Visit to Hornsby

I finally decided to try driving again so on Sunday I drove to Hornsby with Trina. It went better in that I was mostly in my lane, only turned on the windshield wipers a couple of times and often though not invariably managed to use my left arm to shift. As far as I know the only police in Australia are the state police. Here that is of course the NSW police. If you click on the police car photo so as to see it full size you will see at the some of the kinds of vehicles they use including a peculiar little truck. There is a hatch on the side of these trucks which is very small and I can't see what they are used for. The brick building is the Hornsby police station. On the whole I think one sees police driving around with about the same frequency as one does in Calgary,

The other two shots are taken inside the mall to which we went. The Woolworths is a grocery store- Woolworths is one of the two main grocery chains. It is a part of the retail conglomerate for which Les works. In the other picture you see a seafood shop on the left with huge mounds of cooked shrimp in quite visible. In the Woolworth picture you can see the chicken shop in front ofit. Even though a grocery store like Woolworths carries everything these small shops still seem to thrive.

Some Brush Turkeys

In most of the coastal and mountain areas we visited we encountered these brush turkeys. They are relatively small and spend most of there time on the ground where they nest. Judging from behaviour I think the one in the top left picture had a nest. Like most of the birds we have encountered they were not too skittish, though they would not allow too close and approach. I don't know whether this is natural behaviour of the various birds or because the birds we encounter were all in areas where humans are around.

Australia Day and Utes

Today, Monday, is Australia day. So all are home and the cousins just came over for a visit. This will mean 4 kids of the same age fighting over the wii. Oh well, they are actually pretty good together. Work for Les and Trina starts tomorrow and the summer school holidays end on Wed.

As I mentioned the ute, truck-like but based on cars, have been for some time a popular Oz vehicle. I finally managed to get a couple of pics. One is comparatively new- the other is an older one based on a falcon.

Arrival at Lady Musgrave Island

After the over 90 minute quite nauseating to many ride we arrived at Lady Musgrave Island. In one the pictures of my hopeless attempt at snorkling you can see the island not too far away. The boat docks at a quite large pontoon raft from which these pictures were taken. Note that the water is comparatively calm, protected I guess by the barrier reef which is below where I am floundering. The raft is the base for the various activites. Some people sign up for scuba, some for reef fishing. But the core activities are snorkling, a trip in glass bottom boats to the island with a 40 minute or so walking tour, and rides around the reef in a semi-submersible. On these rides one of course looks at the reef and hunts for turtles. Actually I saw no turtles on this ride, but we had some nice encounters with some on the trip to the island. Everyone it seems is keen on the turtles. They nest on the islands but do not go ashore during the day. Due to the overcast day and the roiled water visibility and colors on the reef were not so good as they can be. Save for the comparative lack of color one could see places rather like those in Nemo.

The island was quite nice. Like most in the area it had been subject at some points to guano harvesting. But, or so we were told the island had been very fortunate. It was used somehow during the war, or perhaps it was not used but at any rate it was left alone for I think over 10 years. And some guano harvest had been skipped earlier because it was not quite rich enough to make it worthwhile. What was amazing was the number of nesting birds of various sorts, though predominantly terns. Each branch of virtually every tree was occupied by several nests. Unfortunately we neglected to bring the cameras so we have no pictures. There is a small campground on the island, but evidently camping is a bit expensive due to the boat trip and the need to bring everything- particularly water. The beaches are of course quite nice with wonderfully warm water.

On the trip one is supplied with morning and afternoon tea (cakes, cookies and tea or coffee) and a lunch. I ate lunch but, unsurprisingly enough, many did not. Trina for example, did a fair amount of snorkling but could not manage lunch or tea.

Around 3 we reboarded the boat. People were sort of supposed to take there original places but this rule was neither enforced nor obeyed. Each kid and Trina were in scattered seats on their own. Les and I ended up sitting on a sideways sort of bench. Unfortunately the sea was a bit rougher than when we came over. It did not seem quite as bad as we were on a diagonal with the wind. Fortunately the kids whom we could not see did not get sick. Trina however did not thrive. We could see her with head down over the bag. Les was on my left on the bench and someone (I am not sure why) sat down on my right. I didn' t like sitting sideways (no armrests or anything so it was hard not to side) so I stood up holding on to the galley. It was far too rough to walk around without considerable difficulty. Lucky I did as the person who had joined our bench started throwing up right after I left.

We did eventually get back though not til about 5. The weather prevented the boat from cruising at its normal speed.

Mal de Mer

The trip to 1770 had been almost uneventful save for one leg. We had decided to cut northeast from one main road to another that let directly to 1770 (if I have not mentioned it before 1770 is so named since Captain Cook arrived there then). The road we follow was supposedly a main improved road. But it narrowed and narrowed and had one point we reached a y intersection with no clear idea of where to go. Les chose what he thought was the most likely one, but we lost some confidence at some one lane and gravel section. We bravely proceeded on in what we took to be a NE direction. (It is hard to know the direction one is going- I never know at all and neither Les nor Trina are ever quite sure. The sun always seems to be in more or less the same place in the sky whichever way one goes.) But the theory was that we had to intersect the other road before plunging into the Pacific. And eventually we did. So we checked into our lodging which was very spacious including kitchen, washer, dryer, two bathrooms and so on. The next morning we were due to set out for Lady Musgrave Island and the barrier reef on the boat you see. The weather was cool with wind, cloud and some sprinkles. We were not sure the trip would be on. But we boarded the boat and said they would go, but mentioned that the swells were up to three meters or so and stated that anyone who was not up to that need not go. For stability reasons they did not want too many people on the upper deck though in fact it and the boat as a whole were quite full (100 or so people). No one decided not to go.

It was up and down with slides in various directions. Quite often the waves hit the sides and splashed quite a ways up on the windows. The crew- some twelve people or so (they have to serve both morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea, have people to run the other boats after arrival, to supervise the scuba divers, to act as lifeguard for the snorklers and to perform on the boat some other tasks which I shall proceed to. But soon we hit the open sea (the trip takes more than 90 minutes at decent speed) and the passengers started to grab for the bags in backs of the seat in front of one. Les and I survived. But Trina who is as it turns out very prone to seasickness bit the dust first, followed by Lian. For a while Julius was okay, but he too succumbed. The crew was very busy collecting used bags, bringing ice and cold rags and providing suckers. Somehow all the rather green passengers did not respond with smiles to the rather cheerful and quite unaffected crew. And of course even if one is not affected it is still not a great deal of fun to bounce and roll along surrounded by vomiting people with bent necks so as to ensure the bags were in close proximity to the top of their bags. Quite a large supply of bags is needed for such a trip. Near the arrival a grinning crew member assured all that the return is always better. We shall see in the sequel.

But we did arrive though Trina in particular was not in stunning shape. This is one of the reasons we have no pictures of the island. But this saga will be continued in the next post.

Bugs and Bugs

One thing the climate here is good for is bugs. They abound and get into and onto almost everything. I have no pictures of the endless streams of ants of various shapes and sizes that abound most everywhere. And I also have no photos of the cockroaches that I have almost directly encountered barefooted and sleepy in many houses- particularly bathrooms. They are amazingly speedy critters. On our trip we saw many termite mounds which no doubt provided nice treats for the mammalian egg-laying echindas. These I saw in zoos but alas saw none munching on termites in the wild. While flies like me- in particular my nose and face, mozzies and ants do not. It took some effort to lure the one you see onto my foot from which it desired only escape. As you can see it is rather large, though not the largest I have seen.

Tonight Trina happened to notice what initially looked like a spot on some curtains in the house. On closer inspection it turned out to be a mother spider with numbers of young. The spiders here are all catholic and do not believe in birth control. None of us had ever seen this before so it was great luck to see this.

My friend Allen emailed me a while back and advised me to try Moreton Bay Bugs (it is a bay near Brisbane). Initially I was rather confused as bugs, save for the ones that fly into my mouth, are not the most common items in my diet. As I lean more and more toward vegetarianism I have tried to cut down on my bug consumption. But as it turns out Aussies call small crustaceans and lobsters "bugs". Not a bad term when you consider how they look. The one on the left is not a slipper lobster which is what the Moreton Bay ones are. It is rather a closeup of the freshwater stream crustacean which was barely visible in one of the Green Mountains pictures posted a while ago.

When in Noosa I think it was I did have a chance to try Moreton Bay Bugs at a Thai restaurant. Unfortunately I was a bit sick and didn't feel up to eating anything other than some soup. I do hope to try them here in Sydney. After all a lobster by any other name- namely "bug" would no doubt taste as sweet. I am not sure about smell.

Shorter is Better

Aussies, far more than Canadians, love to shorten words. There is of course the dreaded barbie that caused me such embarrassment. And who could fail to love the mozzies. Speaking of which they are rather bad in this comparatively wet summer. Or so I hear as they avoid me. Perhaps that is because my blood no longer reaches my skin or because it is no longer rich and delicious from the mozzie point of view. The kids sleep under a mosquito tent. And how can one do without brekkie- the way to begin a day in Oz. And there is the ute- the vehicle we don't have since the demise of the Ranchero. More of the ute later.

Aussie Lingo on the Highway

As I may soon attempt to drive again it seemed wise to learn the driving lingo. Lesson 1 is that passing is called overtaking. Road markings are similar in that on a two lane load one can overtake when the line on your side of the double center line is not solid. I finally got used to the frequent signs saying overtaking lane so many k ahead. Major two lane roads (there are not all that many four lane roads or limited access roads) will periodically change to three lanes. An additional lane on your side is an overtaking or passing lane. Even in four lane roads it is illegal to drive in the inner lane unless one is overtaking.

On some highways semis with more than one trailer are allowed. Such rigs are, not inappropriately, called "road trains". Road trains have plates on the back that say "road train".

The New Balzac

As Balzac is in the Alberta Outback a new look for the town is being developed- I call it the new improved Balzac. Who does not yearn to live in the Alberta Outback?

Some of the Outback

From 1770 at the south end of the great barrier reef we drove 1300 k mostly through the outback to the town of Lightning Ridge. Due to some 10 years of drought most of the outback is very dry, there has been rain recently but not enough to replenish it. The vegetation in these pictures is a bit lusher than in many areas. Though it is dry almost all the area we drove through is subject to flooding, though almost all the creek beds are currently dry. At many points along the road there are metersticks so that one can determine how deep the water is during the floods. Though I have put up a picture of some sheep cattle are actually more common. Since the land is so dry it will not support that many sheep or cattle. Consequently the stations (ranches I guess) are widely scattered. The kids have to go long distances to schools.




We did see some kangaroos and emus. Unfortunately as one might expect we saw almost as many run over as running around.

Back from the trip

It is friday evening and we just got back from our trip. I managed to avoid the temptation to become an opal miner in the outback town of Lightning Ridge. I am currently munching on a takeout roast chicken. dressing and some salads. Tomorrow I shall start updating the blog and as well start such exciting series as Aussie cars, Aussie signs, and various other Aussie matters. So more to come soon.

Leaving Kingscliff for the mountains.

We left Kingscliff on Tuesday morning to head inland for a visit to some Oz mountains in Lamington National Park. We were headed for a place named O'Reilly's in the Green Mountains. The mountains are only about 1000-1200 metres high, but the trip up was not one for those easily nauseated. The road up, though paved, is mostly one lane with not very wide two lane sections. There are more or less constant switchbacks- what I used to call horseshoe curves. The third picture is the view from our room. The other pictures are from some of the walks we went on. If you look closely in the water in the top right picture you may spot the lightly coloured crayfish I would call it in the water. I will say more about the area in another post. Some pictures seem still to be in the cameras.

Friday dinner in Noosa

We are currently in Noosa, yet another of the innumerable towns spread along the coast. In my next post I will return to the days in between spent in the Green Mountains. In many of these towns there are strings of mostly restaurants spread along the waterfronts, in this case that of an estuary. Most of the seating for these is outside- outside in the sense of not being in the walls of the building though in this case covered by a rollback top. This restaurant served a very mixed menu including a number of pizzas. They are of course rather different. The one I had had a very thin crust- no tomato sauce- cheese, sliced meatballs cherry tomatoes and onions. It was okay, just not what I think of as pizza. The events were typical- on the ceiling of the building there were three very small geckos racing around. And at one point hundreds of bats flew over. We heard they went over nightly to cross the river to the mangoes found on the other side.

At the beach in Kingscliff

We spent a fair amount of time on the beach in Kingscliff, going on at one of the points at which there was a lifeguard crew. They sit in the little trailer on the left. What one does not typically do at an Aussie beach is swim One can go out on a surfboard or simply paddle out a bit on a boggie boards (about 1/4 the length of a surfboard). Unfortunately we forgot ours so I have not tried that yet. But the most common activity is simply to walk out a while and wait til one gets smashed by a big wave or wait for a big wave and leap or dive through it. It is not always easy to remain upright- the waves are fairly powerful- and often the sand around one's feet washes away leaving one on a precarious little platform. I gather that on some beaches with the right surf body surfing is possible. That was done a bit at this beach but again I have not tried it.

Heading North- and how to clean

We headed on toward Kingscliff where we were to meet some more relatives. The Sydney area is very rocky. Port Macquarie is similar, but Kingscliff is a bit different. The beaches were much longer than the ones we had been on earlier and there were none of the rock outcroppings and rocks in the water that we had seen before. There are of course lots of gulls which wander around and scrounge. But in most of the picnic areas or most any place where people have been around one finds a faithful ibis. They walk constantly around scrounging. They are neither particularly scared of people nor particularly aggressive. Trina's sister in law is not a huge ibis fan. Her youngest child- same age as Lian- evidently often reports that he had no lunch at school as it was consumed by an ibis. This could be true but on the other hand it seems a lot like the dog ate my homework.

Beginning of Updates

We are now in Noosa after several days. This area has a public wireless system that seems good and is quite inexpensive. So that is what I am on with the laptop. Our last day in Port Macquarie we spent the morning on a walk through one of the subtropical rainforests. In the afternoon we visited a small animal park. As can be seen some time was spent feeding the animals. Koalas are by the way every bit as cute and cuddly as they are reputed to be.

I had had the opportunity the evening before to try kangaroo in both steak and sausage form. I didn't like either- simply too tough and gamey.

At any rate the morning after the visit to the rainforest we headed north for Kingscliff. The gradual change in conditions was fairly apparent. It of course tends to get warmer as one heads north. The vegetation changes- for example we passed through a sugar cane growing region and by a couple of sugar refineries. I suppose this is why Australia makes lots of rum. And there are banana trees here and there though I don't know whether Oz has banana plantations. The other nice thing about going north is that the ocean becomes several degrees warmer. This makes it easier to walk boldly into the ocean- waiting for a large wave to get one completely wet.

I noticed on the highways as I had in Sydney that Australian cars and trucks are on average quite a lot smaller. And given the vast number of choices it is not surprising that Smart cars are not to be seen (save one I saw being transported). I don't really understand why we in North American have such a limited selection of small and efficient vehicles to choose from. Mazda, for example, does not sell the Mazda 2 which Trina has.

It is time to go swimming so I shall continue later (It is about 6 now.)

Port Macquarie

We did manage to get up and packed, heading for Port Macquarie where Trina's parents live in the top floor front apartment in the left building. The view is rather pleasant from it as you can see. It was late in the afternoon so we only went for a brief walk on the beach. This town beach has some beginners' surfing. One can get lessons but I think I am too old to indulge in surfing.

The trip up was uneventful save for a visit to a golf driving range. I had been complaining about the absence of kangaroos. As it turns out the grey kangaroos like the grass on the little driving range. There were over 10 of them. The cameras were packed so I have no pictures of them.

Off to Queensland

It is 9 in the evening-so it is dark and quiet. Tomorrow morning- Saturday here- we will head out for a holiday both to the far southern end of the reef (not so far as originally planned) and then inland. We will have the laptop so I will post from time to time. We hope there will not be a heatwave. I rather think I prefer freezing to roasting. I was going to hunt cicadas tonight but for reasons I don't understand they hace been quiet tonight.

A kookaburra on Coins

Lian's kookaburra has decided to explain the good and the bad of coins in Oz. The good is that there are no one cent pieces. When one buys something the cost is rounded up or down- 2 to 0 and 3 to 5. I still wonder why in Canada we bother with pennies. The two gold coins in the picture are the ones of value- the upper left is $2 with the $1 next to it. The next very large one is a pocket destroyer- $.50. They are a real nuisance as is the $.20 one on the bottom left. The other two are the .10 and .05. I now carry a small ziplock back to keep the coins together and to keep them from pocket destroying. Why the .50 one is so large (actually about the size of a toonie) is beyond me. And of course I am slow to think in terms of a .20 coin. Too many years with a quarter to work easily with a fifth (save for a fifth of booze).

Inside on a Quiet Day

Les has started his holidays and is doing what he always does- play warcraft online. One of course need the mike and headphones as one talks to other people- mostly members of their team. Julius is playing Spore, while Lian is playing with her dolls. On the tv you might see a football game- I was watching the US college championship game.

A Philosopher's Delight

While I have not yet found a philosopher named Bruce I did find, on our visit to the zoo, another creature renowned in the philosophic tradition. While this one is in a zoo and seems not to be a beauty it will nonetheless do. It is always so nice to falsify yet again a European belief that lasted through the ages.

Friday the 9th

It has been another quiet week in Sydney. On Sunday and Monday morning I was of course occupied with that treat which of course one must go to Oz to see- namely the NFL football playoffs. Oh- I forgot- I did not have to come here to see them. The early week was rather hot and muggy- above 30 for the most part. It is not so bad when there is a breeze, but for the most part there was not. The kids and I had planned a trip to the zoo for Thursday, but it was very difficult on Thursday morning to get going. It had been so hot during the night that the kids in particular did not sleep well and it was hard to get them going. But finally they got up and after the hour train ride followed by a 20 minute ferry ride we finally got there around 1 or so. Luckily it was an overcast day so we did not roast.

The zoo is not large but is fairly well arranged. It has a number of the standard animals and some Australian ones as well. We entered near the seals and penguins. After watching the leopard seal munch and jump around we were going to go to the then scheduled main seal show. Unfortunately we were a bit late and the viewing area was already overflowing. So we charged on up to the Asian elephants, Sumatran tigers and of course the lions. We noticed that it was about time for the open flight bird show so we headed down to watch.

This was the highlight of the visit to the zoo. They have trained a number of birds to do various tricks. It starts with a hawk flying out and catching various treats thrown high in the air. Various other birds did neat things. A kid in the crowd was asked to put a coin in his hand whence hmm I think an owl swooped up and grabbed the coin. Of course after a bit the bird returned the coin. (Australian coins are annoying- I shall speak of that elsewhere.) But the highlight was the tool-using buzzard. These buzzards eat, for example, emu eggs. In the show a fake egg filled with a treat is used. The problem is how to break the shell. So the buzzard picks up a rock and bashes the egg with it until the egg breaks. I gather this is done in the wild and is not simply a trick for the show. I have a couple of pics of the show which I will post later.

We stopped for lunch and the kids had a cub combo burger, fries and a coke. I had a single piece of fish, fries and a larger coke. Fast food is often fairly expensive in Oz- the kids cost 10 and mine 14. The kids did not eat all of their burgers so we put them in the pack and saved them for later. The consequence will be described below.

As we wandered on around the kids spotted one of those those telescopes that look like giant binoculars. They were aimed at the harbor below. The kids wanted to try them so I scrounged up the $2 coin required. After inserting the coin Lian was the first to look through. She seemed quite pleased and said it was fine. Then Julius looked and immediately said it was all black and he could see absolutely nothing. Lian tried again, and again seemed to say she could see something. So Julius tried again and in a very frustrated voice said it was all black. Then Julius noticed that the slide on which the coin was placed was not pushed all the way in. He pushed it in and then announced that they were working. God only knows what Lian saw or thought she saw as they were not working when she initially looked through them.

We plowed on through the zoo as time wore on. The crowds thinned to almost nothing after 3:30 or so. I discovered that I am hopeless at spotting the various critters- Julius in particular was much better. Though I should mention in my defense that almost all of the creatures have rather amazing camouflage. In the dark nocturnal section there were some interest mice. There is a wheel for them to run in- something which they seem to delight in. There is a meter which they say is reset each day. When we arrived they had raced 7400 meters or so. When we left after a few minutes they had gone over 7600 meters. I wish I had the energy of rats and mice.

We headed on basically heading out. We passed a small picnic area which, for some reason, had a dozen or so turkeys wandering around in it. The zoo was basically empty and we were slightly confused as to how to get out. Lian was quite distressed as she had wanted to get something at the zoo shop. But it was closed.

We got to the wharf after 5 and the kids decided to munch on the burger remains. Lian quickly ate hers- Julius had rather more left. I was looking around- at any rate not looking at the kids. There was the loud noise of Lian crying and holding her face. What on earth happened I asked. Julius hit me in the eye she screamed, continuing with her abundant tears. Julius said she tried to steal my burger. I ran the standard line on Julius that slugging your sister was not a correct response. Oh well- they calmed down- the ferry finally came and we were off to Hornsby Heights.

A Quiet Friday

It is 10 in the evening and almost quiet- I guess the kookaburras take a break at this time. They really can make an astounding amount of noise. The kids are making some noise as they are still wii addicted- today it is smash brothers brawl. However we all take the so-called fitness test in wii sports- actually it is a little skill test where one is marked in ages- the younger the better- Les and Julius are tied for the lead at 26- I am at best 36 or so. Oh well I was never any good at real sports either. Amazingly enough Lian is the boxing champ. She has knocked out Les and is particularly good at destroying the heavy bags.

Evidently- though I did not wake up, we were visited by two possums last night- they climbed all around around and made a lot of noise when on the roof. Or so I have been told.

It was cool today- low 20s and hazy- so no one went in the pool. No doubt when we head north it will warm up and we will roast. I suppose there are worst places to roast than the great barrier reef- Calgary for example. We will go there (to the southern end- the town of 1770) and then go inland a bit for a taste of the outback. My impression is that the outback is simply anywhere inland where there is vitrually nothing. We will probably hit the opal mining area.

The poor king parrots are driven away from the feeder by the rosella- a slightly smaller bird but one who is much more aggressive. The cockatoos drive off both- I suppose cause they are so much larger. However the king parrots are less scared of humans than the others. So I stand out by the feeder so they can have a treat. The second I leave the other birds swoop in.

Some nice things about Oz. So far the people seem much politer. No pushing one's way to the front and immediately apologetic if they seem inadvertently to get in one's way. Though I don't read or hear the news much there seems little talk of crime and the atmosphere just seems much calmer. This of course struck me when I read about three more murders in Calgary. I have seen cops but one does not sort of notice them when driving around or when walking around the downtown. And shopping is not dominated by large all-purpose box stores or by chains. There are flocks of butchers, bakers, fruit and vegetable stores and small speciatly stores for most everything else. I like this a lot.

But traffic is always heavy and I remain unkeen on driving. Perhaps I shall on empty outback roads. After all I don't want to get completely out of practice. Of course I also don't want to return to Canada and go driving down the wrong side of the road.