Macswayround Blog - Wednesday, 11 March 2009

Maclean to Sydney travels...................

We travelled further south and spent some time in MacLean – the official Scottish Town of Australia! It was great to walk the streets with a variety of painted tartan lamp-posts! Most of us were treated to a hair trim and a chat from a friendly lady called Nancy who was great at welcoming us to the country and recommending places to see! It was very strange to be amidst Scottish tartan and the possibility of haggis once more! We found the McKenzie Tartan lamp post and were amused as we asked the first passer-by to take a photo of us all, stood by our post. Phil explained that we were McKenzie’s and he said – “so am I!” How very strange – so they decided to shake hands!

We stayed at Woolgoolga at the Sunset Caravan Park and we had a great walk around the park at dusk. There were hundreds of Fruit Bats (or Flying Foxes), heading for the fruit trees and the sky seemed to be full of wings!

The Pet Porpoise Pool at Coffs Harbour provided yet another fantastic day out for us all! We were honoured to receive a kiss from a resident sea - lion and a dolphin too- What a great experience! We saw how playful and lovable these creatures are, as they played football around the pool during their free time! Their show consisted of magnificent leaps, twists and tricks, to the skill of balancing a ball on a beak. This centre is home to the first EVER dolphin to perform this trick as he taught himself by watching the sea- lions at work! It is obviously much more difficult for a dolphin to perform this skill as they have a completely different shaped beak to that of a sea- lion.

Each performance was fact-filled with strong messages of how to recycle and how to be a part of saving our planet from destruction. One of the sea –lions is even trained to pick up litter and to throw it away in the correct dustbin!

We stayed at the Koala Villas and Caravan Park after an amazing day.

Thankfully we managed to have an uneventful Friday 13^th (there does seem to be a lot of them planned for this year!) and we travelled south and set up camp at Stockton Beach near Newcastle. Jemma and Ben enjoyed watching rabbits around the campsite, and met Tristan and his grandparents. Many thanks for their useful travel tips too!

On Valentine’s Day we arrived at Lane Cove National Park (10 kms from the heart of Sydney). We could not believe the vast number of beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets all around this site and around our pitch too. They even sheltered on our table and chairs right underneath our canopy. They have such amazing colours and are definitely on our ‘to do’ list for when we get home!

As the weather was wet we stayed around camp and did not complain as we realise just how badly rain is needed in these parts. We did manage a quick bush and river walk, in -between showers and we were pleased to chat with a gentleman named Bob Potter who told us interesting tales of his life and time spent in England.

We took the bus and train into Sydney and were stunned to actually be standing outside the Sydney Opera House in all its tiled glory, with views across the harbour toward the infamous bridge. Thoughts of Billy Connolly came flooding back as he climbed the outside of the Opera House during his tour ‘down under’!

We really enjoyed listening to live and traditional Aborigine music with the Didgeridoo! The children had a picture taken as they helped accompany the music with good ‘ole Uncle Max! We added some lovely traditional souvenirs to our collection. We took the foot ferry over to Manly Island which is 7 miles from Sydney but – as they advertise – A thousand miles from Care! We went to see the world famous Manly Beach and enjoyed the local sights before sailing back to Sydney! Phil managed to find a great Australian observer bird book over there too!

To celebrate Ben’s 7^th birthday we visited the Sydney Aquarium, at Darling Harbour. We had a great day and Ben particularly enjoyed the sharks (typical boy!) and seeing the corals that we would love to see naturally, soon, at the Great Barrier Reef! It was great to see so many Duck- billed Platypus and to find out about their very unusual features. The whole aquarium was once again jam packed with interesting facts and was very educational. It was great to be able to see the ‘original mermaid’ –a most mystifying sea creature – called the Dugong. This placid mammal eats sea grass in the natural environment and Cos lettuce at the Sydney Aquarium! These two dugongs (the only ones on public display in the southern hemisphere) chomp their way through about 20 boxes of Cos lettuce (with replicated nutrients to sea grass) – EVERY DAY!! It is believed that the mermaid legends have spiralled from their sightings by lonely pirates or sailors. Even though it may look a bit like a cross between a dolphin and a hippo, it actually remains most closely related to – WAIT FOR IT – an elephant!! Ben was over the moon to be able to hold a shark’s egg, as a special birthday treat! There was over 100 metres of underwater tunnels and over 650 species to observe, throughout the whole aquarium.

We took the train ride out of Sydney as far as Holsworthy and then returned back to Sydney, just to be able to say we did!

The birthday celebrations were completed by getting back to Lane Cove for a night walk with a wildlife ranger around the camp grounds. We saw Bush-Tailed and Ring-Tailed Possums, Kookaburras, a Green Frog, as well as Bandicoots and got some spotlighting practice!

We packed up and went on our way towards Dolphin Point. On the way we drove through the Royal National Park which was a very scenic drive. Many thanks to Dave and Meg (our Lane Cove neighbours) for taking the time to write some top visiting hotspots and for even giving us a disk full of photos to go with the notes!

FACTOIDS-

· Professor Michael Dodson is recognised as a proud, courageous and humble leader who has spent his life trying to explain how and why people should help Aboriginal Australians. He has recently been named 2009 Australian of the Year and he received a prestigious award from the Prime Minister, the Hon Kevin Rudd MP, at a ceremony on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra. The National Australian Day Council said Dodson’s lifetime contribution to reconciliation and ongoing commitment to indigenous people and bringing all Australians together was inspirational.

· Grey-headed Flying Foxes occur only in Australia. They may appear to be plentiful but their survival is not assured. Their total population has been observed to drop by one third in just 10 years. The forests of Eastern Australia depend on flying-foxes’ ability to travel far, spreading seeds and pollinating distant blossoms. Flying foxes need forests for shelter and food and now the species are classed as “Vulnerable”.

· In 2008, Australia welcomed 5.6 million tourists, who spent 34 billion dollars on travel and transport.

· Australia has the world’s largest stocks of Uranium.

· Australia has some of the oldest vines in the world. Many of Europe’s established vineyards were destroyed by disease (phylloxera) in the 1800’s. The vines that were bought to Australia survived.

· Termite damage is a major problem for many homes in Australia.

· The letters of POME – as an Englishman is known! – stand for –“ Prisoner of Mother England”.

· Lane Cove National Park has over 600 hectares to explore. It has a eucalypt forest abounding with native birds and animals and was officially named and opened in 1938 (with only 125 hectares at that stage).

· The Southern Brown Bandicoot is a medium sized ground dwelling marsupial weighing between 400 and 1600 grams. It is now only found in Northern Sydney and the South – East of New South Wales, and it is now endangered.

· Maclean is the ‘Scottish Town in Australia’ due to the town’s early settlement by the Scots and it has an incredible community spirit. Each Easter there is an organised Highland Gathering at Maclean and April 2009 will be the 105^th year of the celebrations.

· When the first Platypus specimen was sent to England for classification, it was considered a hoax because of its strange combination of features.

· The Platypus is a mammal, but a fairly unique mammal in that it lays eggs. It belongs to the smallest order of mammals called Monotremes, which also includes the Echidna and together these are the ONLY egg laying mammals in the world.

· The Platypus is protected, but its survival is threatened by habitat destruction.

· Crocodiles have salt glands on their tongue to enable them to shed excess salt.

· The temperature at which crocodile eggs are incubated determines the sex of the hatchlings.

· Jelly -fish contain up to 94 % water.

· Approximately 180 species of sharks live in Australian waters but only about 10 of these are considered potentially dangerous to humans.

· The Dugong is a mammal that is able to stay under water for 6 minutes before surfacing!

· The Dugong only feed on a particular species of sea bed grass which has slowly been disappearing due to sediment and pollution runoff – they are now also on the endangered list.

MORE WILDLIFE HITS:

· Australian Wood Duck

· Silver Gulls

· Gold Finches

· Terns

· Black Headed Magpie

· Torresian Crow

· Little Black Cormorant

· Great Cormorant

· Cattle Egret

· Bandicoot

· Green Frog

· Australian White Ibis

· Blue Billed Duck

· Whiskered Tern

· Crimson Rosellas

· Rock Dove

· Red Wattle Bird

· Common Bronze Wing

Wednesday, 11 March 2009 06:07:31 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0] Australia

Some more Australia Zoo and friends.......

Whose is biggest?

Elephants at play!

Now you see me - now you don't........

Actual size of a real skippy!

Please can we take it home, Dad?

The Glass House Mountains.

Beautiful Palm Beach..........

Sunset at Palm Beach........

The mob of 'wild skippys' beside the road!

Wednesday, 11 March 2009 06:02:31 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0] Australia

PICS- AUSTRALIA ZOO AND MORE .........

The Cuddly Croc!

Don't argue with this one!

Can you spot Ben past the Snake?!

The Real Thing!

Just Look how Cuddly!

The Very Laid Back Approach!

Sunday, 01 March 2009 03:53:39 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [1] Australia

Good'ay from the Pommes!

Good’ay!

Our flight from Los Angeles took 13.5 hours on a Bowing 747 Jumbo Jet, with four Rolls Royce engines! We travelled with Quantas and were very happy with the service from the flight staff and information from the pilot during this long flight! Some of the flight was quite turbulent in places and maybe this is quite usual – we don’t know, as none of us has ever journeyed over the Pacific Ocean before! Due to us flying through the date line, we actually took off just before midnight on the 3^rd February and arrived into Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – on the morning of the 5^th February!! We are still amused at having lost that complete day-somewhere up there in the clouds! We travelled approximately 7,340 miles at an average height of 42,000 feet and 556 miles per hour! As we flew through the night Ben was asleep even before we took off and was then the most awake of us all when we arrived early on Thursday morning (5^th!) We exited through the security at the airport very smoothly after collecting our luggage and were all ‘hit by the weather’ as we stepped outside in Australia! It was still very early in the morning but very hot already! Jemma started the trick of running to the shade! We were able to catch a cab outside the airport and go straight to the ‘Around Australia Motor homes’ rental depot, just fifteen minutes from the airport. This was the beginning of Macwayround Part 3 (following Europe- part 1 and USA -part 2!) It was difficult to believe that we had made it to the other side of our world as we know it and we were now in Queensland, 10 hours ahead of the time in England!

We had a thorough guided tour from the staff around our’ Nessie Two’ which we have decided to affectionately call ‘Ozzie’ for the purpose of this part of our trip! When all the paperwork and formalities were complete we set off with the help of our downloaded Australian maps and the satellite navigation – remembering to drive on the LEFT again! We set a loud alarm to remind us on the sat nav as we have been a long while driving on the right!

As nobody (apart from Ben) had managed to have much sleep during the flight, we decided not to venture too far on our first day. We stopped off at Landsborough Pines Caravan Park on the Sunshine Coast and were instantly amazed by our first encounters of camping with Australian Wildlife! The Managers and neighbours were all very friendly and we used a day around the campsite to try and recover from some jet lag! We were all up before 5am for the next few mornings and all ready for breakfast as our body clocks took their time to adjust! Being the twitcher that he is (with Ben now following closely behind!), Phil was frustrated by not being able to name the birds that we were seeing –and so an Australian book bird was put onto our shopping list at a very early stage! We took a walk around the lakes and grounds of this site and it was great to see how much wildlife was encouraged to come and stay too! There was also a tame resident Sulphur Crested Cockatoo who was beautiful and chatty too! He liked to dig and it was funny to hear that he was digging his way to China – when at home we might say he was digging down to Australia!

As we were all up again so early we were able to make a very full day out at the infamous Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin’s- Australia Zoo......and what a most amazing day we had too – another highlight of Macswayround so far! Australia Zoo opened and began to develop in 1992 when Steve and his wife Terri took over management. The zoo quickly went from strength to strength through the commitment and dedication of Steve as a genuine wildlife warrior and his team. They have an ultimate aim of being the World’s Leading Zoological destination and believe in conservation through exciting education. Today the current team is working very hard to keep this aim real and achievable in honour of Steve’s memory.

As we entered the gates the children were greeted by a ‘cuddly crocodile’ –with the warning that this was going to be the only croc they could cuddle that day! The first enclosure was home to a fine example of a Komodo- Dragon and gave us all an insight into the extremely high standards of enclosures we were to observe all day and throughout the whole zoo. There was a tribute to Steve at the entrance which was a bronze casting of him with his family, a crocodile and their family dog too and plenty more tribute boards towards the end of the trail. As we travelled around there was a great feeling of Steve’s enthusiasm all around us. The information boards were packed with his pictures and famous phrases and ‘Oh Crickey!’ the staff were all so very knowledgeable, informative and a pleasure to talk to. They seemed to be on an active journey to help Steve’s dream continue and grow to reach its full potential. We consider ourselves to be a wildlife enthusiast family and of all the zoos and wildlife parks that we have visited, we feel that this is probably the best we have ever seen! It was a delight to see ‘happy tigers’ at play, chasing and pouncing on one another, a sight which is often unusual in these settings. It was great to be able to hand feed an elephant and be close- up to the power and gentle precision that they have in their trucks! We were able to see many of the Native Australian animals at this early stage in our time here and hope to see many more ‘in the wild’ at a later date! The kangaroos and wallabies did a great job at being available for a cuddle or two, as did the koalas! We all loved the kookaburras and found their laugh to be very contagious! The photo opportunities were endless!

The Wildlife Warrior Live Show in the World Famous Crocoseum was entertaining and informative. We saw a wide variety of birds, snakes and of course the hand-feeding of the croc as it launched itself from the water’s edge! Crocs rule – OK! We studied the collection of most venomous snakes ever and took note of those to definitely avoid – although we do think it is better to avoid any of these wriggly creatures in this country!

The Tasmanian -Devils certainly lived up to their name as we saw how vicious they got when it was time to go to bed at the end of the day! We wouldn’t like to catch them having a bad day as we saw them rip their meat to pieces in temper!

We left the zoo wanting to find out more about the wildlife warriors and how we can help. Conservation is so very important and as wildlife numbers continue to drop, many to the endangered point, we ALL need to take an active part in saving our planet and the wildlife within it, in order to let mother- nature do what she is designed to do best. Many of Steve’s important words were displayed including these – which to us- said it all - “My job, my mission, the reason I’ve been put on this planet, is to save wildlife. And I thank you for coming with me.”

Back at camp and we had a traditional Australian happy hour (chat!) with our neighbours (Dianne, Kelvin & John) as news of the devastating and severe bush fires in Victoria were emerging.

We drove past the Glass House Mountains as we left the Sunshine Coast and headed for the Gold Coast. These mountains are most spectacular and are the remnant of cores of volcanoes which were active about 25 million years ago. They were formed as molten rock that was forced out of the vents from within the earth and over a period of time these flows of magma cooled to form the conal shapes of hard rock that we see today.

Arriving on the Gold Coast we had been recommended to stay at the Tallebudgera Creek Tourist Park and what a good recommendation that was! This is just north of Palm Beach and we camped right next to the beach with a netted swimming area in front of us! Jemma and Ben were off again and it reminded us all of our favourite seaside spot in Croatia! We were even lucky enough to see a ‘wild’ dolphin as it came up the estuary for a quick swim! This was the first time we heard the kookaburras laughing as their early morning call and it was a great sound! Since being amongst Australian Campers we have noticed that they seem to retire off to bed much earlier than Europeans or indeed Americans, however they are up and about very early at first light instead!

Next we came across Brooms- Head, another lovely spot and stayed at the caravan park there. This was in North East New South Wales. The sea here looked very tempting but we were warned about the ‘blueies’ – which are a jelly fish type thing and they are capable of giving you a nasty sting should you pass their way! Since then we have discovered that we know this as the Portuguese Man of War and that the nasty sting is actually excruciatingly painful!

As we were leaving Brooms -Head we were recommended to keep an eye open to see the only coastal flock of emu’s. Alas it was not to be our turn, however Ben’s spying caught a very well hidden ‘real wild!’ kangaroo and we were all very happy! A little further down the road and there were a whole mob of them sitting in the shade of a tree right in the middle of a field!

PERFECT-one of our missions accomplished already!!

FACTIODS-

· Brisbane Airport is Australia’s second busiest International Gateway.

· The Australian Wildlife Hospital has a new 5 million dollar site, situated next to Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. This hospital will help to care for up to 10,000 native animals each year. Please remember to get involved in helping to keep Steve Irwin’s mission and dream alive by visiting and supporting his devoted team at www.wildlifewarriors.org.au. Thank-you.

· In 1770 Captain James Cook, on ‘Endeavour’, named the Glass House Mountains (as the reflections and shapes of these hills reminded him of the glass manufacturing houses back in England).

· Mount Beerwah, at 556 metres high is the ‘Mother by Legend’ and the grandest of all the 15 Glass House Mountains.

· Australia Zoo was formally known as Beerwah Reptile Park which was opened in 1970 by Steve’s parents Bob & Lyn Irwin.

· The Koala Bear is not a Bear! It is a Marsupial!

· A Koala Bear sleeps for an average of 16-20 hours per day!

· The Tasmanian- Devil stores its fat in its tail – therefore a fat tail means a healthy devil. Also, the Tasmanian- Devil’s pouch opens backwards so dirt does not enter while it is digging.

· The Deadliest Spider in the world is the Sydney Funnel Web.

· Steve Irwin Day is on the November 15^th each year.

· The Gold Coast has 100,000 hectares of parks and reserves and 70 kilometres of celebrated coastline.

· The Gold Coast has an average of 8 hours of sunshine for 300 days of the year!

WILDLIFE HITS:

· A Variety of Lizards, up to 18 inches long.

· Brush Turkeys

· Piwis

· Little Egrets

· Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats with up to 1 metre wingspan))

· Rainbow Lorikeets

· Noisy Minors

· Australian Magpies

· Dusky Moorhens

· Crested Pigeons

· Azure Kingfishers

· Swallows

· Pelicans

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:49:05 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [2] Australia

Our first sights of Australia!

We have just been 7,300 miles together!

Our first spotted Australian Wildlife - all 18 inches of it!

Please Don't worry Mum!!

"IT IS TOO HOT!!"

Friday, 20 February 2009 23:10:35 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0] Australia

Woops - a couple we forgot!

Jemma and Ben meet the original Disney Star!!

It was great to reach California and get to the end of the infamous ROUTE 66! We have had a great time along this fun-filled route and would highly recommend it to everyone! We did get our kicks on Route 66 on The Glory Road, the Main Street of America and the Road of Dreams! Whatever you want to call it- this is one of the most famous roads in the world.......................

Speak next when we land 'down under!'

Friday, 20 February 2009 09:49:09 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [2] USA

California in pictures..........

A Lonesome Tree! Our Victorville Neighbours!

Mexican Indian Dancers. Phil's all time FAVOURITE ACTOR!

Disney - Where Dreams Come true! Our Californian friends - Tim & Sylvia.

Saturday, 14 February 2009 12:11:33 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0] USA

MORE CALIFORNIA!

As we have made many changes to our initial game plans along our way on Macswayround, we decided to make another as we headed towards California. We arranged to put Nessie into safe and secure storage to let her have a rest when we reached California. This decision is due to the current worldwide financial situation, and in particular to the massive drop in the exchange rate of the U.S Dollar to the British Pound. This- on top of the fact that shipping costs have almost doubled since our initial quote to ship Nessie across the transpacific has meant that it makes much more sense for us to store Nessie and rent a similar camper from Brisbane, for the time we are in Australia.

We camped at the Shady Oasis Campground in Victorville, and found an excellent storage facility, to the north east of Los Angeles. This is where Tim and Sylvia (our new found Zion friends) sprang into action and helped us out. As they live at Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, they VERY kindly offered to pick us up from the Storage Centre, let us stay with them for 4 nights and then, if that wasn’t enough – drive us to the airport when it was time for our flight! It is uncanny to think we ended up here as this is next door to Long Beach where Nessie was due to sail from! We couldn’t believe our luck and we are very grateful to them both. We really enjoyed Huntington Beach and our time with them, also meeting some of their friends and family too. Huntington Beach is located along the Southern California coast in Orange County. It has been named as the best city to live in Orange County and has been ranked among the ‘top ten safest cities’ for decades. It has pristine white beaches and is also named as the Surf City of the USA – surfing began here as it became popular in the States!

We visited the original part of Los Angeles, as it always was, with Tim and Sylvia. Once again local knowledge was priceless! We saw the traditional market stalls, some Mexican- Indian dancers and some break-dancers too!

Into Hollywood and we took a stroll down Hollywood Boulevard where famous stars have their names written in a gold star – along all the pavements. As the sun set the Boulevard was illuminated with bright lights and atmosphere! We saw the place where the stars have signed their names and left hand and foot prints too.

The next day Sylvia, Jemma, Ben and I took the Disneyland experience! Tim and Phil got out of the treat (we are not quite sure how!) and they enjoyed a day at the Petersen Automotive Museum instead!

It was great to go to the ORIGINAL Disneyland Theme Park in California! It was very busy on the day we chose and there were some long queues but we did manage to do lots of different attractions, throughout the whole day. We went on every roller coaster possible and even I can say I went on them all and enjoyed them – which is very unusual as I usually avoid them and hold the bags while Daddy gets the pleasure! We even went into the home of Mickey Mouse and met him while he had a break from his filming. The children got a photo each with the most original star of Disney!

Everything was aching as we got back to the house and after carrying two happy, sleeping children to bed we adjourned to the hot tub with a good supply of wine! The perfect recovery – how lucky are we?!

On Tuesday 3^rd February we packed our bags ready to fly down under! After a lovely Thai Curry we were taken to the airport and dropped at the check-in point. We said our goodbyes and thanks to Tim and Sylvia and the two dogs and we look forward to meeting again on our return to the States! (please?)

WILDLIFE HITS-

· 2 different types of Humming birds

· Sparrows

· Lots of Starfish

· Ground Squirrels

· Various very large butterflies

Saturday, 14 February 2009 11:53:07 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [0] USA

DEATH VALLEY PICS.......