A Walk in the Rain Forest


Before we went back to Brisbane, we just had time to go to the Sky Walk. This is a place that teaches you all about the rain forest that grows all over Tamborine Mountain. 

It's called the Sky Walk because there are walk-ways that take you high up into the canopy of the rain forest. It makes you feel as if you're on 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here!'

Do I look like Ant?

Or Dec?

In actual fact, 'I'm a Celebrity" is filmed not very far away from here; it is filmed on an old pineapple farm between Tamborine Mountain and the Gold Coast. There's one very annoying thing about that programme: there is NO JUNGLE in Australia. They have rain forests, mangrove swamps, desserts, bush and mountains but NO JUNGLE! Never mind, it's a funny programme and Ant and Dec make me laugh. 

Here's some information about the next photograph:

Here I am sitting at the bottom of a Strangler Fig.

And here's a bit more of it. 

There are lots of vines hanging down from the tops of the trees and twisting around the trunks. 

Here's some information about them.

Look at how close together the trees grow. When the first settlers came to the mountain there would have been no roads or paths to help them travel around the mountain. Gradually, they chopped down more and more trees, which were sold for a lot of money. In the spaces where the trees had been, people were able to make fields (they call them paddocks in Australia) and build houses. People did not realise at the time that they were in danger of destroying an environment that we could never get back. 

This picture shows you how the wood-choppers managed to cut down such huge trees. 

• They cut notches in the trunk as high up as they can reach. 
• They insert a board into the notch.
• They start cutting another notch further up. 
• And so on!
• As they got towards the top of the tree they would start trimming off the branches.
• Next they would saw off the top of the tree.
• Finally, they would go back down to the bottom of the tree and saw through it. The tree would now create less damage to other trees as it fell because it was shorter and had no sticking out branches. 
•  Very tall trees would be chopped down in segments, starting at the top. 

Here's a hundred year old notch left in the stump of a tree. The fact that it is still here and hasn't rotted away gives you an idea of why the wood is so valuable. It is strong and long lasting. 

Here's some more information. People don't chop down trees like this any more but wood cutting competitions are still a very popular event in agricultural shows all over Australia. Giant telegraph poles are set up and men compete to see who can get to the top first. Another exciting competition is the one where they compete to see who can chop a tree trunk in half. They do that at the Ekka (short for exhibition) at Brisbane every August. 

I took this picture to try and give you an idea of how tall these trees are. You can't tell very well from a picture so I hope that one day you will be able to see for yourself. 

We are off the Brisbane next where we will be looking after my friend Chilli while the Bride and Groom are on honeymoon. 

Hooroo! 

Here's a video about woodchopping at the Ekka

As you can see, woodchopping is for women as well as men nowadaysbut, DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME. IT IS VERY DANGEROUS.

The Wedding Breakfast

On the morning after the wedding, everyone who was still staying on the mountain was invited round to the house where the bride and groom were staying for breakfast. They opened the box that contained the model of the church and everyone admired it.  

Everyone was a bit tired after such an exciting day but it didn't stop us all from eating lots of snags and bacon sandwiches. If you don't know what snags are, ask Year 4. They're learning how to speak Australian!

After breakfast, we all took it easy and had a bit of a rest. Then it was time to enjoy ourselves again because we all met up for dinner at Witches Falls Winery and Brewery. 

Chelsea was feeling a bit sad because her new friend, Maya the flower girl, had gone home to the Gold Coast. 


The next morning, it was time for another big breakfast when we all met up at Delivino's. As you can see, Australians take their breakfast seriously. 

They eat some funny things at breakfast time. They like chopped up avocado on toast and there's sometimes some salad too. 

I think Chelsea was glad to see me because she was still missing Maya. Can you see the water on the table? Whenever you go to a cafe or restaurant in Australia, they have to give you some free water to drink. Thats because the government wants everyone to be healthy. Maybe they should do something about the portion sizes!

Later on, Chelsea and I went for a walk down Gallery Walk with our families. There were lots of interesting shops there. This scarecrow was left over from a scarecrow festival that they have every year. 


Later that evening, we all went to the bride's mum's house for dinner. 

The bride's friends from the Netherlands had hired a camper van and it was parked outside the house. They were ready to drive up to North Queensland the next day. 

It was quite cold that evening and so Grandma had to borrow a shawl. She said it was quite nice to feel a bit chilly for a change! It can get cold on the mountain when the sun goes down because it is so high up. 

Despite the cold, we all admired the view as the sun went down behind the mountains. It was the end of another exciting day. 


Next time I will tell you all about my walk in the rain forest. 


Hooroo!


See more about the Scarecrow Festival here

Here Comes the Bride!


When we woke up the weather was sunny but not too hot. Perfect weather for a wedding. Early in the morning, we popped round to the bridegroom's house to wish him good luck. I took a photo of Mrs P and her mother-in-law on the balconey. 

We had plenty of time to get ready as the wedding started at 4 o clock. A trolley bus came to pick us up at 3 o clock. Here we all are on the way to the wedding. 

The church looked lovely when we got there and everyone looked very smart. 

Here's Mrs P with her family and some friends. 

Here's the groom and his best man waiting for the bride. The groom is from Skipton. It's like a little corner of Yorkshire here on the mountain!

And here's the bride and groom getting married. 

The lady in the silver jacket is the marriage celebrant. In Australia, if you don't have a religious ceremony, you can be married by a celebrant who has trained to conduct marriage ceremonies. The celebrant here is the bride's aunty so it made the ceremony really nice and friendly. 

Here's a better view of the bride's dress and bouquet. She had white roses in her bouquet because that's the flower of Yorkshire, where the groom was born.

 

Here's a picture of Chelsea with Maya, the flower girl. They became very good friends during the day of the wedding. Maya lives on the Gold Coast, which is not far from Brisbane and Chelsea sometimes comes to Brisbane for a visit so they are hoping to meet up again. Chelsea's grandma bought her dress for her in England when she was visiting in the summer. 

Here I am sitting with the bride on the bridal party's table. 

And here I am shaking hands with the groom and saying congratulations. That's what you do at weddings, you know. I'm becoming a very sophisticated bear now. 

Here I am with my friend Chelsea. We're feeling a bit tired now because we've both been having a bit of a boogie! 

Here's Chelsea's mum still dancing. We all thought her outfit was lovely. 

Here's Mrs P's other son with one of his best friends from school. You can imagine what they were like when they were sitting together in class! There were lots of people from Yorkshire at the wedding and I think we all showed the Aussies that we know how to have a good time. 

The evening seemed to fly by and soon it was time to go home and we all got back on the trolley bus . . .

. . . including the bride.

And this is the last we saw of the church . . .

What a great day!

Hooroo! 

Tamborine Mountain


We all arrived safely on Tambourine Mountain. 

This is the view from the house where we are staying. 

This is the garden. 

And this is the house next door. 

We found this old fashioned stove on the balcony. We were a bit disappointed that it wasn't connected any more as it looks like a lot of fun to light. Later on we were quite glad that there was an efficient modern fire in the living room as it gets quite cold on the mountain in the evening and it kept us nice and cosy and warm. 

After we had explored the house and unpacked our bags we popped down the road to visit the house where Chelsea and her family were staying. While Mrs P was sitting at the dining table having a cup of tea, an ENORMOUS spider came crawling towards her foot. 

Brave Mr P caught it inside a glass while Mrs P stood on the coffee table on the other side of the room! We thought it might be a huntsman spider but we weren't sure. 

There was lots of other wildlife at this house. Here's a kookaburra that came and perched on Chelsea's grandad's car.

He looks as if he is admiring his own reflection in the window! 

After all this excitement, we went to the Fox and Hounds for dinner. Everyone said we would feel at home there because it is like a real British pub. When we had driven through Brisbane, we had driven past crowds of people sitting on the banks of the river waiting to see the Queen, who was visiting Brisbane at the time. Because of this, when Mrs P's sister said, "Oh look, there's the Queen inside!" we all thought, for just a second that perhaps the Queen had popped in for a quiet drink. We were wrong! This is who we saw: 

  

Chelsea took photographs of us all with the Queen using her DS. She has a program on her DS that tells you if two people in any photograph are related so she tried it on us all. 

The programme decided that Chelsea and the Queen were 40% related, ie cousins! I'm really not sure that the program is 100% accurate as it said that Chelsea and her mum weren't related at all! 

We had a lot of fun laughing at that while we waited for our dinner to be served. Here's a picture of Chelsea's mum so you can decide for yourself if they look like they are related. 

Here's Mrs P's younger son who had just arrived from the UK ready for the wedding. He's not the one who is getting married. He's sitting with Chelsea's uncle and his girlfriend. 

Once we had eaten our dinner we went back to our houses for an early night so that we could get plenty of beauty sleep before the wedding.

Hooroo for now! Next time, I'll tell you all about the wedding. 

Check out huntsman spiders at this website. Was this what we saw?

My last day in Charters Towers


It's been a lot of fun staying in Charters Towers and we've all had a great time. We'd be sorry to leave if it weren't for the fact that we are all leaving together and setting off for a very exciting weekend when we will meet up with more friends and family. 


I've shown you the garden, so now I thought you'd like to see the inside of a typical Queensland house. One very interesting thing about this house is that when Mrs P's sister and brother-in-law bought it, it was in Townsville, a two hour journey away from Charters Towers. Because Queenslander houses are made from wood, they are quite light and it is possible to lift them off their stumps with a crane, put them on the back of a lorry and move them somewhere else. It makes moving house  a whole new ball game!


This is a very important item in any Queensland home.

Here I am sitting beside the water filter in the kitchen. You pour in the water at the top and it goes through a filter and then keeps nice and cool in the stoneware container. The glasses are in the basket ready for anyone who needs a drink. It's really important to drink plenty of water where ever you are but in the tropics it is very important indeed. In the heat, your body sweats a lot to help you keep cool but it means your body loses a lot of water and gets dehydrated. If that happens you can start to feel dazed and confused and then you get very ill. The Australians have a phrase to describe anyone who has started to behave a bit oddly in the heat. They say they have "gone totally troppo"!


As I show you around the house, you will notice that you can't see through any of the windows. They are all made of frosted glass like we have in our bathrooms. That's to keep the heat of the sun out. Can you see the window to the left of the cupboard and the one below? They are made up of narrow strips of glass or louvres. The louvres open up like a venetian blind and let the breeze in. 

Here I am sitting next to some old 'Made in Australia' kitchen scales. Because Australia is such a new country, people like to hang on to anything old that they have in their houses. What is the oldest thing you have got? Can you see the louvered glass behind me? The louvres in some of the windows are tinted a really cute shade of turquise. It looks really pretty but also helps to keep the heat out. 

Talking of keeping the heat out, here I am sitting next to some Acubra hats. Acubra is the most popular make of hat in Australia. Remember I told you about "Slip, slop, slap"? Well, you've got to slap on your Acubra to keep the sun off your head. Otherwise you'll go totally troppo!

Looking at old fashioned things made me wish I could travel back in time so here I am posing in front of a picture of an old fashioned country general store. You can see advertisements for Billy Tea ( that's tea you make in a Billy Can over a fire when you have your smoko); Vegemite (Australian Marmite) and, behind my shoulder, you can just see part of a poster advertising Rinso. Can you guess what that is?


Mentioning Billy Cans reminds me of another bit of Australian language I've got to teach you. A "Billy lid" is a kid! 

After all this talk of hot weather, you might be feeling like creating a bit of a tropical atmosphere back in Cobden. If you are, I thought you might like to see a photo of this parrot that Chelsea made at school. It doesn't look too hard to make and I'm sure one of your clever teachers would be able to help you. 

Before I started to pack my bags ready to set off for the airport, I just had time to help Mrs P's sister pack up some of her pottery ready to drop it off at the shop where she sells it. 

This piece of pottery isn't going to the shop. It's a model of the church where Mrs P's son is going to get married next weekend. This is going to be a wedding present for him and his bride. I can't wait until I'm standing outside the real thing! I've never been to a wedding before. 

When we dropped off the pottery at the shop, I just had time to pose in front of this mural that shows you what Charters Towers was like in the olden days. On the left you can see a very basic miner's cottage. On the right, above the trees, you can see a more elaborate Queenslander and to the right of that, a very fancy hotel. 


In the picture, I am sitting on the back of a "ute''. "Ute" is short for utility truck and it is the sort of vehicle that workmen drive in Australia. The word for a workman in Australia is "Tradie" (short for tradesman". If you are a tradie's assistant, you are an off-sider. It's a whole new language, isn't it?  


Well, the next time I report back to you, I will be on Tamborine Mountain ready to enjoy the wedding weekend. Speak to you soon! Hooroo!


Click here for some information about Tamborine Mountain