Fraser Island

We just left Fraser Island a few days ago. Its the largest islamd, completely made out of sand in the world. We spent three days there camping and looking around. To be honest, we were a bit disappointed, because of all the rules there were. You couldn’t do very much with your 4 wheel drive vehicle except stay on the paths amd on the beach. Couldnt gonon any dunes, many of the harder bits had wood planks to help you get across and the paths were all pretty basic. Darren wished it was a bit more challenging. 

But, we did enjoy some of the othere things they had to offer. We saw a few of the fresh water lakes on the island. One had lots of little turtles which were cute. Another lake was just beautiful and is pictured below. It was cold, but we went swimming in it anyway. Boy enjoyed playing in the sand very much as well.

We also saw some dingoes, another goana and some interesting birds. We camped in the center of the island on the third night in some tall rainforest-like trees. While there we found a trap door spider, some scorpions on a tree, millipedes and a few leeches, one of which was found sucking blood from in between Boy’s fingers. He had been crawling on the ground. He didn’t see to mind, but it took a while to stop bleeding after we pulled it off.

Goanna

Noisy Pitta

Dingo

Another night on the island Boy found a half can of my ginger beer I left in a camping chair cup holder. When we found him he was slurping with glee and covered in the soda. We took it away, but he cried, so we gave it back sonce the can was empty by then any way. He was so pleased witj his discovery! ‘Mmm, mmMMM, MMMM!!!’ He said. Haha!

We did have a good time, but we wouldn’t go back again.We had to take a ferry too and from the island as well. Now we are on our way back down to the Sydney area. We don’t have much planned at all for the remainder of our trip, but will visit some friends and then fly home. It’s been a nice time, Boy has loved playing in all the dirt and seeing so much nature, Darrens loved driving all the trails, but I’m ready to go home. Below are some other photos from our trip:

Our dirty vehicle

Galah Parrots

Saltwater Crocodiles

When we were near the top of the Cape York Peninsula we saw our first croc from a hill as it swam parallel to the shore. We saw another one in this photo today. 

Up closer:

We were just south of Cooktown. While in this area we stayed at a camp ground in the Dain Tree Rainforest and one of the staff there gave us a little tour of their crocs held in theirtl captivity. There was a freshwater crocodile, which are very harmless and will only bite you if you step on them. Then there were two saltwater crocodiles. These are very aggressive and will come after you as they see you as prey. It is important to stay out of the water while in this area as you may not know if one is there. It sounds really scary, but if you take the right precautions there is nothing to be afraid of, and pretty much all croc attacks are while people are being really stupid and not using common sense. 

Something I found quite interesting is that until recently people believed that crocs took prey and hid it under a log to rot a while before coming back to finish it. New research with underwater cameras have shown that this is not true. The crocs hide the meat so it can rot yes, but then they return to eat the crabs and other things that are eating the original animal. This way they actually get a lot more food than just the one they first caught. Quite smart of them really. They are essentially farming.

They can also control their blood vessels so that blood only flows to their vital organs and not their limbs. This way they can conserve oxygen and stay under water much longer.

Anyway, just wanted to share. I’ll be posting a lot more photos after we get home of the whole trip. There are other people with us with much better cameras than me, so I haven’t been takimg many. I’ll get theirs when we are finished.

The top

Heading south now. Back down the way we came. Cooktown is next on the agenda, then Cairns. Has been lovely fun, but I’m happy to have cooler nights again. 

Cape York Peninsula

We traveled north from Emerald and met up with some other friends that came over feom New Zealand. Then over the next few days we camped and checked out the four wheel drive tracks along the way. We did the Old Coach Road track which went out to Maytown. An old gold mining town in the late 1800’s. It had a store, a doctor, a butcher, a school,and all sorts of things you would need back then in a town. Pretty much fully equipped. But it was so hot, we could barely believe people lived there. All that was left was some of the building support beams coming out of the dirt and a replica of a store or house. It was also hard to imagine a horse drawn anything making it out there… the road was so rocky and rough. 

Then we did the Old Telegragh Track, which used to be where the telegraph line went up to the cape. You could still see lots of the galvanized steel poles along the way, all twisted and bent.Lots of rough roads and creeks to cross. 

Some things we saw were a dingo crossing the road and an emu with five babies crossing the road. We couldn’t get a photo of either, but that was super cool. We also saw some green ants, meat ants, a neat yellow spider, a lizard, a gecko and some interesting plants. It’s very tropical up here… and dry. There are crazy termite mounds everywhere and we are always on the lookout for snakes if we are walking in tall grass. I keep my boots on. Don’t want any surprises, but none of us has seen one yet as there are many poisonous ones up here.

Some of the other birds I’ve identified have been:

• Magpie-lark 
• Brown Goshawk
• Rainbow Lorikeet 
• Cattle Egret
• Kookaburra 

The Kookaburra sounds like a group of laughing monkies! You’d never guess it was a bird unless you already knew it.

Next we will make it to the cape and then head back down. Hope to see some crocks, but not too close! 

Onward to Australia

Wowee! We have had quite the busy week. We were going to have a nice easy start last Tuesday with our flight to Sydney leaving at 4 pm. The night before, Darren tried to check us in online for our flight and he realized that his passport had expired four months ago. He was caught off guard because they usually expire every ten years but his last one was only issued for five. So, we drove to Wellington and applied for a renewal and got it in the same day only a few hours before our flight left. We only got three hours of sleep that night, ugh… and all three of us came down with a cold. Lots of runny noses, not fun. But, Boy did very well on the plane. Hardly worth mentioning compared to the horror stories you hear about flying with sick babies.

We took a train to Darren’s sisters house from Sydney to Hunter Valley. Then, Wed, Thu and Fri, we drove north. We took Sat off and just camped, which was a nice rest. We met some really cool people living in a house truck.They had six kids as well! They have been traveling around Australia sharing Jesus to the native peoples through country gospel music for the last three years! Quite interesting people and they were so friendly. 

The other two nights we stayed with a great uncle of Darren’s and then a friend of Darren’s mum. When we got there she asked us if we wanted some dinner and offered us some homemade spaghetti, with salsa. I was so confused because to me salsa is a dip served cold with chips. She was meaning what I thought should be called ‘pasta sauce’ or ‘marinara sauce’. If you say marinara sauce in this part of the world they won’t know what you are talking about though. The whole conversation was rather interesting… haha…

So all in all we traveled 1400 km in three days from Sydney to Emerald. The landscape hasnt changed all that much, but the temperature has. It’s much hotter up north. I’ve been keeping a list of the birds we’ve seen. So far I’ve identified the following:

• Noisy Miner
• Blue Faced Honeyeater 
• Apostlebird 
• Brush Turkey
• Galah
• Cockatoo
• White-breasted Woodswallow 
• Zebra Finch
• Queensland Barn Owl
• Brolga Crane
• Australian Raven 

They are so many colourful birds here! I love it. And parrots! We have also seen kangaroo and a tree called the Bloodwood Tree. It leaks sap that looks like it’s bleeding. Apparently the aboriginal people use it as an antiseptic, and drink water from it’s roots.

I would love to post photos here but signal isn’t that great and it would suck up a lot of data, so I’ll just let you readers google the birds we’ve seen and how far we’ve traveled on the map. It’s worth the look.🙂

Check in before our big trip

We are going to Australia next week and won’t be back for six weeks! We will be exploring Cape York, the northern most region of the country. Just wanted to post some photos before we left. 

My poor Rooster just kept getting sicker even after the medicine, so we put him down. A neighbor will be looking after the other chooks while we are away.

Boy, loves the new piano, and is pulling himself up on anything he can.

Darren got an old Power Pony from his uncle while we were down south. Its like a mini tractor, so we can have an even bigger garden! It can pull things like a plow and other such work saving devices. Darren also bought me a precision planter, so I can plant a whole bunch of seeds by just walking back and forth for 10 minutes, instead of on my hands and knees for hours. It holds the seeds and pokes one in the ground at regular intervals.

And the last photo is from Boy’s baby dedication last month.

Crowing and Playing

My rooster has been acting sick and this week took a turn for the worst so I called the vet and picked up some medicine for him. He’s staying in the house for a few days where it’s warm and dry. He seems to be perking up a bit. He does crow in the house. So far he hasn’t woke us up too terribly early. Since being sick, the last part of his crow, the doo, at the end of cock-a-doodle-doo has been all wobbly, like he’s Tarzan. It’s actually quite funny.

Last week I bought a second hand piano for $150. It plays pretty good, not too out of tune. Its nice to have some music in the house. Boy likes to bang the keys! Someday if likes, I’ll teach him to play. 

This morning I gave Boy some bread with peanut butter and banana on it. He seemed to suck the banana off and spit the rest out, haha! He does like bread, but maybe he didn’t like this kind. It’s amazing what he can gum up and swallow. No teeth yet at 9 months!!

Last week at church, Darrens uncle put Boy on one of our friend’s bike. He seemed to like being up there. He already instinctively knows to make a bbbbb, bbbbb, bbbbb sound when he plays with any toy that has wheels. He loves wheels! He is just like his daddy in this regard.

We picked up some Silkie chooks last weekend that someone had left by our town’s recycling bins, Not exactly sure why they didn’t want them. They are pretty friendly, and oh, so fluffy!!