rtw with lucy

A European tourist made a very good observation: she said that Americans and Aussies go to Europe for the lovely old architecture and history, and Europeans come to our countries to enjoy nature, because that is something they don’t have much left of. We are enjoying the natural life of Australia very much however. They have over 700 species of birds, and while some are pesky little thieves, many are a lot of fun to watch.

The kookaburras were the ones we really wanted to see and we have seen plenty, and heard more of them, with their maniacal little “laugh”. They are very dignified looking birds though. ”Merry, merry king of the bush” describes them very well.

There is another one, much like the kookaburra in looks, but smaller and very intense blue. I believe they call it a kingfisher.

There are several species of doves, and my favorite is the emeral dove. She is pearly pink on her breast, and emerald green on her back and wings.

This morning at breakfast, we watched as two crested dove males had a showdown. They fanned out their tailfeathers and drummed, and circled one another warily. We never did see the female, and since the male aggressive behavior soon fell apart, we think she must have left. They looked evenly matched, so maybe it was too tough of a choice.

We never did see a cassowary, and were somewhat disappointed until we found out that they can be dangerously aggressive, and it doesn’t take much to set them off.

We have seen many varieties of parrots, but the prettiest ones were the ones sitting in a juniper tree eating the berries. They were scarlet on their breast, and dark Christmas tree green on their backs, and that was a terrific sensory experience–the mountains for a backdrop, the tree full of parrots, and the sharp scent of junifer as they ate the berries.

Then there are the animals. We have seen several kangaroos and wallabies. These are the ones we most wanted to see, since to us, these are the ones that most symbolize Australia for us. The main difference in kangaroos and wallabies is that the kangaroos can only eat grass, and thus suffer during a severe drought, which is going on here now. The wallabies can live off of a much more varied diet, and so survive hard times much better. They are not very shy animals, and will lay around in the evening munching on the grass.

Also, many have become tame, due to wildlife rescue efforts. Lots of kangaroos and wallabies get hit on the highway, and if someone can manage to rescue the joey, it can be bottle fed and returned to the wild, and isn’t much afraid of humans. It made me wonder what Oz would be like 500 years from now, if these animals are getting killed on the highway, and the joeys are being tamed by rescue efforts. Will they become more like dogs?

We spent a week in a platypus viewing camp, which was a very interesting experience. These are amazing little creatures. They have a classification of their own, since scientists couldn’t quite agree on where they belong. They seem to be mammals, since they have warm blood, fur, and feed milk to their young. But, there the resemblance to a mammal ends, for they lay eggs and have a venomous spur on their back feet, which would seem to put them into a reptile category. They are about the size of a housecat and swim around looking for mainly insects and worms to eat. They are very shy, so it is a treat to get to see one. We saw two.

One night, we stayed at a camp that has scientific research going on with sea turtles. They are studing the loggerheads, green turtles, and flatback turtles that come in from the ocean to lay their eggs on the beach. People became so interested in what they were doing that they came onto the beach and wanted to watch, but the rangers knew they needed to control things better when 25 turtles came up to lay eggs one night, and 24 swam away without laying them because of all the people. Now they take people out in small groups and strictly control the light (it scares them and/or confuses them). Once the turtle gets about 20 eggs laid in the hole she has dug, the lights won’t disturb her and everyone gets to watch. This was fascinating, and after all the hard work of digging a hole, laying the eggs, covering the eggs, and them crawling across that expanse of sand, she was totally worn out, and we all cheered privately as she swam away. These sea turtles are all endangered species, so the scientists are helping to save them, by helping to ensure that they can still have places to lay their nest.

Then there are the koalas–not koala bears–I got a funny look when I said that. They are very quiet and docile animals during the day, and sleep for at least 20 hours of the day. Then at night they start grunting like pigs, and sqealing, and it sounds like they are stripping all the bark out of the trees. In the morning they are quite sleepy again and it looks as if you could go pet them, but that is very inadvisable, as the only real defense they have is a very sharp set of claws.

We also got to swim around on the Coral Reef, up near Cairns in the far north of Queensland. Gene took scuba diving lessons, and me and the girls went with him to snorkel on his last day of lessons. The colors really are that intense. I thought they just touched them up like they do the pix of Mars or Venus, but it is like an undersea garden down there. We lost our underwater camera, but were able to purchase some photos of all the strange critters down there.

Well we’ve been awfully busy. After Wazza’s jungle platypus camp, we headed south again, and signed up for a 3 day/2 night stint on Fraser Island. We had to rent a 4 wheel drive because it is the world’s largest sand island and a regular car would bog down right away. It is pretty much wilderness too, with a few services but not much.

We got our 4X4 on Sunday and headed out to the rumble of the rather rough truck and rode a ferry out to the island. As we got on the sand road, I thought, “Oh, this isn’t so bad.” I thought too soon. The road suddenly turned on us–it turned to pure sand–about 4 feet of pure, fine, white, and very loose sand. The truck went up the hills and down in the valleys and it’s a good thing we had our seatbelts on. Gene and the girls thought it was a lot of fun, but I wasn’t so sure. I mean I like adventure and all, but this was a bit much.

After 8 km (4-1/2 miles) and 2 hours later, we came to a lake ringed with trees. The sand around it was white, and the water looked like poolwater–it was that clear. The lakes there are called “dead lakes” because they don’t support much life. There is not much algae and that makes them clear.

A while later we set up camp by the beach. We now know not to camp under the trees that drip saltwater! The ocean was nice, but we couldn’t swim in it because of rips, sharks, and jellyfish. We stayed for 3d/2n, and that was just enough. Anymore time would have been too much.

After we got back, we stayed in Hervey Bay for the night.
Then we headed south towards Brisbane. We didn’t stay there though, we had to go on and get a place to stay on the Gold Coast. Blecch. Wall to wall highrise buildings on the beach and lots of strip malls. Not our cup of tea, and this one almost broke our marriage, but we hightailed it out of here the next day, and I made him promise not to put me through this soul deadening madness ever again!

Well,we finally met a real Aussie character- his name is Wazza Swaddling- he owns and runs the Platypus Bush Camp outside of Eungella National park in Queensland. We found him in our WWOOF book and worked for him for about 7 days. We helped him build his new house in the jungle and the girls helped him sweep and we answered the phone. Wazz- as he is known is a character who should have been the “crocodile dundee”- his place is set by a beautiful river with sulphur crested cockatoos flying all around. He is a bit crabby at times but we found him to be a genuine person. His camp looks like something from Swiss Family Robinson. The showers open up to the jungle and it is just you and nature for all the critters to see. He has a camp kitchen with a beautiful mosaic for a table. There is a river pool where you can sit at dawn or dusk and see
platypuses(if you are lucky), there is no electricity and sometimes he lights a fire for a hot shower. He proudly stated he has not watched T.V. since about 1980. Wazza is an avid environmentalist and takes care to protect his property. We cooked some food together and had several interesting conversations. We also enjoyed his two pet Cockatoos and his dog named “Dog” who loved to run and fetch pinecones. There are some beautiful mountain hikes close by to his place and one to “wheel of fire waterfall” was spectacular-I am including a picture from there. Our next stop is Fraser Island and then we head south to New South Wales. Cheers Mates-Gene

Before we left on this trip, we received many warnings from concerned family and friends–mainly the ones who were big fans of Steve Irwin and his show, “The Crocodile Hunter”.  Of course, Australia is known to have the most venomous snakes and spiders in the world, so we were a bit concerned ourselves, but figured that there are 20 million people alive down here, so it can’t be THAT bad.  Can it?

 So here’s the scoop on the deadlies:  haven’t seen any.  We did see some of the most poisonous snakes in the world, but they were at the Australia Zoo.  We saw the taipan and the death adder and the brown snake and several others.  The interesting thing about them is that they are somewhat opposite from our poisonous snakes, as are many other things down under.  For instance, almost all of the venomous snakes had a rounded head, rather than a diamond shaped head.  Their eyes were dark, so you couldn’t see whether they had slits for pupils or not–and really, who ever gets that close to a snake, much less one suspected of being poisonous?  Then the death snakes in Oz tend to have a solid pattern on them or nearly solid–not the big diamond shapes we see on our rattlesnakes.  We have been informed that the snakes around here are very shy, and you would have to be very unlucky to encounter one.  We’ve never gotten unlucky yet. 

 Another risk around here is the marine stingers, especially box jellyfish.  That one is simple.  If no one is swimming on the beach, we don’t either.  Not many have been spotted, but some have, and that seems to be enough for the locals, and enough for us too.  Erin and I shock easily so we really are careful.  There are lots of pools around here though, so we can cool off.

 So family and friends–relax.  We have no worries, but we’re not going to do anything dumb.  We did see a very big fish the other day, but he had absolutely no interest in tasting us!      Stephanie

Well, we were driving the other day and our transmission started acting up so we had to make a backword loop to Cairns and are waiting to get it fixed- We had already been in Cairns for about 5 days before- by the way it is pronounced-“Cans”- close to the rainforest and Great Barrier Reef- I took a Scuba diving class for four days and am now a Padi Certified open water diver. I went on four dives in the reef- wow!- swam with a Napolianic Wrasse)fish)- that was about 6 feet long and four feet wide and weighed about 350 lbs- you would not believe the reef- amazing colors and a multitude of fish- and yes we saw Nemo- the clown fish. I am including a picture of me in my Scuba gear. We were sitting at our camp sight tonight and giant bats were flying overhead-it was pretty amazing. Camping in Oz is great- we have been staying at caravan parks-they have camp kitchens,nice bathrooms, and a friendly atmosphere and cost us about $30.00 per night. Keep writing us on the blog-it is great to hear from everyone! I think about work every now and then- but I believe the time off has been good for me-now back to the bat watching-Gene

   Well, writing to you from Cairns, and I have a bit more to say about the birds, and other things.

Well, the day did come that we went to Kuranda ( a real tourist town!)

We went to the Heritage Markets, and lo and behold did we see the sign to the bird house.They had several very pretty Macaws on display, and Erin immediately wanted to go inside.Mom said,  ” sigh, OKAY”  They also had a Koala Garden and a Butterfly House.

Mom was like, “ok you can both do one thing each”

So Erin immediately picked the bird house.I was actually going to do the Koala Gardens, but I decided to do the bird house too.  Mom paid and we both went inside. Well, It was very tropical inside.  Thare were birds flying over your head this way and that. They were all quite pretty. We saw some very teeny tiny birds, and some VERY large birds including the Macaw , the black swans, and the Cassowarys. Most of the birds were very bright colored.  Blue, red, green, yellow,orange,purple, black, white, peach,brown, tan. All of these colors swirling around, It was very pretty.

Some of the birds were also just Beautiful.Especially the Macaws and the Rainbow Lorikeets.

Well, when we were turning to go, two very cheeky Rainbow Lorikeets decided to swoop on our heads, I almost jumped with fright.  But, I managed to regain my composure and leave.

After that we took a hike.  (BleGGGH)  I managed to survive that, and we went home.

Well, more later.       Signing out,   -LUCY

       In Missouri it goes-“buzz, buzz, slap! slap!”  In Queensland it goes-” crawl, crawl, AAAAaaaaaaeeeeeeeeee!!!”   The bugs here are pretty brutal.  I get mysterious bites on my arms and legs, and I don’t know where they came from or how they got there.  There’s ants and sandflies everywhere just ready to crawl on you or bite you as the case may be.  The other night I was getting water, and something jumped on me.  I looked down and saw a bug at least 2 inches long on my jacket sleeve, and I found out that it was sticky after I tried to flick it off.  The something just decided to crawl up my jacket after I tried to get rid of it.  At this point I did 3 things:  scream, drop my water, and try to pull my jacket off as fast as I could. I don’t know what the something decided to do after that, because I havn’t worn that jacket since.  The nights were getting hot anyway. 

         – Scared in the Dark Erin

Well, we’ve been here almost three weeks now, and I must say that the birds are what amazes us the most.  They are such little comics.  The crows look much like ours, only bigger–heck, they’re all bigger.  They say a short little caw caw, but then trail off into an amorous tom cat sound.  The magpies look like the crows, only they have white on them.  You have to wear a hat around them or they will dive bomb your head.  We thought the warning was just Aussie humor, but then I got “swished” myself.

 The wild turkeys look just like ours, but their behavior is completely different.  They came right within 3 feet of us,  because they are such awful little beggars.  We watched on the beach one day with amusement as a turkey went back repeatedly to eat a whole bag of donuts out of someone’s things.  A crow kept stealing them from him though, so he’d just go back and get more.

 One night I heard a horrible scream come from just outside our cabin, and ran outside with visions of crocodiles attacking my girls.  It was only a little bird on very long legs, and looking quite innocent.  We found out later that it’s called a curlew.  Besides owls, it’s the only bird I know of that stays up all night.

The funniest one by far though, is one that sounds like a child’s tin horn, and it says either “uh oh, uh oh, uh oh” or else “nah nah na-naaah nah”, just like a naughty kid’s song.  I haven’t got the name of that one yet, but I will soon.  For now, I’m just content to listen to the cacophony of bird calls that begins quite early in the morning!

After enduring the 17 hours of plane flight we are a little groggy, but some iced coffee in Brisbane solved that. We are safe, and enjoying ourselves. We have come along a little mishap of losing our luggage, but the ticket agents assured us that we would have them by tomorrow afternoon. More later….
* Favorite quote of the day- “no worries, mate”
-Signing out, Erin S.

Well, here we are, six days from departure, and I’m barely dragging myself along. I have worked my tail off for these last 9 months or so. Has it really been 9 months? Wow, I guess this trip will be our baby.

I had a chance to sit down tonight and think about what all has had to happen to get to this point. Right now, we are homeless and unemployed, and feel like we’re in limbo. It is a different kind of feeling, and not one I can easily explain, except that it is probably a lot like the feeling you get when you’ve just graduated from high school. All that hard work is over, and the next phase of your life has not yet begun, but the possibilities are endless. You know it’s not all going to be wonderful and exciting, and yet you hope that most of it will be. I know that some full days will probably be spent waiting for something like a late plane, or a visa extension. That is the nature of long term traveling, and hopefully we’ll deal with it better than if we only had a two week vacation.

I must say that we have worked hard to sell a house and close out this part of our life, and said good bye to some wonderful friends. We’ve gotten rid of at least half of our stuff, and packed away what was left in storage bins and locked them away in a shed. We’ve gotten shots, and made arrangements with the bank, and sold our cars. We bought trip insurance, one way tickets to Brisbane Australia, and a car for when we get there. Whew, we almost missed getting the girls’ glasses in time, but they did come in this week, for which we are grateful, but when I think back on all that I am truly amazed and grateful that it ran as smoothly as it did. It’s not the year of travel that frightens me, it’s the thought that I may have failed to take everything into account, but as far as I can tell right now, it is all taken care of. It remains to be seen whether I am correct in that line of thinking!