Bart Bear's Blog

This aeroplane was the reason that we decided to go to Temora for their January flying day. It is a Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk, an aircraft type that has a special place in Australia's history. Back in World War 2, when the Japanese were moving towards Australia, the only fighter aircraft that we could get in any quantity were Kittyhawks. By that stage the Kitty was an old design, but it was tough and dependable. Even after Spitfires arrived, the Kitty remained in the front-line squadrons. They almost disappeared after the war, but now some of them are being salvaged and rebuilt. Temora is one of the places where you can see one flying whenever this one visits. Of course Dad and I have built model Kittyhawks, six of them so far, but it is really special to see a real one in the air.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, models, New South Wales, Temora

Scruffy and I like watching boats almost as much as we like being on them. Whenever we can manage it we sit somewhere where we can see a harbour and count ships. That's pretty hard to do in Canberra, so there's another reason why we love holidays so much. This spot is a great one for ship-watching, although Dad took this picture when there wasn't a ship in sight. It is at a lookout on the south side of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. Melbourne is way up at the northern end of the bay, the entrance is on the southern end. What makes this an exciting spot occasionally is that the entrance can get really rough and dangerous. If conditions are bad the Rip starts to run and there are big waves and strong currents in the channel. There have been dozens of wrecks in the area you can see in the photo, but most of them have been cleared away. This was a calm day and we saw lots of traffic from fishing boats to huge container ships passing through the passage with no problems at all.

Labels: boats, Melbourne, Victoria

There is only one problem in travelling with Scruffy. He insists that as he is the older bear, he should get the window seat. Now you might think that there is enough room at the normal-sized window for two small bears, but there's not when both of them bounce and fidget. Fortunately, this was not a problem on the longest trip we have done so far. The trip across Australia on the Indian-Pacific took three days and I feared that I would have a three-day fight for the window seat, but it turned out great. The Oldies splurged and got the Deluxe cabin. This is about twice the size of a standard cabin and has a lounge area as well as the usual bed. And two windows, one for each bear. We were able to see everything and only had to move at meal times. This picture was taken near the start of the trip as the train was zooming through the Blue Mountains. It got foggy soon after so we left the windows and explored the rest of the cabin, but were back as soon as the fog cleared.

Labels: Perth, Sydney, train

There has been alot of building on Hamilton Island between our two visits there. The very northern bit of the island had no houses on it back in 2005, but now there is almost no building site left. Fortunately, some of the area is being left "natural", or as natural as it can be with mansions all around. This is one of the prettiest bits. By damming a small creek they have made a big lake. It has water-lillies and fish in it, and there was even a couple of ducks swimming in it one of the days I was there. There was also a wedding party getting photos taken, so I guess that I am not the only one to think that this is a pretty place. I like to climb up onto the top rail of the fence whenever I can. You can see more from up there. It only has one drawback; Mum goes into fits, reads the riot act about falling into the water, and hauls me back as soon as she sees me.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

Last Sunday we went to the Temora flying day. The Aviation Museum at Temora is a great place. They have lots of historic aircraft , and they are all in flying condition. It is the only place where you can see TWO SPITFIRES flying. There is new Sabre jet fighter there, as well as a Hudson, Canberra, Boomerang, Tiger Moth, Ryan STM, Cessna Dragonfly and Meteor. The flying days are "must be" places for small bears and Oldies. This time there were a couple of special visiting aircraft, a Curtiss Kittyhawk and a Catalina flying boat. I really like the Catalina. It is the only one flying in Australia and it belongs to the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society (HARS). Catalinas were one of the most important aircraft in WW2. They hunted enemy ships and submarines, dropped bombs, mines and supplies (not at the same time), and kept an eye on thousands of miles of ocean, keeping the convoys safe. This is one of the slowest aeroplanes that I have ever seen; it's slow but it can fly for ages. And guess what. This Catalina is marked up to represent the aircraft that Dad and I made a model of! The only differences are that the big one is still missing its nose turret, and the original OX-Y was a true flying boat and could only operate from water, while the HARS one is an amphibian and can fly from water or land. My model is like the original. I love aeroplanes and it's great when you see one that you have made a model of.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, models, New South Wales, Temora

Right at the top of One Tree Hill on Hamilton Island you will find this neat cairn of rocks. It is labelled "Porto del Sol", which probably means something like "Gate of the Sun" (small bears are not very good at Spanish so I don't know for sure). Anyhow, it makes a great place to soak up a bit of Sun. It has enough gaps between the rocks for small bears to get toe-holds and climb up to the top easily, and the top is not so slopey that you fall off. The Oldies spent a fair bit of time at One Tree because it is a great spot to watch boats of all sorts cruising the Whitsunday channels. I spent most of my time there either climbing trees or lazing away up on the cairn. I don't get sunburnt through my fur, but Mum says that I am getting faded. That doesn't worry me, because if my fur fades to white I will look like a Polar bear and surely then somebody will let me swim.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

Here's what happens if you don't keep a good lookout when you are at sea. This boat didn't and it ran aground on Rottnest Island. I am not sure just what ship it was, or when it was wrecked. There are lots of wrecks around Rottnest and I didn't take enough notes to help identify this one. It looks like the sort of place where the Oldies would like to snorkel, because fish use these old wrecks (the ships, not the Oldies) as places to live in.

Labels: boats, Perth, Western Australia

If you have been wondering why there has not been a blog post for over a week, there is a simple answer. It's not that I dashed off to somewhere exciting with a great beach and no crabs. It's just that Mum has been talked into joining Facebook. Not by me, but by one of her friends at work. The result is that I can't get near the computer . If Mum isn't Facebooking, Dad is busy processing images or chasing esoteric aircraft information on Google. I need my own computer.....
Oh yes, the peculiar newcomer. I think it is some sort of cow. It sort of looks like one, except that various bits are stuck on in the wrong places, and I haven't seen a real cow wearing Wellies. Maybe Mum's cow collection is heading off on a crazy tangent.

Labels: computer, family

Sometimes the Oldies race off and leave me in situations where I have to ask for outside help. This is a case in point. Our boat had just pulled in at Whitehaven Beach and all the people had raced ashore. Well, small bears have short legs and that makes it difficult to get down ladders like this one. I could have jumped from step to step, but there was a chance that I could have missed and fallen through the gaps. The gaps were right over the muckiest place where the waves were churning up the sand. I know what Mum would have done and said if I got all wet and mucky, so it looked like I was stranded. Fortunately, one of the boat crew saw the problem and helped me down. That's a great example of customer service.

Labels: beach, boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

I have found a great way to help my wild relatives. At Port Macquarie in northern NSW there is a koala hospital. There are lots of koalas living in the forests around the town, and also lots that live in trees in the town. Lots of koalas are taken to the koala hospital for help after they have been hurt by cars, dogs or people. The koalas are nursed back to health and then released back into the wild. Before they are released they are microchipped so they can be identified if they have to come back to the hospital for more treatment any time. The hospital treatment costs a fair bit and koalas don't have any money, so you can help by adopting one of them and that will help pay their hospital bill. As soon as I found out about this, I started working on the Oldies to let me adopt a koala. After all, it only costs $40 a year and it helps keep the koala hospital going. Well, the Oldies thought it was a great idea and adopted three koalas, one for each of us. We could even choose which ones we wanted to adopt from their pictures on the hospital web pages. I was really happy when I opened the letter from the hospital people and found adoption certificates, the stories of each of our koalas, stickers and books. I hope our adoptees are doing fine back out in the forest, and keeping clear of anything that will land them back in hospital.
If you want to help too, you can read about the koala hospital and the "Adopt a Wild Koala" program on the web at http://www.koalahospital.org.au

Labels: animals, family, New South Wales

Isn't this the cutest little fire truck you ever saw? It is part of the Hamilton Island fire brigade. They have a big pump truck, but there are parts of the island where only a small and tough one can go. This one is not much bigger than the golf buggies that do most of the usual carrying on Hamilton, but it has a lot more power and is a lot faster. Actually, you can see a golf buggy converted to a toolbox carrier parked next to the truck. We saw the truck zipping around the island lots of times, but I never got a chance to ride in it. Next time.

Labels: cars and trucks, Hamilton Is, Queensland

This fine-looking crew is obviously outfitted with a variety of aprons and ready to head to the barbeque. Well, it's not quite like that. The aprons were Christmas presents to Mum, Dad, Uncle Craig, Aunty Karen and me from Unka Patrick. We were at a pre-Christmas get-together at Unka Paddy and Uncle Grant's place. Lots of interesting food and drinks had been attended to and presents were swapped. Imagine the surprise when we all scored aprons. Not just ordinary ones, but ones with patterns that matched the person (or bear). Aunty Karen's has leaves and flowers, Uncle Craig's has racing cars, Dad's has aeroplanes, Mum's has bling (I bet you expected cows), and mine has paw-prints. Cousin Andrew didn't score an apron, he got boy things. Now to light up the barbie and throw a few (dozen) prawns and some snags on.

Labels: Canberra, Christmas

I guess by now you all know about this thing Mum has about cows. Everything with a cow on it becomes part of the household as soon as Mum sees it. Plates, cups, mugs, jugs; you name it, she's got it. These are her cow scoop things, a small sugar scoop and two bigger ice-cream scoops. I think the one that has the ice-cream heart and sunnies looks like a real cool cow. Actually, with a scoop for each hand, even a small bear could make a big hole in a container of ice-cream in a really short time.

Labels: family

This big glass tower is near the Barrack St wharf in Perf. It is a bell tower and has sixteen bells in it, one of the largest set of bells in the world. The tower is really just one big musical instrument, big enough to walk around inside. Twelve of the bells come from the church of St Martin in the Fields, in Trafalgar Square in London. They were given to Western Australia for the Australian Bicentenary in 1988. The tower is nearly 83 metres tall and you can go inside it to see the bells and find out how they are played. The bell room is high up in the tower and you get good views of Perf from there. Just about every time we were at the wharf the bells were ringing. They sound great, but I couldn't have a go at ringing them because my paws couldn't reach the controls.

Labels: Perth, Western Australia

Aussie cricket selectors please note; I have the gear and am available for the next test. Santa left me my very own cricket bat and pads. I have studied the game on TV for years now and have been practicing using Mum's beads as balls. My arms are too short to be able to bowl like Mitch, Warnie or Pidge, but I can slog beads around like Punter, Gillie and Hados. All through last season when our guys were not doing so well, I thought that if only I had a chance I could help the team out. Well, I now have the equipment and the selectors are giving the younger guys a chance to fill the gaps left by the retirement of my heroes, so what about giving me a go??
And how about that last test match? After the first day I thought that we had had it. A bad call from our captain and the whole team bowled out for next to nothing. A big score from the Pakistanis and what seemed an impossible task for the Aussies to win, but the guys did it. I have just about made holes in the lounge with the excited jumping and bat-swinging. Cricket is never boring.

Labels: cricket, Santa

One of the fun things about Christmas is going out somewhere swish for Christmas dinner. This saves Mum from a lot of housework on a day when she should be able to enjoy other things, like small bears do. This year we were away from home, so we went to the fanciest place we could book into near where we were staying. Dinner had everything that we could possibly ask for. Dad goes for the ham, lamb and poultry. I think that he definitely has bear genes. Mum, of course, goes for the prawns. I think that she could totally deplete the world's prawn stocks if she was given a free go. This time I tried one and I have to say that I didn't like it much and can't see what all the fuss is about. You don't actually have much left to eat by the time you get the critter out of the shell and remove the yucky bits. And they look too much like crabs for me to feel comfortable near them. I will leave them to Mum and stick to the chocolate and champagne.

Labels: Christmas, crabs

Meet two of my special friends. The lady is Stacey. She works with Mum. I like it when I can go to work with Mum because Stacey makes a big fuss about me and treats me in the manner that small bears should be. She is getting married soon.
The bloke is Nathan. He shares a house with bro Trent and their doglet, Slinky. I like him because he has more time for small bears than lots of blokes do.
I just might make these two honourary Aunty and Uncle.

Labels: Canberra, family

No doubt about Santa, he always does the right thing for small bears, even if we do get into some mischief during the year. I was really worried that he might forget about me because I wasn't at home for Christmas. Mind you, I liked the week we were away at the coast, but there was this niggly worry that Santa hadn't dropped a quad bike for me down there and might have missed dropping it at home as well. No problem. As soon as we got back I raced over to where I had left my stocking hanging and there was this big parcel waiting. Now I know some people take great care unwrapping presents, but I'm not one of them. In double quick time the paper was off and there it was - a bear-sized quad bike. What a beauty. Not just a bike, but a launcher thingy that shoots it off at high speed as well. I have had some great runs on it already and I guess that this year the Oldies will have to watch where they put their big feet to avoid the small bear zooming around the floor. Thank you Santa.

Labels: Canberra, Christmas, Santa

Last night we took Mum out to dinner for her birthday. Lucky Mum gets presents on two days at Christmas time, I only get them on one. Anyway, we went to Axis, the ressertorornt in the National Museum of Australia (and I STILL can't spell restaurant). To leave the Museum you can go through the foyer, past the shop, and Mum and I always stop to window shop. Well, there in front of the shop was this huge big Christmas tree, with gazillions of baubles and dangly things on it, but no presents. I thought that it might be just ready for Santa and if I hid there pretending to be another ornament I might be able to answer one of the great questions that has puzzled small bears and children for ages. I might actually see Santa materialize, or sneak in through a window or something, and see if he is real or a fake. Not this time; Mum noticed I was missing and after a search they found the fake-ornament-camouflaged bear and we went home. Still, it was kind of fun watching the others trying to find me, I am getting pretty good at this camouflage thing. Tomorrow morning we head off for the coast, so I will have more pictures and stories for you next week.

Labels: Canberra, Christmas

Labels: Christmas

Mum and I have been really busy lately. With Christmas nearly here there are lots of things to do. There are cards to make and post, bead thingies to make for presents for friends, and of course there is always housework to make the place look good for Santa. Here I am, helping sort out the bits and pieces of a shopping trip. There are card, ribbon, stamps, ink and punches to make special cards with, and strings of beads to be sorted out and divided up into project piles. Honest, I don't know how Mum would manage without the help of a small bear.

Labels: beads, Christmas, craft, Santa

Scruffy and I just found out that one of the things to do when Santa is expected is to hang up a stocking for him to fill with goodies. Problem no.1; small bears don't have stockings. Fortunately Mum knows where she can get just about anything and she found a couple of Christmas-type ones. Now, you might think that I would be a bit stroppy because Scruff has the bigger one, but I am not. After all, Scruff is older than me, and I know that there is no way that Santa can get a quad bike into a small container like these stockings. I think he will fill them with small nibbly things and leave my bike in a pretty wrapped box. The tradition with stockings is that you hang them near a chimney. That's problem no.2; our house has no chimney. Dad says that's not a problem. Evidently in the old days chimneys were the only way Santa could get into a house. The modern Santa has copied Dr Who? and has the technology to dematerialize through solid walls and reach present-drop zones no matter where they are. That only leaves problem no.3; we are going to be away on Christmas night, so will Santa know where to find us??

Labels: Christmas, Santa

Mum has this little pink bin that she uses to keep some of our craft materials in. I sometimes use it to play at being a grouch. I guess everybody knows what a grouch is. I learned about them from watching "Sesame Street" on TV. The grouch there, Oscar, is a fun character and reminds me of Dad. Except that Dad would find it hard to find a bin big enough to fit into. The big difference between Oscar and me is that Oscar's bin (being American, he calls it a trash can) is full of rubbish and grunge, and mine (OK, Mum's) has to stay clean. If I ever let it get like Oscar's, Mum would go ballistic and stop me from playing in it.

Labels: craft, TV

Signposts are really important things, especially if you are depending on Dad to do the navigation. This one is at the top of One Tree Hill on Hamilton Island. From this signpost all the roads go downhill and they are also very steep, so you really do need to make sure that your golf buggy goes the right way. I thought it might be fun to climb up and switch the signs around, but they were bolted on too tight for a small bear to move. The view from the post was great. I could see all along the passage in from the outer islands right across to the Queensland coast. There were lots of boats of all sorts coming and going from the islands and reefs. When I looked up again there were stacks of tourists taking my photo. They thought I looked cute up there, so I guess it was just as well that they didn't catch me messing things around.

Labels: climbing, Hamilton Is, Queensland

All of a sudden that time of year is here again. Suspicious-looking wrapped boxes are starting to stack up on the shelves where Mum puts presents for friends. So far I haven't found anything with my name on it. Odd critters, like the Christmas cows, are starting to appear around the place. Christmas cards are coming in every mail delivery. And I have just found out that it's only 12 days to go, or more importantly, only 12 sleeps until Santa comes again. I hope the whiskery old fellow has been doing his spy work as well as he usually does, and knows that I am really hanging out for a quad bike this year. The only drawback with Christmas is that I am usually forced to wear something sooky for a while. At least this year it's only a collar thingy that actually looks kind of cool, a lot better than the Santa Paws hat that I had to wear last year. Actually, Trent's doglet, Slinky, has a Christmas collar too, but it is not a classy as my one and I don't try to eat mine like he does.

Labels: Christmas, Santa

In our courtyard there is a funny-looking thing on a concrete pillar. It looks like a couple of almost-rings and an arrow all welded together. Actually, it is an armillary sphere, a type of sundial. The arrow is called the gnomon and it's job is to make a thin shadow that moves along one of the rings as the Sun travels across the sky. The ring has numbers marked on it to tell you what time it is when the shadow is on a mark. Sundials are not really accurate except for four times a year, near equinoxes and solstices. At other times they can be up to 20 minutes fast or slow here in Canberra. Dad has this one set up to read best when we are on Daylight Saving Time, so I have a bit of trouble telling the time from it. First I have to remember what the date is, then how much the shadow is fast or slow, then if it is Daylight Saving or not. I often get it very wrong, small bears are not good at mental arithmetic. It is fun trying though because the only way I can read the thing is to climb up the concrete and into the middle of the sphere where I can see the marks. Any excuse to climb is fine by me.

Labels: astronomy, Canberra, climbing

Sometimes you just can't find a secluded spot to sunbake all on your own. This was one of those times. We were down near Eden in southern NSW and I had found this nice warm rock with a flat top just the right size for a small bear's backside and settled down to soak up some sun. Just as I was dozing off this little water dragon came zipping along and settled down on MY rock. He wanted to sunbake too, because lizards move better and run faster when they are warm. The cheeky little critter even sniffed me and settled down with his head on my leg. Talk about cheek! I guess he didn't really see me, after all I was staying very still and, as you can see, I am just about the same solour as the rock. A perfect camouflage job actually, so I guess you can't blame the lizard. He was so happy on the rock that he didn't even run far when Mum grabbed me to take me back to the car.

Labels: animals, New South Wales, south coast

Here's a prime example of what can happen to a small bear who enjoys his holidays too much. We all enjoyed our holiday on Hamilton Island. It was Milkshake's first trip to the tropics, so Scruffy and I had a lot to show her. Golf buggy hooning, yachting, sandcastle building, meeting the rellies, and so on. Unfortunately Scruff showed her one of the things not to do. We had dinner at "Sails" one night and us Littlies shared one of the giant Toucan Burgers (I hasten to point out that the name comes from the previous name of the ressertoraorunt "Toucan Tango", not from the contents of the burger (and I still can't spell "restaurant")). Scruff ate much more than his share, and most of the chips as well, and after we got home he started to turn green and complain about a tummy-ache. Dr Bart and Nurse Milky to the rescue. By the time we had poked, prodded and pounded him for a while, he decided to be cured. There is nothing that small bears can't fix.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

Here's a boat that has been in the news a lot here in Australia. It is the Customs and Fisheries vessell "Oceanic Viking". Its job is to keep foreign poachers from stealing Australia's fish and to catch smugglers. We hear about it occasionally catching fishermen who are over-fishing and are catching things like the rare Toothfish. The "Viking" was on TV almost every night a few weeks ago because it had been caught up in an embarassing international problem. It had picked up a sinking load of boat people, who were trying to sneak into Australia illegally, and then couldn't find anywhere to unload them. They had come via Indonesia, but Indonesia didn't want them, and they didn't want to go back to where they had come from. It took weeks before the Australian and Indonesian governments sorted the problem out, and all that time the "Viking" was stuck off Indonesia with a load of passengers nobody wanted. I don't understand why people try to sneak into Australia like that. If they just go about it the right way, through the proper channels, they can usually come anyway, provided they aren't criminals or terrorists or other nasty types. Scruffy and I saw the "Oceanic Viking" earlier this year on our way from Perf to Rottnest Island. It was berthed in Fremantle harbour, being stocked up for a patrol in the cold ocean between Australia and Antarctica.

Labels: boats, Perth, Western Australia

Mum has a new toy on the computer. It is a snazzy little device that prints things out on sticky labels. Of course she uses it for serious-type things, like addressing Christmas cards and identifying what's in what box in the garage. Small bears can have lots more fun with it than that. Over the last few days I have stuck labels on everything that I can reach. For some strange reason the Oldies aren't too happy about that. Maybe they don't like the way I have labelled some of their stuff. Dad certainly wasn't too impressed with the "Old Codger's Plastic Surgery" label that I stuck to his hobby room door, but he does do a lot of cutting, shaping and glueing of plastic in there, so I don't know what the problem is. After all, if they didn't want me to do things with the computer and its attachments, then they shouldn't have taught me to type.

Labels: Christmas, computer

We found this guy at the Egyptian exhibition in Sydney last week. I thought his name was A-New-Boss when I heard it first, but it turns out to be Anubis. In ancient Egypt, Anubis was the jackal-headed god who looked after the making of mummies and who led the souls of dead people through all the trials and perils of the afterlife on their way to judgement. He also was the protector of tombs. Jackals are doggie things that are often seen around the outskirts of Egyptian villages, digging in rubbish heaps and cemetries, so that's probably why the Egyptians made Anubis a jackal-headed guy. Actually, Anubis is the Greek name for him. Those of us who study heiroglyphs (Mum and I, around our house) know that the Egyptian name for him is actually Inpw. Anyway, I am glad that his name isn't A-new-boss because there is only room for one boss in this house and it's Mum.

Labels: Egypt, Sydney

No, I am not ancient. I certainly don't rule the seas either, but way back in the last centuries BC ships like this did. This is a model of a Carthagenian warship that Dad and I have just finished making. The real ship was 72 times bigger, just over 150 feet long. Up to the time that the Romans destroyed Carthage, these ships ruled the Mediterranean sea. Actually, the Romans only won after they had captured a Carthagenian ship and made hundreds of copies of it. Roman ships had one addition that gave them the edge in battle. The ships of Cathage used sailing skill to ram enemy ships and sink them. The Romans added a "Corvus", a sort of a drawbridge with a spike on it that they would drop onto a Carthagenian ship, locking the two ships together, and then send soldiers across to take the Carthagenian vessel. The Carthagenians were much better sailors, but the Romans were superior soldiers. The old ships of the Mediterranean, be they Carthagenian, Greek or Roman, mostly used oars to move them. The one the model is based on had 116 oars and around 400 oarsmen; the biggest oars sometimes had up to 5 rowers pulling them. Sails were used only when the wind was right because these ships couldn't tack into wind like modern sailboats do. It took Dad and I ages to build this model, because it is the first time we have tried to rig anything. Rigging is hard. As soon as you add another line, all of the ones you have put in before go too slack or too tight and you have to fiddle a lot to get everything right. Still, I reckon we didn't do too bad a job of it. I particularly like the little sailors we put on deck. Do you know that nobody can agree on what colour Carthagenians were? We took a guess and made ours a light coffee colour like the people that the Oldies saw in Egypt. Now it's back to aeroplanes, where only the old ones have rigging and in 1/72 scale you can mostly forget it.

Labels: boats, models

I love trains. All sorts of trains. That is one reason that I like going to Sydney, because it is almost as quick (city centre to city centre) and a lot more comfortable to go by train. The Canberra train is not as big as the one that hauls the Indian-Pacific because it only has a few passenger carriages to pull. This trip I got to do something really special. While I was being carried up the platform to get a picture of the train, the driver asked if I would like to see inside the driver's cabin. Would I and what? I have been on the driver's plate of steam trains before this and they are really cluttered with levers and gauges and things and are pretty grotty with coal dust and soot. This set of controls is very different. It looks more like the dashboard of a big truck and it is very clean. That's important because Mum gets stroppy if I sit in coal dust or soot. Anyhow, it looks pretty easy to drive this train, just a batch of engine instruments, a big red button to stop things in a hurry, and a little throttle joystick to set the speed. The driver says it is actually a bit more complicated, but that's the basics. I could easily have helped drive the train back to Canberra if I was a union member.

Labels: New South Wales, Sydney, train

Last Thursday we went to Sydney to see an Egyptian exhibition at the Australian Museum. Mum and I try to get to all the Egyptian exhibitions we can because we have been studying heiroglyphs for years now and it is fun seeing what those people wrote thousands of years ago. Actually, it is a lot like what people write now. On one of the streets that we walked along there was a really magical window display. It was in a store called David Jones and there were lots of windows full of puppets illustrating Christmas carols. The pictures are only of small bits of the windows because if you try to take pictures from far enough away to see the whole window display all you get is reflections of the street and yourself. Maybe you can work out what carol the puppets in each picture are illustrating. I guessed most of them straight away because Mum is a Christmas carol nut and around about this time of year all she plays are carols. Dad spends a lot of time in his hobby room with the door shut playing wild guitar music. Anyway, displays like this must mean that Santa is due sometime soon and it is time to start dropping hints about small bear sized motorbikes.

Labels: Christmas, New South Wales, Santa, Sydney

We have had a weekend of parties. The Oldies had invited a lot of their astronomy buddies around for what Mum calls "high tea" on Saturday, so we had a housefull of hungry people to feed. You can see some of the spread in the top picture. Mum had just put the cold stuff out on the table and the hot stuff into the oven. I was supervising and checking out the goodies. Scones, jam, cream, sandwiches, peanuts and bickies I knew about, but there were two new things. I nibbled on one of them, a small black thing called an olive, and didn't think much of it. I was just making a grab for the other new thing when Mum saw me and put me away off the table. It turns out that the new stuff was chocolate walnut caramel log slices. Next time I go for that first and leave olives alone. On Sunday we went back to Shaw winery for a wine, roses and jazz lunch. I am not sure if I like jazz, but I sure do like wine and lunch, particularly dessert-type lunch. You can see me digging into dessert in the small pictures. The boy is my friend Alex. His dessert had a huge thing made out of toffee on it and he let me eat lots of it. Friends like that are really useful.

Labels: Canberra

This is one big golf buggy. I found it when we went across to Daydream Island one day during our last visit to Hamilton island. We had been using a small buggy on Hammo, but this one is at least twice the size and has a much bigger motor. It is the stretch-limo version of golf buggies. Naturally, Scruffy, Milkshake and I had to give it a real going over so that we could compare it to the smaller ones. Well, the first thing is that the brake and gear pedals are just as far away from the steering bear's feet, so it would be a combined effort to drive it. Given that the roads on Daydream are mostly right at the water's edge that would probably be a bit unsafe for us. Anyhow, it was all rigged out for a wedding and the real driver came and evicted us before we could get it started. And we had to run and catch the ferry back to Hamilton anyway. I hope the Bride and Groom and whoever filled the other seats appreciated the vehicle as much as we would have if we had got it going.

Labels: cars and trucks, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Here's another castle that Milkshake and I built on the day we went across to Whitehaven Beach. Actually, we sort of inherited this one from a small boy who had to leave before he had finished it. His Mum seemed to think that catching their boat back to Hamilton Island was more important than finishing the castle. So Milky and I finished the job. We based the design on the old castles that the Oldies saw on their UK trip. The oldest ones have a central keep and an outer ringwall, so that's what we built. The keep was high enough for Milky to keep lookout for pirates, crabs and other dangerous vermin, and the ringwall was just the right height for me to wait with my whacking stick to repell attackers. The crabs must have got the message because they kept right away from us. So did the pirates. The only thing that succeeded in getting us out of the castle was (you guessed it) Mum. We had to catch a boat back to Hamilton as well. I wonder what becomes of all the sandcastles that get left on the beaches every day?

Labels: beach, crabs, Hamilton Is, Queensland

I love this country of ours. It really is a land of contrasts and there is always something interesting to see no matter where you travel. One of the trips that I enjoyed most was our trip across the continent from Sydney to Perf on the Indian-Pacific train (note from Dad: Bart just will not call the place Perth). The changing landscapes out the train window were amazing; the cliffs and valleys of the Blue Mountains, the plains of New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia, the mining towns of Broken Hill, Kalgoorlie and small places that were just a pithead and a mullock heap, and of course the oceans at both ends. Here's a couple of pictures that show one big contrast. The top one is the deserted remains of one of the little railway towns on the Nullarbor Plain. I think it may be Forrest as there are some trees near a house in the background. All that's left are the foundations of the goods sheds, the loading ramp, and the old telegraph line. Nothing for hundreds of miles around but flat, treeless plain and saltbush and sand. The only people are occasional railway repair gangs. The bottom picture is one of the bays at Rottnest Island, in the Indian Ocean near Perf. There are not many buildings near this bay but there are lots and lots of boats, and lots of people as well. People from Perf come over in their boats and anchor in the bays around Rottnest for the weekend, or in some cases for the whole summer. They spend their time swimming, snorkelling, fishing and partying. Desert and sea are both great places for small bears to visit.

Labels: boats, South Australia, train, Western Australia

There is a funny story behind this picture, provided you aren't Dad. In one of the paddocks near Shaw winery there is this rough old shed. There are a couple of sheep in the same paddock. Dad says that the shed is the sort of thing that is called a "sheep fold" in Europe. Maybe he is right because the sheep in the paddock were certainly folded down in the tall grass. You can just see a bit of one to the left of the shed. Anyhow, Dad decided that the photo needed a foreground object and that a small bear on a post would be ideal. Now, if you look carefully at the fence wires you will see that one of them has a glass insulator thingie on it. That should have been enough to warn Dad, and for sure the electric fence charger near the base of the post was a dead giveaway. But no, Dad is in a hurry as usual so it's lean across the small gutter, one hand out to put the bear on the post and the other reaching out for something to hang onto for balance. You guessed it. He grabbed the electramic wire and got a solid zap. So if the photo is a bit fuzzy it is because his eyes were still rolling when he pressed the shutter button. Travel with these Oldies of mine is full of fun.

Labels: animals, New South Wales

Guess what? Yesterday was my birthday. It is seven years since Mum bought me home. I had a great day. First off, there was a bear-sized cake at breakfast, and Dad even let me have some of his special Port. Then I went up to the observatory with Dad for the morning. I like it there because there are lots of birds and kangaroos right outside Dad's office window. Then we collected Mum when she finished work at lunchtime and went to a special place for lunch. The Oldies took me to Shaw winery at Murrumbateman. This is mostly a place where they grow grapes and turn them into wine, but they have a really good resserturornt as well (I still can't spell restaurant). The food is great and there are some really dangerous wines there as well. The Oldies found one that they liked a lot, they say it tastes spectacularly good and has the kick of a donkey, so of course we came back with a bagful. You can buy really pretty plates and things as well. I tried to get a better look at them by climbing up onto the shelves but Mum hauled me down pretty quickly. Dad mumbled something about bulls in china shops, but that had nothing to do with anything because bears are nowhere as destructive as big bovines (I think).

Labels: animals, New South Wales

The thing I am sitting in is called a lifebuoy, buoyancy ring or lifesaver. Actually I thought lifesavers were a kind of lolly but Dad has explained that the lollies were named after the buoy because they look the same shape. Well, after taking a lick at this thing I can tell you that they sure don't taste the same. You can find lifebuoys on just about any boat. They are hooked up on walls and rails where you can get to them quickly and toss them at anybody who has fallen off the boat. I waited on this one all the way back from Whitehaven Beach to Hamilton Island, hoping that somebody would fall in so I could toss the thing in and see how it worked, but no luck. Mum thought I looked cute sitting there waiting, so she took a picture. While she was off taking other pictures around the boat I had a go at untying the knots that held the ring in place. No luck, but the ventilation grille on the wall was interesting. I could hear the crew talking on the other side of the wall and figured that if I could get the screws loose I could jump in and scare them. No luck again. Mum came back and caught me. She says these two pictures are a great example of the two aspects of the nature of small bears; cute one side, pure mischief the other.

Labels: boats, climbing, Hamilton Is, Queensland

This is the main lighthouse on Rottnest Island, near Fremantle in Western Australia. It is called Wadjemup Light after the local Aboriginal name for Rottnest Island. There has been a lighthouse here since 1851. The first one was built by aboriginal convicts, using local stone, and it was the first stone lighthouse in Western Australia. This one, also built of local limestone and twice the size of the old one, was built in 1896. All that remains of the first lighthouse is a small shed next to the new one. It must have been a hard place to live back when the lighthouse was new, because the first three lighthouse keepers all committed suicide.
We saw the Wadjemup lighthouse on a bus trip around Rottnest during our visit to Perf back in March. The bus didn't stop, it just drove past slowly, so Mum didn't have time to take the gazillions of pictures she normally takes of every light we visit. However, she did manage to get something different in one of the pix; if you click on the picture to make it bigger you can see an aeroplane flying over to the left of the lighthouse. Our lighthouse count is now at 82, nearly 100 if you count the ones that the Oldies saw overseas, but I won't let them include them as there were no small bears present to confirm the sightings.

Labels: lighthouse, Perth, Western Australia

Milkshake and I had great fun the day we went to Whitehaven Beach from Hamilton Island. We built a couple of sandcastles, played pirates, tossed rocks at crabs and spelled words in the sand with sticks. Naturally we ended up getting sand in our fur. This is one thing that normally gets Mum cranky, but she must have been enjoying the beach as much as we were because this time she thought it was funny. Mind you, she still shook us hard and brushed us to get the sand off. Milky's fur is very short so she cleaned up pretty easily, but my fur is a much tougher proposition. How to get the sand out from way in? Normally it means trouble, involving a stiff brush and (horror of horrors), even a bath. Not this time. Guess what? The one who normally will not let me anywhere near water in its natural habitat actually took me down to the ocean and dipped me into the little waves. There is hope yet. Maybe someday I will even be allowed to go surfing and snorkelling!!

Labels: beach, Hamilton Is, Queensland, trouble

It is now two years since the Oldies were off over the other side of the world on their big trip, and there are still lots of pictures to show you from that trip. This one is the entry into Caernarfon (which the English call Carnarvon castle). The castle was built by the English King, Edward 1 around 1282. It was one of a series of castles built to keep the Welsh under control. Dad says that the Welsh are fiercely independent people and have never been under control. Anyhow, lots of you have seen Caernarfon on the TV, because it is here that the Princes of Wales are invested in their office. The last one was Prince Charles in 1969, too long ago for lots of you to have seen, but the castle is used as the site for lots of TV movies. The castle is sort of a semi-ruin. The walls are mostly OK but almost all of the wooden bits have gone, the only bits left are in rooms that have been restored. The stone stairs are still there and you can go up onto the battlements. You have to be careful up there as some of the walls have big gaps in them and, as you can see from the small photo, there are scary things moving around up there.

Labels: buildings, castle, Wales

The quickest way to get to Hamilton Island from Canberra is to fly. Because there are no direct Canberra-Hamilton flights we usually change planes in Brisbane. Now, the aeroplane in the top photo is not the one that we flew on. It is bear-size, but although Dad started it up for me, all it did was rumble, whistle and bounce around. A fun ride but no real use to go anywhere. Actually, it is outside one of the shops on Hamilton Island so I guess it figures it is already there and has no reason to fly anywhere. The 'plane we actually flew on from Brisbane is the one in the bottom photo. It is an Airbus A320 of Jetstar airlines. Scruffy, Milkshake and I were able to watch as the airline workers got it ready for us. We saw them topping up the fuel, loading food, and putting the luggage on board. This trip was Milky's first flight so we had to explain everything to her, particularly why we had to ride inside Dad's backpack up in the overhead luggage lockers. She was a bit worried at first by the noise and acceleration, but by the end of the trip she was enjoying it as much as Scruff and I always do.

Labels: aircraft, Hamilton Is, Queensland

You have to be careful about one thing when you visit Hamilton Island. Some of the birds are thieves and very quick and sneaky thieves at that. You can't leave anything lying about in the open or the birds grab it. They even come inside to snitch things if you forget to close doors when you go out. We had a couple of regular hopefuls whenever we spent time on our balcony. As soon as the door opened these guys would appear and try to look absolutely starved. The kookaburra would get the message as soon as Dad shooed him away, but the cockatoo was much more cunning. He would pretend to fly off, but only go as far as the first branch that was out of sight. Then he would wait until he heard something interesting, like a chip packet being opened, and he was back. Of course they are not starving. Hamilton Island has lots of rainforest areas full of natural food for critters and it is really bad for the birds to eat much people-type food. But they are probably like me (and the Oldies, although they would never admit it) and much prefer "naughty" food like chips, peanuts, ice-cream and hamburgers to "healthy" stuff.

Labels: birds, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Guess what? I am a registered Hamilton Hoon. I have now driven a golf buggy around all of the roads on Hamilton Is, even some of the ones that visitors aren't supposed to go on (I just claim to be lost if anybody asks why I am there). Golf buggies are easy for a small bear to drive, provided they have at least one Oldie on board to turn the engine on and put it into gear. Then I just put a brick on the accellerator and go. I steer by throwing my weight from side to side. Some of the hills on Hamilton are really steep but the engine speed thingy stops the buggy from running away. Mind you the oldies always jump on the brake just as things are getting exciting. In fact Dad's hair, what's left of it, is a bit whiter since we got back. I don't think it has anything at all to do with my driving.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

This year we have been to two very different places, as you can see from these photos. Back in March we travelled through the desert on the Indian-Pacific train and we are just back from Hamilton Is where we spent a lot of time going places on boats. The desert part of the train trip was the Nullarbor Plain, not a sandy desert like the Oldies saw in Egypt and Dubai, but an area where not enough rain falls to grow much in the way of plants. Its just loads of sand and saltbush and not much else. But it is a fascinating place and I hope we go back into the Australian desert sometime and roam around in it for a while. I really want to see what the animals that live there are like, even though Dad says lots of them are dangerous. The sea is very different of course. It changes all the time and is full of critters and islands and has nice sandy beaches along lots of the edge. I know a fair bit now about the things that live in and near the sea. I am not sure what is the most impressive, the desert or the sea. Some people absolutely love the one and hate the other, but this small bear just loves both of them and want to see and learn more about them.

Labels: boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland, South Australia, train, Western Australia

Isn't it funny how Mums get all cranky when you get mud and dirt in your fur, but are quite happy to let you play in the sand at the beach? Not that I am complaining, mind you, I love mucking about in sand. Here are Milkshake and I busy making a sand fort on Whitehaven Beach. There was a little sand cliff left by the tide when it went out and it was just right for the back wall of the fort. All we had to do was pile up damp sand for the ringwall and we had an almost crab-proof enclosure. This is where Dad comes in handy. He can shovel sand much faster than Milky or me. And as for crabs, if one did breach our almost impregnable defenses, we had this large coconut ready to dong them with. We had a great game of castaways, spending some of the time sitting on our wall scanning the horizon for pirate ships. All we could see were yachts, power boats, cruisers, catamarans, helicopters and the occasional seaplane, but if pirates had shown up they would have got one heck of a fright.

Labels: beach, castle, crabs, Hamilton Is, Queensland

There is no doubt that security at our airports is vital, and there is no doubt that it is getting even tougher. Not even small bears can get through without sometimes being called over for spot checks. This trip they picked me. Normally I get through OK by just being X-rayed in Dad's backpack, but on our way to Hamilton Is I got the full treatment. First off, they had me read all the notices about prohibited stuff and make a declaration that I had none of those things with me. Then I was frisked and prodded to make sure I wasn't hiding anything on my body. Then they ran this sniffer probe all over me to see if I had been in contact with drugs of any sort. I passed all of the checks and was able to join the rest of the family and wait for the 'plane. "Border Security" is my favourite TV program so I really didn't mind, but I do wish the TV crew had been filming while I was going through the process.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland, security