Thursday, January 3, 2008

THE DUNG BEETLES WERE LATE!!!!!

Although it was really good to get away from home for a while, WOO HOO it’s great to be back!!!!!

I realised at the end of the first day in Busselton that I didn’t much like being cut off from the internet. Kept thinking that so much was going on and I was missing out!! Took a few days to come to terms with it all :-D
(*note to self *– never stay in accommodation where there is no internet connection...or a town where you can’t find the internet café :(

We stayed in a lovely bed and breakfast (dog friendly) place on a farm about 10 minutes out of Busselton (South of Perth on the coast). It was a self contained cottage fairly close to the main farm house, but facing the other way, so it was private enough to mostly feel that you were on your own. The lady of the house would bring us a cooked breakfast each morning, and we would then proceed to sit like stunned mullets for quite a few hours, slumped in lounging chairs reading on the veranda every day.

There were REAL chickens running free around the farm which Jake had never before encountered, so I think it was lucky we had our own fenced off yard, otherwise Jake may have ripped their bloody heads off :-o Especially the rooster ha...

There was also a huge protected section of wonderful Australian bushland right next door and we eventually (after a couple of days of just doing nothing) walked the four kilometres of marked trails.

We are such city slickers, literally living right inside the concrete jungle, that to step into that bushland was like being teleported to another planet. Absolutely no human/mechanical noises but many birds and lots of wind through the trees, it was very soothing. However, it was pretty hot and the bush flies were really horrendous! The bastards were literally right in your face, up your nose, in your ears and constantly settling around your eyes. A small branch of soft fresh eucalyptus leaves had to be constantly swished around your face, more like a whip in the end because you got so frustrated with the bloody things you wanted to smash them to bits! Along with the flies were the bull ants (nasty biters) and the beautifully coloured christmyth spiders which draped their webs across the trails forcing the use of a long stick waving up and down in front of you as you marched along so you didn’t end up with them draped in your face....Imagine this, walking along in the bush, swishing your gum leaves for the flies and waving the stick for the spiders and hopping over groups of bull ants....totally hilarious if you throw in having to carry Jake for parts of the way because when he’d had enough of the above he just wouldn’t walk and wanted to get into my swish zone!!!!

We were told the flies were so bad because the dung beetles were late again. Not being sure what this meant I asked around and got varying answers from ‘they’re late arriving’ to ‘they are late hatching’ I’m still none the wiser and will have to do a little searching to find out the whole story. In the early mornings up until about 8am there were no flies, lovely time of the day, then they arrived in hoards and the whole day if outside is spent swishing your branch, to the point where your arms started to feel the stress. Then about 7pm they were gone again!


In the bush with video camera in hand, Protium captured many priceless moments which I’m sure he’ll be sharing with us all really soon. We encountered a few kangaroos which was very exciting in a totally bushy kind of way, and also met a true unsung heroine of the bush, Jenny the Ranger...a volunteer ranger, aged in her seventies and very proud of her big bit of bush where she puts in quite a bit of time and effort. Along with a committee of locals and a troop of volunteer rangers they oversee the whole area and arrange groups of students to come down and help plant more native plants back into the area, keep the trails clear and check everything regularly. Amazing people!!!

Ah well, that’s the away part of our holiday, now we have two more glorious weeks at home before the mayhem starts again for the year.

Its going to take me a while to catch up with everyone’s blogs, but oh what a pleasure it will be....hope you all had a great new years eve and that 2008 brings all manner of wonderful times for you all!!!

11 comments:

SouthLoopScot said...

Happy New Year!
Sounds like you had a nice time, minus the flies...
I know what you mean about not having internet access. When Yvette and went to her folks house in Indiana for Xmyth, I was lost out on the farm without it! Luckily we were only there for a couple of days. :)

T T Eyes said...

Happy New Year to you too T & A
*smiles and waves*

We had a great time really and eventually you just get used to those pesky flies, swishing them out of your face goes on auto.

But I must admit for the whole six days I didnt get used to being without internet access, at least you only had a couple of days of torture:)

I compensated by doing an awful lot of reading. Gave myself some holiday reading for xmyth - amongst them was "The Persimmon Tree" by Australian author Bryce Courtenay which turned out to be a great read and I had mowed through the whole 700 pages by about day 4... luckily I had the foresight to take more books lol

Overall I feel refreshed and rested, internet access withdrawals all under control now... :-D

Fiery said...

Glad you're back Thump! you were missed!

Internet withdrawal is a terrible thing. lol

Isolated. Out of touch. Just knowing cool stuff is going on and you're not a part of it.

T T Eyes said...

Hey I missed you too Fiery, and everyone else, it was the first time I really realised how attached I was to everyone...a little scary!!!

Isolation was the killer, and that feeling of 'what in the hell am I going to do for the next 12 hours'. I solved that with books and walking in the bush but it just wasnt the same, bah humbug reality sucks :-D

Anonymous said...

Now you have your own blog you'll get Internet withdrawal even worse when you are away. :)

Nice part of the world Busselton, unfortunately, during our visit to WA a while back, we only got to spend lunch there on way down to Margaret river.

T T Eyes said...

Thanks for dropping by OZAthiest, totally agree about internet withdrawals, worse than giving up cigarettes :-o

Busselton is a nice little spot, as is Margarets too, that whole area is just delightful EXCEPT FOR THE BLOODY FLIES!!!!!!!!!! :-D

What part of the lucky country are you in?

Anonymous said...

TTE asked What part of the lucky country are you in?

Opposite side of the country, NSW somewhere north of Sydney

cheers
Oz

Anonymous said...

Those lazy dung devils. Yes, with your own blog it's hard not to check the stats every 60 seconds. Someone might just have commented since I last clicked.

T T Eyes said...

Big Welcome Worst of Perth, love your blog so much!!
*smiling and waving from Morley:)*

Ha I can really relate to checking in every 60 seconds, its like a drug isnt it, a wonderful communicative drug!

But anyway it was good to get out into the country and be slapped in the face with reality :-D

Anonymous said...

Thanks mate. Hi there Atheist OZ style too.
Going down to Busselton in a couple of weeks. Hope those lazy dungmasters are rollin big time now. I will have to find a machine down there. I haven't missed a single day of posting worst yet.

T T Eyes said...

Some disinterested locals told us that there were a couple of places...but they were well hidden...and apparently the bigger resorts had it but you had to be staying there...good luck and have a great time...hopefully the dungys will have done their job by then!!

Friend of ours has just come back from the mines up north, and I asked him what the fly situation was like up there...he related a little story whereby, for fun, they would each slap someone really hard on their back and then YUK count the dead flies on their hand...record was 83 ugh!!!!!!!