Bart Bear's Blog

Here I am at the ticket window of the Puffing Billy station at Belgrave. The ticket man was a bit confused and uncertain about how to issue the tickets for us. The Oldies were no problem, but he had never had to issue a ticket for a small bear before then. Anyhow, that was sorted out and we walked onto the platform where the train was waiting. I really like this train. Narrow-gauge engines like this are smaller than the big main line steamers so they look much cuter. They still make the same great hissing and puffing noises and the drivers are always happy to let small bears check out the drivers cab. You can see that the station is in a forest area, and most of the trip is through different types of wet and dry eucalypt forest. A great day trip from Melbourne, just make sure that the ticket man knows how to charge you.

Labels: Melbourne, train, Victoria

It was hot at the Avalon airshow in March. We had been walking for what seemed like hours, looking at all the aircraft parked in the static display areas. Small bears get hot very quickly and I needed to find a shady spot for a short rest. Now, there is one aircraft that has a shady spot just the right size for me. It is the F-16, and this one was visiting from Singapore. While the Oldies were talking to the Singapore crew, I settled down in the gap above the air intake for the engine and below the front fuselage. I recommend it as a resting spot for all small bears who are overheating at airshows where F-16s are parked. Just remember to stay awake and get down before the engine starts.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, aValon, Victoria

Our day trip on Puffing Billy was great. It was freezing cold, one of the coldest May days that Victoria has had for ages. The carriage we were in was a relic of the early 1900s and had no windows, so the wind blew straight through us. Despite the cold, we loved the trip. Just after the train leaves Belgrave station it goes across a historic 1899 wooden trestle bridge, Horseshoe Bridge over Monbulk Creek. The bridge curves across the creek and the road, so it is a perfect spot to get photos of the engine under full power with steam and smoke pouring out of it. There are always cars waiting on the road near the bridge, with people snapping away on their cameras. After the bridge there is a long stretch through forest and you can see spectacular trees and lots of birds and occasional wallabies. I found a good place to see everything on my side of the train. It was the ledge that would have been a window-sill if the carriage actually had windows. It was just the right width for a small bear to sit on, but it also had a sign below it that Mum says I should have taken notice of. Actually, I don't think it should have applied to me; I wasn't standing on the ledge. Naturally, Mum saw it differently so I had to spend the rest of the trip much further inside the carriage with the Oldies keeping a sharp eye on me.

Labels: train, Victoria

Here are Milkshake and I in the cabin of "Puffing Billy". The driver let us try everything while he was getting ready to go. You get a good view of the train and the tracks from the cabin of a Baldwin like this one, except for immediately in front. The view from most steam trains is like that and that explains why Australian trains have hit so many kangaroos and sheep. The controls of a steam engine are really pretty simple, the main ones are a brake, a throttle and a forward - reverse gear lever. Milky and I tried to get the train moving. Milky was handling the gear lever and I was at the brake and throttle. We could reach the main bits OK, but our legs just aren't long enough to reach the floor and get enough push to move things. I love steam trains. They have much more romance about them than diesel or electric ones. And I really like the smoke, the steam and the chuffing noises. Full marks to the Oldies for always taking me on steam trains whenever they have the chance.

Labels: Melbourne, train, Victoria

One of the things we did in Melbourne was to go for a ride on Puffing Billy. This is a historic steam train that used to link Melbourne with towns in the Dandenong Ranges from 1900 to 1953. It is a narrow gauge railway, just 2'6" (762mm) between rails. The track, bridges, engines and rolling stock have been carefully restored by volunteers and the trains now run from Belgrave to Lakeside or Gembrook several times every day. During the summer steam trains can't run as the sparks from the funnels could cause bushfires, so diesels do the runs. We wanted to go by steam train, so last week fitted in well; it was really cold. When you get to Belgrave station on the regular suburban train, you have a short walk to Puffing Billy station. There is a good path all the way, but it is not quick enough for impatient small bears. You can see the train down a nice straight, flat cutting, while the footpath has ups, downs and turns in it. So I left the Oldies and Milkshake to go by the path while I clambered over the fence and went straight for it. Actually, the Oldies got there quicker. I think that small bears are handicapped by having such short legs. Anyhow, we met up and had a good look over the loco, no 6A, an NA class Baldwin built in 1899. Puffing Billy Railway has 5 of these in service. Here are Milky and I sitting on the toolbox at the front of the engine. Just after this photo was taken the driver invited us into the cabin and showed us how things worked, so next time I will show you a photo of us at the controls.

Labels: Melbourne, train, Victoria

Did you guess where I was heading after the last posting? The Oldies and I went down to Melbourne to see the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibition. We weren't allowed to take photos inside the exhibition, so here are some that the Oldies took when they were in Egypt back in 2007. The statues are of Tutankhamun and his queen, Ankhesenamun. You can see this statue in the Luxor Temple. Tutankhamun is buried in the Valley of the Kings, across the Nile from Luxor. Lots of Pharaohs are buried in this valley, which has a mountain shaped like a pyramid at the end. You can go into his tomb and see his mummy case (he is back inside it now), but can't take pictures. Most of the treasures from his tomb are in the Cairo Museum and, guess what, no photos allowed there either. So if you want to see some of the treasures you have to go to Cairo, or see the exhibition if it comes to your country.

Labels: Egypt, Melbourne, Victoria

I will be away for most of this week. You should be able to guess where from the two clues. One clue is the photo, and the other is this name:

Back next week, after Mum and I learn more about this stuff.

Labels: Egypt, Melbourne, Victoria

I am sitting near an access panel on a BAe Hawk 127 LIF at the Avalon airshow. This is a great little jet. It is a special variant of the Hawk trainer, specially modified to be close to the Hornet fighter in its handling properties. Its cockpit instruments and layout are also close to the Hornet's. This means that RAAF fighter pilots can be trained on a cheaper aircraft before they graduate to the Hornet. LIF stands for Lead-in Fighter. I love Hawks, they are fast and noisy. Best of all, the pilots seem to like small bears. I was able to look all over this one and even see the electronics inside the hatches, nobody else at the Avalon airshow was able to go where I did.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, aValon, Victoria

This is the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor, possibly the best all-round fighter in the world today. There were 2 of them at the Avalon airshow and I just had to see them. I have read about the F-22 and Dad and I have made a model of it, but it is different seeing them for real. As soon as we were past the airshow gate I steered the Oldies toward where I figured the Raptors would be. You couldn't see them from any great distance because they were parked between a C-17 and a B-1, both much bigger 'planes. The Raptor has been around for a while. The first one flew in September 1990 and it went into service with the USAF in 2005, but these were the first to come to Australia. I was a bit disappointed because they didn't fly on the day we were there, but I did get a really close look at them. Just check out the bottom photo. The pilot took me inside the barrier and showed me just about everything possible without getting into the secret bits. Small bears really do get everywhere.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, aValon, Victoria

Last weekend we went down to Melbourne again, and on Saturday we went out to the Avalon airshow. This one was commemorating the 90th birthday of the RAAF, so it had examples of most of the aircraft that have flown with our air force. Most of them flew during the day. I have shown you lots of these aircraft in previous posts, so will only have a few from this time around. These pictures are of an FA-18 Hornet with special 90th tail markings. The problem with military aircraft markings these days is that everything is in various shades of grey, so it is a bit hard to see them at times. A good example is the fuselage stripe and squadron badge on this 'plane; in earlier times they were emerald green. Anyhow, the thing that most of the onlookers found fascinating about this aircraft at the time the photos were taken was what was happening in the cockpit. Just look closely at the bottom picture (click on it for a bigger image) and you will see somebody that you should recognize. Small bears can get anywhere.

Labels: aircraft, airshow, aValon, Victoria

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

This cute little lighthouse is at a place called Whalers Bluff at Portland in Victoria. It was one of the 21 lighthouses we visited on our Great Ocean Road trip in 2007. It is on a cliff way up above Portland harbour and it guides ships safely past Whalers Reef and into Portland harbour. The lighthouse was built in 1859 at a spot called Battery Point, but it was moved to Whalers Bluff in 1889 so they could put guns on Battery Point. If you look carefully you can see me on one of the posts of the fence around a little garden. This was a good lookout post and I saw lots of small lizards and some wrens while I was there. You can see Mum over by the lighthouse door. She has this thing about taking lots of photos of lighthouses, including the signs on the doors. This lighthouse was easy to get to, you can drive right up to the park it is in. Some others are way out at the end of rough dirt tracks. Either way, I like lighthouses and will be sorry when Mum has finally got to every one in Australia.

Labels: Great Ocean Road, lighthouse, Victoria

Last weekend we went down to Melbourne again. Just a quick trip to see "Wicked", which is a musical play about some OZ witches. I always thought that ozwiches were big birds like emus, but Mum has set me straight on that. We all liked the show very much, even Dad. He says that it really put the mockers on one of the worst stories ever inflicted on kids. I guess that he doesn't like "The Wizard of Oz" very much. Anyway, do go see "Wicked" if you get the chance. I really liked the view from our room. It was just across the river from the tallest building in Melbourne, that's the sharp-looking one one the left in the little picture. Last time were in Melbourne we went up to the observation deck in that building and Mum got me my football there (check the "Melbourne" entries in the blog to read about that visit). The really great thing about our room was that it was near some helipads and helicopters kept flying past outside my window. You can see one of them inside the little green box that Dad drew on the photo; they didn't really have little boxes around them. The helipads are in a little park called Batman Park. I waited and watched but Batman didn't show, even though almost everybody visits Melbourne sometime.

Labels: Melbourne, Victoria

Mum doesn't just have a thing about cows. She has a thing about pens as well. Honestly, she has at least 3 pens for every day of the year and just can't resist buying more. That makes it easy to get presents for her. Just go for jewellery or pens and you can't fail. Dad and I found this fantastic pen shop when we were down in Melbourne. It had all sorts of pens in it and we got a special one as Mum's trip present for our Fiji trip next week (that's a sneaky way to get her to write up the trip log). I wanted to get her this one that was on the wall outside the shop. It is so big that I could ride behind the nib while it was being used and play with the ink. But it wasn't for sale. I guess that it saves me from lots of baths, but it would have been fun. The one we bought for Mum is a lot smaller.

Labels: Melbourne, Victoria

So where did I get that football? Well, Mum always has to go to the observation deck of the tallest building in any place we visit. Dad is a fraidy-cat when it comes to heights, but he always comes along. There is a new building in Melbourne, the Eureka Tower, that lets you get about ten floors higher than the previous "tallest", so of course we went there. You can see a picture of the tower on my ticket (concession for me). All the way around the observation deck they have these cool viewing tubes that centre on buildings and things of interest. They are beaut things for small bears to climb on. The problem is that the metal is slippery and it is very difficult to hang on and see through the tube at the same time. Dad to the rescue. Here we are looking out towards the sporting heart of Melbourne. The big round building is the Melbourne Cricket Ground (the MCG). Between it and the river is the Rod Laver Arena, home of tennis, where the Michael Bubble concert was. They don't only play cricket at the MCG. Back in 1858 they invented the rules for Aussie Rules football there and played the first games in 1859. So the MCG is the birthplace of Australian Football (not to be confused with either type of Rugby, soccer, or the American version). Since I was next door to the MCG and looking into it, I just had to get a football. The Eureka tower shop sells ones that are just the right size for me. Now, when I get into practice I will try for a place in Unka Mark's favourite team, which he calls StKFC. I should be just as good with the footy as a team of chicken bits any day now.

(note from Dad: For those not up on their AFL teams, Bart is referring to St Kilda Football Club. I think he is in for a shock when he finds out).

Labels: Melbourne, Victoria

Do I look like a real cool bear, or what? This is what a shopping trip can do. My skates are adjusted to fit my legs because if I try to stand up on them I fall over. Small bears like me don't have knees and that makes balancing really hard, so I zoom around the place sitting down. The sunnies make me look real sharp. It is a pity that it is so cold here at present that the curtains are all closed to keep the heat in and that makes it so dark in places that I can't see obstructions through the sunnies. And what about the football? Well you will have to wait for the next post to hear about that.

Labels: Melbourne, Victoria

I found this great shop at Chadstone in Melbourne. It is the "Build-a-Bear Workshop". People can make their own bear there, but the great thing is that it is full of interesting things for small bears like me. Fortunately, the Oldies give me my own pocket-money (whenever they remember) so I was able to buy some things just for me. None of the clothes fitted me, but that just shows that Mum is right when she says that there is no other small bear like me anywhere in the whole world. But there was other stuff that I just had to have. The excitement of getting back to your hotel room with a bag of goodies that just has to be unpacked immediately! I have to climb up on the bag to make it topple before I can haul stuff out, but here it is. Roller skates, just my size; sunnies, just what I need for the Fiji trip; and something that Scruffy and I will need for partying in Fiji, but you will have to wait to see what that is. I like shopping almost as much as Mum does. I don't see what Dad has to grumble about, all he has to do is carry the bags for us.

Labels: Melbourne, Victoria

At last I got to see out of an aeroplane. Normally when we travel I am tucked away inside Dad's backpack in the overhead locker and the view from there is nothing to rave about. Well, last weekend we went down to Melbourne. Mum wanted to go to a concert by a guy called Michael Bubbly (or something like that) and Dad got dragged along as usual. When they booked the flights they found that they had enough frequent flyer points to go free in business class. Now the great thing about business class is that there is room to stretch and a gadget between seats that is just the right size to act as a seat for a small bear. I had my own seat all the way to Melbourne and back! And I was able to see out the window! There was lots of cloud but I could see the ground lots of the way. Clouds are fun. I thought you might hear a thump as you run into them, but it is just like they weren't there at all. Dad says that there are some dangerous clouds that can toss aeroplanes around, but I haven't met any of them yet. I hope that I can escape the locker more often when we fly. We are off to Fiji in a couple of weeks and I want to see what the ocean looks like from way up high.

Labels: aircraft, Melbourne, Victoria

All the dragons in stories are big, scary monsters (even if some of them turn out to be friendly ones). The only dragons that I've seen are very different, not scary at all. Here are two of them. The yellow one is a leafy sea dragon and the orange one is a weedy sea dragon. These are small critters, about my size, that are related to seahorses and live in the ocean around southern Australia. The oldies have tried for ages to spot some while they are snorkelling (the oldies that is, sea dragons don't need snorkels) but no success so far. The trouble (or excuse) is that the critters live in sea-grass and seaweed areas and are almost perfectly camouflaged. These ones are in Melbourne Aquarium, the best place to see them if you aren't allowed to get wet. I wonder if they have any troubles with crabs?

Labels: crabs, fish, Melbourne, Victoria

This is the anchor of the American sailing ship "Eric the Red". "Eric" was wrecked on a reef just off Cape Otway lighthouse on September 3rd, 1880. The captain thought he was much further out to sea and steered in toward the lighthouse. There were no survivors. Lots of wreckage came ashore between Apollo Bay and Port Campbell. We saw some houses in Apollo Bay that had had additions built with timber from the wreck. The anchor is now displayed at the Cape Otway lightstation. You can see from the photo that the anchor is over 10 Bart's long, so you can imagine the size of "Eric the Red". Sea travel along the southern coast of Australia was a dangerous business in the days when ships were powered only by the wind.

Labels: Great Ocean Road, lighthouse, Victoria