Tag: Nature

Coffee Catch-Up #45

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If we were having coffee I would tell you that my virtual coffee dates are very similar to my real life coffee dates. I love them but they are often a long time coming. That aside, I was happy to see that Natalie is still hosting our #weekend coffee share. Thank you. I find it welcoming to catch up with old friends as well as make new ones. I was surprised however to realise today that I had been MIA for nearly 12 months. How quickly that time has gone. I am hopeful that 2024 is the year that I get my blogging act together.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I am still working 3 days a week despite giving a lot of thought into retirement. It’s weird. I know that I am ready but part of me doesn’t know who I am when I’m not a mental health nurse. At present I am on long service leave and not missing work at all. We have a few big trips planned for the next 12 months so I am thinking I have about 18 months left in me. Who knows, whichever way it goes I will definitely be taking Dolly Parton’s advice.

“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”

If we were having coffee I would tell you that my husband and I have become cruisers. Last year we went on 2 cruises to various parts of the South Pacific. Our first one was to New Caledonia and Vanuatu onboard the Carnival Splendor. It was a lot of fun. We visited Noumea, Mystery Island and Lifou.

In October, we joined The Mutiny On The Bounty cruise with P&O’s Pacific Adventure which followed the journey of Willliam Blythe. During the cruise we visited places associated with the mutiny including stopping for half an hour on the exact spot it occurred. We also stopped at Norfolk Island, Nukualoka and Vava’u (both part of Tonga) as well as Fiji’s Dravuni Island and Lautoka.

We found both cruises very relaxing however we were very unhappy with P& O’s food. It was lacking inspiration, very repetitive and you had to pay for choices such as pizza and burgers. Both of which were included on Carnival six months earlier.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that X (our grandson) turned one a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we couldn’t spend the day with him as he was in Japan with his other grandmother. Despite this my daughter and I celebrated in our own way. We had Australian party food, party pies and sausage rolls as well as our family favourite cheese dip. Unfortunately, hubby was away minding X’s rabbits. To add to our enjoyment we had a few celebratory drinks and watched Shrek 1 & 2.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I lost my mother just before Christmas. Unfortunately her death was a long goodbye as her body slowly shut down. Like every thing she did in life, her death was in her time. Looking back I think it is very interesting that my first and last visit to the nursing home were on the night shift. At least the first time I was returning her after a family celebration.

If we were having coffee I would tell you that I am continuing to enjoy my creative side again learning more about my Cricut cutting machine. I Love it when the items I design turn out well even if they aren’t perfect. My favourite things recently have been personalised chocolate wraps, my glitter baubles wall chart using our Christmas family colours of the last 20 years. Last year was Ice Christmas – white, silver and pale blue. I also created the gift boxes for the table settings. To complete this I also learnt to create stickers.

If we were having coffee I would ask you what is happening in your world?

Thanks to Natalie for hosting

Truby Travels: Magnetic Hill

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Truby Travels is a new post series on Inspiring Max based on our adventures in Truby (our slide-on camper named Ruby and our Iveco called True Blue.) It will replace the older series Ruby Tuesday.

One of the first places we visited was Magnetic Hill, Orroroo. This tourist attraction is free and unique and gives the feeling of travelling backwards up a hill. Hubby and I had a lot of fun playing with it. We went up and down the hill many times because we could until someone came along to spoil our fun. It was fascinating to us that despite our heavy vehicle it did feel like we were rolling up hill.

Although we had never heard of them before, magnetic hills are found around the world. Australia has 4 of them. They are special and come about because of the local lay of the land. They are formed when the horizon is either curved or you can’t see it. It is an optical illusion.

When we got to Magnet Hill the sign asked you to turn off your ignition, put your car in neutral and take your foot off the brake. We were told steel cars go up the hill while aluminum and plastic cars go down.

Photos courtesy of Orroroo government website as we were too busy playing to take photos.

We loved the giant magnet that they have added to the roadside to help explain the phenonium.

Magnet Hill really was something to be seen to be believed.

CFFC: Living With Emus

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During our last holiday we literally lived in harmony with emus. As an Australian I never thought that this would be possible. They scare me. They peck you. They are wild creatures. However our Coffin Bay experience was very different. Here humans and emus share the town. We keep our distance from them and they just get about their business and let us take a million photos of them. I have never been up close to emus before.

In the caravan park we stayed in the emus had right of way and it was interesting to see the cars and vans stop an wait for the emus to make their move. Fortunately for us we were there in Spring so several of the families had chicks. So cute. I was interested to learn that the male emus look after the chicks not the females. Personally I got very excited when the families came up close to Truby (our slide on camper.)

As emus are usually solitary animals it was fun to see them in a mob just doing their thing.

Posted for this weeks CFFC https://ceenphotography.com/2023/01/10/cffc-feathers-2/ (Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge.) This weeks theme is Feathers. Thanks Cee for the inspiration.

CMMC: Christmas Bush

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In Cee’s Midweek madness Challenge the first week of the month is about Macro or close up photography. So as it is nearing the end of the Christmas season I thought I would celebrate our Christmas Bush. It is an Australian native that blooms with a soft pink colour around November and its colour deepens to turning red around Christmas time.

We love our Christmas Bush tree. It is a beauty standing about 10 metres tall. Every year it never fails to deliver. My husband has even developed his own Christmas traditions around it. Sometime in the week of Christmas he makes his Christmas bush run. He cuts and delivers bunches of Christmas bush to family and friends whether they are home or not. Everyone loves it and is very grateful. Maybe because I saw smaller bunches on sale at the local florist for $15.00 a bunch.

When I was taking the photos for this blog post I took a much closer look at Christmas bush than I ever had before. I was surprised to notice the unusual shape of the leaves.

T: Twelve Apostles

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The draw card of the Port Campbell National Park is the 12 Apostles. These rock stacks are spectacular popping out of the Southern Ocean. To me they look like they are standing guard over the shoreline. Initially, there were 9 of these rock stacks (never 12 as the name suggests.) However, due to the violent treacherous waves of the area, 2 have disappeared forever into the ocean. The first time our family visited was 20 years ago and there was a seal swimming around one of the rock stacks. The kids called him Sammy and would often talk about him.

Today the whole area looks very different. It is now a very large tourist attraction with a lot of development to really make the most of the natural beauty of the area and support tourism. The 12 Apostles are so internationally renown that the visitors centre is the first place in Australia that I saw an Asian style toilet. As we visited in the week that Australia opened its international borders again the tourist were slowly coming back.

N: Natural Surroundings

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During our recent holiday we meet many Australian animals. Some were cute and exciting while others scary. Either way it was fun to see them in their natural surroundings. The following grey kangaroos, echidna, and emus we found roaming around the picnic at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve. We had a barbeque dinner there at about 7.30pm just as they began feeding for the day. The koalas you can read more about in my previous post Koalas in the Wild.

The emus were very brave and kept coming up to us as we were eating our meal. Fortunately they didn’t steal any of our food but we still kept our guard up until they went back into the bush from whence they had came.

This echidna was huge. He sudden revealed himself out of the litter on the ground and wandered up the hill. As we got closer to get a photo he was scared and went into hiding again. He was the biggest echidna I have seen and the only one in the bush. I have seen small ones on the side of the road before.

These black wallabies were a real surprise to find. We were walking around Griffith Island that breeds mutton birds during the summer and they suddenly popped up to see what was going on. They kept their distance and we couldn’t get closer to them than the paths allowed. They were very cute and inquisitive.

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This Bearded Dragon suddenly appeared under my feet in a park in St Arnaud. Luckily I have a bad habit of looking at the ground as I walk or I may have walked on him. I will admit he did scare me so on my way back to the car I took the long way around.

Fortunately we didn’t see see any snakes on our travels. But as it was the end of summer when we traveled we were very aware of where we were. While snakes themselves are scary, Australia also has a large number of the world’s most venomous and they live in the areas were traveling in.

The kangaroos probably eastern grey were in a mob. It was 0630 on the first day of our holiday just off the side of our camp. When my husband first saw them we thought that they were logs in the paddock. But then as the sun rose, they moved. I walked through the grass on our side of the fence to get a better look. They looked at me like I was putting on a show.

The following kookaburras were fun to get close to. The first one was at Echuca and the second one was above our camp for the night at Teddy’s Lookout.

K: Koalas In The Wild

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I think my favourite part of our recent holidays was seeing koalas in the wild. While koalas are an Australian marsupial most people only see them in zoos or koala parks. There habitat is very limited because they are very fussy about the types of gum leaves they eat.

We were lucky enough to see koalas on two occasions. The first was at Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve in Victoria. A family pointed out two koalas to us at the very top of some gum trees. They were sleeping but we all so excited to see them. I think the last time I saw a koala out in nature was before I could vote. In other words over 40 years ago.

Our second koala sighting was a real surprise. It was in New South Wales at Narrandra. As we hadn’t planned to stop off here we hadn’t researched the town. If we had we would have known that the town is is working hard to breed koalas in the wild. It also has special protect environments for them. We were lucky enough to accidentally camp at one of these places. As it was in the early evening the were up and about moving around eating leaves. This was very special and something I had never seen before. I took a few videos so I hope you can see them. Both koalas were in separate trees. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did. Sharing koala sightings whilst on the road is a great way to start to get to know others.

G: Great Ocean Road

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The Great Ocean Road was the main destination of our recent holiday. It is an amazing hand built road that hugs the breath taking Victorian south western coast. Beginning at Tourquay on the Surf Coast, it ends at Warrnambool on the Shipwreck Coast.

The 243 kilometre Great Ocean Road is the world’s longest war memorial. It was built by returned soldiers from World War 1 to remember those who died serving their country. I believe it was also a gift to the world as prior to the road it was very difficult to travel to the towns along its path. The natural beauty it opened up is definitely unique. Building began in 1919, with the first section opening in 1922. The entire length was completed in 1932.

Our journey along the Great Ocean Road took just over a week. We meandered slowly, enjoying what each town has to offer. The views from the road are spectacular. The natural rock formations, rainforests, rugged coastline, world famous surfing beaches as well as glorious local produce. We even had a drink in Australia’s most southern pub.

A : Australian National Surfing Museum

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On our recent holiday exploring the Great Ocean Road and regional Victoria our first stop was The Australian National Surfing Museum. It is located in Tourquay at the start of the Great Ocean Road and Surf Coast. The museum is said to be the largest surfing museum in the world. And describes 100 years of Australia’s surfing history. I found this fascinating. Despite growing up on the coast I had no idea of the culture and history attached to surfing in Australia. This visit really put it in perspective for me.

I particularly loved the display of Gordon Stammers Storyboards. These are very quirky and fun to read. Each tells a funny story by runaway teenage surfer. He writes a letter to his parents on the front of the board. On the back is the response from one parent. They were so creative and funny.

At the time we visited it was hard to believe that the local beaches got the waves that were described in the surfing history of the area. Our experience on all beaches was flat surf. Bass Strait however has a history of being wild and untamed. Apparently it depends on the time of year. Personally I would love to see the big surf as described around the museum, in the hall of fame and on the historical surfing videos being shown. Easter ever year sees Australia’s biggest surfing competition held at Bell’s beach not far from the National Surfing museum. I think we must have traveled about six weeks early.

2022 A-Z Challenge: Recent Travels

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Wow I can’t believe it’s April tomorrow. Where has this year gone? For me, over a month was spent travelling around regional New South Wales and Victoria in Truby. (Our Iveco and Slide-on camper). It was our first trip and we had a great time exploring our country and learning about the grey nomad lifestyle. Despite being nearly 60 most of the places we explored I had never been to before. We found many interesting places, history stories, hidden surprises and the amazing natural beauty of Australia.

Initially our aim was to travel the Great Ocean Rd one of Australia’s and possibly one of the world’s most iconic roads. It was truly breathtaking. For our remaining two weeks we made it up as we went along and had a ball. We drove over 4500 kilometres.

Whilst travelling I decided the best way to share my experiences is by again joining the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. This is a world wide blogging challenge that I first joined in 2015. It will be the fourth time that I have participated and each time I have grown as a blogger. The goal is to post every day in April except Sundays. Most people have a theme that connect their blog posts. This is only half of the challenge however. The other equally important part is to visit other blogs and connect through commenting. I love it and have meet some amazing people on my journey and am hoping to meet many more this year.

If you are interested in joining here is the link Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.