The wildlife edition

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Louise's Section

'God has been good to me but it looked as if H'w l'andonne me now. Mavhe H was angry because He'd already done the best for me; He'd eve'. 'ne free' - n real '-dom and a community that adcn'jted we completely'

Welcome to the world of my reading leisure, Papillon, as re-written by the Malaysians in this pirated copy...can you tell? I still think the best line was 'the chief then opened his anus, I knew then he understood' and 'the chicken being cooked on a snit'.

So, we moved on from Canberra to Pretty Beach on the East Coast, north of Batemans Bay. We stayed in a nature reserve that was beautiful and had loads of wild Kangaroo's hanging about and birds squawking all the time. Still think the locals are mad because they were swimming in the sea. It's still mostly windy and only about 20 degrees. We had a lovely walk over to another beach and saw some stunning views and played with some Lorrikeets (now my favourite wild bird here). The ones at this camp site were very tame (especially if you had bread with you).

We then moved onto Sussex Inlet further north, again a very beautiful place. The site here even had its own resident seal (I named him Andre). We saw wild Pelicans for the first time and I have to say I don't like them. They have a very sinister look in their eye when they watch you, it's very unnerving. We had another “treat” of fish and chips. We seriously have to start asking what sizes the portions are, the small could feed a family!! Even Chris couldn't eat all his!!

Moved onto Nowra, further north. Stayed at a campsite next to a wildlife park. I had my first Wolfcreek moment that night. Chris is convinced he had mentioned that the van likes to rock sometimes at night, I don't remember this conversation and if I did I'm sure I would have been wondering how does it manage it. So 2am I am woken by a violent rocking sensation (you tell me if that's normal in camper van please). Woke Chris up, his response...”yeah it does it sometimes...snore, snore”! I spent the next 2 hours (desperate for a wee) listening to all the noises outside, watching any moving shadow and ready to attack with my head torch at any moment (this was the only weapon I had by me, it was that or a bag of dirty washing). Finally sleep took over fear and I nodded off. Woke up to be told by Chris he had left the handbrake off all night so there's a small possibility he rolled over in his usual violent way and the van moved somewhat! It's either that or some Kangaroos fancied a bit of van-tipping!

Next day we visited the wildlife park. We have now seen a Koala close up (you're not allowed to cuddle them in this state, boo!!). I patted a wombat and a baby dingo, snakes and other reptiles, fed many of the animals that would want a weird pellet thing. Needless to say I was mobbed by the goats! We befriended Tinkerbell (a water buffalo) who has no visitors at all as she was kept at the back of the park with the camels (no one seemed to want to see them either). We fed Tinkerbell lots and Chris was telling her to perk up as she had a boyfriend coming soon and how happy she would be for getting laid all the time (as informed by her information board, mind you only the bit about a male buffalo joining her, not the humping bit, that would be weird). Chris also had some fun talking to the birds and imitating their movements (I pretended not to be with him in the end).

Not much else has happened. We met a nice but very odd ex-nature reserve man who very thoroughly taught us about the snakes they have here, how to tell them apart, how to deal with a bite or coming across one, how to deal with spiders, how to deal with roadkill Kangaroos, then showed us around his big bus he lives in, and talked in great length to Chris about engines of the cars Australia used to import and what they use now. Watching Chris try to look like he understood this bloke was amusing. This conversation lasted from Hello I'm Pete and this is Charlie Girl (his very overweight cockatoo) at 3pm to Chris saying oops it's wine o'clock we better get back and start dinner (5:30pm).

Moving up towards the Blue Mountains in the next couple of days, so looking forward to some more stunning scenery.

Chris's Section

Lou usually can't be bothered to write her part of the blog. Today she went first and went a little mad. I shouldn't complain really - less work for me to do.

After the excitement of Canberra *cough* we were relieved to finally make it to the NSW coast. Pretty Beach was just that! I really liked this place. Jervis Bay was really pretty too. The temperature is starting to rise now so we've finally made use of our table and chairs. I never thought I would get used to seeing kangaroos, but I have. I prefer to see them alive, but you unfortunately see lots of the roadkill variety also. I walked to the toilet at Pretty Beach one night and saw big shadows a couple of feet away. More roos grazing. They seemed pretty unruffled by my presence.

The wildlife here is pretty awesome. In the UK we have lots of brown, grey and generally unimpressive looking birds. Over here it's like an exotic pet shop. It's weird to see whole flocks of cockatoos flying about. It's strange seeing this kind of bird flying at all. Another general observation about Oz - there's a lot of fatties here!! We have this stereotype of Aussies being a bunch of triathlon competing, surfer-esque looking chaps. The reality is more like pie-eating. Even in really small towns there will still be loads of cafes/fast food joints/bakeries. The locals tell us obesity is becoming a real problem here.

We're noticing a theme with our campsite owners - the other day they were called Jason & Kylie (seriously) and today she's called Teena Turner. We've also discovered Goon. I think we call them 'box wines' in the UK. Here we can get a 4 litres of Goon for $11, which is about £6.50 or something silly. Doesn't taste too bad actually, even though I heard a rumour Goon contains no grapes at all. It could well be lighter fluid mixed with flavourings and put into a pretty box.

We're heading into the Blue Mountains next, then we're going to skirt around Sydney (we're coming back to stay with friends later) and head up the coast. We're looking forward to finding a nice campsite and settling down for a few days. Hopefully one near the beach.

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Photos

Lorikeet
Might be the best photo I've ever taken

Chris and Charlie Girl
I thought it was gonna have my eye out!

A big sheep
Why?

Comments

[Amy]

Loving the blogs!
Hi guys, jealous.com here at home, hope you are safe and having a ball!! xxx