Just Me and My Mom

Mom and Dad have both read me a number of the Little Critters books by Mayer and Mercer. Our last trip down to the beach had me thinking about one of them since it was “Just me and my mom”.

There had been lots a talk over the summer holidays of Mom and me heading down to the beach for a couple days but nothing materialized until the last week of holidays. The weather forecast was not the greatest but we were running out of days so we decided to go. Since it was just going to be mom and me, the plan was to keep it simple. We would head down to Warrnambool for a couple days and soak up some sun, play in the sand, splash in the surf and run on the beach. Nothing else was on our ‘to do’ list except to try and buy me a wetsuit since I froze last week during swim lessons.

Up bright and early Tuesday morning, we packed the tenting gear, beach paraphernalia, threw in a few clothes and we were off. To be honest it wasn’t that early but considering it was summer holidays and most mornings I am still in my PJ’s at noon, we did pretty well to get away by 10 am. It is a two-hour drive to Warrnambool and I entertained mom by singing songs, playing letter sound and spelling games with her. She did a great job of getting us there with not a single wrong turn, although I did hear her muttering to herself once something about “Oh, maybe we should of turned there”.

Since it was just me and my mom, mom let me to be the boss for most of the two days. I was allowed to decide what we got to do and where we got to eat, although Mom still had veto power. When we arrived in Warrnamboll it was lunchtime so we went to one of my favourite restaurants – McDonald’s. Did you know that McDonald’s are pretty much the same all over the place? There are a few different menu items, you can get a happy meal here with pasta but more importantly, you still get a toy. There are a few other different burgers, like the ‘McOz’ or ‘McFeast’. The ones here in Australia generally have the play centres outside. They are not as elaborate as the ones at home but there are still lots of fun. Most of the McDonald’s here have a McCafe, which makes it a little more tolerable for mom. The McCafé concept is a café-style accompaniment to McDonald's restaurants. McCafé is a concept of McDonald's Australia, starting with Melbourne in 1993. A McCafé is a gourmet coffee shop where the menu features a selection of specialty drinks, including cappuccinos, lattes, teas and fruit smoothies. Enhancing the coffee bar is a glass display case filled with a variety of high-end cakes, pastries, cookies and soft pretzels. They make really gooood strawberry donuts there.


I wanted the beach next but Mom vetoed that and we headed out to find a campground. That proved to be fairly easy. We found one that was central and only a few blocks from Lake Pertobe and the beach. I helped supervise the pitching of the tent offering to help put in a peg or two when I had the urge. It went up with ease and the bedding was next. I wanted to sleep messy but once again mom vetoed my idea and I helped lay out the sleeping bags.

Once that was all done it was off to the beach. Or so we thought. Towels, sand bucket, shovels, sunscreen, snacks, all in tow, we headed in the direction of the surf. The wind was blowing so strong it was like a sand storm hit us as we approached the path that led us down to the beach. We only made it a couple steps before I was whinging and did not want to go any further. We were only exposed to it for a minute or two but we were covered in sand when we got back to the car. It was everywhere: eyes, nose, hair, ears... I think the Sandman must have been in the area. For those of you who are not Spiderman fans, Sandman is one of Spiderman’s enemies.

So we wrote off the beach for the day and went and had ice cream and then spent over five hours at the various playgrounds across from the beach. It was great! There was a number of different play structures. A couple had some awesome slides. I met a fellow Canadian, Nathan, who was here visiting his grandparents and other relatives. We hit it off pretty good and played in the sand, made sand angels and splashed around in one of the fountains near by.

 

Mom and I grabbed fish and chips from a nearby kiosk and had tea down at the playground then walked over to the maze and flying fox and spent some time there before heading back to camp and to bed.

Wednesday morning was a cool one but was supposed to turn into a fairly nice day. I was awake around six o’clock and raring to go. Mom thought that it was awfully early but I didn’t think so. We packed up camp and headed out to find some food. We were camping but we were lazy man camping – we planned to eat all our meals in a restaurant. Keeping it simple, we didn’t want to be bothered with trying to cook things at the campground, although most of the campgrounds in Australia, particularly the ones in cities, have these wonderful camp kitchens. Most are equipped with a fridge, microwave, toaster, tea kettle, and usually some sort of hot plate or electric burner. All you really need to bring is your food and stuff to cook it in and eat it with. Quite simple actually, I am not sure why Mom and I never brought breakfast with us.

Once our bellies were full, we headed into the downtown area looking for a wet suit. There was a number of sports and surf shops but all were sold out of my size. The day was sunny with little wind so we headed to the beach. Again with all our beach paraphernalia in hand we headed in search of some sand and surf. We reached the stairs this time with little problem but were sadly disappointed when we saw the beach. The bay itself was beautiful, over 5 km of beach, but it was mostly covered with kelp. Not just bits here and there, but piles of it. There was even a loader there scooping it up into a dump truck. The far ends were a little cleaner but of course we came out smack in the middle of it. And the smell … Yuck! I wasn’t too happy to be there. Mom made me pose for a few pictures and tried to talk me into playing in the sand for awhile but I just wanted to get out of there.


We went back to the playgrounds for a bit and then headed to the big bouncy pillow. I had a blast on there. When I was exhausted, we headed back downtown to grab a bite to eat. On our way back to the car, Mom happened to notice a sports store down the street so we figured that we would give it another go and see if we could find me a wet suit. It must have been our lucky day for they had one left in my size and it fits great. Having played so hard at the bouncy pillow, I wasn’t much company on the drive home. In fact I don’t recall any of it as I think I was asleep even before hitting the highway.

All in all it was a grand adventure even though we never really did get to the beach!

Gold, castles and the whipping of the wicked wench

Life in Australia is moving at a rapid pace, and in our efforts to take it all in, we have been neglecting this blog. Our apologies. Today, however we are observing the first day of rain in about a month so we have no excuses. As you can tell by the title we have had an interesting couple of weeks exploring the gold rush history of the area to the east of us, and checking out a few Victorian attractions.

Two weekends ago we also did a bit more exploring around the Grampians, although the hot weather (a few more days in the 40+) had us cowering by the air con for the first bit. A wonderful weather event called the ‘cool change’ occurred which sees the hot west or north wind switch around from the south bringing some South Ocean relief. It’s a bit of tension when it happens because it often brings thunderstorms and in the tinder dry conditions lightning is like a match dropping into a pool of gasoline. This change though was a cool dry change so (knock on wood) no fires developed.

We decided to check out a bit of the appropriately named ‘Wonderland Range’, which is one of the main centerpieces of the Grampians. One of the must do walks is called the Pinnacle which takes you up to the top of the range for some spectacular views. Although it is only a couple of clicks, we decided that we would go partway up and explore, saving the peak for another day. The first part of the trip takes you through an area called the Grand Canyon. Although it is not grand in size, it is picturesque and well worth exploring. To encourage Aiden to participate we can no longer go on a normal walk, we have to go on a pirate adventure, hence the props. Up the metal stairs, and along the ridge we climbed to the cool cavern tucked under a cliff face. All the metal stairs and rails have been redone since the big fire two years ago and it is an impressive track. On the way back down we ran into a pair of young Canadian women who have been working and exploring Australia for close to a year. Aiden poured on the charm for them and seemed quite interested in people with a familiar accent.

Our next weekend we finally headed to Ballarat which has been on Ruth’s hit list for a month or two now. Many locals have recommended visiting Sovereign Hill, a recreated gold rush town with volunteers in roles appropriate to the context of the late 1800's boom that occurred in the area. It was quite well done with underground mine tours, gold panning, recreated tent towns, shops and restaurants with authentic fare, some of which you can actually buy. A highlight was the lolly shop that had candy that was available in the time period. Very tasty. Another interesting part was the pouring of a gold bar worth close to $100000. Ruth and Aiden went on a stagecoach ride and a magician filled the streets of the town with bubbles that had all the kids running around trying to pop them. It is a busy tourist attraction, which normally would have us heading somewhere else, but it is big enough that you can escape to a quieter area and well worth a visit.

After camping we met some friends from Melbourne (Joe, Tina, Joshua & Anthony) at Kryal Castle the next day. We started off by meeting the king, Keith Ryall who decided back in the 60’s that a large blue stone barrier to a local road development would work as material for his life long dream to build a castle and recreate a medieval tourist attraction. Many stones placed later and he’s ended up with an impressive castle complete with moat, drawbridge, towers, maze, stockades, jousting arena, cemetery, wax people torture chamber, and numerous other items on display. His family and staff help add to atmosphere by putting on presentations of juggling, magic shows, sword fights, horsemanship challenges, jousting with shattered lances, and comedic public displays of a hanging and the ever popular whipping of the wicked wench. The whipping was even more hilarious when a member of the audience decided to show how easy it was to use a stock whip with his wife on the post. At the cost of his pride and probably a few choice words from his wife later on, he demonstrated that it isn’t quite as easy as ‘Mr. Whippy’ made it look. Aiden’s favourite bits were the magic show when the lady had parts of her body moved over out of line and the playground with Josh and Anthony. Ruth was a bit smitten by the handsome rogue who did the magic show, and was handily defeated in the sword fight and ended up at the end of the rope at the hanging. Sean was quite taken with the seven chambered box that people were put into with hungry rats at their feet. As the rats got hungrier they would eat their way through into the next chamber working their way up the body. He also thought the horsemanship was impressive.

Well we should get this posted at long last. Thanks to everyone for their comments, questions and ideas. We are working on larger topic blogs relating to the drought; bush fire fighting; the people who have lived in this area for the last 20,000 years; and what Sean’s up to at work;. Hopefully we will have them up sooner than later, and keep the ideas coming. We are missing family, friends and winter, but we are enjoying this adventure more than we expected.

Big Day Out

Well all the school kids and teachers at home will be heading back to classes this morning so I thought it would be a good time to finally get around to posting some pictures from Aiden’s Big Day Out. On December 14th, Preps, Grade ones and twos went for the day on a field trip down to Warrnambool. I was lucky enough to be able to go along as a chaperone. Or maybe not so lucky being stuck on a bus with 15 rowdy, excited 5 to 8 year olds.

It was just over a two-hour bus ride down to Warrnambool, where we went to Flagstaff Hill. Flagstaff Hill is a recreated maritime village and reflects the pioneering atmosphere of an 1870’s coastal port.

We became a part of the 1870's Flagstaff Hill Common School – complete with costumes, stern School Ma’am, scratchy slates, hard wooden seats and recitation of the times tables in the Reading, ‘Riting and Rithmetic’.

When we arrived the girls were taken to change into costume, while the boys were taken down to the school to don vests and hats. Everyone looked sooo cute when they were all dolled up. The School Ma’am explained to the kids that they would be attending an hour of school staged back in the 1870’s. She explained how they were to line up outside, boys in one line, girls in another, from shortest to tallest. The girls were to enter first, the boys to follow but to remain standing once they were at the desks.

Once in the classroom, the School Ma’am

explained that they were to sit with their hands clasped and on the desk at all times unless they were told otherwise; they were not to speak unless spoken to; they needed to stand when answering a question; and they needed to address her as Ma’am when answering a question. Just like school in the 1870’s. The session started with a hand inspection. As a class they recited the alphabet and named a few of the letters and different words starting with those particular letters. Slate boards were handed out to practice printing the abc’s. The math lesson consisted of reading off some numbers and reciting the sevens times table. The kids did a fabulous job playing along. It was great fun to watch.

From there we headed down to Lake Pertobe Adventure Playground. It was an amazing playground with giant sides, flying foxes, a maze and great playground equipment. We had a picnic McDonald’s lunch at the playground; the McDonald’s being a highlight for many of the kids. After lunch the kids played at the playground for a while then it was time to load up and head home. We stopped at Mortlake on the way back to have a short playground break and to have an ice pop (Popsicle). We arrived back into Halls Gap around 5 pm, everyone tired and exhausted but with grins on their faces.

Escape to the Coast

We had a four-day weekend ahead of us, with Sean having taken Monday off. We woke up Saturday morning with good intentions of heading off down to the coast. By noon we were melting and just couldn’t imagine trying to pack in the heat and traveling in it, so we spent the day huddled near the air-conditioner. The temp rose to close 44°.

We got up earlier on Sunday and headed out the door before it got too hot. We escaped to the coast where it was only 28° compared to the 42° at Halls Gap.

We spent the day at Port Fairy, a small historic seaside village, straight south of us. We spent the afternoon at the beach, had take away at a playground overlooking the ocean, did a little geocaching then spent an hour or so at the fair that was set up near the information centre. Aiden took in a few of the kid’s rides and talked his dad into taking him on the Octopus before we left. Aiden was a little scared at first but was grinning ear to ear when he stepped off. Sean on the other hand looked a little green when all the spinning was over.

The next day we had a leisurely start and headed west down the coast to Portland. The heat seemed to have followed us down to the coast and it reached an unusual 42°. Overnight the wind had shifted from a cool sea breeze to a stifling hot north (inland) one. It didn’t concern us, as the afternoon was spent on the beautiful Cape Bridgewater

beach soaking up the sun, playing in the sand and jumping waves. We had a lovely Chinese supper before heading to a campground to set up our tent. New Year's Eve was spent sitting near the ocean, listening to the waves roll in and watching an excellent show of fireworks over the harbor: a highly recommended way to ring in the New Year.

We spent New Years Day geocaching, enjoying a picnic in the Botanical Gardens and touring Portland by the historic Portland Cable Tram before heading home to a very hot house.

We are still experiencing a bit of a heat wave. It has been in the high thirties the last couple of days and is forecasted to be there for a couple of more but then we get to look forward to a bit of a cooler spell (low thirties). By next Thursday we are supposed to be back into the forties. The thirties are livable but the forties are just darn hot. At that temp, even the locals hibernate in their AC houses. At least when it is –40 you can dress for it, but +40 is hard to escape outdoors and it is hard to imagine working on a fire line or doing any kind of work. Stay cool.