An Australian Bush Adventure Part II
S has an old trampoline out the back. I am not quite sure what exactly was happening here, but certainly there was lots of laughter and noise coming from the trampoline! Table tennis was another laughter-filled activity, but the kids moved WAY too fast for any of the photos to be usable!
Trampoline fun
Orange tree
I love the orange tree growing near the “shed”. The shed was built as a temporary home while S and her partner, D, built the VERY large mud brick house they planned to live in. They are still building this mud brick house, many years later and now live half in the house and half in the shed! S says, “Life gets in the way”. 
S and D have four daughters and do live a very busy life! Clearly a lot of their time is spent travelling, given their location. In reality, they are not as isolated as it looks or sounds – it is only a 40 minute round trip to buy cigarettes! Some places in the Northern Territory or Western Australia are hours and hours from anywhere.
The sign beside the front door is a great reminder to always look on the best side of life!
Laughter has great value
X-Box, Playstation and such devices are not permitted in our house – so there was much fascination with games available on the TV! I commented to the boys that if THIS level of concentration was applied to homework, there would be A+ grades flying home at the speed of light!
Oh, the sheer concentration!
None of my family are used to pets. I am told it is not common in Nigeria and that dogs, particularly, are something to be very wary of. All of my family are scared of dogs. They met Mel’s big dogs and managed to feel comfortable. Here were more dogs. It can be very hard to overcome fears long held. Yet here is Mum, an obedience instructor in a past life, who could call poor Jet and tell her to sit on command. Thankfully, S trains her dogs well! Once Miss O 1 saw that control could be achieved, she became friends with Jet. I did of course stress this does not mean you trust every dog in Australia. Trained to train dogs or not, I do not trust every dog I see – I’ve seen my share of bad ones in class over the years!
Miss O 1 and Jet
Meanwhile, outdoors the bees were drinking from the birdbath. I could have watched them for hours. Mr O Jnr 2 and I had a discussion about the importance of bees to the world and their place in the life cycle of plants and how they make honey in their homes.
Bees drinking
Tiger snake underside
The next bit of wildlife that arrived was, yes, THE SNAKE! S had taken a short trip to another property to drop off her youngest to a sleep-over party. On the way back she noticed a tiger snake, the victim of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Knowing we were unlikely to see a snake around her property (thank goodness – being a Kiwi born I am not keen on snakes at the best of times myself) but also knowing seeing a snake would be a valuable learning experience for the children, S stopped and collected it. When she got back she left it in the car to check with me first whether she should bring it out for examination or not.
A BIG adventure!
Everyone was pretty interested – but from a VERY safe distance. I asked did anyone want a picture of themselves with the snake: no takers! Until I suggested such a picture might look pretty cool on Facebook! Mr O Jnr 1 stepped up to the plate and very warily held the snake at a safe distance!
Time enough, in fact for two shots. He looks a little less shocked in this picture.
During the morning walk we had hoped to see kangaroos in the wild. S says there is a mob who regularly visits, but we were a little late in the morning to see them by the time we walked.
At dusk, Mr O Jnr 2 spotted some in the distance. Really not a very good image as my digital camera isn’t up to covering this sort of distance, but we did see some. Miss O 2 wanted to know why they “walk on one leg”. I am glad no-one had a video camera to film me trying to demonstrate to Miss O 2 the natural movement of a kangaroo.
Kangaroos in the distance
I then tried to stage a shot of tree-climbing – great Aussie pastime for all growing kids, right? Well, maybe not for all! 
The best I got was an aspiring Will Smith trying to look like a real kewl dude reclining enticingly on a branch.
Star in the making?
Coming home Sunday morning I had to stop and take a shot of the canola crops growing everywhere. We saw many of these fields when we went to Anglesea but I didn’t stop. This time I did. I love the colour. Contrasted against the green of the bush and other crops, it really is a golden sea.
Canola crop
We had a great weekend and many thanks to S, D and the girls for allowing six people to invade their domain. There was lots of learning, for not only the children but for my husband and I. Given what we went through to be together, we didn’t have the opportunity to learn everything about each other while we were courting – but then, no couple does! A marriage is a journey and we continue to learn. One practical thing we learned is next time we travel for a weekend, we need to take the ablution kettles with us as not everyone has spare ablution equipment just lying around the place.
Related articles
- An Australian Bush Adventure Part I (teamoyeniyi.com)
Looks like a fun time was had by all, great photos! I sure do miss Australia.
You can always come back! But where you live is pretty special!
WoW! Quite the trip…
Robyn, I have to add that pets are common enough in Nigeria! Everyone might not have one but many people do. They might not call them pets but they exist and I grew up with them and saw many in both the city and the village. The difference is that most people don’t’ walk their dogs or buy cat food in the supermarket. The pets/animals eat whatever the family offers and what they find outside.
There may be a regional aspect as well, E, of which you would know better than I! I can only go on what my family share with me of their past. There probably are not the dog controls either that we have here (I’m not sure about the USA).
Miss O 1 has fallen in love with the Taubmans paint dog and now wants an Old English Sheepdog! I hope if we ever get one SHE is going to do the grooming – I haven’t told about that aspect of pet ownership yet!
Wow!!! Live and free kangaroos! To a North American, this is crazy! Looks like you had a great vacation.
I really enjoyed this post and the images in it. It’s good to know the kids are getting an opportunity to see what the real Austraila bush is like. But then again I’m prejudiced because I’m a bush baby too – a Canadian one.
It is hard, I think, for tose of us born and bred in the bush to comprehend that anyone might not plunge in with delight. I’m learning!
I always say, see one city, you’ve seen them all – that the REAL differences between countries can be found outside the city limits. Yet I know many people have seeing New York (for example) as one of their travel objectives. I’ve never been interested. Take me on safari and I’d be a very happy camper! I have to say I think I’d have to talk Mr O into the safari idea though, even on his home continent!
Another FAB post to read . . . love the kangaroos. Sounds like most of you had FUN most of the time. Yay!
Thanks, Nancy! I’m sorry the kangaroos weren’t closer – or that I had a better camera – but it is what it is!
What a pleasure it was to “peek in” on your weekend…I’ve never been to Australia so it was amazing to see what’s in the outback and to read about all the different reactions… : ) thanks for including all of us in the adventure! : )
You are welcome! It is all part of our journey – I’m not sure, as you are a relatively new reader, if you know my family only arrived on June 3 this year – so all this is VERY new to all of them!
I should clarify this really isn’t what we would call the “outback” – this is just a 2 hour drive from Melbourne, really.