Brisbane

I'm back! For the last few months we've had no phone line and so no internet at home but we finally got it fixed last week and so I'm back online at last.

The long road north

In the interim the summer has come and gone and in that time I've not been up to very much as it's just way too hot for me. We did manage a couple of trips though and back at the end of January I thought I'd put the car through it's paces and road-trip it to Brisbane. I picked Brisbane because there's a wetland at the Port of Brisbane that's set up to protect migratory waders. What's more there were no fewer than 4 potential ticks reported from said wetland that had been hanging round there since early December.

Locked out

Paul joined Emily and myself for the journey and with much anticipation we headed north. The best part of two days later we rocked up at the Port of Brisbane to discover that the wetland wasn't open to the public! They hadn't mentioned that in any of the reports. We did our best to peer through the fence and I think I probably did see Buff-breasted Sandpiper and Asian Dowitcher but we were just too far away to be sure. Security then turned up and put a very official end to proceedings!

Big Banana

A long way to go for nothing but road trips are always fun and I did find my new favourite coastal town. Coff's Harbour is quiet and pleasant and not only has a Big Banana and a bizarre model Dutch village but the little harbour was full of dolphins and turtles and also a smashing Wobbegong shark.

Wobbegong

I tried a bit of fishing off the pier as well but without any real bait we had to resort to left-over pizza which just didn't do the job. The turtles seemed quite keen on it though!

As far as 'big' things go the Big Prawn at Ballina is my favourite
 

Jervis Bay

Shortly after the Brisbane debacle a few of us had a long weekend down in Vincentia at Jervis Bay. Christine and Sneaky Pete sorted out the house and Paul and Juddi Judd also joined us.

We managed to get a bit of snorkeling in as well as some geocaching and we also had time to head down to Washerwomans Beach at Bendalong Point to visit the friendly stingrays.

Snorkeling with Fiddler Rays

Although clearly designed to keep 5-year-olds amused, the geocaching adds a bit of fun to any place that you go. It's amazing just how many of these secret caches are hidden all over the place and without the phone app you just wouldn't have a clue.

Emily finds a geocache under a jetty

and another hidden under an historic church

Last year there were a load of smaller Eagle Rays at Bendalong but this time there were only a handful of animals. However, one of them was a real monster!

Friendly stingray

Friendly Brush-tailed Possum 

On the way back up to Sydney we stopped at Gerroa to look for octopuses in the rock pools. There are always octopuses in the rock pools there and this time was no exception.

Octopus spotting
  

Canberra

Old Parliament House

Most recently we spent a weekend down in Canberra. I admit that I was a bit sceptical heading over there as the place doesn't exactly have a reputation for entertainment but it's actually not too bad at all. I managed to take in the Jerrabomberra Wetlands by day while the others roamed the various museums and art galleries. In the evening the Enlighten Festival was taking place which meant that, among other things such as the neon dog park, the Old Parliament House was lit up and open to the public until pretty late at night.

Pacific Black Duck

Jerrabomberra Wetlands is apparently home to platypus but I didn't see any on this occasion. My excitement levels were raised briefly on a couple of occasions but the disturbances on the surface of the water turned out to be a great big water rat and a couple of large carp.

Enlighten Festival

The Old Parliament House was the home of the Australian Federal Parliament until as recently as 1988 and so it's pretty interesting to poke around in the PM's office and the various chambers and suites.

Chamber of the House of Representatives

And so the summer has already passed us by but that means it's about time to get more active again and I've just been tipped off to a campsite a couple of hours southwest of Sydney that has a river full of massive carp. Plans are therefore afoot to head down there in a few weeks with my father-in-law and a couple of tins of sweetcorn for Operation Carp...

Grey Fantail