answer: Dancing cyclops to the left.
But is it a warning or an invitation to join in?
But is it a warning or an invitation to join in?
Sunday, October 6, 2013
What has eight legs...
[Gavin] I ran across this eight-legged critter when I was jogging on the beach yesterday:
This morning we saw another eight-legged critter on our way to the market in Mission Beach:
Yes, that's a Golden Orb Weaver spider, of the "spider that catches and eats birds" fame, and yes, it really is about as big as Robin's hand.
I hope my luck at running across eight-legged critters holds-- maybe tomorrow I'll see an octopus!
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| Starfish! |
This morning we saw another eight-legged critter on our way to the market in Mission Beach:
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| Spider! |
I hope my luck at running across eight-legged critters holds-- maybe tomorrow I'll see an octopus!
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Boomerang go boom!
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| throwing the boomerang |
Robin also gave it a go. Her arm was not quite so good and a wonky throw went very high. Will tried to catch it but the boomerang got him in the forehead. uh oh! Lots of blood. uh oh!
Let's take a look. About 2 cm long. uh oh! It is deep. uh oh! You need stitches kiddo. uh oh!
We asked a nearby dog-walker where the medical center was and he was very nice to walk us there. Thank goodness it was just 1 block from the park. When the receptionist saw the blood, she took Will right to the surgery.
The Russian surgeon and the nurse made various boomerang jokes. "Good thing it wasn't a tomahawk! You see, in your country it would be a tomahawk. Ha ha!" said the russian doctor. I wasn't amused but made a 'hm' noise so he would cease this joke.
The Dr's accent was a bit thick and due some misunderstandings he ended up giving Will some thing like 7 injections of local anesthetic. So when the actual sewing up started, Will hardly felt a thing. The cut went all the way to bone so he will have these two stitches and the surgical strips on for 1 week.
So now Will gets a scar with a pretty cool story whether he choose to say that the scar was from Voldemort or from a boomerang.
I'm also thinking that when they teach you how to throw a boomerang, they should also teach you how to catch it!
[Will] Nana, if you are reading this. I'm feeling fine.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Bunyip mischief
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| Between Fish Creek (red star at bottom) to Don Valley (red star at top) is Bunyip State Park with Lawson Creek falls (blue star) |
What is a Bunyip? A bunyip is a mythical creature from Aboriginal mythology, said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes (wikipedia). This creature is reported to be an imposter who causes mischief. In the location of Bunyip State Park, aboriginals told of many bunyip activities and warned that making ripples in the waters attracted the bunyips.
Bunyip State forest was logged until 1990 and the park is criss-crossed with a network of logging roads. Lawson creek waterfall is in the eastern end of the park far from the main park headquarters. Not a problem - our plan was to take the gravel road through the park and to the other side where we would meet the sealed roads to Don Valley. Well this is a case of a little knowledge being dangerous. We had a map of the park roads but not of the roads north of the park. More on that later.
We drove along a gravel road to the trailhead. This was by far the least developed track we've walked in Australia. The first pictures shows the official viewing area for Lawson's Creek falls. The falls themselves were nice and we enjoyed the walk and visit.
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| Official viewing area for Lawson's Creek waterfall |
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| Will in front of Lawson's Creek waterfall |
Because I was wearing sandals that weren't ideal for scrambling on steep muddy slopes, I stayed at the official viewing area. Well it turns out that this was not a wise thing. Moving around or maybe moving away from the damp area near the creek would have prevented the leeches from finding me. Australia is the only place that has land leeches, as opposed to water leeches. They sit in damp soil and sense vibrations and heat to find red blooded creatures to suck. The first one I noticed was crawling on my hand. "Hmm, weird black inch worm" I thought. Then a few minutes later another one was on my hand. After some thought, I realized that those wierd black inchworms might have been leeches and checked inside my socks. Sure enough I found a third one there! OK, at this point I had full on leech heebie-jeebies. I didn't find any more and none of them got any of my blood. *whew* Another tick mark on my creepy Australian animal encounter check list!
We continued up the road and reached a part of the forest that was very hot in the fire so that none of the trees survived. It was a eerily beautiful sight. Farther on, we finally exited the north end of the park where we thought we would reach a sealed road. Instead, we saw more gravel road which was blocked by sign that there was a major landslip. We had to go back the way that we came.. driving back through the large log that was in an earlier blog post and out the southern end of the park.
In the end, what should have been a 2.5 hour drive ended up taking 4.5 hours. For this and the leeches, I blame the bunyips!
Penguin Parade!
[Robin and Will] On Saturday we went to the penguin parade on Philip Island.
[Will] I expected to see penguins come out to the water to the house. We would watch this and then leave.
[Robin] I expected to see a big wave of penguins come out of the water and up to the beach and... that's it. We would go home after that.
We had two choices for penguin viewing, jut sitting in the grandstand with the crowd or go on a ranger-guided tour.We decided on the ranger guided tour and it was well worth the expense.
Once we got to the penguin parade place, we had to join up with our group. About 8 people and the ranger in our group. The ranger taught us about penguins and she gave out seats and binoculars and headset to listen to her talk.
[Will] I felt kind of silly walking around with the headset and all this stuff around my neck.
[Robin] I felt kind of cool and special.
[Michele] The listening system didn't work with my hearing aids, which was frustrating. They should get t-coil loops! I was able to use the system without my hearing aids and along with lip reading and I learned a lot.
When we were about to go down to the beach a double rainbow appeared. A good sign of things to come.
[Robin] The penguins that we saw are the Little Penguins. The name kind of explains it all. They are the littlest type of penguin in the world and they are only about a foot tall. Victoria is one of the few places in the world that you can see penguins.
[Michele] Can you see penguins any time of the day?
[R&W] Penguins are best to be seen at dawn and dusk because at dawn they go out of the water and then at dusk they come back to their homes. They spend most of their time in the water eating. Coming in and out of the water, they have to cross the beach when it is dark because otherwise birds and foxes will eat them.
[Robin] Not many of the penguins came out of the water right in front of us, they were usually a ways down the beach. That is where the binoculars came in handy.
[Michele] What was the cutest thing you saw the penguins do?
[Will] there was one penguin that go lost and it wandered in front of the grandstand. It walked right in front of my feet. Because we were on the ranger-guided tour, we got to sit in the very front
[Robin] The cutest thing that I saw was when we left the grandstand and saw the penguins coming to their homes. There was one little penguin that was a couple feet in front of us (with a fence between us and the penguins) and it was gathering grass for its nest. It would grab the grass with its beak and pull and pull and pull until the grass snapped off and take it back to his nest. That was a male penguin decorating its nest impress the ladies.
[Will] It is breeding season so many females are pregnant. Some of them walk towards the beach eating shells for the calcium to grow the baby penguins. This is weird because most of the penguins are walking away from the beach towards their homes and so when you see a penguin going the wrong way, you might think they are confused but they are just looking for shells.
[Will] Another way that we felt special was that about three times every ten years one of the penguin 'highways' (paths that the penguins take home) floods and becomes a stream. It was flowing during our visit so we got to watch some penguins swim to their homes instead of walking.
[Robin] Another cool thing about the penguin parade is that it is on the very spot where G'ma Lorna and Uncle Larry spent summer holidays. They watched the penguin parade too but there wasn't a grandstand back then. They stayed at their auntie Lorna's house, which was where the gift shop is now, and they scrambled down the cliffs, exploring the penguin burrows and watching them come in from the sea.
The last cool thing is when we were going back to the car, we saw a lost little penguin wandering around in the car park. Penguins make their homes in the same spot that they were born so when the car park expanded, it took over some former burrows. Some penguins keep trying to go back 'home'. They had to get a ranger to come and chase it to the park.
[Michele] So did the penguin parade exceed your expectations?
[Will] Yes, definitely! I would recommend that everyone have the ranger guided tour, you learn a lot and you get to see more penguins.
[Michele] We enjoyed the experience so much that we were among the very last people to leave the park.
[Will] I expected to see penguins come out to the water to the house. We would watch this and then leave.
[Robin] I expected to see a big wave of penguins come out of the water and up to the beach and... that's it. We would go home after that.
We had two choices for penguin viewing, jut sitting in the grandstand with the crowd or go on a ranger-guided tour.We decided on the ranger guided tour and it was well worth the expense.
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| Note: sign says no photography beyond this point so everyone is taking pictures of the rainbows. |
[Will] I felt kind of silly walking around with the headset and all this stuff around my neck.
[Robin] I felt kind of cool and special.
[Michele] The listening system didn't work with my hearing aids, which was frustrating. They should get t-coil loops! I was able to use the system without my hearing aids and along with lip reading and I learned a lot.
When we were about to go down to the beach a double rainbow appeared. A good sign of things to come.
[Robin] The penguins that we saw are the Little Penguins. The name kind of explains it all. They are the littlest type of penguin in the world and they are only about a foot tall. Victoria is one of the few places in the world that you can see penguins.
[Michele] Can you see penguins any time of the day?[R&W] Penguins are best to be seen at dawn and dusk because at dawn they go out of the water and then at dusk they come back to their homes. They spend most of their time in the water eating. Coming in and out of the water, they have to cross the beach when it is dark because otherwise birds and foxes will eat them.
[Robin] Not many of the penguins came out of the water right in front of us, they were usually a ways down the beach. That is where the binoculars came in handy.
[Michele] What was the cutest thing you saw the penguins do?
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| picture stolen from the internet since no photography is allowed |
[Robin] The cutest thing that I saw was when we left the grandstand and saw the penguins coming to their homes. There was one little penguin that was a couple feet in front of us (with a fence between us and the penguins) and it was gathering grass for its nest. It would grab the grass with its beak and pull and pull and pull until the grass snapped off and take it back to his nest. That was a male penguin decorating its nest impress the ladies.
[Will] It is breeding season so many females are pregnant. Some of them walk towards the beach eating shells for the calcium to grow the baby penguins. This is weird because most of the penguins are walking away from the beach towards their homes and so when you see a penguin going the wrong way, you might think they are confused but they are just looking for shells.
[Will] Another way that we felt special was that about three times every ten years one of the penguin 'highways' (paths that the penguins take home) floods and becomes a stream. It was flowing during our visit so we got to watch some penguins swim to their homes instead of walking.
[Robin] Another cool thing about the penguin parade is that it is on the very spot where G'ma Lorna and Uncle Larry spent summer holidays. They watched the penguin parade too but there wasn't a grandstand back then. They stayed at their auntie Lorna's house, which was where the gift shop is now, and they scrambled down the cliffs, exploring the penguin burrows and watching them come in from the sea.
The last cool thing is when we were going back to the car, we saw a lost little penguin wandering around in the car park. Penguins make their homes in the same spot that they were born so when the car park expanded, it took over some former burrows. Some penguins keep trying to go back 'home'. They had to get a ranger to come and chase it to the park.
[Michele] So did the penguin parade exceed your expectations?
[Will] Yes, definitely! I would recommend that everyone have the ranger guided tour, you learn a lot and you get to see more penguins.
[Michele] We enjoyed the experience so much that we were among the very last people to leave the park.
Wilson's Promontory in Gale force winds
[Michele] Our first destination outside of Melbourne was Fish Creek, a small town in southern Grippsland and 1 hour from Wilson's Promontory (the prom). We stayed in a solar powered house where all the water is collected from the roof and heated by solar power. The house however is only heated by firewood and a couple of electric space heaters. On the second night temperatures got down to 9˚ (48˚ F), which doesn't seem that bad but without heating and with single pane windows, the outdoor temp was basically the same as the indoor temp. We made the best of it and wore a lot of layers during our stay at the beautiful place.
Despite rainy and windy weather we set off to enjoy Wilson's Prom. Folks were a little cranky about setting out so I decided not to tell the rest of the family that there was a gale force wind advisory for the Prom. They'd figure that out soon enough once we got there.
First stop was squeaky beach where we frolicked in the wind. The brochure says that the beach squeaks when you step because the sand is all the same size. Hmm.... [nerdy section alert] I've been working with Betsy Madden and Justin Herbert on the generation of seismic/acoustic energy upon sliding and this explanation doesn't provide the whole story. It must be cohesive strength that is lost when you step that provides the acoustic energy. The small grain size of the sand may provide the high cohesive strength needed to generate significant squeak. Too bad it was a national park and I couldn't take samples. Then again, with my hearing loss I'm really not the person to study the variation of squeak in
sand. [end of nerdy section]
It was so windy that the only birds we saw (Cockatoos, Scarlet Rosella and Gallahs) were sitting on the ground. After a hot lunch at the park's cafe Will, Robin and I went for a walk in woods that are recovering from a fire in 2009. The forest contains tall trees that survived the fire with green leaves in the canopy and blackened trunks scarred by the fire. The tree ferns and bushes on the forest floor are growing back vigorously.
The views were fantastic and we were sorry that Gavin felt too sick to join us on the walk.
Despite rainy and windy weather we set off to enjoy Wilson's Prom. Folks were a little cranky about setting out so I decided not to tell the rest of the family that there was a gale force wind advisory for the Prom. They'd figure that out soon enough once we got there.First stop was squeaky beach where we frolicked in the wind. The brochure says that the beach squeaks when you step because the sand is all the same size. Hmm.... [nerdy section alert] I've been working with Betsy Madden and Justin Herbert on the generation of seismic/acoustic energy upon sliding and this explanation doesn't provide the whole story. It must be cohesive strength that is lost when you step that provides the acoustic energy. The small grain size of the sand may provide the high cohesive strength needed to generate significant squeak. Too bad it was a national park and I couldn't take samples. Then again, with my hearing loss I'm really not the person to study the variation of squeak in |
| Robin and Will's jackets look a bit like flames |
It was so windy that the only birds we saw (Cockatoos, Scarlet Rosella and Gallahs) were sitting on the ground. After a hot lunch at the park's cafe Will, Robin and I went for a walk in woods that are recovering from a fire in 2009. The forest contains tall trees that survived the fire with green leaves in the canopy and blackened trunks scarred by the fire. The tree ferns and bushes on the forest floor are growing back vigorously.
The views were fantastic and we were sorry that Gavin felt too sick to join us on the walk.
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| Robin attempts flight |
Good things in Victoria
[Michele] After a few days in Melbourne we are now exploring rural Victoria. This Spring holiday is a great chance for us to enjoy things not readily available in far north Queensland.
Vistas of green rolling hills that look straight out of Lord of the Rings.
We are also enjoying the cool weather. We've been wearing jumpers since the first two days. Since Victoria juts out into the Southern Ocean, like Tasmania and New Zealand, it gets slammed by high winds and cool temperatures. The winds have brought down a lot of trees and branches.
Vistas of green rolling hills that look straight out of Lord of the Rings.
Some of my favorite beverages. Lorna contends (and I agree) that Passiona has a much more authentic passion fruit flavor than the Pasita soft drink that is more readily available in far north Queensland. Carlton Draught has been a favorite of mine since I saw their epic 'Big Ad' advertisement back in 2005. The beer itself is also quite tasty.
We are also enjoying the cool weather. We've been wearing jumpers since the first two days. Since Victoria juts out into the Southern Ocean, like Tasmania and New Zealand, it gets slammed by high winds and cool temperatures. The winds have brought down a lot of trees and branches.
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| As long as there is room enough for a car, she'll be right. |
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