Good old fashioned fun: happy kids

Going back a few weeks now, but here's a lovely short clip of Esmée using the rope swing to join Yarrow in the river. The kids built this swing themselves when we were camping at the Clarence River down at Alice Flats. They spent most of the days in and out of the water ... Well, who wouldn't?

I love the wink and the thumbs up ... and that confident little wiggle, yes ... :-) :-) :-)

The adventures of Nick and Esmée

My niece and nephew, Esmée and Nick (my brother's two eldest from the Netherlands), have spent the last three weeks here enjoying the Australian summer. Here are some of the many many photos (click to enlarge).

Arrival at Brisbane airport after a tiring 24 hour flight, but they're still smiling!

Both Esmée and Nick spent time learning to ride / improving their riding skills. Es rode our young Arab/Brumby cross, Rascal, and Nick rode the trusty bay horse, Emu.

Nick and Esmée both had a driving lesson in the Subaru ... Good fun on Peter J's 60 acre river flats!

Esmée celebrated her 15th birthday with elegance and fun ...

Home-made flower necklace courtesy of Ongel (Oma)'s pink frangipani

All the cousins did a fair bit of hanging out: John's daughters Briony and Bella, Bella's fiancée Tim, John's nephew Rian and his fiancée Nadine, Tess and Yarrow ... here they are all hanging out at Claudia's place.

Of course we went to play at Killen falls. Nothing quite like standing under a waterfall and letting the water cascade down your back on a hot summer's day ...

New Yea: a bonfire and dancing at the Grange. Here are Esmée and Yarrow ringing in the new year ...

Nick spending some quiet time gaming on the computer, supported by Inkling who was obviously mesmerised by the cyber entertainment ...

A highlight: Camping at the Clarence River (Alice Flats). Sleeping in tents, cooking on the campfire, swimming and canoeing in the river, body surfing down the rapids, afternoon massages ...

Crocodile Nick approaches Yarrow who had been reading in the Canadian canoe

Cousins reading and chatting

Just hanging around the campfire

Nick receives a massage from Auntie Anana

Nick giving Yarrow a massage

Home again, and time to relax in the bath and soak all the camping dust off!

Esmée reading in "a bath with a view" ...

We spent a day at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where there are not only marsupials and monotremes, but monkeys in the trees ...

Nick going down the longest flying fox, 18 metres above the ground

Tess negotiating the high stirrups. I found them really hard to do!

Esmée with a friendly kangaroo

Auntie Anana and Esmée chilling out in the shade with the roos

Who says wombats can't do yoga?

Esmée in the terrifying grips of a large python ...

Camping at Alice Flats

One of my favourite pasttimes: camping with the family. Bush camping, that is: not in a caravan park, away from roads and other people. The weekend after Easter John and I, with Tess and Yarrow (and Chicco our dog) set off with our dear friends Willa and Andrew (+ Myki and Liam), plus old friends of theirs (James and Mitti, and their two young sons) to spend four days camping in the wilderness on the banks of the Clarence River, some 30 km south-east of Tabulam. The locality is known as Alice Flats.  John and I put our gear into the horse float, which doubles as our "tent", and headed off cross country, well off the beaten tracks.

Yarrow and Tess in the foreground, Liam and Myki just visible in the tree behind. These are big old Callistemon trees, by the way. Check out the moss!

There is gently sloping sandy access to the river, which of course, is the focus of most of the activities: swimming, stone skipping, surfing (you tie a rope to the tree, and 'surf' the rapids on an ex-camping-mattress), fishing for yabbies, and generally lounging about.

John practising for the big stone skipping competition :-)

 

Chicco loves coming along ... and is not only good company, but keeps the campsite free of cattle and the odd brumby who might come wandering through, with her loud warning woof at their approach.

Evenings brought lovely campfire, music, and superb campfire meals ... delectable.

Here's a clip of Yarrow singing a campfire song written and accompanied by Myki on guitar (inspired by The Waifs). Just listen...

Mind you, some of the creative cookery done by the kids was a tad *interesting*. Here Yarrow and Myki have made salted crackers with melted chocolate and marshmallow fillings, toasted on the camfire hotplate... Do we say yum? No? What do we say?

 

The return journey was exciting indeed, as we had to get the Hilux (plus heavy horse float attached) through some deep sand and rock terrain, and got bogged well down to the axles several times. Some solid spade work by all of us helped, as well as John's excellent 4WD skills. I know, horse floats aren't meant to be 4WD vehicles... never mind. There was a *particularly* exciting bit which involved sliding the Hilux plus float down a large, 45 degree sand dune ("there's no way but down"). We finally got the to 'main road' (a dirt track leading away from the river); and when John said "Well, that's it ... bye, river!", Yarrow piped in with huge overtones of relief  "Oh...Hello, ROAD!!!"...

Camping trip to Bald Rock National Park

One of my favourite pasttimes: camping!! On the second day of our camping trip at Bald Rock we decided to go scramble to the summit of the largest granite rock in Australia ... Here's a picture of Briony ready with a smile after a cup of billy tea made on the open fire.
Tess peeks out at Briony from the bedwarm snug of her own rug ... Cute, Tess!
Big Sister Briony gets Eskimo kisses from Yarrow... Awwwwwww ....
And here are the awesome threesome, ready to tackle the big climb!
It's very steep going, up a fairly sheer rock face, even for Tess who has climbed the rock many times before...
Yarrow, Briony and John follow shortly after.
Up top there are secret mazes and gullies with mosses and rocks and ferns ...
On the central ridge before the top: three girls in silhouette, reacing for the sky ...
Some elegant summit statues...
These are some of the 'pebbles' one can encounter along the way...
They say a rolling stone gathers no moss ... I wonder when these will be ready to roll?
John and I took the longer, enchanting and beautiful valley walk down again from the summit. Here John's passing under a natural dolmen made of some wee pebbles. The girls went straight down the rock face!
And upon our return to the camp site there were a few wallabies ready to say hello to us in passing...

Such joy to go camping with three bonny girls and a resourceful intelligent loving partner in such incredible surroundings ...

Ghost horse

Softly now, don't move ... see there, the brumby stallion ... there, behind the scrub ... there he is ...

(NT, February 2005)

Just sittin' down for a bit ...

... during a walk in King's Canyon, Northern Territory, February 2005. I had been to a CAUTHE conference in Alice Springs and afterwards had gone walkabout for a week in the desert with my friends and colleagues, Noah and Erica. Noah took this photo of me.

With no light pollution for hundreds of kilometres around, at night we slept on blankets under the incredible Northern Territory stars.

On reflection, I think being a university academic is not a bad life at all ...

Body Art by the Bonfire

Anjes has just arrived home again, and what better way to celebrate than a good bonfire. Briony (body artist extraordinaire) had some great new body paints that she and I were keen to try out. Hans and John had some superb curry recipes. Britt had some new songs to try out. Toby had some hugs to dispense. The Tree (you know, The Tree) beckoned climbing sprites, somersaulting youths and laughter hidden among the leaves.
So friends and family were invited and bonfire was lit, bodies painted, wonderful curries tasted, and young voices soared under the crystal clear stars.
In the morning there were farm-fresh scrambled eggs cooked on the hotplate; pancakes baked on the open fire by Yarrow; a brumby mare to be tried out; sweet custard apples; and The Tree with climbing sprites, somersaulting youths and much laughter heard hidden among the leaves.
Afternoon somehow nudged us to the beach for swimming and fishing and ballgames ... Hot fish and chips to finish the day.
Thank you Anjes, Britt, Tess, Yarrow, Briony, Tui, Sam, Toby, Ongel, Grandpa, John and Hans for sharing a wonderful weekend at Moreton's Myth.

Dawn at Bald Rock

Yarrow said to John, who was here to do some natural horsemanship: "And this week we're going camping, somewhere wild, where we can have a campfire and see the stars, 'cos if we don't, Mum's going to go loopy".

And so we went. So that Mum doesn't go loopy.

With four children (Tess, Kel, Yarrow and Eve) and a Forrester packed to the brim; following my good and dear friends Michael and Giovanni in their 4WD, we made it after many lovely hours of calm and winding roads to Bald Rock National Park. Tents, campfire, birdlife, kangaroos, and the high wild heights of the Rock.

On the last day Tess and Kel, enchanted by the opportunities for scrambling and climbing offered by the Rock, wished to climb it one last time, in -6 degrees before dawn, to see the simultaneous sunrise and full-moonset from the top.

Tess said, sitting high above the world with her arms curled around her legs for warmth, as the light from the early sun caught her eyes and set them aglow:

"This is so beautiful. I'm never, never, never going to forget this day".

More photos can be found here, on Michael and Giovanni's site.

Thank you M&G for sharing such wonderful adventurous times with us.