Good Bye!!

Good Bye Australia!! I will remember you for the rest of my life. I had such a wonderful time and so many amazing adventures. Here are just a few of my favorite times:
The koalas in Kuranda
Feeding the elephants at the Australian Zoo
Making pasties with my Grandma and Jennifer
Exploring the Great Barrier Reef
The Daintree Wild Bed & Breakfast
Holding the baby dingos
Petting the kangaroos
Ayer's Rock
Driving a land rover
Riding a motorbike

I am back in America now and can't wait to see all of you.

Motorbike

The last few days that we were in Australia, we stayed with some family friends. Vince, Jen, and their 3 boys, Sam, Ben, and Nate let us stay in their house. While I was there, Vince taught me how to ride a motorbike. The helmet was too small for me because their kids are all younger than me, so I wore Vince's helmet. It was really fast and I only crashed once. The ride was bumpy however, I loved going fast. I got the hang of it pretty quick and spent several hours on the bike. I took turns with Ben and we had a blast. Learning how to ride a motorbike was rather fun.

Australian Zoo

Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter, created a wonderful zoo in Queensland AU. It is the best zoo I have ever seen! The animals are so happy there because their enclosures are not behind glass or bars. They are very natural and spacious. Some animals have waterfalls in their homes. Some roam around the zoo free. The Crocoseum of course is well protected because the crocodiles are big and dangerous. We saw them feed big freshwater and saltwater crocs. I fed some elephants fruit and vegetables. They picked up the food from my hand by curling their trunk around it, then bringing it up to their mouth. They were very gentle and big. The Tiger Temple is in the South East Asia section of the zoo. The Bengal tigers have all been hand raised since birth. It was one of my favorite places. The handlers played with the tigers in the water and threw toys to them. The handler told us that if we keep living the same way we are now, the tigers will become extinct in about 10 years. We need to stop buying products that come from their forests.
Another cool enclosure was for the Tasmanian Devils. They have pups and even though they are not one of the prettiest animals in the zoo, they are cute. The baby tasmanian devil kept chasing and fighting with the others.
The African section was the newest. It had a family of rhinos including a baby, a giraffe and a chettah. One of the neatest things people can do at the zoo is have a one on one encounter with their favorite animal. Some choose to have a half hour with the tigers or 15 min. with a rhino and the money goes to helping save animals in the wild. You can read about this on the Australian Zoo website. www.australiazoo.com.au

Bindoon Fair

There were lots of things to do and see at the Bindoon Fair. Kabobs are a favorite things to eat in Australia. The fair had a kabab stand and a baked potato stand and ice pops, which are frozen fruit. The fair was set up on a large green lawn in the little town of Bindoon, WA. It was divided into sections. Grandma enjoyed the lace making, quilting,the childrens' penmanship, creative writing and art areas. Grandpa liked the vintage cars and tractors. The Shallcross family that we were staying with showed and sold their cattle. There were kids' projects like raising healthy chickens, cattle, horses and sheep. In Australia kids can go to Agriculture Junior High and High School, if they are more interested in farming than in college, so they had animals and project to show. My favorite things were watching the auctioneer call out the bidding for the cattle sale, the sheep sheering, sheep dog and falcon demonstrations, the food (of course) and the bungy chord flyer. At one point there was a parade of cattle, young horse riders, camels and a Scottish Bagpipe Band. There were many fun and interesting things to see and do at the Bindoon Fair.

RED DOG

Red Dog was about a dog who became a legend in West Australia because of his loyalty to a man. The movie is based on a real story of Red Dog. It's a sad movie but it's a movie I'll never forget.

picture's of me actually making it

pictures of step 1 , step 2 ,step 3,step 5 and step 6 and if you get sticky

How to Make Pasties

INGREDIENTS-
3/4 lb. ground beef

1 or 2 carrots

1 cup of peas

1 potato

1 onion

some squash and sweet potatoes (about a cup each if you want)

thyme , salt , pepper , seasoning

METHOD- 1. chop onions very small

2. dice vegetables

3. mix into ground beef

4.place a 6" bowl on top of a sheet of a sheet of puff pastry and cut around it

5.place about 1/2 cup of beef mixture on one of the pastry rounds

6.moisten the edges with water

(repeat steps 1-6 until all of the meat is gone)

7. bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 min. then 325 for 15 more min.

Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort

Monkey Mia doesn't have any monkeys, but they have other wonderful animals. Can you picture this?
Scene: A line of humans standing in the shallows are looking out to sea hoping the dolphins will come. Finally dorsal fins appear in the distance. The dolphins begin to play and splash around in the deep water off shore.
The humans all step back onto the sand as they come closer and closer. Then six dolphins break away from the others and swim in the shallows in front of the human line. The dolphins flip onto their sides and skim along the shallows eyeing the line up. They are looking right at me as they slip by.

I was hoping the ranger would pick me to feed the dolphins and she did! Puck was the name of the Indo-Pacific Bottle Nose Dolphin that I fed. She brought her male calf named Samu with her. Puck was very careful when she took the fish out of my hand. She opened her mouth and held it open until the fish was touching her rostrum then the fish slid down her throat.
The dophins flip on their sides to look up because they have a blind spot right above their heads. They don't seem to want to look at our feet. They try to look at our faces and our eyes meet. Researchers identify the dolphins by their different dorsal fins. The Dolphins of Monkey Mia were very playful. You can look up Monkey Mia's website to learn more about this beautiful spot: www.sharkbayinterpretivecentre.com.au
Besides Dolphins, Monkey Mia has camels,Camelus Dromedarius. I met a man they call "The Camel Whisperer." His name is Hank and he calls his camels his best friends. He says, "the more you love them, the more they love you." He showed us how they use their lips to gently grab things. He held small pieces of carrot in his mouth and they took the carrot out. He told us lots of things about camels as we walked along the sand, like camels are ten times smarter than dogs or dolphins. I hugged their necks and put my face on their cheeks. They have velvety noses, a soft split top lip,and beautiful eyes. I was surprised at the camel's sweet nature,because they are a a bit strange looking. They're 8 feet tall and have big feet, but they are careful not to step on you and they move gently. Hank said they can sense your mood and a lot about you when you're close to them.
The reason Australia has wild camels is that years ago they were used to carry heavy loads of wool and supplies through the deserts of AU. Horses were no good in these big deserts so camels were imported from the Middle East. When motors were invented they let the camels go and used trucks instead. I hated to say "good by" to Camile,the white mother camel that I rode,Elie her daughter, which Grandma rode and Digger the big male camel that my Grandpa rode. I didn't mind that their were no monkeys at Monkey Mia because I learned a lot about dolphins and camels there. If you'd like to learn more about camels look up http:\\myweb.westnet.com.au\sharkbaycamels

The Ranch 1

West Point Farm is near Bindoon,West Australia. It is 900 acres of bush land and oat hay. Our friends, Richard and Jennifer Shallcross,(mother and father of Fiona Holloway) raise sheep, cows and horses. The Welsh pony, Ben, is fun to ride and I like to play with Chocolate, the Kelpy dog. We've eaten Aussie Meat Pie, Mash and Bangers, Rashers and Eggs, Chook and Pumpkin and we're having Pasties tonight. I got to drive the Land Rover which was really fun. We've taken a few little trips from here like Fly Motion and the Honey Farm.I am having a fun time at West Point Farm.

COMING SOON
RED DOG &
YABBY HUNTING

Uluru

Palya! That is how you say Welcome in the Anangu language. You say pul (like cull)- ya. It actually means hello/goodbye/thank you and finish. Today I visited Uluru or Ayers Rock right in the middle of Australia. It is hard to describe how exciting a rock can be – but Uluru, the Aboriginal name for Ayers Rock, is really amazing. For one thing it is in the middle of Australia surrounded by miles and miles of red dirt desert. It is big and red and is carved by rainwater into beautiful rock bowls and interesting wind formations. We took lots of pictures and listened to the sounds around the rock, but we didn’t climb it.

You might wonder why we didn’t climb Uluru. There is a path up one side, but the native people, the Aboriginals, asked us not to. Here’s what they say:

“That’s a really important sacred thing you are climbing…You shouldn’t climb. It’s not the real thing about this place. The real thing is listening to everything. And maybe that makes you a bit sad. But anywhat that’s what we have to say. We are obliged by Tjukurpa, our law, to teach people what behaviour is appropriate. It has been the same for us since the beginning. And all the tourists will brighten up and say, ‘Oh I see. This is the right way. This is the proper way: no climbing.”

The other thing I remember they said was that their laws are written on their hearts not on paper. I will never forget going to Uluru because it was so different and I felt how sacred it was to the Aboriginal people. Palya!

Perth / Flymotion

We spent all day in Perth, but the highlight for me was the Fly Motion. On the Swan River I had fun trying a new experience called Fly Motion. The man zipped me into a big clear ball then filled the ball with air. He pushed me off of a platform and I started crawling around like a hamster inside of the ball. I learned to move the ball by moving in different ways. Sometimes the man spun the ball around. I had to use body and hand signals to communicate because we couldn’t hear each other. I got very tired and hot inside the ball, but it was really, really fun! I would recommend that if you ever get a chance to try the Fly Motion you should endure the experience.

Kuranda

Today I visited the Wet Tropic World Heritage Area of Kuranda. I experienced it in a special way. First I took a cableway or Skyrail from sea level to the top of the rainforest canopy. My Grandpa and Grandma and I had a gondola all to ourselves, so we could stand up and take pictures and move around to see everything in the canopy tour. Half way up there is an interpretive center with videos and things to touch and look at, so we got off the gondola there. I learned that this tropical rainforest has over 2,300 types of plants, 650 of them are found nowhere else in the world. A closed canopy means that the leaves of the tallest trees join together high above the forest floor to filter out up to 99% of the sunlight. The Kauri Pine tree has “self-cleaning bark”, which sheds all the time to keep vines from attaching to the trunk. We got back on a gondola and continued up until we finally arrived at the top. There is a village and a zoo, tropical fruit ice creams and sorbet stands, cafes and shops. We spent time in Birdworld and the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary, but my favorite part was the Koala Garden.

At Birdworld a big blue Macaw decided he liked my shoe and sat on my foot for a long time picking at the shoelaces. A red beaked Alexandrine Parrot sat on Grandpa’s straw hat and wouldn’t get off. He pecked a hole in it, but he was so pretty Papa didn’t care. Grandma sat and “talked” to the Cassowary for a long time. There are 80 beautiful Australian birds in a huge free flight aviary that you can sit in and walk through.

The butterfly sanctuary is the largest in Australia. It looks like a tropical rain forest inside the aviary. There were 1500 beautiful tropical butterflies. My favorites were the bright blue Ulysses and the beautiful green and yellow Cairns Birdwing butterflies.

Cuddling the Koalas was my very favorite thing to do at Kuranda! They are incredibly soft and very heavy for their size. I hope I can hold Koalas again when I go to Brisbane later this month. It is hard to explain how much fun it is to hold a Koala. They are sooooooo cute! I enjoyed my visit to Kuranda very much.

The Great Barrier Reef

Today we went to the Great Barrier Reef, with Reef Magic , a boat company out of Cairns where we snorkeled with many colorful fish. Our catamaran went out to a platform called Marine World, anchored at the outer coral reef. One of the fish was a Maori Rass. He was about five feet long and friendly. We got a good picture of my Grandpa and the Rass. We watched the Marine Biologist feed him.

Our big Reef Magic catamaran boat sailed for about the same distance between Santa Barbara and our Channel Islands to get to the reef. It was very shallow out there and very clear water. For lunch I had prawns (shrimp), Sushi, and lasagna from the buffet they set out for us at 12:00.

There are lots of different types of coral. Brain coral only grows about an inch a year and we saw some huge ones that were 700, to about 1,000 years old. The Staghorn Coral looks like deer horns. There was red fan shaped coral and sea cucumbers.

After lunch we went on a Semi-Submursable tour around the reef. There was a ball of fish all moving together and the Surgeon Fish moved in schools. It was very different than snorkeling. We saw deeper water creatures and vast spaces of water. I enjoyed my trip to the Great Barrier Reef with Reef Magic.

Atherton Table Lands

Today we visited many places in the Atherton Table Lands, like Crater Lakes National Park , coffee, banana, sugar cane, pawpaw (papaya), peanut, mango and macadamia nut plantations and Paronella park. Lake Barrine was formed by a volcanic eruption and then filled with water. It had pretty gardens around it. There is a tea house right next to the lake where you can have crumpets and tea. The coffee plantation was where 80% of Australia's coffee is grown. It smelled really good. Some of the fun things I saw there was a big fish pond in the bathroom. We had scones, with jam and cream. The building was built on stilts and looked out on a Wallaby farm and the coffee plantation. You could see a long way. We saw banana fields getting ready for harvest. They put blue bags over the fruit so animals don't get in. Australians grow big fields of sugar cane, fruit and nuts.
Paronella Park was a castle built by a Spaniard who made his money by taking abandoned sugar cane farms and building them into successful plantations. He made a deal with men who lost their jobs during The Great Depression. He would give them food and a place to stay if they worked on building the castle. It had several fountains, a waterfall, botanical walks, tennis courts made from crushed up ant hills. (In Australian ant hills get 4-5 feet high), a tunnel of love which he tried make a lighted, walk through aquarium. However his concrete wasn't very good so it leaked and got his lighting wet. When we were exploring one of his tunnels we saw a colony of tiny Microbats that are only one inch big. I especially liked Kauri Avenue with tall Kauri trees in a long line. He told his love that he would come back to Spain to get her when he had become rich. It took him so long that his love had married another man by the time he got there, so he married the little sister. During WWII he opened to the American soldiers for Rest and Recuperation. He had Jazz bands come play at fancy Balls for the soldiers. Now it is almost in ruins from cyclone Larry, but you can still see what he had dreamed about.

Yalanji Aboriginal Dreamtime Walk

Today we went to learn about the Yalanji Aboriganies. Our guide Robert was born into the Yalanji tribe. His totem is the Rock Wallaby. Robert took us on a two hour walk into the forest along an ancient hunting trail. It began at the cultural center where they showed Aboriginal artwork. He talked about the many uses for the trees and plants such as for soap, medicine, food, poisoning spear tips, paint for bodies and rock paintings. There were dangerous plants too and he talked about how they had to teach the children to be careful in the forest.
The Rock Paintings had instructions like how to cut up a tortoise to avoid the poisonous bladder bag, which would have ruined the meat. The picture looks like an x-ray of the tortoise. There was a picture of a sailing vessel, which was probably a Portuguese explorer who sailed into this area many years ago. There were also pictures of Dingos and Cassowaries. These rock shelters were where old men stood-by in case anything went badly for the young boys who were being initiated into manhood. The 3,000 year old initiation tree was near by. A group of boys about the age of twelve, were taken into the forest and left for a week by this huge tree. The boys had to hunt for their own food and survive by themselves. If you weren't up to it, you could have another try next year.
The Aboriginal rules where harsh, but it really kept things in order. For instance, if you built a fire where you were told not to, the punishment was either to leave the tribe and survive on your own or have a barbed spear pushed through your leg. Most people chose the barbed spear as it was too hard to survive on their own. After the punishment he was forgiven and no one ever spoke of it again, but the scar reminded him never to break the rules again.
The hike followed a beautiful stream. One special pool was called the Womens' Pool. No men were allowed to use it. The cold water helped the pain of childbirth. There were places for men to gather also. The water was the clear and unpolluted.
We stopped to look at a Humpy or a small living space. It was made of Wait-a While bush and sticks. He demonstrated how the Boomerang was used to catch animals in trees by throwing it sideways so it goes up into trees, hits the animal then comes straight down. This is a different technique from the desert Boomerangs because of all the trees.
The part I liked best was when Robert played the Diggeredoo for us. I took a video to show you later. We listened to him while we ate Damper and drank Billy Tea. I enjoyed learning about the Yalanji Aboriginals and rain forest from their perspective.

DAINTREE WILD ZOO BED AND BREAKFAST

The most fabulous couple of days so far in Australia has been spent at the Daintree Wild Zoo. Our bedroom opens up to a yard where we can walk around and pet the animals. We got to know the Emus, the Wallabies and the Kangaroos that wander freely around the grounds. We saw Kangaroos eating, mating, sparring and just hopping around. I was able to pet and cuddle them and the 14 mo.old emu wouldn't stop following me around! But, I enjoyed it. Peepers, the baby Emu chick likes roaming around with humans.
There were so many birds here! I liked the black, red-tailed cockatoo. He sat on my shoulder, however he was very fond of my grandma, because he is a male. The Kookaburra's are the noisiest, the black Koonawara swans were beautiful as were the numerous varieties of parrots, each with their own colors and sounds. There were maybe 10 varieties of owls and the largest bird was the black Cassowary who has red and blue head feathers.
The 12 week old Dingo babies were so cute! Their names were Boots, Nigel and Winnie. They are wiggly and hyper, especially Nigel, the boy. They're soft and smell sweet like all puppies, but unlike domestic puppies they are very quiet. They don't bark a lot. I got to hold Nigel and Boots and it made me want to keep one of them. However, when Dingos grow up they become good hunters and need room to roam. The Emu didn't like the puppies. She seemed to sense what they were to become and hunt her down. I had to put my hand out to protect them or she would peck at them.
Grandpa and I walked through the zoo at night by ourselves to see the animals that were active at night. The Wombat was as big as a small pig with a piggy sort of nose and good digging paws. He moved slowly, but he can dig fast. The animals didn't like our flash light.
It was really special to see the animals at night but I think the most interesting thing was feeding them. The Quolls and other animals get very excited when we came to feed them. The crocks eat big pieces of meat. It was an awesome sight to see how fast the crocks lunge out of the water, snap, and turn their head sideways to grab the meat, then swallow it whole or drag it into the water to eat it. They adult Dingos grabbed their meat and ran away with it. I won't forget these fabulous few days living in the Daintree Wild Zoo.

DAINTREE RANFOREST

Today we drove still farther north up the Captain Cook Hwy. to explore the Daintree Rainforest in Queensland. It is named for the big river that drains the rainforest. We put our car on a ferry and crossed the river to an island. Crocodile warnings and tropical trees and birds reminded us we are in a rainforest. We spent most of the day in the Interpretive Canopy Walk through the oldest rainforest in the world. I can't believe how beautiful the Daintree Rainforest is!