Life on the Farm

We're in a three bedroom cottage. It's heated by a wood stove in the living room, so it gets pretty cold at night unless Rich wakes up to put another log or two on! The temperatures have been below freezing most nights, with mostly sunny days in the high teens. 15C is about 60F, which seems to be the high most days. We seem to get up with the sun and go to bed a few hours after it goes down.



The kids love going around with Mike to feed the animals each morning.


There are highland cattle, black angus beef cattle, lots of merino sheep, 2 other sheep like the kind in the movie Babe, 5 sheep dogs, including a Rhodesian ridgeback, and 5 shetland ponies.

The boys saw a baby angus calf being born last week. Each day there are new calves, both the angus and the highland cattle. Many of the sheep are pregnant, but they won't have their babies until October.

New baby highland calf, 2 days old


The dogs are showing off


Farmer Richard feeds the cows

The Blue Mountains

After Victoria, we took a day to drive to the western edge of the Blue Mountains. We crossed them at Katoomba, site of the Three Sisters. According to legend, three girls were turned to stone by a helpful shaman while escaping an evildoer. The shaman's wand was broken and he was unable to turn them back to humans. So there they sit, waiting.


Sunset at Hasams Walls, near the second largest uplift subsidence (or subsided uplift?) in the world. The first is the Grand Canyon.


View of the Three Sisters from Echo Point. We couldn't get an echo from here.


But we did get a great echo from the Prince of Wales lookout along the rim trail.



This railway was a thrill ride! Here's Andrew in what they used to use to descend the cliff face.




Pretty scenery along the walk. The first is a picture of Katoomba Falls from near the miner's camp. Thar's coal in them thar hills.



A railway, a flyway, and a skyway took us from cliff point to cliff point, with some boardwalk trails in between. These pictures are from the skyway, the last is Katoomba Falls. You can tell they've had a long drought.

Another walk, this time down a long staircase, to another beautiful falls.

The birds in the foreground are sulfur-crested cockatoos.

Unbelievably beautiful views

Andrew on the edge of the world

A thousand steps to the top

The Great Ocean Road

Lots of gorgeous, heart-stopping sights along this road. It was very difficult deciding which pictures to publish here, since there are so many good ones. We spent three days on the Road, a distance of about 400 km (maybe).


View from one of the first stops at a lighthouse. There are many old shipwreck memorials near the lighthouses on the Road, also many settler graves and artefact museums.




Our family at the official beginning of the Road. There's a geocache hidden somewhere nearby -- our first find in Aussie.


Upper falls on the way to another cache. This one took us hours to find, as it was a 2-cache series and we took wrong starts to both of them! This creek eventually empties into the ocean.

Otway Fly

The people at one of our motels recommended the Otway Fly Treetop Walk. The kids loved it (we did too). If you've ever played the computer game Myst, it was a lot like that. Walkways in trees, very high off the ground. If you're at all scared of heights, don't come here. The tea, coffee, and biscuits (cookies) after the walk were quite reviving! It was very cold the morning we visited, and began raining hard after we left. We timed it just right.


View from one ramp to another.


The tower. We climbed it.


Here's the proof. By the way, the best way to keep warm is layers. We're all wearing three.


Tree ferns.


The ground is far below our feet.


Safe on the ground again.

12 Apostles and other formations

A long, long time ago, the coastline extended out farther than it does now. Softer rock washed away, leaving formations. The most famous is called the 12 Apostles. Another is London Bridge, which used to be a landbridge, but fell down in 1990, with some tourists out on the ocean side. They were rescued by helicopter.

The weather here was cold and rainy with occasional sleet. Luckily, the roads were not icy.




The seas were very rough, and I have lots of pictures of large waves.


Another landbridge arch.


This picture captures the feel of the day -- cold, windy, rainy, but beautiful.

Wilson's Promontory

This is the southmosterly point of our journey. There's a large national park here, with beautiful scenery and birds and a beach.

The Southern Ocean


Connor and Andrew in the Southern Ocean. The waves come straight from Antartica.


Sunset on the Prom

Andrew and Connor See Australia

Pictures

I'm in an internet cafe somewhere in south Vic. Here are some pictures so far...


Royal National Park outside Sydney.




The view from Fitzroy Falls. I can't seem to upload the picture of the falls themselves, but trust me, they are beautiful.



Random termite mound on the road to Pebbly Beach. There were supposed to be friendly kangaroos on the beach, but we didn't see any. We did see some near the caretaker's house on the way out.




Rich and the boys at Mystery Bay. Check out the cave. We would have, but it started to pour with rain just after I took the picture.

Kangaroo Valley

Shopping
Today we found a Woolworth's and got the essentials -- bread, milk, cheese, hair conditioner. I thought we could make do for 10 weeks with a styrofoam cooler. It lasted half a day before a little boy stood on the lid. We'll get a $35 hard side cooler today. Ice is $4/bag, so we'll get some blue ice and freeze them each night as well.

Kangaroo Valley
How can we resist these names? Off the main highway, there are many tourist drives through beautiful scenery. We took a couple through the day. One was to Kangaroo Valley and Fitzroy Falls. Pictures soon. (I know where there's a wireless connection in this town) The falls area spectacular. The canyons are deep and rocky with eucalyptus trees, something which looks like cedar (in bloom) and huge tree ferns. We could easily have spent days here.

Jervis Bay
I couldn't resist the beach any longer, so we headed for Jervis Bay. We found a playground for the kids to run around on, and a very small beach next to a saltwater swimming pool. The tide was coming in as we spent a few hours there, and by the time we left, the pool was filling. A dolphin watching cruise boat came in to dock, which increased the number of children on the playground.

Not Much Progress...
We made only about 200km progress south yesterday. We've got to pick up the pace tomorrow, but first need to backtrack north a few kms to see the friendly kangaroos at Pebbly Beach. How can we resist?

Day One

The Flights
I was worried about two things on the long flights. One was complete meltdown, and the other was that the kids would be awake and we'd be asleep. Neither happened. The long flight was longer than it should have been. We had to stop in Noumea to clean out the toilets. It was still dark, maybe 4 am local time, so we didnt' get to see much of the beautiful South Pacific island.

The Car and Driving
We've got a Kia Carnival minivan. Big enough to hold us and our stuff and drives fairly well, although the brakes make funny noises. It took about half a minute to get used to right hand drive again. We planned our route out of Sydney to contain only left turns. The only right turn I had to make was at a roundabout and it worked!

McDonald's
We haven't yet stopped for groceries, and the kids saw McDonald's and Hungry Jack (Burger King) signs, so we stopped fo rlunch and let them play on the playground. They made friends and ate happy meals and got toys just like at the McDonald's at home. I had a great Thai chicken sandwich, not like at the McDonald's at home.

Royal National Park
We passed a town called Waterfall and went in search of the waterfall. We fired up the GPSr, connected it to the laptop, and powered both off of the cigarette lighter. We're near S34 E150. There are a few caches around the park, but we're not going to find them today. We entered the park and immediately passed a lay-by where we saw a man sitting on a rock. Rich said he had a bag of swag and was logging a cache. I got to do a u-turn and the next lay-by to go back and check. Nope, he was just eating his lunch. We pulled in and found the waterfall. Pictures when I can upload them. It was just beautiful. He was part of a large group of hikers. The boys started to play, but the drop-off was 200m down to rocks, so we stopped that right away. Connor splashed in the stream, of course, and had to get his socks changed.

Sublime Lookout
This was the top of the world. The views were tremendous, and again, pictures when I upload them.

Finding a Motel
This was the hardest part of a long day. We decided to stop around 4 and couldn't find a place to stay until a long time after. I was getting too tired to drive when we finally found a decent motel. It had a double and bunk beds, which sounded perfect. Unfortunately, Andrew didn't want the top bunk, so after much consternation, he and Connor took the bottom bunk. I think we lasted until about 5, at least I did, until we crashed. Peace reigned until 2 am, which I think is about 11 am tummy time. Connor woke up first, then Andrew got annoyed enough to climb to the top bunk. Three hours later, I gave up on sleep and put on Nickelodeon. The good news is that we can get bunks for the kids and there won't be any more fussing.

And so it begins...

Saturday, Rich thought we could leave by 10 am. We got out of the driveway at 6:30 (pm) and had to turn around at 183 cause I forgot my tennis shoes. If that's the worst thing that happens, we'll be doing ok. We made it without incident to Houston and have about a half hour left until we leave for the airport.

The kids are more than ready to get on the airplane. Andrew flew to Disneyworld when he was about 14 months old. He doesn't remember it. Connor has never flown. They'll have window seats for all but the long flight. I suspect they'll crash on the second leg and not awaken until 6 am Texas time. That'll be about halfway across the ocean.

They each have a new coloring book and crayons, plus a truck and an action figure. I've got the paper airplane and origami monster book with paper. And there are 3 hours of battery life on my laptop with a selection of movies in case of total meltdown. (of course, this would never happen with my angels)

I'll try to post an aiport picture of the gang either in Houston or Denver. This is so much fun.

More Intinerary

After Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, we'll be off back north, this time via the mountains. We'll spend a few days near Katoomba, seeing scenery like the Three Sisters. Next, it's off to 2 weeks at a farmstay cottage in sheep country. After that, we've got a week to travel north to the beach. We'll stay there the rest of the trip, with short side trips to tropical north Queensland and fossicking in the gem fields to make our fortune.

Today is my last day at work!