Camping with Jim, Paul, Karrie, Duff and Moe

We spent 3 nights at a campground in Rutherglen, Victoria with Jim and his friends Paul and Karrie, and their dogs Duff and Moe.
Dozens of sulpher crested cockatoos screeched in the trees, giving us early morning wake up calls. They are wonderful in spite of the noise.

We visited several local wineries, Jim and Kyra are running in the vines of one, and the girls loved playing with and walking the dogs.

Paul and Karrie recently purchased a caravan and this was only their second trip out. The kids set up their tent, they prefer that to a fancy motorhome or caravan.

We had a friend in the tree above us at night, a possum. We thought he was really cute until he decorated the kid's tent with his pee and poo. Ewww.

The wolf spider was in the washroom. If you enlarge the photo you'll see something interesting all over her back.

Mercedes spent most of her playground hours in the spinning green cup, just like the spinning tea cup ride at the fair. I watched a man and his pre-teen son try it out. The man spun it really fast and suddenly his son flew out out of the cup, landing about 3 meters away in a heap on the ground. I quickly remembered the emergency number for Australia (000), but then the boy got up laughing. Whew. I wish I'd had the video camera running for that one. We don't have playground toys like this in Canada.

It was a good time, thanks Jim, Paul, and Karrie. Oh, and Duff and Moe of course. Woof.

Extra Pics

Just before getting to Jim's in Canberra, again, we stopped at this lovely camp site by a river with wide, flat rocks and grazing cows on it's opposite bank. Near us were 2 other campers, a nice older couple, and a family with a sweet baby and this cute little fella who loved to play with the girls and 'drive' our van.

I can't remember where we saw this bug but I wanted to include it because it was like a jewel and the kids said it was a stink bug. A pretty, stinky bug.

Kyra's 9th Birthday

For Kyra's birthday we spent the day at Dubbo zoo, in Dubbo. The zoo is laid out in a 6 km loop that you can walk, drive, or bicycle around. We took our house around, stopping to wander amongst the animals. Many of the fences around the animals were dug down in a trench so they didn't obscure your view.

Kyra had wanted a camera for a long time and was very excited to open one in the morning and then have a whole zoo to photograph. That is a black swan behind her, they are very common all over Australia. At lunch time Kyra was busy feeding and photographing a bunch of Apostle birds (crow-like scavengers often in groups of 12) so Mercedes helped us decorate the van with balloons and light the cake candles. Surprise!

The tortoises were great, especially this one that watched us as much as we watched him or her. We could reach over and rub her shell and she would look us at us, slowly, to show she could feel it. What a neat, ancient creature. We got to feed the giraffes carrots. As you can see their tongues are long, curling around the carrot to pull it away. They would run around and knock eachother with their heads, all of the action looked like slow motion with their long limbs. Another favourite was the family of Siamang apes (or monkeys?). We'd never heard of them before. They ran and swung on ropes, and whooped and hollered so you could hear them from far away. They put on quite a show.

Lightening Ridge, April 4-5

As we headed inland towards Lightening Ridge, we passed through some hilly, wooded lands where the air was quite cool and the leaves were beginning to change colors. We passed through Glen Innis, stayed the night in Jackadgery, and camped at Cranky Rock recreation reserve where we saw some kangaroos and chatted with a pet cockatoo named Frank. At this reserve we spotted a tawny frogmouth in a tree, a night bird. Very cool.

At Lightening Ridge, a dusty, hot opal mining town, the woman at the information centre set us up with her man, George, who led us to their private land beside the town's dusty golf course where we could try for some crayfish and search for bits of opal in the piles of rocks dumped off by the miners. We didn't catch any crayfish, but we found some lovely bits of opal. George has a tiny, old dog he carries with him, whose name is Costa, as in cost a lot of money.

We also took a break at the town's hot springs: a concrete pool the springs flow into from 1 km. underground, a hot temperature you couldn't sit in for long. It's a popular spot for locals and travellers. It's open 24/7 and free, with showers and washrooms.

April 2008. Caterpillars

We just thought this was really interesting. At a roadside camping/rest area Kevin saw the caretaker watching something. The first picture is the leader, then behind her, nose to tail, is the long line of followers, dozens in number, all moving together. Their destination is the pile of caterpillars you see in the 3rd picture. They were piled and squirming at the base of a small tree. Each one is as long as your pinky finger.

One More Picture for March.

We found this pretty girl at a river side camping area near Moura. Her web was in a lemon tree.

A Brisbane Party with Jim. March.

At the end of March we met Jim at the Brisbane airport and stayed 3 nights on the trendy Gold Coast. We surprised the girls with 3 theme parks: Sea World, Movie World, and Wet n' Wild. Jim's idea, and a great one! By the end we were all exhausted, except Jim. The first 3 photos are from Sea World, after that I left the camera home so I could keep up. It was a slow time of year so most line-ups were reasonable or not at all.

Notice Mercedes's lack of front teeth. She lost a top front one the morning we picked up Jim. She was also just tall enough to go on the rides Kyra could go on. (One less cm and there would have been tears).

At Sea World we loved the polar bear and the roller coaster. How many times did we go on that? Kevin gave up after 2 and took pictures instead.

At Movie World the kid's favourites were the Bat Man ride which shot you straight up in the air and dropped you, and the Scooby Doo ride and coaster. The Superman roller coaster was only for tall people (I barely reached the marker!) so we took turns going on it while the girls declared hight restrictions unfair. It was awesome!

At our campground Jim slept in the tent we'd bought for the girls. He had a little green frog friend the whole weekend, hanging out between the fly and the tent roof. When we took the tent down he put the frog on the window of the van. It hung out for awhile, then the girls took him to a cool, shady garden.

What a fun, crazy weekend. Thanks Jim!