Snakes Alive, Black Adder!

This weekend was probably one of my favorites so far. We went down to a little town called Childers, about 60 km away from Bargara, on Sunday morning to check out Snakes Downunder. We both thought that it would be a snake house with a show (everyday at 10 am!) so we'd poke around a bit, take in the show, have another look at a few things and mosey home. How wrong we were! We drove up and all it had was (essentially) a little display pen for a show. We were both like "how kitchy is this?", but it was incredible! We showed up at 9:30 because we weren't sure how long it would take us to drive down and got to chat to Ian, the snake handler, and his wife. They were so nice and interesting - a great way to spend a half hour!

The show focused on about 10 snakes from Australia, including 5 of those world's most venemous snakes. Ian would take each one of of it's bag and show it to the audience (here he has a huge python that is about 15 kilos), talking about where the snake lives, what it eats (it's amazing how much a small snake can cram down!), how venemous it is, etc. It was so interesting! He also showed us what to do if we're ever bitten by a snake (which is very good for Phil and I to know, given that we're going into Central Australia). Apparently there has not been one fatality when the wrapping technique he showed us had been employed!

The show on its own was fabulous, but to make it even better, at the end of the show, you were invited to hold a carpet snake and a 2 year old saltwater croc! Neither Phil nor I had ever held a snake so big and it was amazing, you could feel its whole body contracting and moving around. The croc was super cool and it was great to be able to get so close and see its details.

Easter in Moore Park!

We took off camping in a place called Moore Park which is about 20 km away from Bundy. It was great! It gave us a chance to test out all of our new camping equipment and see what we don't need and what we don't have. We had so much fun. We set out tent up with almost no problems (I can't believe I don't have a picture of it!) and we cooked up some gorgeous food (no fire pits, though).

We went to Moore Park because one of the women Phil works with, Vanessa, was going out there with her family so we decided to go to the same place. I think one of the highlights of the weekend was the tour they took us on. Vanessa's husband is a farm manager and he took us on a full tour of the sugarcane, including an old sugar refinery stocked with loads of machinery. We got to see one of the huge machines in action. It was wicked and will give us way more appreciation of the vegetation we see every time we drive from Bargara to Bundy.

Another highlight was that one of our neighbors serenaded us with his didgeri-doo! It was so cool to be chilling out in the day time and hearing the cool "bwaa-waaa-waa" of his didg'.

I have to say Easter was made better by these chocolate treats you can get - not just chocolate bunnies, but bilbies, wombats and koalas. I got Phil a bilby and wombat which sadly melted before Easter, and re-cooled as flatted versions of their former selves, but they were so fun.

This is is also the big unveiling of "Big Red", our landcruiser. We got it in Bundy from the nicest family imaginable and, according to the mechanics who have looked at it, in great shape mechanically and without a trace of rust. Anyway, we're very happy with it, especially since Phil got the stereo revamped.

Travel Plans

Alright, I thought it was time to detail our travel plans so you all know what we're planning. In just a little over two short weeks Phil's parents (Maria and Neil) will be arriving for a visit! I can't wait to meet them, it is going to be very exciting. The four of us are going to travel around for the better part of a month, until the end of May.

From Bundy, we're going South to Fraser Island (where Phil and I went last Easter, but for a short time because Phil got tonsilitis). After Fraser we're going to Noosa which is this gorgeous, swanky town with lots of cool shops, nice restaurants and a bunch of cool things to do (rent boats, swim, dive, etc).

After that, we will essentially be driving from Brisbane into Alice Springs in central Australia. Along the way, we'll be checking out loads of little outback town. We'll visit the Stockman's museum in Longreach, the dinosaur tracks and the Waltzing Matilda museum in Winton (where you can also walk on the wing of a stationary airplane!), we'll go to Roma (home of the Big Rig) and a few other bits and pieces. We're planning on spending about 6 days in Alice Springs and Uluru (Ayer's Rock). Phil's cousin, Jude, who lives in Sydney is considering coming out to Alice as well, it would be great to see him again. It is going to be incredible!

That will take us until the end of May. The plan from there is very general. We are going to head North to Darwin where we will meet Heather if all goes to plan. We are going to check out Kakadu National Park and then head down Western Australia. We suspect Heather will travel for about a month, from Darwin to Broome. After that, Phil and I will travel on to Perth (and I will have to get to Sydney for my Dec. 18 flight back to Canada, so we'll see what we do between now and then).