered in mud, dangly line hanging from the rod, I thought, Oh well, at least it is good material for the blog!! PS. Sheila, might throw a shrimp on the barby this arvo, fair dinkum, crikey, yawithme?

Traffic on the Westgate

A 8.35 Tuesday morning, washing the breakfast dishes while the others have gone for a walk around the lake. A few dishes left from our supper of damper that Tal and I made on the fire last night, was very nice too. Jarra in his orange pyjama top hopping like a kangaroo behind Helen, imitating the ones we saw from our window first thing this morning. Tuned into 774 and the traffic report came on. It is quite surreal hearing about all the congestion on Melbourne’s roads whilst being so far removed from it, but also having been in the midst of it for so many years. Although when you are in the middle of the Monash in a jam, tuned into the same radio station as out here, it is just another day and I suppose you make the most out of your circumstances. Had our dinner around the fire spoilt by a fairly heavy but brief shower of rain which had us moving inside and onto the beanbags, the first rain we have seen for quite a few weeks.

Blood from a Stone

A Under a cloud streaked sky we left Echuca on the Cobb Highway and turned eastwards towards Barmah. 7km north of there is a great camping area next to Barmah Lake in an area full of gum trees, the sort of place where I can easily imagine the Aboriginals living happily. On arriving we went for a walk along the bank of the lake and saw a huge gum tree with its limbs cut off about 3 metres up, it had a new, slender tree growing from amongst all the dead stumps and it looked quite interesting. When travelling in a bus like this it is very important to strap everything down and put things in their place before departure, which we are getting quite good at. It is quite a task to pack up to go, put the car in the trailer and strap it all down, put the 4 bikes back on the bike carrier, turn off the gas, put the step away, sort Jarra out, check oil and water, quick vehicle check, turn bus on 15 mins before leaving so air brakes are ready to go, check map for correct route. Had the car chained down in the trailer this time and it did not move, might have finally sorted out that little problem. The title to this post concerns our childrens work ethic when it comes to getting them to write in their journals/ diaries.

Echuca

A Day light savings finished last night, thank goodness for that, our new curtains were starting to fade with all that extra light we were getting….. The Murray is a very impressive river, have not seen it for many years, wide, brown and flowing, lined by huge gum trees full of screeching birds, which are very noisy at both ends of the day. The way here from Bendigo was very flat so we cruised here at a steady pace. We chose a very busy weekend to come here as there is a fishing comp, a lawn bowls comp and a bike race as well, so we could only get an unpowered site. With our new batteries needing a charge and some fairly cool days with not a lot of sunshine this was not ideal, but I befriended a guy, Mick, who lives here permanently and he let me plug in to his power so we could charge up. We have decided to head for Brisbane and not change our flights to Sydney as it was going to cost about $1200. So, heading off tomorrow on an inland route which will take us through Dubbo and we will miss out on seeing Sydney and the coast between there and Brisbane for now Have done some more repairs to the trailer. Had to buy a new jockey wheel as the handle snapped off, I think it was when we drove into Robyn and Phils, they have a bit of a dip where their driveway meets the road and our draw bar on the trailer is a bit low. Found a trailer place here, the salesman was a dodgy looking fellow but had the right bits. Had some good pies for morning tea the other morning. The quality of a town’s bakeries and their pies and sausage rolls is beginning to influence how I feel about the place. A

STEAMING DOWN THE MURRAY

Here we are, finally in NSW. Yeehaa! We have crossed the border and finally feel like we are getting somewhere. It is dinner time and A is rustling up a wicked stir fry with the organic veggies that Robyn gave to us and our three are being greatly entertained watching The Three Stooges . A DVD I bought for $2 in Ballarat. How can one buy a DVD for just $2??? The mighty Murray. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I certainly wasn’t expecting Echuca to be quite so historic looking, what with the old port and surrounds. There are riverboats everywhere up and down the river. Today was spent like any other Sunday …. catching up on washing and friends, plenty of both. Our friend Mindy and her sister had spotted on the blog that we were in Echuca where they had a wedding this weekend. She called us up and we all met up for brunch today. It was great to see them all. Then Robyn, Phil and Eric met up with us and we went for a cruise on the river. It was great to see the old steam engine and paddle in action, but I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that we never got past the riverboats and houses. I had been hoping that we would go a bit further upstream. It was lovely to see the Bendigo crew one last time. They have been wonderfully generous and inspiring and it has been great to share so much. Tomorrow night we are going to Barmah State Park, a little East of here and hopefully see the Murray in it’s more natural state. Having said that our campsite at Maiden Heads just outside Moama on the river is proving to be quite an exciting wildlife spot. Each morning and evening large flocks of Galahs and Cockatoos head off for the day and arrive home to roost. The noise is incredible and fills the sky, the bus, our heads. We are parked right on the banks of the river and they use the trees just above us and across the water. They are incredibly loud and chatter with each other as if they are catching up on the days news! Tonight Andre, Rennie and Jarra spotted some possums when they were coming back from the shower and we all trooped out to have a look. Armed with some nice pear we enticed them to come down and eat from our hands. I know some people see them as pest, but to me they will always be right up there in the cute animal stakes. The kids loved hand feeding them. What is the special magic about hand feeding animals??? I even have to admit that it was a thrill for me to take my turn, such a precious moment. Not one to be found watching TV in suburbia. H