Australian Adventure – Day 29 – Dental Disaster and Australian Barbeque

2014-01-04 | puppy1952

“Shall I put this biltong away now?” said Colette. “No,” I said, “I will snack on it during the day” and I popped a piece into my mouth – then I felt something hard in my mouth – what do you think – a piece of tooth! Uh oh! Just to keep Aunt company I now needed an emergency dental appointment. Lucky for me we managed to get one for 11 0’clock this morning – just an hour after my small disaster.

A very friendly young dentist greeted us and asked what had happened. “I bit a piece of biltong and out came the filling,” said I. Earl had to explain what biltong was. “Where are you from,” he asked and then said we didn’t sound like South Africans. But when I said “Yes” he said aha now that sounds South African! Oh dear those flat vowels!

Once I was settled into the chair the nurse presented me with a pair of sunglasses- so that the bright light wouldn’t hurt my eyes! Have you ever!

Of course this is all part of the adventure so the photos have to illustrate the Australian Dentist Experience.

Me in the hands of an Australian Dentist – note the sunnies!

It all went off very well and the Travel Insurance that I thought I would never need is going to pay the bill!

On our return Aunt took me to visit her neighbour who has an elephant fetish. Every room is crowded with elephants and elephant decor.

Some of the elephant keepsakes

Earl has been missing the traditions of South African and been nagging about doing a braai for the Australian hostesses. Well today he could stand it no more and insisted on using the gas barbecue in the back garden. A great deal of fuss was made about the correct preparation of the sweet potatoes and vegetables and what sausage would take the place of boerewors. Eventually all was ready and he nearly platzed when he found that the gas took only a few minutes to heat the barbie! What happened to enjoying a few beers while waiting for the coals to be just right? Sorry – total fire ban in this part of the world in summer. Finally the meal was done and all turned out well – a very good meal indeed!

Making do with a gas barbecue

Delicious, Thank You Darling

Australian Adventure – Day 28 – Blackbutt Reserve

2014-01-03 | puppy1952

Another ‘lousy’ day in Australia. The first bird of the day was a rosella spotted as we were climbing into Colette’s car and then later we screamed for her to stop as a flock of black cockatoos flew next to us. They alighted in a nearby tree and we leapt out excitedly to get photographs – not an easy task as the light was wrong and the birds kept flying away.

Eastern Rosella

Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo

Our first port of call was Blue Gum Hills Regional Park. It is a beautiful place with lots of wonderful gum trees and it is here that one can have a tree top adventure. If you are young and brave and after a short training course and $45 you can get all harnessed up, walk along rickerty boards and fly through the treetops on a ‘flying fox’. Yes – I thought – this would be fun but my darling husband was too terrified to let me go. On second reflection I noticed that most of the participants were under 20 so perhaps he was right to restrain my enthusiasm. Instead we took a gentle stroll along uncomplicated paths but the only excitement we achieved was watching the younger generation fly through the trees.

This requires good balance and nerves of steel

I called to the young lass on this shuddering course. “Isn’t it scary?” “Yes!” she replied but with a broad smile on her face!

From a high platform they zoom along the ‘flying fox’

Screaming all the way

Having seen many of Australia’s animals in the wild we weren’t that keen on visiting a zoo but Blackbutt has a good reputation so we decided to take a look. We had to pay for parking but admission was free. The park is set amongst beautiful trees and everything is pristine. Boardwalks take you to each section and you have to look quite carefully before you spot the creatures.

The boardwalk

Rock Wallaby in his cave

A river runs through it

Pied Heron

Gouldian Finch

Forest Kingfisher

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo – Saw this one free in the gardens

Colette and Leonie (who is feeling a little better after her tooth ordeal) then took us to The Sixteen Footer Sailing Club for lunch. This is yet another wonderful lakeside spot with a fabulous view. The food was excellent too!

Belmont

Sixteen Footers Club

Fabulous Food and Good Company

Boats everywhere

A yacht sails by

Welcome Swallows on the wire

Closeup

The weather was really warm today but there was a cool breeze where we sat on the deck. What a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

Tomorrow is our last day in Cardiff and then its off to Sydney for a week on Sunday. We certainly have had a very happy time here!

Australian Adventure – Day 19 – Christmas Day

2013-12-25 | puppy1952

So many Christmases have gone by since my childhood. Christmas was always celebrated with a huge extended family with traditions that changed and adapted with each generation. What never changed was the Toast to Absent Friends and Family. Celebrating Christmas today with the ‘absent’ family that we always toasted was very special indeed. On only three other occasions have I celebrated with them before. When the cousins were 3 6 and 9 they sailed from Sydney to Cape Town so their Mom could finally introduce them to their South African family and they stayed for 3 months over the summer season. Wayne returned when he was 21 and had Christmas with us and then Earl and I came over 15 years ago. The family of course has grown – there are wives and children now and what a pleasure it has been to meet and celebrate with them all.

We started our day with present opening at Grandma’s house. Tea and Mince Pies were served and at midday we went to the RSL Club for our Christmas dinner. It was wonderful – I’ve never eaten seafood for Christmas lunch before. An array of fresh oysters, mussels, prawns, calamari etc. was on offer as well as a variety of roasts and other hot food. And the desserts were to die for. We could just help ourselves to as much or as little as we wanted.

Sophie ready for Christmas

Ella, Alexander and Jack ready to open gifts

Wayne, Helen, Bruce

Adelaide delighted with her gift

This one is pretty cool too

Just what I’ve always wanted for Australia!

The girls loved their African Necklaces

Tamara’ matched what she was wearing

Lovely Alison

Grandma got me this neat camp chair

Visit us in Cape Town soon, please Ella

Wayne

Nana (Colette) and Wayne

Alison and Kath

Adelaide in her beautiful Christmas Dinner dress

Prawns for Christmas

Delicious

The bad news is – Earl had a bit of a reaction to something he ate – he was the only one so far – hopefully nobody else is affected. I am happy to say that he is fine now!

Merry Christmas everybody!

Australian Adventure – Day 18 – Christmas Eve

2013-12-24 | puppy1952

The intention was to have a chilled day at home today. And chilled it was although some unexpected things happened. It rained most of the day which cooled things down but one could hardly call the weather cold!

Earl is not one to sit still for long so went off to take Sophie for a walk. There is a little creek nearby and he was soon back telling me to bring binoculars and camera as he’d heard a coucal. Before heading back he checked the bird book to see what the Australian version looked like. It is called a pheasant coucal and its head, neck and body are black while the feathers on wings and back are chestnut. The tail is very long. We didn’t spot it at first but then I saw it on the grassy river bank but it flew into the trees before I could snap him. I did, however, manage to get some other birds the highlight being the buff-banded rail The soldier bird is common enough but I liked this photo of him feeding upside down. Another first for us was a Koel – we got a poor photograph of the female. Later in the day I finally managed to get a few shots of the Rainbow Lorikeet.

Buff-banded Rail

Soldier Bird

Eastern Koel

Rainbow Lorikeet

Bruce, Kath and Ella arrived around lunch time and later Wayne and his three kids, Jack, Alexander and Adelaide. Tamara will be coming up later by train as she had to work on Christmas Eve.

We had a great time catching up and it was so good to meet the kids! They all came back again in for a light supper prepared by Colette – fantastic salads, ham and corned beef followed by Christmas pudding.

Ella Adelaide and Alexander

Bruce and Ella getting into the Christmas Spirit

Enjoying Supper

Kath and Bruce

Jack and Earl

Tomorrow everyone will arrive after breakfast for present opening and then it will be off to The Club for Christmas Lunch. Have a great day everyone.

Australian Adventure – Day 1 – Cape Town to Sydney to Cardiff

2013-12-07 | puppy1952

The day for the trip ‘Down Under’ finally arrived. On FaceBook I posted a bitstrip of myself jumping down a manhole to the land beneath – If only it were that simple! Instead it required a 2-hour flight to Johannesburg, a two hour wait there and a bit of a delay when someone on the plane took ill and had to be taken off in an ambulance!

We had a charming travelling companion in the form of a South African geoligist who lived in Adelaide but worked in Tansania. We were on the left hand side of the plane, over the wing – but there wasn’t much to see anyway as the plane was plunged into darkness fairly early on and we were asked to keep the blinds up. It was actually light outside most of the time. I can’t sleep on a plane at the best of times but managed to get about 2 hours of cat naps. Thank Goodness for my Kindle as the inflight entertainment was not that great! The meals were fair, the seats terribly cramped but still it was exciting just to be going to another continent!

We arrived to beautiful weather and Cousin Wayne and his two youngest at the airport to meet us. Luckily we had his cell number as it was not easy finding him in the large terminal. After a Long Black for me and Cuppuccinos for Earl we got our hire car and made our way to Cardiff.

I managed to get Alexander to look at the camera

Lovely little Adelaide

Aunt wanted us to meet her at a Servo but we managed to get stuck in front of a truck when looking for her so had to carry on and it was impossible to turn back so we phoned and carried on using the GPS to guide us. The house welcomed us with a South African flag in honour of Madiba on the stoep and a flock of lorikeets and then some corellas cried out their greetings too.