MULLUMBIMBY

Just a quick one to let you know our plans for the next couple of weeks. We are enjoying being back on the bus in the relaxed Mullumbimby/ Byron Bay area, have been sorting a few things out, had my 35th. Birthday and are planning our trip south, through Coffs (Excuse me) Harbour to Nambucca Heads. We have been offered the chance to look after a property near there for a while, how long that will be will be decided once we get there. Am sitting in a field with a bus, in a lush green valley, in the nice sunshine, a barbed wire fence separates me from the next field in which is a tree and three very inquisitive cows, two brown ones and a black one……. our neighbours. If they were horses they would be our NEIGHbours. A cow is a funny animal, my perception of a cow has been tainted by the many Gary Larsen cartoons I have read over the years. Until next time, A

Pics

The bus Helen, Tal and Rennie Jarra Rick and Jane

BULA BULA Part 2

Thought I would split up the large post into 2 parts, and by the way, we do write with paragraphs but for some reason Blogger is not recognising them so all our words are all squashed together. So, imagine there is a big paragraph starting......HERE..........The wedding was on the beach at sunset the next day, the combination of the bride walking down a pathway made from planting palm fronds in the sand in a row, and the Fijiian choir singing behind us, made it a beautiful experience. The reception was held in the Treetops restaurant and the food was just out of this world. The most amazing selection of fresh seafood, exsquisite salads, fresh fruit and cakes left everyone feeling very full indeed. Tal said it was the best meal he has ever had and I would have to agree with him. It was a lovely night, especially as we had a babysitter from 9pm-12pm. There is a kids club at the resort which Tal and Rennie went to most mornings and had a great time doing different activities there. Jarra was a bit of a stand out, his blonde, curly locks had many women just walking past him reach down to touch his hair, and many men stopping to shake his hand and say “Bula”. He falls asleep most afternoons, usually when we are in a vehicle of some kind, the movement certainly helps, and then we try and find somewhere to lay him down. It must be so funny for him to fall asleep and then wake up somewhere different, like in the Zig Zag restaurant, waking up lying on his back on a hard wooden bench looking up at the lights on the ceiling, or when he fell asleep on the catamaran on the way home from Malolo, we put him in bed in one of the big pontoons. He slept for 2 hours and woke up in a fibreglass shell moving up and down in the swell. There is something special about spending time on tropical islands, the blue of the water under clear skies and wonderful sunsets each evening. The Fijiians are very musical, at all the resorts there was guitar players and singers at almost every meal and at visitor’s arrivals and departures, and their hospitality was first class, even though they get paid peanuts compared to what we are used to. The country is comprised of half Fijiians and half Indians. There is quite some hostility between the two races, the Indians looking down on the others as not being in the same class as themselves while the Fijiians do not like the attitude of their wealthier counterparts. Between First Landing and the refinery is a marina where many yachts from around the world are moored. Jarra and I spent a couple of early mornings walking around having a look at them, a very different way of life. I spoke to an American couple who have been away for 2 years and plan to spend another 3 years sailing around the world, a bit different to life on a bus but similar in many ways. It would be fun to do, maybe one day we will, although I would have to grow some potatoes on the roof so we could have fish and chips whenever we wanted. We did a lot of snorkelling while we were away. It was just awesome, the coral was brilliant, many different types of tropical fish, the water as warm as a bath, and just floating about, the only sounds your breathing and heart beat, looking into another world. Very relaxing and amazing. Helen and I also had our first try on a jet ski, I am still smiling from the experience, it is like riding a motorbike with no helmet, no traffic and no worries, on a vast, flat, expanse of blue water, riding into the sunset on a 500cc, 2 stroke machine, cool…… The kids spent so much time in the water, on the beaches and in pools, their swimming is really coming along well and they are so happy in that environment. A chain of shops in Fiji is called Rups Big Bear. It is like a $2 shop, full of cheap household goods, their iconic large brown fibreglass bear on top of the awning is quite a sight to see. Thanks once again to Zac and Sandra for having us. Zac’s skills at arguing a point of view are quite something, even if the view is preposterous (in my view, of course!), he will find a way to try and persuade the rest of us and it is good fun. It is nice to be home again, although a lot colder than Fiji, the bus started first turn of the key and we are excited to see what happens next!!

BULA BULA Part 1

“Bula” is the Fijiian equivalent of “Hello”, but it is normally spoken with a lit up face and sparkling eyes, like “Surprise!”, subsequently you reply in the same manner. It is much nicer than the commonplace mumbling of… “Morning” ….that we are used to. When we landed in Nadi (prounounced Nandi), we were met by four men in traditional floral shirts singing happily with guitars which was a lovely way to be welcomed to the country and brought smiles to us all. Zac and Sandra were there to pick us up, they are friends from home, Rennie and their son Zalen went to kindergarten together and Helen and Zac were on the committee together as president and vice. Got some local currency and were a bit surprised to see the Queen on all the notes and coins. The road from the airport to Zac and Sandra’s house was a rough and bumpy single carriageway full of potholes and with occasional speed humps, lined by fields of sugarcane, which seems to grow very well in the humid conditions. Smoky vehicles lacking maintenance rumbled along, spewing clouds of diesel fumes and overtaking at inopportune times, the odour and traffic bringing back memories of travelling in India. When we slowed down while passing some roadwork, Zac explained that they were just making new potholes! He is quite a character. We went out for dinner on our first night there, Chinese of course, and after a nice and cheap meal we flagged a taxi to take us the 15km home. The driver stopped and put in 3.5 litres of fuel at the Mopil service station (the “b” had fallen upside down), which might have just been enough to get him there and back. Zac and Sandra bought into a watersports business last year and decided to move to Fiji for a year or so to work there and let their kids experience a different culture. The house they are living in is a girls stone throw from the beach, next to the First Landing Resort, which unfortunately is just next to a large petro chemical refinery. They have a couple of fishing boats, some jet skis, kayaks and the pride of the fleet, a large catamaran yacht named Wanaka (lucky the extra A is in there!). These are to take tourists on snorkelling trips, island hopping, fishing trips etc. Luckily for us they took us over to Malolo Island where we were to stay for three days for Rick and Janes wedding, the reason we went to Fiji in the first place. I say luckily as the transfer costs are quite steep, and once you are on an island they certainly take advantage of the fact that you are isolated and rely on their services unanimously. The boat trip to Malolo would have been a lot calmer if we had left earlier in the day, but by 2 pm when we departed the seas were quite choppy which meant our smallish vessel was being tossed about and we were riding up the waves and crashing, BANG, onto the next. Rennie curled up in her oversize life jacket like a turtle, Tal huddled down on the side to keep dry, I was up the front, trying to add a bit of weight to the prow?? riding the waves like a surfer while hanging on with white knuckles to try and miss the bone jarring whacks if seated , all while Jarra slept in Helens arms, oblivious to the soaking we were receiving. Was a funny 45 minute trip and we were glad to arrive at Malolo. It was quite a reminder of the power of the ocean.

THE CARS HISS BY MY WINDOW

Jim Morrison from the Doors wrote one of my favorite songs, a great blues ballad called “The cars hiss by my window”, (like the waves upon the sea, da da da da dum da dum dum…………………..) He obviously did not live where we are residing in Brisbane, as it would have been a very different lyric altogether. We are lucky to be staying 8 mins from the centre of Brisbane in a very modern, 3 level townhouse which backs on to Old Cleveland Road, a fairly major route by the sounds of the non-stop traffic. It is strange to fall asleep and wake up to the sound of motors accelerating uphill and not the sounds of birds, wind and nature, I know which one I prefer. Brisbane is a very hilly city with many old weatherboard houses, mostly built on stilts, the suburbs being quite a contrast to the city we have seen so far which is a vibrant, modern, angular looking place, with many one way streets. The Brisbane River which snakes through the city seems to be an integral feature, with ferry services moving people comfortably and peacefully to and fro. The Citycat is a catamaran which just oozes power and cruises smoothly and effortlessly through the greenish waterway. On the south side, opposite the CBD is the surprisingly named “Southbank” which is quite an amazing area of various entertainment venues including a tropical lagoon surrounded by beach sand and palm trees, cafes, ampitheatres, museums, Imax theatre, rainforest walks, cultural displays, sculpture and much more. The weather is nice and warm about 25 degrees every day so far, makes me feel a bit guilty when I see Melbourne’s chilly, wintery weather. Oh well….. It is funny to be sleeping in a real bed in a real house for the first time in 3 months, I suppose it is like a sailor reaching land after a time at sea. I have become so used to feeling every movement at night, when one of the children rolls over in bed we can feel it at the front of the bus. Went to the Botanical Gardens for our Mother’s Day lunch today, tall palms and lush rain forest filtering the strong sun to leave dappled sunlight along the pathways. This time tomorrow we will be in Fiji and everyone is excited. There is a good chance that we will not have access to the internet for the next couple of weeks, so while we are away check out some of the other blogs on www.blogger.com. There are some amazingly different blogs out there, a whole new world. On the home page there are some that are recommended. One of our favourites is www.oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com Please keep in touch, we do appreciate news from home, so either leave us a comment or send an email all call!!

Tal on a walk

Rennie on a walk

Our new toy!!

Sawn Rock

MT.SUPERBUS

From Warwick we ventured 45 km East through Loch Lomond, Killarney and up the steep 7km ascent to the Queen Mary Waterfalls where the many king parrots and the beautiful red and blue rosellas were happy to come and eat out of our hands. It is a beautiful waterfall and the kids enjoyed the 2km circuit walk through the rainforest from the top to the bottom of the valley and up the other side. We left the next morning for Brisbane after stopping at a café at the top of the road which looked right out over the valley. I am going to call the ACCC and lodge a complaint about the false advertising on the café’s sign out the front. It advertised gorgeous waitresses, well; she was a nice enough girl, but far from gorgeous. So we started passing signs to Mt. Superbus. I thought it was Mount Super Bus but later realised it was Mt. “Superb“ us, although we could have done with a super bus to get up there. On the road to Brisbane you go down Cunningham’s Gap which is a steep, windy descent of about 6 km, got to be careful that the brakes do not heat up too much as they can fail. For this purpose there is a run off area for heavy vehicles that suffer brake fade, which is a long, uphill driveway of sand/gravel. Glade we went down the Gap and not up! We made it to Ipswich that afternoon, 40 km from Brisbane and found it to be quite a cultural backwater, it was not too long before visions of Frankston came to mind. We did not see a lot of Ipswich and left the next morning after some interesting reversing manoeuvres to get out of the caravan park. Phew, we arrived in Brisbane at last but we could not find a caravan park that would fit us in so we parked in the street outside Rick and Janes place, our friends who are getting married in Fiji, and spent the evening with them, it was far better staying there than in a caravan park miles away. There are quite a few people to visit around here so off to Geoff (an old hockey mate of mine) and Kristys place for Saturday and parked outside their place in Mudgareeba. Picked up some nice pies from Yatala on the way and had them for lunch with Geoff and went to Brians, another friends place for dinner. What socialites eh? Cruised south on the Pacific Highway to Mullumbimby to visit Ros and Elly, people we met in Nepal almost 10 years ago, we will be based here for a few days and are leaving the bus here while we go to Fiji. Missed the turn off to here and tried to find somewhere to turn around. Eventually attempted a three point turn and managed to squash our bikes between the bus and trailer, ending up with Helens and my bikes back wheels trashed, more lessons learnt. It is a beautiful area around here, we are going to head in to Byron Bay today for a look around. Hope things are treating you all well.

IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?

A great lyric from Pink Floyd that I have been thinking about during various moments on this trip. It might have something to do with us having visited the radio telescopes, discovering many amazing facts about our known universe there and also spending so much time under clear, star filled skies, giving us plenty of opportunities to gaze at the heavens as man has done since the beginning of time. I think I have taken a lot of things for granted in my life, as a lot of people do, without really appreciating how special and amazing our lives can be. I suppose having more time to ourselves and being closer to nature has given me the opportunity to wonder at the ways of the world in a way that I have not really appreciated before. I have been drawing a lot of inspiration from nature’s patterns and have a new bank of ideas for future artwork. I can see why people with religious beliefs believe that “God” made the world, but that is too simplistic for me. When I was playing golf with Matt Bowker a few months ago I asked him about his thoughts on these matters as he is a very wise fellow who’s opinions I value. He reckons that there is definitely some other life form out there on one of the billion or so stars and planets we know of, but he doubts that they would be hitting a little, dimpled white ball around a large grassy area into holes not much bigger than the ball itself. What intelligent creatures we are………. When it gets dark outside we close the curtains and we could be anywhere in the world really, it is certainly home now and we are comfortable in our own wee space. We then wake up in the morning with our view, wherever that may be. I don’t think I mentioned that in Moree we spent some nice relaxing time in the artesian spas at the caravan park. Luckily for Moree, their town is situated on an artesian basin which most businesses drill down into so as to offer hot spas to their customers. Moree does not have too much else to offer that we could see. Jarra loved swimming around with his new flotation device but when we got to Goondiwindi that afternoon we went for a swim in a freezing cold pool which Jarra just jumped into and he freaked, he was expecting the warm temperatures of the Moree pools. So from Moree to Goondiwindi then on to Inglewood where we stayed a night in the laneway next to Nev’s place. Neville was the supervisor I dealt with for many years at the roofing company that I contracted to in Melbourne and he moved up to here last year with his wife Anne and his daughter Kiara and is enjoying living in a small town. We all had a counter meal and a good laugh together at the local. Nev also introduced us to a new type of prickle, the galvanised burr, a grass seed covered in spikes like a little round porcupine, snasty. The drive to Warwick was easy the next day and what a lovely town it is, we stayed 15 kms out of town next to Leslie Dam, where there was a lovely backdrop of mountains which the sun set behind. We went to the very modern aquatic centre after lunch on Tuesday and were the only people there, it was very funny having the whole place to ourselves, the 25 metre lap pool, the kids learn to swim pool and the excellent pool that was like a river flowing through a circuit of channels that swept you along, great fun. Just to finish off we must relate to you the Roddy McCloud story that was on an information plague in the park in Inglewood. There were many plaques next to the path on the walk around the park there that gave information on different aspects of Inglewood’s history but this one took the cake. Enjoy!! Roderick McCloud was the owner of “Terrica”, a sheep station 55km east of Inglewood during the 1890’s. One morning, when mustering the brumbies, he fell from his horse and completely scalped himself. He pulled himself together and instructed the team to continue the muster without him. After the brumbies were securely yarded, Roderick McCloud was rescued and his teenage son Scott took the sulky 60 km to Stanthorpe to get the Doctor. Having pulled the skin back, he pulled his hat on hard to hold the skin in place and went back to work waiting for the Doctor. The Doctor arrived that night and McCloud asked his wife Pettie to hold the lantern while the Doctor stitched the skin back. She was unable to stop shaking at the sight of it. McCloud barked “Pettie, I will hold the candle as you are trembling too much for the Doctor to set the stitching”. Dissatisfied with the number of stitches (as he felt they were too wide apart) he instructed the Doctor to put in more stitches. All this was done without anaesthetic or disinfectant. When men were men eh?

Life on a bus.

Everywhere we go people notice us. Now when we talk to anyone at sites etc I just say that we are on the bus. The usual response is “ Oh, the big bus!” Then when we answer their questions as to what we are doing, the usual answer to that is “ You are so lucky. I would love to do that.” Are we really just lucky? At first I used to just agree with people, but now I talk about the choices we have made etc., because really luck has had very little to do with anything actually – except perhaps in the purchase of our wonderful Bessie bus, but I personally think that was meant to be to help us meet the wonderful Smith family who sold her to us! A desire to travel again like we both did when we were younger, before children; a belief in the need for our children to get to know the wonderful country that they have been born in; a need to expand our thinking and ideas and show our children the diversity that they are part of; a chance for Andre to be inspired to create even more wonderful artwork; the courage to sell our home, relinquish our security and friends for a time; all of these have played a part in where we are now. So to any of you reading this and thinking how lucky we are, I say “Just do it!” We are all learning so much, especially about each other and as a family we are growing closer all the time – a necessity on the bus! The children have their moments, but overall are becoming intrinsic contributors to our day-to-day existence. They are learning so many new facts, having so many new experiences and are reading so much that I am finding it hard to keep up with them. I am glad we are able to take this as a year out, as I think the need for regular study would change the trip entirely and be difficult with Jarra. Even keeping their journals going is a bit of an effort. Another realisation is that we, Andre and I, really need one another. There is no way we could do this on our own. We constantly tag-team, especially with Jarra, but also with everything else. Andre is the fix it man though and usually can create something to fix any problems we may have. It really helps to have a very practical outlook and experience with making and mending things to get the most out of your trip and he is never happier than when he is solving some minor problem. In an ironic twist I am missing two things that are pole opposites – time on my own and talking to friends, even just talking to people past the usual “Hello”. We spend a lot of our time all together and as it is dark by six, pretty chilly and we are exhausted, we often fall into bed early at nine or ten…. so not much chance of socialising. I hope as we get into warmer climes we will venture outside the bus more in the evening. So far we haven’t met many people our own age. Most of the residents in the campsites are much older couples who keep to themselves a bit. We will see how things go.H