Bart Bear's Blog

I love spectacular sunsets. There is something magic about watching the Sun sink behind the hills and seeing the clouds light up in shades of red and orange for a while. This one was watched from the balcony of the unit we rented on our last trip to Hamilton Island. The weather was pretty lousy for most of the stay; rainy and windy for all but two days. However, that meant that there was usually enough cloud around for sunsets like this one. You can see the hills of the Queensland coast in the background, the shadow stripe of a cloud across the glow, and a ferry from Airlie Beach zipping along. And another great thing about sunsets, as far as small bears are concerned, is that they start the Oldies thinking about dinner time.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

I've often wondered just what Garden gnomes actually do. Whenever I see one it's just sitting there in someone's garden doing nothing at all. Well, Scruffy, Milkshake and I decided to run an experiment to try and get an answer. We picked a beautiful spot near a path in a garden bed near the big duckpond on Hamilton Island and settled down to watch and wait. The only things that we saw were some people going along the path to picnic spots, a couple of lizards sunning themselves on the paving stones, and some small birds hunting insects among the plants. If that is the sort of thing that garden gnomes see they must have a boring life. I will stick to doing the things that our gang of three small critters do.

Labels: gardens, Hamilton Is, Queensland

One of the things that I like doing is watching the Sunset over the sea. It is even better if there is a harbour full of boats as well. This is one of my favourite spots on Hamilton Island. It is down in the business end of the marina where most of the tourists don't go, so it is easy to find a bollard or a post to sit on and watch it getting dark. I like to watch the pelicans and seagulls catching their last fish of the day and then fly off to roost for the night. Sometimes I see a really big fish being bought in by very excited fishermen. And sometimes I see interesting arguments between yachtsmen who are trying to fit two yachts into a space only big enough for one of them. You can see lots of interesting things, just sitting quietly and watching things finishing up their day. Can you see me sitting there quietly? Dad couldn't when he came looking for me.

Labels: boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Wow, it's hard to believe that I have been writing this blog for 4 whole years! I didn't think that anybody would be all that interested in the doings of a small Aussie bear and his Oldies, but at last count people from 15 different countries were reading my ramblings. Over the four years I have shown you some of my favourite places, like Fiji, Norfolk Island, Hamilton Island, the Great Barrier Reef and lots of places on mainland Australia from the beaches to the central desert. I hope my travels by car, boat, plane and train have been fun to read about, and I hope the Oldies keep us travelling. And of course I haven't been able to resist bragging a bit about the craftwork and models that I help the Oldies with. Thanks for reading my blog; I really do enjoy your emails and occasional comments.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, animals, astronomy, beach, Captain Cook, family, Fiji, fish, Hamilton Is, lighthouse, Norfolk Is, Queensland, Temora, train

If there is an emergency on Hamilton Island this special buggy is quickly on the scene. There are all sorts of special buggies on Hammo as well as the hundreds of ordinary ones that everybody uses to zoom around on. This one has all the tools that might be needed to help rescue a tourist in trouble. I like the spotlight best. Just the right size for a small bear to swivel around and light up unsuspecting things. It would be great to have a go with this at night and spot and scare the wallabies that live in the scrub on the side of the hill. You could play "sailor at the Battle of Jutland" and light up "enemy boats" coming up the passage between the islands. Maybe I need a spotlight like this on our car.I had a chance to climb all over this special buggy when it parked next to us at One Tree Hill. If you wait for a while on One Tree you will see and meet everything and everybody on Hamilton, so it is one of my favourite spots.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

There is absolutely nothing quite like sharing a fresh muffin with friends at a great picnic spot. Hamilton Island has all the necessary things for such sharing; the bakery makes superb muffins and there are some very pretty places for picnics. In this picture Scruffy, Milkshake and I were at One Tree Hill and about to hoe into a delicious chocolate and caramel fudge muffin. It was a giant muffin as far as us small critters are concerned, big enough to feed us all and to have some crumbs left over for Dad. So tasty that for a while we even forgot our usual activities at One Tree and for a while the boats and aeroplanes went unspotted and the trees weren't climbed. They say music soothes savage beasts, but muffins work even better on our gang.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

There are lots of nice picnic places on Hamilton Island. Most of them have garden areas around them, with all sorts of tropical stuff growing there. This fern tree is in the garden area near the big duckpond (you can read about that in one of my older postings). Now, I know from watching TV that dinosaurs ate this sort of tree, and if the tree has somehow managed to survive it may just be possible that there is a hungry dino out there somewhere as well. Scruffy, Milkshake and I have never seen a real dinosaur so we decided to try and catch one. We climbed up into the tree, near the little seed pods, and waited for one to come for a feed. We weren't scared because we know that plant-eaters don't eat small animals if they can help it. If one came, we were going to grab it by the head and lead it home and keep it for a pet, but although we waited for hours no dino came. Maybe they are really extinct after all.

Labels: climbing, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Yay!!! My computer is all back, faster than ever..
You have probably noticed from earlier photos that there are lots of ways for small bears to ride on the Hamilton Island golf buggies. Here are three more. First off, if you absolutely must obey the letter of the law regarding seat belts, you can strap yourself and your buddies in. The lap part of a lap-sash seat belt will easily hold two small bears and a small cow. Why seat belts on golf buggies? Well, there have been a few accidents where people have rolled buggies and even a few people killed by falling out on sharp corners so the OH&S commissars have decreed that belts must be worn. In fact, only new arrivals seem to wear them, the old hands and locals don't. Second spot, really useful if it is raining, is up under the dash where the glove-box would be if buggies had glove-boxes. Of course, the drawback to this spot is that you can only see where you have been, not where you are going. The third way is the one I like best, just tuck yourself under part of Mum's seat belt. Make sure that you can reach the steering wheel and off you go, bear steering and Mum working the pedals. Buggies are the best on islands and it puzzles me why more places haven't followed Hammo's transportation lead.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

On Hamilton Island you have to be on your guard all the time when you are eating outside. The local birds are expert tucker-snatchers. If you lose concentration for a micro-second some cockatoo, currawong, lorrikeet or seagull will zip past and you will be missing some of your food. For example, the cockie is holding a bit of Dad's toast in his left claw, and I can tell you from experience that you have to be really quick to snitch fodder from him. All of the cafes have signs on the tables warning about this. They say "Keep Wildlife Wild" and tell you that people-type food will make the critters really sick. The only problem is that the critters can't read, so they keep trying, the waiters keep chasing them away, and some tourists get scared by swooping birds, or learn the hard way just how hard cockies can bite. How do I solve the problem? I just lure them in and clobber them with the cutlery.

Labels: birds, Hamilton Is, Queensland

For most of our recent trip to Hamilton Island the weather was bad, but it started to clear up for the last few days. On one of these days I saw a freak of weather that must have really upset lots of pilots and passengers. In the top photo you can see a long, low cloud just above the water. You can see the top of a hill on Dent Island (the next island across) and if you have really good eyes you can see a small helicopter in the top of the fog. Well, the bottom photo shows you what it looks like there in clear weather. That's right, the airport runway was under the low cloud. What happened was that after the rain the combination of very wet ground and a warm wind that came over the highest part of the island caused this very low cloud in a long strip at the foot of the hills, just where the airport is. It stayed there for most of the day. I have seen cloud like this hugging the tops of hills, but never a long strip at sea-level. The rest of the island was in sunshine, just a bit of high cloud. For hours we saw aircraft circling the island, trying to get a clear patch big enough to land safely in. We sat at the end of the runway for a while and saw two big jets having to cancel their try at the last moment and roar back up, just over our heads. Exciting stuff for small bears but it must have been really frustrating for the pilots who could see the whole island except for the bit they really needed to see, and for the passengers who lost most of the first day of their holiday.

Labels: aircraft, Hamilton Is, Queensland

You might have noticed another week with no post from me. I have been busy helping Mum and the nurses look after Dad. Dad has been having problems walking for a long while and it finally hit the stage where his hip was almost completely worn away. So they put him into hospital, hacked off the top of his leg bone, cleaned up the mess he'd made of his hip socket, and replaced it all with an artificial hip. Now he is at home with Mum and I looking after him and I suspect he would rather be back having breakfast with my relatives on Hamilton Island. Hammo has a small zoo where you can see lots of Australian native animals. At breakfast time they bring koalas out and you take photos and cuddle them. We go there for breakkie a couple of times whenever we are on Hamilton. Despite the fact that Dad lost the paperwork that said just what sort of small bear I am, these photos leave no doubt that there are lots of koala genes in my makeup. I am really happy about that.

Labels: animals, family, Hamilton Is, hospital, Queensland

This is the Yellow Submarine that takes you for an underwater ride around the reef at Bali Hai. To be really accurate, it is a semi-submersible vessel. The passengers sit in a room with glass walls a couple of metres below the surface where they can see what's happening underwater. Jason, the captain, drives from up the top of the tower. He wears polaroid glasses and from up there he can see deeper into the water than the boat needs, so he can steer right up close to the reef and give the people and small bears great views of the corals and fish. Dave sits down with the passengers and tells them about the things they are seeing. One problem with photos of things underwater is that they always look pale and blue. That's because water soaks up the red colour and to get photos that show the real colours you have to take strong lights with you. Dad has some good coral pix, you may have seen some of them earlier on my blog, so I will put more of them up sometime.
If you want to know more about this great trip, check out the web page at http://www.yellowsub.com.au and if you go on the trip tell them Bart sent you.

Labels: boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Here's Bali Hai, the little island that Jason and Dave took us to on their jet boat. Not the big island in the background, the little one with the beach in the foreground. The beach is great for small kids and critters. The sand is soft, the water is warm, and there is enough space to see creepy crabs in time to whack them. There is a reef close in to the beach and most people go snorkelling there. Of course with Mum around there was absolutely no way that I was able to try that. Some day I will manage to get into fins and mask and see what all the excitement is about. You get from the boat to the beach in a little Zodiac boat and Jason hoons it along if you ask him nicely. When you have had some time on the beach and in the water you climb on board that strange looking boat anchored just off the beach. What is it? Read the next post and learn all about it.

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

The boat that Milkshake and I are looking at is the nicest and fastest boat that we have ever been on. It takes you from Hamilton Island up the Whitsunday Passage to a small island that the tour operators call Bali Hai, but which this small bear knows is really named Black Island. There is a good little beach there and a semi-submarine to see the reef from. I will tell you more about them later. The boat is fitted with a 1000 horse-power water jet engine and it really hoots along. Instead of hard old bench seats, it has really comfy lounge-type seats so that some of the bumps from waves don't feel so hard on your bottom. Actually, I like bumpy boat trips, but the one we did was pretty smooth. The boat crew are my new friends, Dave and Jason. Jason drives the boat and the semi-sub and Dave does just about everything else. Milky and I had a go at the controls just before we left the wharf at Hamilton. I think we could have managed to drive for the whole afternoon, but Jason took over for the rest of the trip and we just sat back and enjoyed the high-speed cruise.

Labels: boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

Yes, I have been away again, trying to get warm. It is freezing here in Canberra and Queensland sounded like the place to be. Almost a month ago our heating system at home broke down and the guys are still trying to fix it. There is only so much cold that Oldies and small bears can take so we decided Hamilton Island looked good. However, we picked the wrong place at the wrong time. The weather over most of Queensland was lousy almost the whole week, we only had two days of sunshine, and it was actually cold. Fortunately, the heater there worked. Hamilton is changing and not necessarily for the better. Things have zoomed up in price since we were last there and a lot of the boat trips we enjoyed don't run anymore. Still, it was fun hooning around on the golf buggy and we had fun.

Labels: Hamilton Is, Queensland

It's winter again. I don't like it very much. We have had our first frosts for the year and Mum leaves for work sometimes before the Sun breaks through the fog. Winter in Canberra is the pits. Unless you are a ski-bunny, which Scruffy, Milkshake and I are certainly not. In our opinion, water should not be in the form of cold white stuff that you slide across on planks, but should be nice warm liquid full of waves, boats and fish. We want to escape the cold and get back to one of the great islands that the Oldies take us to sometimes. We don't care which one as long as it has warm water and cold drinks. The nice, warm water in this picture is at Emily Bay on Norfolk Island. This is the clearest water I have ever seen, and it's full of coloured fish and really safe for the Oldies to snorkel in. Actually, it would be safe for small bears as well, but some of us are lumbered with a Mum that won't let us get wet. The tall, cold drink is one we "guarded" for Mum on another island, Daydream Island in the Whitsundays. We were there on a day trip from Hamilton Island and somehow the liquid level in the glass dropped considerably before Mum got back. The way Milky is balanced on Scruff to bring her mouth level with the straw may be a clue to what happened. Take us away to the tropics again, please.

Labels: beach, Canberra, Hamilton Is, Norfolk Is

I may have mentioned before that I love boats, all kinds of boats. This is the boat that took us across to Whitehaven Beach from Hamilton Island. It is a catamaran, so it doesn't go very far down in the water and it can get right in close to the beach before it hits the sandy bottom. It can get you to places where there is no jetty. Also, it can just drop a set of steps down onto the beach and you can get ashore without getting soaked. It is also very fast and when there is not much swell it can zoom along at over 35 kilometres per hour. I like to get out onto the open deck and feel the wind and spray in my fur. And I really do like it when it is a bit rough and bouncy, even if some of the other passengers start feeling a bit sea-sick; that's something else that small bears are immune to.

Labels: beach, boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

You can find all sorts of boats in the marina at Hamilton Island. Some are small run-abouts, some are yachts of all sizes, and some are huge millionaire-type boats. The Oldies, Scruffy and I love boats and we spent lots of time walking around the marina and playing "this one's mine, but somebody is living on it". There are lots of places where you can stop your golf buggy and get good views of the marina as well. This photo was taken from the highest road that a golf buggy can go on. For higher roads you need a 4-wheel drive vehicle, so have to be with a tour group. Boats and boat trips, beaches, sun, koalas, aeroplanes up close and golf buggies to hoon around in; no wonder Hamilton Island is one of my favourite places.

Labels: boats, Hamilton Is, Queensland

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

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