Venom Galore

Once again we left Cains to go to Kuranda. We had gone on a camping trip and had passed through there on the way*. Any way, Mum, Rennie, Jarra and I travelled in the car while dad went in the bus. We arrived in Kuranda well ahead of Dad. While we were having lunch Dad phoned to say that the bus had broken down on the hill and he was with the mechanics. While dad was stuck on the hill we went to the information centre to get some leaflets for stuff in Kuranda. I found one about the Australian Venom Zoo. It looked good so we decided to go there while we waited for Dad. I was glad we went there, totally! We arrived there in the middle of a tour so we joined it. The tour-guide was just explaining about centipedes. We saw a couple of centipedes, a few spiders then we saw a freshwater stonefish! We headed down a ramp to another room with snakes! Woo-hoo!! The first one we saw was a black whip snake, then one I can’t remember, two death adders, a king brown and then two inland taipans! We went back upstairs and some of the group, including us, joined another tour up to where we joined. When we were done we met dad and headed to lake tinaroo!

Snake Bite!

In Innisfail dad was thinking about getting a job putting roofs back on after Cyclone Larry hit. Innisfail was directly in Larry’s path meaning many uprooted trees and lots of houses minus roofs. The day we got there we checked out town, doing a few things. The next morning dad phoned up some roofing companies to see if they needed anyone to work. Unfortunately, there was no work to be done. That morning we went into town again. While Dad, Rennie and Jarra went elsewhere mum and I went to the op-shop to look at some books. Some books were $2 others were as much as $5! Dad picked us up and we headed out of town to the “Johnstone River Croc Farm”. We entered in the crocodile entrance gate. The first thing I saw was that there were snakes. Both big and small, the biggest one there was a Amethystine Python, the biggest snake in Australia, and the smallest was a cool little children’s python. They didn’t have any venomous snakes there, but it was great all the same. We went out on a tour of all the crocs and animals there. They didn’t just have crocodiles but cassowaries, lizards, kangaroos, wallabies and chickens. The first croc we saw was an absolute monster! It was at least 5 metres. The owner, Mick, sat on it, he said some people liked to go horse riding but he liked to go crocodile riding. He also said that Gregory, the croc, had to be protected from the sun so he put his hat on him! We saw heaps of other crocs but the best one was another massive one. It had a huge dam all to himself apart from the females. After the tour we went back to the reception/check-in. Then it was time for the best bit, holding snakes! The snakes that we cold hold were the water python, carpet python and children’s python. We also got to hold a small croc and pet the massive blue tongue lizard. The little children’s python sort of liked me, it was my one there. Mick was trying to persuade two German teenagers to stick their hands in the tank with two young carpet pythons. They kept saying that they wouldn’t do it. While they were arguing I put my hand in the tank and with lightning speed one of the snakes struck out and bit me twice!! Mick grabbed my hand and showed everyone where the snake had bit me. Dad was laughing his head off. Mick said out of all the people who put their hands in I was the youngest. He kept saying I was a very brave boy and let me have a soft drink for free. Finally he managed to get the Germans to put their hands in. He gave them a free drink as well. On our way out Mick gave me a magnet as well. It was the highlight of my trip so far, it was even better than Deamworld.

Dry and Sparkle

From Carnarvon we went to Emerald. It was a pretty good campsite with a pool next door, which Dad, Rennie, Jarra and I visited. Mum was going to come in for a quick dip after she had done the shopping but we left before she arrived back. At the pool a small aboriginal boy yelled at me to ”get out of his pool”. It was a big pool and it said Olympic swimmers had swum in it. The next day we travelled for about an hour down the road to Sapphire. We arrived and I noted straight away it was a small town and very dusty. We parked in a rest area that was also very dry and dusty like the rest of the town. We went to the Sunday market where most people were selling sapphires that they had found. That afternoon we went to a café where we could also hunt for sapphires. Firstly, we took some dirt and put it in a sieve and shook it about so the loose dirt fell through the mesh. Some of the sapphires we found were in clay that we broke apart. In theory, all the sapphires were meant to gather in the middle of the sieve when we turned it over. That day we found about 20 sapphires and lots of stones. Rennie and I shared a big bowl of wedges (YUM!). The next day we went to another fossicking place. This time we did it differently than the other, because we used a handle to shake the dirt out and to wash the rocks and every thing. At the end of our visit Dad and Mum had a long chat that felt like years and years. This time we didn’t find as many sapphires but they were much better. At the shop I bought a small light to shine through the sapphires to make them sparkle. We also bought two small tubes to put the sapphires in.

SLOTCARS

A Gorgeous Gorge

From Bundaberg, where I had a great birthday and presents, we continued on towards Rockhampton. At the caravan park we stayed at there was a jumping pillow. A jumping pillow is a large inflatable mattress made of rubber, when bounced on it can propel you upwards. They are really fun to bounce on. We made a few friends. Some of them were German, English and South African. Dad introduced Rennie and I to the South African boys who were twins, I think they were identical. From my Grandmother and Grandfather in Scotland I got birthday money and with it I got a brand new digital watch. It has an alarm, stopwatch and it tells the day, month and date, it is also waterproof! One day dad announced that we were going to go to the cultural centre. I thought that it wouldn’t be very exiting but dad said it would. When we got there we went to a rock climbing centre. Only Rennie and I had proper turns. Both Mum and dad couldn’t do more than one turn because they had to look after Jarra, the man at the counter let them have a turn each, it was really fun to do climbing. Another day we all went out. Again, Rennie, Jarra and I didn’t know where we were going. We parked across the street from where we were going. We found out that we were going slot car racing! The track was about 25m long and we used massive cars. It was my second highlight of the trip so far (Dreamworld was my first highlight). The cars got up 50km! A few days later we went out to lunch at our friends hotel. Our friends name was Matt. We had a great lunch with him. After Rocky we headed to Carnarvon Gorge National Park. It was really good. The day after we arrived we went on a big walk. Overall it was about 13km. We went to the Art Gallery where aboriginals had made handprints and they had also painted boomerangs, nets, goannas, emu and kangaroo tracks and a large snake that could be “The Rainbow Serpent”. We were going to go to the amphitheatre but it was closed. We headed to the Moss-Gardens. I went on ahead and accidentally took a wrong turn. Instead of going to the Moss-Gardens I went to “Hellhole Gorge”. When Mum, Dad, Rennie and Jarra got to the Gardens they got a big fright. Dad thought he knew where I had gone and he went to fetch me. By the time he found me I was quite upset. The next day we went on another two walks, this time nowhere near as long as the other. We went to Warrumbah Gorge first then Baloon Cave. Warrumbah Gorge was really good. On the way back I slipped into a puddle, so I was allowed to go barefoot. Baloon Cave was alright. Jarra and I got very dirty.

DREAMWORLD

Dreamworld! Dreamworld was the highlight of my whole entire trip (so far). Last night I was so, so, so exited. On the way there this morning I could hardly sit still. By the time we got there (9:45) the car park was already packed with cars! When Mum and I were lining up it seemed to take forever. The first ride I went on was called “Runaway Raptor”. I went on it while Mum, Rennie and Jarra went on the “Swinging Roundabout”. After that Rennie and Mum went on the ”. “Runaway Raptor” and Dad Jarra and I went on the “Swinging Roundabout”. We met and headed towards The Slime Bowl to see a show. After the show we all split up. Dad and I went to one of the best rides there, THE CLAW! It swings nine stories high, spins slightly and goes upside-down! It was absolutely awesome. We thought about going on “Wipeout” but then the line was too long. Mum phoned Dad to say they were at The Wiggles World waiting in a line to have a ride on the Big Red Car. Rennie and Mum waited for about 20 minutes, in the end it was really ordinary for them but not for Jarra. I feel really sorry for them. BOO-HOO! Again we split up, this time Mum and I left the others to have lunch while Mum and I went on the coolest, quickest, highest terrifying ride there. It was the T.O.T*! We had to line up for about 20 minutes again but it was definitely worth it. We were seated in a small carriage and waited for about 5 secs before getting blasted out. My guess is that we were travelling at about 200km/h, the track we were travelling on sloped upwards until we were absolutely vertical, we stayed there for a moment before whizzing back down. When we came off mum was feeling really queasy. We went down the lift to the shop below where we were able to see a photo taken when we shot out mum’s face was really funny but I couldn’t even see my face! We could only see my hair *Tower Of Terror

Cold And Early Mornings

For a few weeks I went to the school at Bowraville. At first I didn’t want to go but it turned out good. I made a very good friend called Isac. On my second day at the school they had a sports day for everyone at the school. I ran in the 800m, 100m and the circular relay. Rennie ran in a few races and got in the championship and came third. Every morning Rennie and I had to catch the school bus at 7:30! The man’s (Phil’s) house we were staying at had heaps of movies. He had nearly all the Harry Potter’s and Star Wars. At school there was a canteen that was open before school and at lunch and recess. After school two boys sold Iced Cups * and before school there was free toast. Every morning I travelled about 27km on the bus. On the second last day of term the school had a gold day**. Isac and I both did pull aparts. Isac’s Mum brought in a massive old video player, that was really fun to pull apart. One weekend I went over to Isac’s house and played with him and his brother Dylan. Isac had Seven Brothers and Sisters *Plastic cups with flavoured ice in them. **When people who were good all term can do special things such as pull aparts, cooking, art and sport etc.

Auskick

Macksville Auskick

For the last two weeks I have been visiting and playing games with some other kids that go to Auskick in Macksville, N.S.W. I only went to one training session because the second one was cancelled because of some rain. Both Dad and I were disappointed. In Victoria rain doesn’t bother us. When we played in Woolgoolga (Whoopy) I decided to play in the under 12’s then under 10’s. When I played with the under 12’s that first time I hardly got a touch. But in the under 10’s I got quite a lot of touches and it was all very fun and exiting, even though we lost both game’s we were all happy. One of the best parts was the bacon and egg roll I had afterwards! The next game was at our home ground – over an hour away! I played in the under 12’s and under 10’s again. This time the under 12’s was better than the 10’s. I probably got more touches this time. Before these matches I got a bubble-gum flavoured mouthguard. In the under 10’s I couldn’t tackle at all… BORING! The team that I played with were the Bellingen Lion Dogs.

Fiji

On the morning we were departing for Fiji we had to wake early and do some last minute packing. The night before hand we had booked a cab to take us to the airport at about 7:20. After we had checked in, (which didn’t take long at all), we sat and waited patiently to be boarded on the plane. I took some small lollies on the plane to suck on. The names of the lollies were Nerds. They are small sweet lollies. Unfortunately, they didn’t last me very long, so I took some small snakes to suck on from mum. When we landed we got off the plane and got our luggage. Dad took some Fijian money out of the bank and bought some beer. We have friends in Fiji that run a water-sports company next to a resort. They met us at the airport and took us to their house next to the beach. They have two children, but when they came to meet us the didn’t bring them. I later found out that they were playing with their friend, Linea. When we arrived at their house we took the bags in, went to the beach, played in the water when Zalen, Zahnee and Linea arrived and got squirted with web from a Black sea cucumber. That night we went to a Chinese restaurant and had lots of food. Next morning we went out to the market in Laotoka (a large village), had lunch, bought some supplies for going to Malolo and went to some other shops before going back to the house. We took longer than we planned so it was about 2:00 when we set of in a small speedboat of Zac’s to Malolo Island Resort. I will never forget the ride there. Because it was late in the day the sea was getting quite choppy, so about every 2 seconds we went up on a wave and then came down with a BANG! Mum was in the middle at the back the whole time we were BANGING she was getting soaked. Amazingly, Jarra slept through the whole thing. Rennie and I didn’t get wet at all. Rennie curled up in her life jacket like a turtle and I snuggled down in a corner of the seat. Dad sat at the front trying to put a bit more weight there. When we finally got to Malolo a porter came and took our bags. A lady came down to us and gave us shell necklaces. The lady took us up to the bar, gave us fanatic drinks and then some washers with mint on them. We got settled in, found out that it wasn’t a hut like we expected but a small hut about 20 metres from shore, saw Rick and Jane and then went to the pool. The pool was quite good. The water was salty. That night, we had dinner at the bar and then Jarra, Rennie and I went to the kids club where we made some friends and saw Garfield The Movie. That night I didn’t sleep very well. Next morning, I had breakfast, went to kids club with Rennie and Jarra and played games there. Later that Afternoon Mum, Rennie and I went snorkelling on the beach outside our hut and saw many colourful, tropical fish. Although there were many great fish there was not much colourful coral. When we were out snorkelling, Rennie got into a bit of trouble. Mum went to help her and cut herself very badly indeed. It has healed now but is still very tender. On the end of the Beach there were excellent rocks for climbing on. On the day of the wedding I woke up feeling exited. That afternoon about 30 people gathered on the beach for the wedding. Our friend Rick, who was getting married, started crying when Jane, his wife, sent him a necklace. But the absolute best thing was after the wedding. When it started to get dark we all went up to the restrant, not the bar, and it was amazing. It was a total FEAST!! There were prawns, steak, sausage, onion, salad, chicken, vegdables, and every thing delicious you could imagine. The steak was wonderful but the deserts were so nice I had to leave some. The meal was called a Buffet. The morning we were leaving for the mainland we had a Buffet breakfast. It too was great. That morning we went into Kids club and I watched the fourth Harry Potter until the second task. Rennie thought it was scary. To be continued ...

Queensland

Sorry I haven’t updated my Blog in ages, so I will just give you some brief information on our trip. We are, at last, in Brisbane, Queensland, and we are staying in our friends’ house, our friends are in Fiji already. They left last night, very late, they are having their wedding in Fiji, at Malolo Island resort. We are going to Fiji for their wedding, Jarra, Rennie and I are the only children going, they had to leave before us to make preparations. The resort we are staying at is sooo cool, it has a walkway about ten metres from shore leading to a luxurious little hut, we are going in 4 days. Everybody in our family is really excited about going (maybe not Jarra though), we have seen many photos, which makes it more exiting. This morning Rennie, Jarra and I watched T.V, and then we all went to the city to go on some ferry rides, it was all very fun. The best part though was when we went to an artificial lagoon. Jarra was the only one swimming because I have a bad back. Rennie, Mum, Dad and I just walked in the shallow water. Dad said we would come back to have a swim after Fiji. When we came back I sat down and did this.

Some pics from the trip.

The Warrumbungle’s

We went to the Warrumbungle National Park and of course it was an excellent experience. The day after we got there we went on a 6.2 km walk through the bush/forest. One bit of the way was on bricks but the other was on dirt. The walk we went on was called spiry view. It had two fantastic views of the bread knife (a large rock that is shaped like a bread knife, well known by most people who visit and is used for rock climbing, I think). We took the pusher for Jarra for most of the way before we got to the narrow, steep and rocky track leading up to the views. We had lunch and saw some people on large rocks on the lower of the two views. The lower view was pretty but you didn’t have a view as good as the top one. The climb down was trickier than I thought but the walking sticks we had made it much easier. For the remainder of the afternoon I worked on the walking stick, with dad’s files, to make it look nicer than it was. And the next day I did the same thing, but only for a short time in the morning and afternoon. The reason for this was because Rennie, Dad, Jarra and I went for a kids walk called the ‘Kangaroo Hop’ with a lady ranger, then later on Mum, Rennie Jarra and I went ‘Pond Dipping’ with the same ranger and another lady ranger.

NO SNAKES!? NOOOOOO!

This is what I said after finding out that there were no snakes at Dubbo’s Western Plains Zoo. During our first day in Dubbo we went to the library to do some things. While we were there, a lady from Western Plains Zoo was visiting and telling children about the zoo. She also passed around a lizard that I loved, because I love reptiles. When she was packing up, I went up to her and asked if there were any snakes at the zoo. She said there was but only in a room that visiting school children could go into. Oh, I almost forgot, Jarra and I are going to be in the Dubbo newspaper. I will tell you how. When the lady was passing round the lizard, a reporter and a journilst were with her. When the lady came to me, they decided they would take a photo of me, holding the lizard, and put me in the newspaper of Dubbo. Fortunately for Jarra, he stood up with me and got in the photo. When we were travelling to Dubbo we discovered that our pump was leaking. A mechanic looked at it and said that we would have to get another one to replace it. When we went to the zoo for the first time, we went around on our bikes. The track around the zoo was 6 km. Because we doubled back a lot, we probably did about 8 km! You could hire a bike, tagalong or a buggy, which could seat 6 or 4 people. Because you had to pay $15 for each bike and $60 for each buggy, we took our own bikes. At the zoo we did lots of things like feeding Giraffes, listening to keeper talks and seeing lots of animals. While we went around I did a quiz about the animals at the zoo. There were about 8 questions on the sheet. When we had finished going around we went to the gift shop and I got a wooden snake that acted like a real snake because it didn’t droop down when you hold it at the end, it stays upright! The next day at the zoo we saw most of the same things as the day before but this time we went in the car. We phoned up a mechanics shop and a man came to the campsite and took something out. One afternoon we went to a camping store and had a look at some canoes. In the end we chose a red plastic one. At the campsite there are super sharp prickles by the name of Three Thorn Jacks. These prickles are so bad that they punctured my bike wheel twice!! Dad fixed it up but in the end we got thorn and prickles resistant tubes and put them on my bike. A few weeks ago we had soy sauce in a bottle, but I didn’t know that, so one morning I took it out of the fridge thinking that it was dark grape juice and then I took a swig of it! To my utter surprise it was soy sauce so I raced to the sink and spat it out coughing and spluttering. Anyway, back to recent events. Two days before Easter about 10 kids and 10 adults came and moved in next to us and I made two good friends. Their names were Caleb & Jacob. When we went and tried out the canoe, we were very disappointed because it kept tipping about an inch from the water line. We took it back to the shop and looked at some inflatable rafts and explained the problem with the canoe. Later that day next to the playground at the campsite there is a Bull Ants nest. We found an Ice-cream container and started collecting Bull ants in it. It wasn’t a very hard job and nobody got bitten at first. We were using long sticks to pick up the Bull Ants but we were using our hands to pick up small ants like Gold Backs, Green Backs, Black Ants and some other small ants. At the end after we had tipped them out Jacob got bitten on the hand and neck! It was Bull Ant Revenge. It was Easter on the day that Jacob got bitten by the ant. Soon after, Caleb and his family left to go back home. After that we painted boiled eggs. Once we had done our eggs, we had lunch. A short while after lunch, the remaining people went to the zoo. Soon after that we went for a walk at a place we were planning to go to before our water pump started to leak. Later that day we still hadn’t rolled our eggs. When Jacob and the other people came back we went and looked at the ants, played on the playground and then played in the bus with some other kids. There were also kids outside so I poked my head out the window and blew a raspberry or two at them. One of the girls stormed forward and blew a raspberry at me. All those people who think that girls are polite all the time are so totally wrong!!

Bendigo

For the last week or so, I have been staying with the family we bought the bus off. Their names are Robin, Phil, Angus, Hamish and Eric. Eric and I played a lot together, but I didn’t play much with Hamish and Angus because they were 12 & 14. I watched lots of movies like, Star Wars and Lord Of The Rings. One day, Dad, Rennie, Eric and I went to a discovery centre and learnt a lot about science. There was also a drop slide that only Dad and I did. Rennie was, of course, scared to go on it (No offence Rennie) and Eric wanted to go down on his knees but the staff man said he couldn’t. The slide was dead straight down for seven metres! Afterwards Eric said he would’ve gone down if he was allowed to go on his knees. Another night we all went into Bendigo to see Big Rory and the Games on the Big screen. Big Rory was a 9 foot tall Scotsman. With him he had his wife and dog. The dog was really cool. There was a rapper that used lots of swear words. I think he was clueless because there were kids everywhere. One afternoon we went on a tram ride around the city of Bendigo. We learnt a lot of Bendigo’s history. When we left Bendigo we went to a ……… Find out next time!!

BALLARAT

From Kangaroobie I traveled to a place outside Simpson. The next day we went to Mt Elephant to see some under- ground caves. After that we went and checked out a few spots to stay for the night. None of them were able to fit us so we decided to go to a caravan park in Ballarat. The caravan park had two playgrounds, one T.V room, one game room, one spa, a pool and a Mini Golf course. We went to Sovereign Hill next day and learned how it was in the 1850's. We went down a mine and saw a replica of the worlds 2nd largest nugget. It weighed 60 kg. We got to go in most of the old buildings. In the bakery you were able to buy food like rolls and slices. We went into the old theatre and saw an old man do a very funny show. He made a paper sceleton and gave it to Rennie. We went into the lolly shop and had a little boiled sweet. Best of all we got to have a go at panning and cradling for gold! It was very fun. Today Dad, Rennie and I played Mini Golf.

Kangaroogie 2

Today Rennie, Jarra, Dad and I, went strawberry picking at Berry World in Timboon. After we went picking we went shopping in the place just down the road. We went to the doctors about my knees. My knees are hurting a lot lately. The doctor said they were fine. We went into Port Campbell to visit our friend Mark about some volcanoes and caves that we can visit. When we got back to the bus, Jarra was sleeping, so we had to be quiet getting out of the car. About half an hour later Matt, Dan, (A helper at the farm), Steph, (Dans friend) and I went out on the farm to move cows from one Paddock to another. I rode shotgun as I like to do. Today some Year Elevens came for camp at Kangaroobie. On Sunday some Japanese students came to Kangaroobie. I did Bush Dancing with them. My Favourite part was when we did the "Duck Dance". I won a lolly 'cause I showed the students what to do. I knew what to do because I had done it before with the people from Scotch College. One lucky person won a block of chocolate!! Unfortunatly that "person" wasn't me. Boo Hoo!!

Kangaroobie

I have been here at Kangaroobie Host farm for more than two weeks. It is a farm near the Twelve Apostles where schools come for camp. I really like it here. Matt lets me join in with the activities that the groups do. It's like being on camp every day!!

My favourite activity is the life or death game. You play it in the bush. I like swimming in the Gellibrand river which we can see from Matt's house. Matt is the owner of the farm and a good friend of ours. The bus is parked outside and that is where we sleep. Dad is doing a project so we have had to stay longer than we planned. My dad is an artist and makes things out of colorbond steel. Dad is making a huge Loch Ness Cow for a cheese factory. It is really cool!!

I like the track leading up to the beach. I am the only one in my family that has gone up it. Last week grade five from Scotch College was here. It was only boys! I made lots of new friends. Some of them were Reilly, Finn, Jonty and Josh. On Monday grade 9s are coming, but I am going to the beach to meet my old friend Lachie. Although I am having lots of fun sometimes I miss my friends from home.