Bart Bear's Blog

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

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

The most impressive trees on Norfolk Island are the huge Moreton Bay Fig trees that grow near 100 Acre Farm. They have strangely-shaped buttress roots that are just perfect highways for small bears out on a climbing expedition. Mind you, it gets a bit tough once you have climbed up the root and have to start up the main trunk. This was Milkshake's first attempt at climbing anything like this, so we had to take a rest along the way. You can just see us on top of the big root. The roots are so big that small animals can get lost among them. We spotted this small calf desperately trying to find his way back to his Mum and getting all confused among the roots. Dad tried to herd him back through the hole in the fence to the paddock, but small calves can move a lot quicker than an Oldie. He must have found his way back eventually, because he was back with the rest of the cows when we went past next day. Oh yes, we didn't make it to the top of the tree, it got too steep for small legs. Next time we will take ropes and spikes.

Labels: climbing, Norfolk Is

Here we are at Queen Elizabeth Lookout on Norfolk Island. The Queen made a quick visit to Norfolk in 1974 and the lookout was named after her. This is the best spot to get an overview of the old historic areas of the island. It is a smallish parking area off the edge of a sharp bend in the road. If lots of vehicles tried to be there at the same time it could cause problems, but there are never many vehicles at the same spot at the same time on Norfolk. The houses at the base of the hill are on a street called Quality Row and they were the houses of civil servants in the colonial days. The building with the high wall around it is one of the military barracks and it was built like a fort so it would be easy to protect if the convicts revolted. The big walls in the background are the remains of the old gaol. This was the toughest place in the British empire at the time. Now, most of the gaol buildings have been pulled down and the stone used for other buildings. Norfolk is full of history, enough to keep a small bear and his Oldies busy for ages.

Labels: Norfolk Is

No, it's not my spelling, that's the way that you say "glass bottom boat" in the Norfolk language. Actually, I prefer to call this sort of boat a see-through boat. When the water is clear you can see lots of interesting things through the big glass windows in the bottom of a boat like this. This is the one that takes you out to see the coral reef and fish in Emily Bay on Norfolk Island. It is different to most boats because it is solar powered. That makes it very quiet and it doesn't scare the fish. The water in Emily Bay is some of the clearest that the Oldies have ever seen. You should hear them rave on about it when they come out of the water after a snorkelling session. Of course I am not allowed to go swimming with them so boats like this are the only way I can get an idea what they are talking about. The coral was a bit dull this time; it's the time of year when most coral is brownish or greenish, but the fish were really great. Lots of them and some very pretty colours. Personally, I like parrot fish best of the lot. They are brightly coloured and they also make a lot of the sand in coral lagoons; they eat coral, crunching it up to get the coral polyps and pooing the finely chewed coral sand. I really liked the way that this boat was launched. The tractor pulled the trailer out so deep that the engine was almost in the water, then it let the boat loose on a rope. The tractor then came back out of the water, the boat was hauled up to the end of the trailer, and the trailer was the gangplank we used to get on board. Try it yourself when you go to Norfolk Island.

Labels: boats, Norfolk Is

One of the best walks on Norfolk Island is the one between the summits of Mt Pitt and Mt Bates. It is a fairly easy walk, even my Oldies can manage it. It's a lot tougher if you are a small bear with short legs. I mean, just look at this section. It's a bit steep, so the national park guys have put in steps to help people get up there easier, and to stop the track eroding into a gully. That's fine for people but it's really tough on critters like me. As you can see from the photos, the steps were almost the same height as me. You can almost not see me in the main photo. I was making really heavy going of it until Mum picked me up and carried me the rest of the way.

Labels: climbing, Norfolk Is

We are back from our week on Norfolk Island and have just finished downloading the 972 pictures that the Oldies took while we were there. Norfolk is a beautiful island, so it's not hard to take over 100 pictures a day. Scruffy and I are sitting on a cliff top, looking over at the old settlement area of Kingston. The big square castle-walled thing is the old gaol. This was possibly the worst place that a convict could end up back in the 1800's when Britain sent its prisoners out for hard labour in the colonies. Most of the buildings in Kingston are relics of the convict era. Today they are museums, instead of gaols and soldiers' barracks. One of the buildings is used as the island's parliament house. Norfolk is an independent country, so you have to have a passport to get there. The stone jetty is one of only two places where small boats can safely dock on the island, big ships have to anchor offshore and transfer cargo and passengers in smaller boats, called lighters. I love Norfolk because it is full of history, beautiful scenery, and cows.

Labels: boats, Norfolk Is

Every bear needs a batch of places where he can hole up and hibernate when the weather starts to head towards winter. I have lots of places hidden around our house. Trouble is that Mum keeps finding them and "tidying them up". I reckon that she would find it hard to do much with this one, even a mother has her limits. I found this great hollow log on Norfolk Island. It is just the right size for a bear-house. The only thing you have to watch is the trio of spikes above the entry, but they help keep the big animals and people out. It even has a great big anchor outside to belt dangerous critters with, or to tie things like Santa's reindeer to when they come visiting. And, best of all, it is high on a hill and up off the ground so there is no way them nasty crabs can sneak up on sleeping small bears.

Labels: crabs, Norfolk Is, Santa

This is my crazy Dad. His name is Vince. His great-great-great-grandfather was sent to NSW as a convict in 1830 and the convict ancestry shows every so often, like on this night during our visit to Norfolk Island. Dad retired this year after 40 years as a research astronomer at Mt Stromlo Observatory. He is teaching me to build model aeroplanes.

Labels: family, Norfolk Is