Tag: kangaroos

Farming in the Bush (Australia)

February 12, 2011

We’re on day three of farm work in the bush! We’re two hours from the closest town. Tonight they served us a traditional Australian meal of Lamb Roast, roasted vegetables, Pavlova for dessert, and a delicious Australian red wine. The farm is a certified organic cattle farm. During the recent storms in Brisbane, the river flooded and the entire property was a lake for six weeks. The family moved back a week before we got here. Fences are down, grass and garden is dead, and house was inundated with bugs, dirt, and an invasion of mice. We came at just the right time! The kids have been in the pastures every day with Rodger (dad), doing all sorts of farm work and I have been helping mom with kids and getting the house back in order. I consider it post partum doula work. The kids are (almost) two, and three and a half and mom is still adjusting to motherhood and farm life, after a career as a Family Practitioner. Life on a farm isn’t as glamorous as some make it out to be, for sure. You are completely at the mercy of Mother Nature! Two years ago they suffered from a draught, last spring they were stuck in the house for three weeks from the river flooding overnight and they couldn’t get out, and now it happened again for six weeks.

They are very grateful to have us here. I am very grateful to be here! When I see the interaction between Rodger and the kids, and hear the stories each evening of what he shared with them, and what they helped with for the day, I feel like it’s the best education ever! It’s more than an education; it’s an inspiration for them. They are working with a man that loves what he does and is as interested in them and what they want as they are in him.

It is beautiful here! Australia has as many birds as South America and there is always a flock singing their songs. The Magpie is definitely my favorite; their song sounds like a flute. Something I have noticed about a lot of the birds is that they are very people friendly, even though there’s no one out here to be feeding them. When they’re on the hunt, you can walk very close by and they don’t flinch. There are also tons of insects! At night it’s loud with crickets, frogs, and what have you. On the night that we drove in (2 hours drive!), it was around 9:00 and we hit a few places where there were cows sleeping in the road! Lol! They would be slightly startled by the car, get up, and then stand there and stare at us. It was hilarious! There was a bull that was directly in front of the hood having a standoff with the car. It took a while to get around them; then the calves were in the road and ran in front of us trying to get away, rather than running off the road!

The kids are seeing kangaroos on a regular basis out on the farm. They are very fun to watch. They use their hands/paws on their front little legs to hold onto plants when they eat them. There are savannah monitors all around the property and the birds love to tantalize them. Eliot has tried his hand at catching one but hasn’t been quick enough. He’s getting his fill of riding an ATV once again! He’s also working as long and hard as the others and not complaining; that’s a good sign for sure!

Here at the farm, they have guest quarters in a separate little “cottage” (sort of). There are two rooms and a bathroom. One room is a bedroom for Sadie and I. The other room has a small kitchen, table, and bunk beds and a trundle. The boys sleep there. We have a deck, outside table, and camp stove for cooking on. It’s as close to camping as I’ll get while here. I wanted to camp but don’t have the equipment.

So, it’s off to work every day at 8:00, home around 5:30, dinner, and then play cards until bedtime around 10:00. There are breaks for “morning tea” and lunch. Kids are fitting in reading also, and swimming down at the river.

We will take a break when we leave here, spend a few days at the beach, then off to another farm!

Rainforest and Wallibies (and Cyclone)

February 4, 2011

We survived Cyclone Yasi and are back on track! We ended up being awakened at 6:45am and told to pack up and leave asap as the beachfront was being evacuated. It was kind of tough deciding what to do next; evacuation center or time share high rise for $220 night. We ended up at the time share because we heard the evacuation centers were filling up, and we were told that they had aluminum roofs vs the cement and steel construction of the time share. Safety was definitely the first priority, and also the thought of a very crowded place, sleeping on the hard floor, eating ‘who knows what’, vs a very nice, clean, comfy 2 bedroom time share with three balconies to keep an eye on the storm and an ocean view (it was two blocks away so wasn’t evacuated). We stocked up on food, cooked what we could before losing power (which never happened!), got comfy and lived in luxury for 24 hours! At times during the storm we would go out onto a balcony and the last time, the wind was so strong that we had to duck down and hang on for dear life! There were Magnolia Trees across the street with hundreds of the giant bats swarming around and screeching. I don’t know if that was their normal behavior or if they were confused due to the storm. Very cool to observe! The kids got pics and videos of them. Next morning we decided to rent a car, pack it up with all of our stuff and go driving to the Daintree Rain Forest.

The Daintree Rainforest is a World Heritage Site and this area contains the highest number of plant and animal species that are rare, or threatened with extinction, anywhere in the world. It is said to be the first place for plants to flower and is the oldest rain forest in the world. World Heritage Sites are actual “places” that are endangered and protected by the United Nations. The road getting there was a bit of a mess but the drive was beautiful. Australia is much more scenic than I expected. We got there, took a ferry over the Daintree River, and drove along the windy beach road that goes through the Rain Forest. It is also home to the endangered “Cassowary” and there are 86 of them that live there. The Cassowary is the largest land animal in Australia and is actually a bird. We were the only people we saw that day in the forest. We found a place to hike. The trails were covered with debris from the storm. It was our first “outback” sort of experience and we weren’t sure what to expect! Because of all the talk of poisonous insects, snakes, and so on, we were feeling rather daring. It was very damp, due to being a “Rainforest” and the weather conditions from the Cyclone. We heard birds of every nature and insects. We had numerous “panic” moments when someone would be covered with hundreds of funny looking ants and doing the “ant dance” while knocking them off. There was a vine that was very thin and covered with spiky thorns that both Sadie and I got trapped in and of course we panicked to the point where you would have thought we were being strangled! Lol! With each panic moment we would all end up laughing to the point of tears!

On the way back to Cairns from the Rain Forest we saw Wallabies all along the fields off the road! Wallabies are like small kangaroos and live in Australia. We called them kangaroos because they look just like them and were 3-4 feet tall! We saw so many of them! For Australia it seems as common to see Wallabies as to see Deer in the country in the north in America. That was a real treat! So, Wallabies and giant bats are the two most unusual animals we have seen so far! More to come, I am sure!

We got back to town and checked back in to the hostel. We’ll be here for the next 3 or 4 nights and then we will head south. We’re ready for a real “out back experience”!

Great Barrier Reef

February 1, 2011

Today we went on a boat to the Great Barrier Reef. It was an all day excursion. We took the introductory scuba diving class and were able to scuba dive. We also did hours of snorkeling. It was beautiful and basically looked the same as any other reef I have ever snorkeled on. The crew was entertaining, the buffet lunch was nice, and the wine and cheese and crackers at the end were delightful!

There is a category four cyclone (same as our “hurricane”) expected to make land fall tomorrow! We have been advised to pack everything up before we go to bed tonight as if we were leaving in the morning. We are directly across the street from the beach and may need to be evacuated. Julian thinks we should consider renting our car if we get evacuated and just driving north, out of range of the storm. We’ll have one or our regular “meetings” (lol!) in the morning and decide what to do. It’s interesting being on the “tourist” end of a storm coming. We’re just loving life and relaxing while the residents are in a little bit of a panic about being flooded and having their roofs blown off!

So far, we haven’t seen any dangerous or scary insects or animals in Australia. Before coming here, everyone in New Zealand said things like “why would you want to go there? There are insects everywhere and some that can kill you and it’s so noisy with all their sounds!”. The gigantic bats, which are called “flying squirrels” are the only thing out of the ordinary at this point. It seems that there may be some competitive spirit between the New Zealanders and Australians and whose country is best. The Australians joke about the wimpy country of New Zealand! I think New Zealand is a pristine, peaceful, beautiful country and I do hope to go back some day.

Australia Bound

AUSTRALIA

January 31, 2011

I’m on a flight from Sydney to Cairns, watched the sunrise from the plane at 6:00am and am listening to my “Travel’ CD (thank you Michele and Jordan!)! Life is good! I love traveling and seeing the world and all it’s charm!

We arrived in Sydney yesterday morning and met up with Nick at the airport. Once again, we arrived in a foreign country, with no reservations for travel, no map, or plan of how to get to the hostel. We checked costs of public transportation and it turned out that it was cheaper to rent a car for the night; we were leaving again at 6:00 this morning. We drove straight to the hostel; checked in, and took the free bus around the city. What a cool city! Old, character, charm, artsy, café’s, bars, people everywhere. The waterfront was happening and looks like a great place to be. In the evening, at the park across from our Hostel we saw bats everywhere with a wingspan of about 15 inches! There were three large Magnolia trees in a row and they were flying all around them and feeding on the seed pods; sometimes fighting over one. They were very cool to observe. One would land on a branch, and use the little hand like things to grab hold and pull itself around the branch. We will be back here at the end of the trip and have time to tour around.

This morning we’re flying to Cairns, which is at the northern tip of the Great Barrier Reef. From Cairns we’ll visit the Rain Forest and have an Outback experience. We’ve heard a lot about this part of Australia and are looking forward to being there! Our plan is to rent a car In Cairns, spend time there and then take our time visiting little towns along the coast as we work our way back to Sydney; we’ll have 30 days to do it in.