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Published: September 2nd 2010
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Saturday morning was spent ‘chill-axing’, as young Charlie back in Tewkesbury UK would say, and we also spent time finding out more about what David will be doing in Tanzania. Eighteen people from Warwick will spend two weeks working at The School of St Jude, a very special school in Arusha, northern Tanzania. The school has steadily grown from the seed of a dream that a young Australian woman, Gemma Sisia, had back in the late 1990’s. The first pupils were enrolled in 2002 and gradually, with the help of Rotary Clubs and sponsors all over the world, the school has been able to expand year on year to meet the needs of the growing number of scholars. To read more about the school log on to its website
School of St Jude.
David, being a very experienced electrician, will be busy using his skills. But as well as working at the school he will be able to take some time out to go on safari to the Serengeti National Park and also to spend a couple of days in Dubai. We look forward to hearing about his adventures on his return. David was picked up from his house in Hawker Road at
1.15pm by another member of the team and off they went to catch their flight from Brisbane to Nairobi, Kenya. A coach journey will take them on to Arusha in Tanzania.
David had left many goodies for us in the fridge and freezer but we still needed a few supplies so we went to visit the local Woolworths store (Woolies still exist in Aus!). When we got back the weather was still beautiful so we decided to explore the area by wandering further along Hawker Road up past the local golf course to where there is an excellent view looking down over the town to the Great Dividing Mountain Range beyond. We weren’t out for too long as it gets dark at about 6pm at this time of year in Aus which is a bit frustrating for us Brits. Conversely, it gets light by 6:00am - not that we’re up in time to check it out!
Sunday dawned with another cold but bright start so the first thing we needed to do was get the washing in the machine and then on the line. That done we got busy preparing a picnic. We still had the hire car
but needed to be careful about how many kms we used as we were on a 1600 kms package. We still had to get the car back to Dubbo so we knew we couldn’t go too far today. But Graham had worked out that we could get to Queen Mary Falls near Killarney, about 50kms away, so off we went. There was an added bonus in Killarney in that, coincidently, the Variety Bashers, some of whom we had met in Moree, were due to have lunch in Killarney. As we passed the local school we could see where the Bashers were pulling in so we stopped to see what was going on. Most of the local residents were there, especially the kids, and they must have thought all their Christmases had come at once as they collected a variety of goodies that were being given out by the Bashers. We weren’t left out either and received some delicious health bars, lollies and sweets and Daphne and I also had badges gently stuck to our chests by a Flintstone!
It was great fun but, as time was going on we left the Bashers to enjoy their BBQ and went on
to the falls where we enjoyed our picnic. We were joined by a cheeky “blue faced honey eater” which was being very persistent but we followed the local advice and resisted the temptation to feed it. We then chose to wander along the track which firstly took us to the bottom of the 40 meter falls and, because the region has had plenty of rain lately, it all looked very impressive. We had made the right choice of which circuit to take as we went down some steep steps but back up the more gentle slope to the top where there were two viewing platforms overlooking the falls. We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon there and hope to return to explore the area a bit more when we get PIE back.
When we got back to David’s the washing was, of course, bone dry and what’s more important, it looked as though it had already been ironed - how wonderful is that! We could settle to this Aussie lifestyle!
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Darryl and Sarah
Wallaby Wanderers
Lots of variety!
Great that the bashers are putting on a good show for you! Thanks for the link to David's school, the website is great and I'm sure he's going to have a fabulous experience. Happy travels lots of love from both of us x x x