Next up...Italy!!

We will head off to Italy next summer.  Better yet, we will not be leaving on the last day of school! : )  Randy and I have chosen accomodations in each of the cities--sometimes choosing cuteness and location over space and amenities.  Last summer was winter, this summer will be hot summer!  We're hoping for not too hot or humid.  No tutlenecks and heavy sweatshirts and jeans this summer!  For more information, you can check Randy's blog:  Lee-Reid Travels.  He has details, I have concepts.  Happy Christmas, New Year, and spring!

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

Sorry, that was from the Hitchhiker’s Guide series.  But, it fits!

To recap, the post that was never posted talked about our departure (escape?) from the Carnarvon campground and our arrival at our Farm Stay.  It rained the rest of the day and all night and remember that the road in (the one with the cows) was dirt.  Well, rain and dirt make....that’s right--mud!  We had to try to slide through each bit of mud then slow down to make the creek crossings (those were higher).  The car kept flashing the no traction light and beeping at us--I think we know that we have no traction when we’re sliding sideways in mud!  But we prayed--me especially because I had a vision in my head of me knee deep in mud, sprayed with mud, trying to push the car out--and crying.  So eventually we made it to the paved part, cheered, told Randy how wonderful he was (he was driving then) and relaxed.  I could see Randy’s shoulders drop down when we reached the asphalt--even when we encountered the cows (only a few).  

When we reached Bonus Downs (the farm stay), the drive from the road to the house was also that red dirt--we slogged through and almost were stuck--it was very close.  There was another family with 2 children camping in a camper.  The boy was 8 (yay for Joshua) and the girl was 6 (she could still play with Shelby).  The boy (Hamish) and Joshua were instant friends and ran all over together!  They played with the yabbies that were caught (like blue crayfish).  All of them had fun playing in the bottle tree which had a ladder into it and ropes to swing from.  

The other family left the next morning.  We spent time outside reading, hiking, and spending time together.  What a nice way to end our vacation. 

On our way this morning, we stopped in Mitchell for Annie to get her Harry Potter wand from the newsagents and we mailed our postcards(!).     

Tonight we arrived in Brisbane (many hours later), returned the car, and carried our bags the mile or so to the youth hostel we were staying in.  We walked around the corner to eat pizza for dinner and across the street to watch the final Harry Potter movie.  Good last night memories.  The hostel ran out of blankets so we hopefully will be warm enough tonight.  Up early tomorrow to take the train to the airport.  

So, thus the title--So Long Australia/New Zealand, thanks for the memories (and the fish!).   And thanks to anyone who has read this and lived our holiday with us.   

All Quiet on the Farm

I stepped out of the shower this morning (in the building behind our cottage) and looked out the door of the bathroom to see three cows lounging by the steps to our back porch, munching on plants they pulled out of the pots near the steps.  You just gotta laugh!  

In the bathroom building (which seems very common here in the Outback), there are two separate bathrooms--each has a toilet, sink, and shower.  Each part is in a separate cubicle with a locking door (well, except the sink).  One of the two bathrooms has a door that closes [that was the one we saw the small cow walking into yesterday--again, you just gotta laugh!  : )]   Midnight trips to the bathroom are pulling on jeans and sweatshirt (because it’s cold), grabbing the flashlight (even through it’s supposed to be too cold for the snakes and scorpions--but probably not for the giant spiders).  

Reading through all of the history and articles, looking at the photos of this place is amazing!  What an education in the history and the present-day realities of life in the outback--especially a sheep or cattle station.  

When we drove to the store yesterday (the car only beeped once going out the driveway as we skidded sideways), we saw a kangaroo and a few emus in the bush.  The owner said that the koalas all died during the three-year drought from a few years back.  Randy went on an extended walk today (I stayed back with my worsening head cold), and saw a bunch of kangaroos bounding away from him.  

Yesterday we went on a walk around the dams they improved upon to help in any upcoming droughts and saw a lot of birds.  It was nice walking around the bush on a trail.  We saw a kookaburra when we got back to the farm (you know:  kookaburra sits in the old gum tree...).  

It is sunny and warm during the day so we have been trying to be out in it as much as possible, but when the sun goes behind clouds, it is quite chilly.  It is also quite chilly at night, so we spend the dark hours in the common area of our cottage.  Having dinner, sitting in the chairs in front of the wood stove talking, reading, and playing games. It is quite nice.  We were unsure about scheduling the farm stay, only knowing that the children should see this part of Australian life.  It is very nice, low-key, kicked back.  It would be nice if there were other families with children for our children to play with, but it’s working out well.  

The theme of many of our recent conversations has been how many days left (only 2!!!).  And mentally preparing ourselves for that change.  In many ways we will miss all of this, but we are ready to get back to our normal summer lives--lazy, going for bike rides and walks (when the weather cooperates), reading, gardening, walking to the Wabun wading pool, time with friends, drama camp, and gearing up for school in the fall.  

We will hopefully have a few hours to walk around Brisbane tomorrow after we get there (another long car trip).  Then the next day we head home, back over the date line; we will arrive in LA before we leave Brisbane!  :)  Then to Denver (to decrease a killer layover in LA), then to Minneapolis.  

We just found out that the owners have normal speed wi-fi if we sit on their back porch, so I can finally include photos!  There are photos of a bottle tree, and our place--the Jackaroo’s quarters.  See everyone soon!

Morning Kangaroo Count: 16

Yes!  5 days left of vacation and we finally saw kangaroos--22 of them!  But first...

Last night we got to Carnarvon in the dark.  As we were driving down the road (still paved at this point), we saw many eyes glowing in the headlights!  There were a lot of cows in the road.  There were signs saying to watch for stock crossing, but we’ve seen those before.  So we drove slowly in bits, honking the horn and eventually got through.  Well, we did this twice more!  And once more for a wallaby.  Halfway through, we came to a dirt road full of potholes.  40 kilometers took us 45 minutes to drive last night.  Randy was driving then so he looked for potholes while I looked for critters in the road.  No kangaroos, but that was probably OK.  

This morning it was sprinkling, but we were hoping for the best.  As I stepped out of the shower, Annie and Shelby were standing there and said “Guess what we saw?!  A kangaroo--right behind our tent!”  So I went, and the kangaroo had moved into the bush behind the cabin behind us (got that?).  There were three of them!  One of them--the one the children saw right behind our cabin--had a joey!  Shelby got a good photo of the mom and joey.  We saw more as we were driving to the park, and then a bunch more at the park!  (16!)   The park was rainforest and gorge--very beautiful!  We hiked through the park for 6 hours (and “only” went 9 miles).  It was a great trail, but we must have crossed the stream (on rocks) 15 times!  I also lost my status as the only person who had not yet stepped into water.  :(   It also started to rain--a light rain--halfway through our hike.  So we came back soaked.  My turtleneck, sweatshirt, jeans, socks, shoes, and jacket are all soaked.  And since it is raining, they will not dry any time soon.  I have one other pair of jeans (that I will need to sleep in since it is so cold here at night), and a pair of dirty socks (I have no others clean), and a t-shirt.  I am wrapped up in a blanket that we begged from reception.   

As to our “cabin.”  It is a canvas tent over metal poles with screen windows and plastic that can be zipped over them.  It has a screen door with a flap of canvas that can be lowered.  A tarp is over the canvas roof to keep out the rain.  It has a plywood floor and two electric lights, a small dorm refrigerator, and four beds--one double and two of the singles bunked. I’m sure it’s fine during the warm season, but it was 7 degrees last night (around 45 degrees Farenheit).  There are bedspreads on the beds and pillows, but no sheets or blankets! (The web site didn’t share that!)  The “cooking” area is an outdoor pavilion with two barbecues (the Aussies love their BBQ), four burners, and a sink.  And no utensils, cooking utensils, pots, dishes, etc.  We knew that, so we appropriated some plastic cutlery when we stopped at McDonalds for lunch yesterday, bought paper plates at the grocery store, and bought food that could be barbecued and eaten easily (muffins  for breakfast since we have no bowls, chicken kebabs and hamburgers for dinners, and   sandwiches for lunches).  We also bought an inexpensive cooler bag (like a big insulated lunch bag) to put our meat in to bring the extra couple of hours it took to get here after the last city with a grocery store (which, as an aside, happened to be Emerald--as in the Emerald City in the Land of Oz--Australia is nicknamed Oz!).  Anyway, this morning we asked for blankets for tonight and they managed to dig out 4 for us.  So, I am freezing right now.  Thinking that I need to run to the bathroom building to brush my teeth (using a flashlight because of the possibility of snakes, large spiders, and scorpions and wearing wet shoes) and sleeping with fewer clothes on.  Last night I slept in my socks, jeans, turtleneck, t-shirt, and hoodie--with the hood up to stay warm--and that’s with cuddling next to Randy.  I have on now jeans and dirty socks that I will also need to wear tomorrow and a t-shirt.  That’s it--oh, and Randy.  And a blanket--but I have to share that with Randy.  Hopefully I won’t need to use the toilet during the night--last night I talked myself out of it.  Then a dash to the bathroom building tomorrow morning to take a shower.  Brrrrrrrrr.  And it’s still raining!  This morning we woke to the jungle sounds of bird calls.  They were so loud!  Even the smallest birds have loud, freaky calls!  They sounded like a whole jungle of animals--monkeys and all!).  Not the comfiest stay we’ve had.  Farm stay is next.

Four days of fun in one long post!

Coral, boats, and flooded roads

Wow!  What a busy last three days!  This will be a long post because it covers three days! After my last post on Magnetic Island, I got the manager (even though the reception was closed for the night) and explained that some creature was freaking us out, for the second night in a row.  I showed her where I could see something outside our bedroom and it was a possum.  First she shone her flashlight on it, then yelled and got up close to it, finally had to use a large stick to push it out of the eave.  A better nights sleep was had.  

The next day, back on the ferry and we drove to Ainslie Beach where we were to meet our boat (after checking in at the next town and having a picnic on the beach).  We had to pay a lot to leave our car for two days (the machine only took coins--16 one dollar coins).  Then we waited and got some ice cream from the little convenience store at the marina.  Before we could board the boat, we all had to put our shoes in a bag--bare feet only on the boat to improve traction.   Then we saw our cabins--very small.  We were on a catamaran and the cabins were in the hulls.  Randy and I had one with a double bed--you enter the bed from the head of the bed--it angled in and the walls were on both sides.  We had an ensuite bathroom.  The children had a room with a double bed against the wall and a bunk above and across the feet of the double--also with ensuite.  The captain’s cabin was ahead of ours and accessible from a hatch on the deck.  The other two cabins on the other side we taken by an Irish couple in their 20s on in Australia on one year work visas, the other by an English couple in their 30s (?).  The boat provided meals and the tap water was drinkable.  Anything else you had to bring (especially alcohol).  They sold soft drinks for $2 a can and chocolate bars for $1 each.  The food was good--all made on the boat with fresh ingredients.  We just couldn’t bring ourselves to try the vegemite on our bread (it’s dark brown and made from yeast extract).  We stuck with butter, peanut butter, and nutella.  They had music provided from an iPod attached to a speaker system.  The first night (we left at 4:00) we just motored then sailed to a spot for the evening.  Early the next morning (before breakfast) we were taken in the dingy to an island where we took a short hike up to a lookout over White Haven beach--the most famous beach in the Whitsunday Islands.  The we went around the island to an area near the beach where we could moor and were taken in the dingy to the beach.  The Irish guy (an Irish spelling of Kieran) swam and Annie, Shelby, and the English man (Noel) took paddle boards out.  We wore wetsuits to keep us warm and protect from anything we might come up across in the ocean (even though it isn’t jellyfish season--they’re only out in the summer).  Joshua spent the entire time playing in the sand.  The sand isn’t ordinary sand.  It is white and feels like flour.  It is so soft.  It has a ton of silica in it (from long ago volcanoes).  It is against the law to remove sand, but they did allow some to be taken to make the Hubble telescope (!).  We spent several hours laying on the beach, using the paddleboards, and the girls and Kieran tried to learn the windsurfer.  The paddleboards are boogie boards (wider than surf boards) that you use a paddle with.  You start on your knees and the goal is to stand up.  I stood once for a bit, till a large wave knocked me off--my chest hit the board (oooof!) and I went face-first into the salt water--not one of my more graceful moments!  But I never lost my sunglasses!  We stopped later at a coral reef (this is all part of the great barrier reef.  But Joshua got scared in the water, so he and I went in the clear canoe and looked at the coral that way.  We stopped again in the late afternoon, but I was napping so Randy took Joshua out in the canoe.  The girls went snorkeling both times!  Evidently that reef was beautiful.  The next morning we stopped again and a few people went snorkeling and out in the canoe.  A few of us stayed back--being very tired.  Annie and Kieran snorkeled together for awhile using the seadoo blower thing and found sea turtles!  The girls together found a large ray.  For three days we sat in the deck in the sun, sometimes inside when it got too cold.  The only sunburn casualty (thanks I’m sure to the wetsuits) were the tops of my feet--which was pretty minor.  We were all very relaxed on the boat which was nice (and tired from all of the activity).   

The boat docked at 11:00 sharp.  I shared some fun conversation with the English couple (Helen and Noel) and the crew (Jesse, Sam, and Mike) before that.  Then we got our car and drove to Finch Hatton Gorge.  When we left the highway (a two-lane road with narrow shoulders), we drove on a very small road that hadn’t been patched for awhile.  That road eventually became one lane with soft shoulders, then even narrower between cane fields.  Randy had to get our once to read one of the road signs that had been bent in half.  We then reached dirt roads with numerous potholes, then--it gets better!--we got to roads covered in water from streams!  Three of them.  They were paved at the creek beds so that they did not wash away.  Eventually we got to our cabins.  Three of them--and the sign for the office was an area with some picnic tables and a barbecue.  The sign said to honk and a man crossed the stream walking on rocks to check us in.  Bizarre situations and an adventurous route to get there!  

Our cabin had a double bed, and a double bed bunked over with a single bed, a kitchen, and bathroom with a huge shower (about seven feet long by four feet deep!).  The table was a patio table on the porch.  While Randy drove to the town to get groceries, the children and I took a short walk around, down the road and along the creek).  Then dinner, showers, and bed.  

The next morning (the 14th here) we drove the potholed dirt road to Finch Hatton Gorge--a national park--and hiked to the Araluen Cascades--a waterfall.  Then we braved the roads the other way to drive to Carnarvon National Park which is where we are driving as I write this (I’m writing in the car while Randy takes his turn driving).  A few adventurous days.  

Hopefully we will have wifi soon to post this and photos.  Randy wrote a post every day an is saving them up to post.  If we get a good connection, I’ll go back and add my photos to the previous blogs from Palm Cove.  I am definitely looking forward to our wifi when we get back! 

Koalas on Magnetic Island

Today we went to the Koala Sanctuary.  The next tour didn’t begin for another hour, so we walked to a market in Horseshoe Bay (about half a mile down the road).  When we returned, way cool!!  We saw and touched turtles, cocatiels, (big) lizards, something that looks like a hedgehog, crocodiles, snakes, spiders, possums, butterflies, and oh yeah--a koala baby with her mum (see the photo below)!!  We got to hold almost everything except the koala (that was $14 more) including the crocodile and the python.  (We also couldn’t hold the spiders, but that was OK--they were HUGE!!!)  We even saw what appeared to be a small kangaroo hop off into the nearby wilderness.  We all enjoyed the 2 hour tour!!  

Last night during the night we were woken up around 6:00 by screaming (animals), then we heard sounds and heard them scratching on the walls and the windows (we’re not sure if they were in the walls or just outside the window.  Randy and I both pounded on the wall and they quieted down, but they continued to scurry around, knock things over, and crawl on the roof.  It was very disconcerting.  I was half-asleep, imagining they’re going to come in--a la Stephen King.  Ooooh--we just heard another thing in the wall (we think) screaming or something--Randy pounded the wall and eventually it stopped.  No idea what it was.    

After lunch today, we borrowed snorkeling equipment from the guest house and went to Florence Bay to try it out.  Since our catamaran trip to the Great Barrier Reef is tomorrow, we decided to get ready,  The girls have never snorkeled, I asked Joshua’s pool teacher to let him try out some equipment in his after-school pool class, Randy and I snorkled in Key West on our honeymoon, and before that I did on a Caribbean cruise.  So, not a lot of experience between us all.  It was too cold to go out to the fringe reef that surrounds the island (this is part of the Great Barrier Reef), so we just practiced closer to shore.  The girls were so excited that it worked!  : )  

So we have a (hopefully) quiet night to get up early tomorrow to take the ferry and drive to our catamaran.  Hopefully the creatures will help us out and be quiet (although I can hear them already).  Kind of freaky.  Maybe I’ll go outside and take a look.  Till our next time we get internet access.

Wakeup Maggie

Today we woke up early and spent 5 hours driving to Magnetic Island.  We drove through areas with many sugar cane fields and banana trees.  In one area, fairly close to the ocean (but not on the beach), the trees looked pretty ragged.  Many had no leaves and the ones that did, the leaves were close to the trunk.  In one particular city there was a wide swath of threes ripped up by the roots.  Then Randy remembered the hurricane from last February.  This was the area that was hit.  Near the downed trees, the city had started to clear up and had piles of debris (cut up trees, branches, etc.).  

At Townville (no imagination in naming that city!), we took the ferry to the Island.  We drove from the dock to the next village (Arcadia) to our accommodations.  We are staying in a guest house.  We have a cottage--the fisherman’s hut.  They also have about 6 rooms in the main house, and five tents set up under shelters with regular beds inside them.  Again, even though it’s the tropics, they don’t understand that it’s winter and it’s cold in here!  We have an air conditioner and a fan, but no space heater!  Our cottage is cute--it’s a boat theme with a net hanging from the ceiling in the main room and rustic wood and ropes making the master bed.  The main room has a small kitchen (double hotplate, refrigerator, sink, island with stools), a living room (couch, TV, coffee table), and a bunk bed.  the couch folds out into a bed.  Joshua got to make the choice where he wanted to sleep (in our condo he chose the couch).  He chose the bottom bunk, Shelby chose the top, and  Annie got the fold-out couch.  Through an arch is the “master” bedroom with double bed, then through a door is the bathroom--fully modern and looks very clean.  In the windows are screens with plywood flaps held up by pieces of wood.  Randy closed a few of these, but it’s not enough to keep it very warm.

After we checked in, we drove to the end of the paved roads on the island (it didn’t take long--it’s a very small island).  We hiked on a moderate trail called the Fort circuit which goes up to the tallest point on the island where the remains from an army settlement from WWII can be found.  They had huge guns that wheeled around on a rail (only the center, the storage room and the rail are still there) and huge lights to spot enemy (Japanese) planes.  There was an army camp in Townville and someone saw a Japanese plane.  So, fearing an imminent attack (as the Japanese were slowly taking over the Pacific), they built large spotlights (3 million candle power) to spy enemy planes up to 30,000 feet (meters?) in the air.  Mildly interesting, but good exercise.  We were looking for the koalas and wallabies (and hoping not to see the poisonous adders).    Nada.  (As we were driving to Townville early in the morning, we saw a field of what looked like tiny kangaroos.  Not knowing how big kangaroos are, they may have been kangaroos, or possibly wallabies?)

After our walk and a trip to the IGA for milk, we borrowed a pot and colander from the communal kitchen to make dinner in our hut.  Then settled in to read, write postcards, etc.  

Aside from the signs warning people not to hit the kangaroos and brush turkeys, my favorite road sign was in New Zealand:  “Merge Like a Zip” for two lanes that had to merge into one.  Isn’t that great!  And it worked! Wake