Visited Melbourne city centre to see the sights, about midday the heavens opened and the rain came lashing down ,
managed to find a small 7/11 doing a brisk trade in umbrellas. so off we trot via the free city tram to see the main sights.
Next day mike goes to learn the art of squid fishing from Ian and martine joins karin in the art of Yoga, alas no squid today, guess they weren't hungry.
Karins parents came round for Chuck ( chicken )
Tuesday 31st January.
Guided tour of Melbourne with Ian and met up with Karin after work for picnic in the park and watch Aussie version of Shakesperes ' Much ado about nothing ' - saw possums playing in trees behind performers stage.
Tuesday 2nd Feb.
We visit Mornington peninsula wineries for tastings of aussie wine , which was great as Ian chauffered us around allowing us to taste at leisure and not worry about driving, not so good for Ian, although we helped out by buying him some locally brewed beer to take home. During the day we selected compositions for Ian to photograph for our lesson on cyantype photo printing the next day - ( Ian teaches Photography at Art college in Melbourne )
Great 4 hour lesson we manage to print beautiful images using direct sunlight and pinhole technique. Thanks Ian for your patience.
Saturday 4th Feb
2nd visit to Melbourne city centre and the St Kildas annual art exhibition with postcard size exhibits of art including 2 of Ians works. Fantastic examples of Art from all over Australia for this major annual event.
Late lunch at restaurant on promenade overlooking Melbourne bay watching para gliders practising for a major contest the following weekend. They manage to rise about 10 metres above water level while PR photographers take shots with the high rise office blocks of Melbourne as a back drop.
Sunday 5th Feb
BBQ at Ian and Karins with family and friends.
Monday 6th Feb
Day cycling along coast, then back to prepare farewell dinner ( our turn ) Mikes famous fish pie !!!!
Ian and Karin and Marie Anne and Alan - great dinner loadsa good aussie wine.
Tuesday 7th Feb
Aboard Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Cairns in Northern tropical Queensland, the heat hits you full on as you land in this tropical town.we stay in a motel with swimming pool and BBQ facilities about 300 metres from centre. This gave us the opportunity to do our own thing as far as cooking and organising trips was concerned.
Cairns has an outside seawater lagoon just off the promenade which is free for all to use, it is surrounded by BBQ facilities and watched over by lifeguards, so we gathered together our food and after a swim cooked on the BBQ and laisd out a table cloth grass landscaped surround to eat with the locals.
Wednesday 8th Feb
Took mountain railway to Karunda, via the rainforest, uphill all the way, walked along the jungle trek and visited the local exhibition prepared by the national parks explaining about the rainforest, its environment and how it survives. Came back by one of the longest cable cars in the world over the top of the rainforest, numerous rainbow lorakeets everywhere along the route.
Thursday 9th Feb.
Took local bus to visit the coast north of Cairns, sadly this time of year you cannot swim in the sea without a stinger suit to protect you from Box jellyfish that have fatal stings, so you have these beautiful white sand beaches absolutly deserted. Not until April will there be an opportunity to swim in the Sea.
Friday 10th Feb
On board a boat for our first vist to the great barrier reef and a chance to snorkel on the reef albeit wearing a stinger
suit for protection even though the little critters are not found so close to the reef. Amazing views underwater of the coral and wildlife.
Saturday 11th Feb
Mike visits the local market and Martine goes white water rafting in the River Tully - fun had by all.
Monday 13th Feb
We have always fancied the idea of hiring a Winnebago to travel around and luckily one is available at Around Australia motorhomes, so we hire a 5 berth which gave us plenty of room to swing a cat, whats more it was only a few months old so everything was vertually new. After a 3 hour instruction course on how to use the various facilities and told it cant be taken off road ( That would be fun ! ) We head off down the East coast towards Brisbane our destination.
Driving along traffic free roads with the opportunity to stop wherever is great fun and allows you to stop at some of the more remote resorts off the main tourist route, we have 2 weeks in our new home on wheels to explore the coast and countryside.
Thursday 16th Feb
Woodstock, Queensland, visit small farmstead on the edge of the outback inland from Townsville, to learn more about life running a farm in Australia. our first experience is horse riding across some of the 50 acre landscape to muster the cattle and bring them back to the paddock. Sadly, the owner has some sad business to attend to before we start. One of the horses is seriously ill and needs to be put down. This place is in the middle of knowhere and farmers take it upon themselves do most of the unsavoury tasks rather than call out the vet and incur expensive bills.
9.30am silence is shattered by a loud blast of the farmers gun and the thud of the poor creature falling to earth. Obviously, the farmers wife is very upset and we ask if they would rather cancel the days activities on the farm.
They are very tenacious people and insist we continue, so we get kitted out in boots and safety hat and climb aboard our respective horses for the journey into the outback. After 20 minutes instructions on how to ride a horse, ( bearing in mind that these creatures know their way blindfold around the countryside with a tailors dummy in the saddle ) grateful for the instruction we head off. The farmers wife ahead martine following mike making up the threesome.
Along the dirt tracks, across streams in search of cattle, what a fantastic way to spend the next 4 hours, meandering across countryside seeing all the wildlife Kangeroos included. This is rawhide at its best. Yee Haa ! !
Lunch is cooked on an open fire with billy cans to heat the water for the coffee. we are having a leg of lamb from this farm and one of their chickens, it all tasted delicious with as we sit under a huge 150 year old tamarind tree in the early afternoon heat, above us the farmer pointed to a large owl sitting on the branch of the tree, apparently known as a barking owl due to its cry at night that sounds like, guess what - a dog barking.
Our afternoon experience was not for the screamish, our task is to help with branding a young male cow along with taking a chunk from its ear and last but not least castrating the creature. !
Not a happy afternoon for this steer, first the creature is trapped in a metal grid so it can't move then a red hot branding iron is pressed into it's hide, the smell of burning flesh wasn't very pleasant. Next cutting a huge lump from its ear with a pair of clippers the size of a large pair of plyers. Finally, the part that we left up to the farmer as he took a stanley knife and cut open the scrotum and castrated the creature, apparently the animal is Ok after a few hours and back in circulation with the rest of the herd. Next up was sheep shearing, easier said than done, first you have to catch the animal, they are heavy and fast !!! you need olympic athletisium to catch the critters.
Once caucht you have to hold them down in a vice like grip and then use heavy weight industrial clippers powered from an overhaed cable to cut through the 50mm layer of wool coat. It takes a professional sheep shearer about 3 minutes per sheep leaving a clean pile of wool on the groung, it took us 25 exhausting minutes leaving a mix of layers, and scraggy looking dejected animal running off to join its mate, probably saying "look at this mess" !
Monday 20th Feb
We have visited Airlie beach and taken an old 1928 sailing schooner boat out to the whitsunday islands.
Today, of all the places we have visited small and large on our journey down the coast, none has been as exciting and rewarding as Mon Repos, which is one of the worlds major breeding grounds for the loggerhead turtle, a beautiful beach, just north of Bunderburg. We stay on the only camp sight just off the dunes, which is run by the Australian national parks organisation and has strict controls over all activity, to help control the numbers of visitors. We are fortunate to be there during the hatching period November to February.There is no guarentee that we will see any new born, as they break through the sand and head towards the sea on their perilous journey to adulthood.
At nightfall 8pm we gather to be briefed on what to do and not do and to hear about the life of the turtles and what we may expect. We follow the ranger ( who is the only person with a torch ) down a small track onto the beach.
He is in radio contact with other conservationists and rangers already on the beach, who are cautiously looking for evidence of any hatchlings - an hour passes without any activity, the skies are crystal clear with a fantastic view of the milky way which is clearly visible in this part of the southern ocean, the air is also warm and the sea calm.
At about 10pm we are told by the ranger that young have been spotted along the beach to our right, gingerly we tread along the shoreline and up towards the dunes WOW ! under the light of the rangers torch we watch as the tiny heads of the turtles break through the sand and immediately head towards the sound of the waves gently lapping on the shoreline about 40 metres away. We have an opportunity to see them up close as their powerful little arms wave frantically pushing the sand aside in their haste to reach the sea, we follow about 30 of them down the beach helping to guide any straglers back on course, then see them disappear into the water and towards their life in the oceans far away. We are back in bed by midnight happy to have experienced such a fantastic sight.
posted by MartineandMike @ 10:57 PM
2 Comments:
Hello M +D!
Squid and yoga!
Australia sounds fantasic!
Seb x
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