An Altogether Unexpected Holiday

With Easter holidays coming up, I've been in the early stages of designing my first Big Travel Adventure since my arrival. As hard as it is to make plans with a group, its even harder when you're on your own – there is nothing baring you in any direction which makes picking only one direction a bit of a challenge. With a solid bit of cash saved up and the only requirement being that I do a CPR/First Aid course somewhere during my 3 week holiday, the options are pretty wide open.

Cairns this time of year sounded great. Rain-forest, reef, beach, first aid courses, travel by train and see the coast. I thought about new places I'd never been and maybe revisiting a few highlights from my tour as a 10 year old. It was all going to be a very fun adventure.

But this blog isn't called Very Fun Adventure, now is it? No, no, darling.

You see, when I got up last Sunday, I expected to stop procrastinating and finally book some tickets for Cairns and get my ducks in a row. However, just when I thought I was going the right way, the ever elusive unexpected option presented itself. By lunch time the same day I had secured tickets which would allow me to have a whole day of meeting and greeting and listening to one of my favorite actors. In a few weeks. In Sydney. By way of Brisbane to do my CPR/First aid course. Sorted.

It really did happen rather quickly (...sound familiar?). I do knowingly admit that I seem to have developed a little bit of a quirky attitude lately, with the overwhelming mental response in these should-I-really-do-this situations being, “In the last minute I have considered this option, affirmed its possibility, seen its potential, and it would be quite lovely. I can hardly unconsider it and should I not go through with it now I will surely kick myself for a long time knowing that I considered it to be lovely and did nothing, so I might as well just do it.” Blame only-childhood or something. I can't recommend it as an approach for every situation, but surely some good must come out of bucking up and just doing what you want now and again.

I'm pretty excited about it. In the last few years though, the craziness of meeting celebrities has sort of calmed down. I am always excited, don't get me wrong, but now I can just chill out and have a chat and respect that they're just as normal as anybody else. Must have happened when I worked at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, girl gotta play it cool if your gonna pick up famous people at the airport.

The wee Watson girls on the other hand, are flipping out. Dragons have been a highlight of our classroom for ages now. I tend to stick with it because anything which gets them writing, creating, listening to stories, and make-believing has to be good. So while they're nowhere near the “Oh Benedict Cumberbatch, I love him, cheekbones, eyes, mmm” they're immediate reaction to hearing my travel plans was more along the lines of “YOU'RE REALLY MEETING SMAUG? WHAT IS HIS FAVORITE COLOR? DOES HE LIKE VEGEMITE? WHAT'S HIS FAVORITE ANIMAL? IS IT FUN BEING A DRAGON? CAN HE FLY? WILL HE SKYPE WITH US?”  I now have the ammunition to make this quite the unforgettable Q&A.

I'll have a few days in Brissy, head down to Sydney for a few, then head back up north and meet up with the Watson's for some camping and a roadtrip back to Carnarvon. I've already been in touch with a few Australian fans who are going and so I'll at least have some people to awkwardly stand in line with and such. For what I'm sure is not the first nor last time in my life, thank you Tumblr.

I'd say this is the last thing I'd expect to be doing, but that means I would have had to have thought of it at all to begin with.

Gotta love it. Altogether, unexpected.

Their marketing department knows exactly who their audience is.

Short Stories

Nothing too crazy has been going on, just regular old life on the station. I had a phone call with my family a few days ago and seeing as it was the second or third one where they asked “Whats been going on?” and all I had to talk about were laundry and various encounters with wildlife I sort of realized that while things are very exciting for me in the day to day, I'm sort of not up to much on a grand scale. Therefore let me entertain you with a few anecdotes from everyday life down under.

"Clean up the shoes"  Didn't realize boots all got to hang out together.

Apple Juice

In case you were wondering, 5 Seeds is great! I love cider. Its like alcoholic Juicy-Juice...I'm still a child in many ways. American cider is...well...they do lots of things better. The classic British ciders are good for an every day sort of drink but are hardly THE BEST THING I'VE EVER HAD. Though, if you really want to spice up afternoon tea, grab a Thistly Cross, chug it down because you're dying of thirst and its delicious, and then realize its 12% and stumble the rest of your way around the Royal Yacht Britannia.

Old Books

You should be thrilled to find out that I've finally finished A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones books for those not in the know). I'm actually really pleased, simply because it means I've moved into the “people who finish books” crowd and away from the “people who buy books and make great piles that they use as bedside tables” crowd. To be fair though I'll probably still make a table out of them.

They are great and highly recommended to people who enjoyed the show and people of all sorts really! I breezed through the first ones, but gee whiz did I run out of steam...I think it took more time for me to read A Dance with Dragons (the current last book in the series) than it took George R.R. Martin to write it. When you know the end of a book won't provide any closure, its very hard to care about finishing anytime soon. So reviewing that information, if you like whole, completed, tied up stories maybe this one isn't for you.

Does anyone know if Winds of Winter is the last one? Surely there are more family crests that need to be thoroughly described?

New Books

The ASoIaF shaped hole in my life needed quick refilling with anything but fantasy or fiction. My favorite takeaway from Bill Bryson's fantastic Down Under was that since Australians are so far away from everyone else, they just have to pay attention to themselves – providing us visitors with amazing books on the most obscure of Australian goings on.

The Watson's invited me to have a look at their bookshelf, and low and behold there was my gem. I am now currently reading Ketching the Kenniffs, a history of two bushranger brothers who stole cattle, horses, and caused a whole lot of ruckus at the turn of the century in Queensland. The brilliant part of it is that they operated right here in the Carnarvon Ranges. The former manager of Carnarvon Station was even murder by these guys! Its bringing a whole new level of insight to the land I'm currently living on. These guys were really here and I can see the whole thing like a movie when I walk out my back door.

Nicknames

Whenever you join up with a new mob of people its always fun coming up with new nicknames for each other...I truly consider it a big step in becoming friends. If I've nicknamed you, we have entered into a serious friendship. Act accordingly. And if I have multiple nicknames for you, well we might as well be married.

Somehow, these Aussies have jumped over a few of the steps. No doubt, one rum and coke fueled evening on the verandah we got to talking about childhood nicknames. Mine isn't so much just a childhood one – my family still calls me by it today! Its some what embarrassing, so the next logical paragraph is dispelling it to the internet.

When I was a wee bub I had a clogged tear duct. What's that? Its a thing in your eye that makes tears to keep your eyes moist. You know when you wake up and your eyes are a bit crusty? Well that's what my eye was like all the time, except it wasn't crusty it was fluid. Equipped with the history you now possess it should not surprise you that of course, my father started calling his adorable only daughter, Booger.

I've embraced it over the years, its a fun nickname once you clarify with everyone that you didn't get it by picking your nose. As you could imagine, the Watson's LOVED this story. Its the sort of thing that takes lifetimes to come up with, so they weren't going to let it go by any means. It wasn't a few hours later that Booga (Australian spelling/pronunciation) was asked if she wanted another drink.

A few weeks on, Miss Boogs regularly receives greetings, emails, and questions in the classroom. Kaitlyn is all but a formality used during introductions at this point.

Driving

This one is self explanatory. We were out one afternoon when Chris stopped in the middle of the dirt road, got out and said “Let's see your driving, Booga!” The hardest part was that it was a big truck and wasn't automatic. Rightsidedness didn't really cause any trouble, though I do expect once there are a) two sides to the road and b) other drivers within 100 kms it might be a bit tougher.

I'M DOING IT!  I'M DOING IT!  

Birthdays and Local Anthropology

Not only did I get to celebrate my birthday recently (and got an awesome Bush Heritage shirt!) but we also had one of the girls birthday's. The weekend before we went over to the manager's homestead at Mt. Moffat on Carnarvon National Park (not our property, an actual National Park) where there are kids the girls' age and, this is a big and for them, the kids have a pony. The girls got to ride the pony all day, we got to drink, and then we got to tour around the park a bit. After a few months at our Carnarvon, its nice to be somewhere with beaten paths and sign posts!

Heart Cave, as we call it.

Marlong Arch - Carnarvon National Park

Beer in hand in the late afternoon, new Bush Heritage shirt,  gotta love hiking in Oz!

I love birthdays. Its like a holiday, but instead of celebrating something sort of sad, religious, or made up you get to celebrate someone you care about. That being said, I don't make things easy for them. Why give people presents when you can send them on a treasure hunt with clues and secret maps?  If it isn't already, I also highly recommend adding the following to your 100 Things to Do Before I Die List: witnessing three kids, one grown man, and one dog experience Pop Rocks for the first time.  

Wet tea bag + Burnd edges = Centuries old treasure map 

On Kate's big day we went for a little adventure to Conglomerate Springs where we enjoyed crushing up ochre for some Aboriginal face painting, climbing around the giant boulders, and inspecting some Aboriginal carving stones.  The floods a few years ago washed away some of the soil, exposed about three feet (deep) of never before seen carvings.  With six feet of dirt on top it just makes you wonder...these people were here a long time ago.

Not your everyday traffic problem (or solution).  Note, rifle in foreground just in case we come across anything feisty. 

Face painting Aboriginal style! 

Booga in all her glory.

Rocks, man.  

For some more recent evidence of Aboriginal habitation, we stopped and took a look at these 'Scar Trees'.  The long oval shape is actually a scar from where an Aboriginal would have cut out a shield for battle.  These threes aren't more than 100 years old.  Combine that with our rock carving knowledge and it blows me away to think of how long the Aboriginals have inhabited this country.  Fascinating!  Or maybe you just see rocks and trees.  You have to admit they're nice rocks and trees though. 

Its a nice lookin' shield really.

Is this heaven?  No, its Australia.

The Big Drove

Over at yet another neighboring cattle property, Dooloogarah, the owners were doing one of their biannual cattle droves (rounding them up to brand etc.). Back in the day this would have been done on horseback over a few days, but now they use quads and helicopters and get it done in one morning! It was pretty amazing to watch (from atop a stack of hay bales), only a few cheeky bulls which tried to get away!

Sorry for the bad quality...we were pretty far off as to not get run over and this is just a snapshot from a video.  Helicopter floating up there on the left droving the cattle to the pen on the lower right. 

That's about all for now, we're heading away for a few days, but some fun news should be coming soon so watch out for that!

The Forgotten Post

Sorry folks, I swear I had posted this a week ago but apparently not!

The morning I put up my last post was also the morning we were supposed to leave Carnarvon and head to Emerald for 'mini-school'. This is where all the distance ed. Families come into town and the kids get to go to 'real school' for a week, usually once a term.

Random Photo:  Teaching the importance of punctuation.

Now there were some pretty strong wills built up prior to this event. On the human side, some of us were pretty excited to go into town. We weren't sick of Carnarvon by any means, but we had mostly run out of groceries (some food, mostly insect repellent), were in desperate need to talk to a bank person face-to-face, and needed a good shop for some 'bush clothes' because everything I own is developing a layer of dusty debris.

On the nature side, after months of drought in what should be 'The Wet' season, Carnarvon finally got some rain. A nice big storm that lasted about two days – 130 ml at the homestead if anyone is keeping track. It was amazing, immediately everything on the station came a bit more to life. The stream rose, at least a dozen birds showed up I hadn't seen before, and the mud. The glorious mud. So much of it. Every step forward was like taking two back. When heading to the schoolroom in the morning, I had to bring my things to shower at the family house because I'd be so dirty by the time I walked up there that I'd have to have a rinse.

Bush high heels.  After the rain, there is about 5 lbs. or 3 inches of mud being carried by my boots by the time I get from the cottage to the schoolroom.

However, being a nature reserve, the mud causes some problems. We can't just four-wheel it into town like crazy folks. If the mud is too deep and driving will ruin the roads or the terrain...we can't go. This was the threat the few days leading up to our departure.

The good news is that we did get the green light (and left within an hour of it). The odd news is that we couldn't drive the usual way to town. The normal drive takes us to Emerald in about 4 hours. Due to road conditions, the only way off the station was a three hour drive to a town called Injune, and then another 3.5 to Emerald. We stayed the night at a lovely little motel (conveniently owned by a family member of the Watson's) called Injune Haven, which is also for sale if anyone is looking for some business.

Wild Brumbies at Digga Digga Digga (Doologarah Station)

The week at mini-school was its own adventure entirely. We stayed at the 'Outstation' which is hard to describe because I doubt things like this exist in other parts of the world. Its essentially a giant one room building used for camping on the school property. There are showers/toilets at one end, and the rest is a big room where everyone who is staying for mini-school 'rolls out their swags' and 'camps' for the week. And by everyone I mean about 60 people, mostly children all cozied up for the week. That sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it really was great and you get to meet all the other kids and parents and govies that do distance ed.

The "Your going to be in trouble when Mom gets here and she sees what you got for me" face.  

Part of my time was at the school but I also had a bit of free time to enjoy the amenities of town life. I really thought that after so long at the station I'd be dying for civilization, and was absolutely shocked to find that after a few days I was actually eager to get back to Carnarvon. The best part of the week was that I literally got to run all my errands – get things sorted at the bank, go on a bit of a shopping spree, pick up a few cases of beer and cider.

The metropolis of Emerald has Rekorderlig!  Landstuhl doesn't even have that!  I didn't get a case because that stuff is too cray for everyday.  I went with the one next to it, an Australian cider which I actually really like, 5 Seeds. 

But after all that...I'm not sure, I might just be going through a hermit phase or something. Do you ever get the feeling that you know something is changing, you're just not sure how or what or from where or what will happen? That's how I'm feeling.

Our return from Emerald was great, we got to go the regular 'short way' (4 hours) and it was amazing how green and lush the property had become since that little spot of rain!

One rain storm makes a big difference out here!

 We also had a chance to meet one of the station locals...I think I'll be okay if we don't see each other for a while!

Pretty big fella welcoming us home...

Black Headed Python