Robot Claw

Sue and I started our day with a quick jaunt up Mount Sugarloaf, one of the tallest mountains near Lake Macquarie, and sight of many TV transmission antennae.

The walk to the lookout is much shorter than I remember as a kid, but still somewhat strenuous especially in the heat. There wasn’t anyone there when we arrived, or for some time after, so we had the butterfly and lizard inhabitated lookout for ourselves.

That second shot is of course no butterfly. It is instead a horse fly, and they can give a nasty bite so avoid them if you see them. They are hard to miss as well, being about an inch long. Yucky things, they are 🙂

After Sugarloaf the real adventure began. Today we went to Hunter Valley Zoo.

I can hear my brother asking right now “What?”. And the answer is there is a very small ‘zoo’ up in the vineyards calling itself Hunter Valley Zoo. Some may say the admission price of A$16 is a rip off. But to those people I say the following: “At how many other places can one do this…”

That’s a (super cute) Wallaby. Here’s some video of one of his friends:

And some of his distant cousins:

I was in heaven at this point. For some reason ever since I arrived in Australia this time I wanted to touch a kangaroo!

But guess what: it didn’t stop at Kangaroos!

Yes sir! Rosella feeding. The one on my hand was the parent, and kept nipping at my fingers when I tried to pat the baby. They were both very friendly though, and so close I could really admire their beautiful plumage:

Before you think the zoo was all about Kangaroos and Rosellas, I give you… Koala petting!

What Twilight Zone had we stepped into that we found a nearly empty zoo that let us just wander around touching the animals? Cute Australian animals too!

But but but but… amidst all this splendid fauna of terra australis, who ever would have thought the childrens petting farm could have been the best attraction? Don’t believe me? Then watch this video:

Until this day I honestly had no idea how much fun it was to hold a goat 🙂

Yes, I just kept picking them up 🙂

And so on, and so on. Here’s a bunch of other random shots from Hunter Valley Zoo:

And there was plenty more, including Alligators (which we got to touch), Pademelons, Thick-Knees, Ostriches, Emu, several types of Deer, an Ibex, Tasmanian Devils, many types of Monkey (!) and many, many, MANY birds! The zoo may be small, but it has heart and variety and given how close we got to many of the animals was just a great place to visit.

Right at the entrance, just sitting on a branch out in the open was this guy, a tawny frogmouth.

He’s beautifully creepy isn’t he. When I put the camera close to take the photo he leaned forward, almost as if begging me to touch him. Unlike most of the other animals today I declined 🙂

Didn’t do much yesterday. Walked to the shops to take care of an errand for mum, and lazed around at home mid-day.

We then went in the evening and saw the film The King’s Speech, which was extremely good. I highly recommend it if you’re after a great movie.

Then we ate chinese for dinner and went home. I walked (since I was stuffed) and met this guy on the way:

He had no fear, and was very excited about the sun going down. I thought roosters only crowed in the morning?

Emi’s been bored by the rest of the blog so far, so here’s a few bits and pieces specifically dedicated to her.

First Emi, lets address the fact that you are a pet. In Australia there are pets like you (cats) and pets like your friend Terry (hounds). But there are also pets like this:

That’s called an axolotl, and in some countries it is eaten as a delicacy. Were they available in America Emi, I’d buy you one (as a pet!)

It’s winter now Em, so the view out the French door may not be as riveting as summer, but I’m sure you remember the birds you love to watch. I bet you’ve never seen one of these:

It’s called a Willy Wagtail. It hops around like you do Emi, unpredictable and (seemingly) crazed. I can only imagine how your eyes would bulge were you to see a few of them in out backyard.

Everyone knows that you’ll eat anything you can fit in your mouth Emi, but I wonder how you’d deal with Australia’s best candy. Yes, yes I know I went on and on about Cherry Ripes and Violet Crumbles. But I’ve had an epiphany this trip, and it’s become more than obvious that the greenly crystallized loveliness that is the Peppermint Crisp is the new pinnacle of sugary taste. I promise I shall bring one back for you and let you taste it 🙂

And lastly Emi, one of the things in the above shot is almost as big as Florence (you know her!), and costs over A$600. I know you’d love to sit next to it on your chair but were I ever crazy enough to purchase it I’d probably have to buy it a ticket on the plane as well!

So there you go Toad, a few shots just for you. Maybe you could leave a comment and let me know if this post was a bit more to your liking 🙂

Today I saw my old friend MM for the first time in over half a generation. He’s married now, with a lovely wife and two lovely children. He only recently moved back to Newcastle from Canberra so the timing of my trip was fortuitous. Cheers MM, for a good catching up!

Foolishly, and for reasons not well understood to me (since I am in a ‘blog everything’ mindset) I didn’t take any photos of him. So all of you wondering what he looks like after all this time…? Well he hasn’t changed much at all 🙂

Here’s a shot of Horseshoe Beach in Newcastle, aka. ‘the dog beach’:

We took MM’s dog Harry Harrison (not pictured) there for a run and a splash. This is truly a place for dogs to enjoy the surf, but my dad tells me it used to be more a beach for horses. People would drive them right up to the beach in the horse-trailers and walk them into the surf for a cool paddle. I’m not sure if anyone ever does that anymore, but it is a nice thought that they may.

Here’s two shots of another friend I made today:

I’m beginning to think my love of cicadas exceeds that of most people.

Tomorrow I was to go on a day trip to a very special location with Sue and her kids. Sadly, she has stood me up (and by that I mean delayed a couple of days) so my schedule is now open. Therefore I plan on undertaking the approximately 20 km walk from Hamilton South to Jewells via the newly extended Fernleigh track. This will require an early start, and quite a bit of willpower since I sunburned today. I’m also still sore from the monkeying around of Friday, so time will tell how successful I will be with tomorrow’s endeavour…