Day 39: Batchelor and Millie's Birthday

Millie’s 7^th birthday!!!!!

Millie woke quite early and came up to our bed, we chatted and giggled about it being her birthday until the others woke up, then we got up to do presents. She had already received her back pack and the crocodile from us, we gave them to her again, and also a ‘camel crossing’ sign to hang on her window, and a jeweled gecko. Caitlin gave her a bubble wand and a Barbie fairy, LiAM gave her a pack of Frozen snap cards, and there was a card with money in it from Grandma and Grandad. She was thrilled with all her presents and had a lot of fun opening them, then playing with them. The kids played Go Fish with the cards for a while, then we went to the reception area for the 7.30am bird feeding.

The owner put out bird food in several places, and over time birds started to appear to feed (they were easily spooked though and kept flying away then slowly coming back). We saw cockatiels, galahs, lorikeets and blue-faced honey eaters. I enjoyed watching them for ages, the kids wandered off after a while and went to play mini-golf. Tony headed back to the tent to make pancakes as a birthday breakfast.

We hung around the tent eating and playing with Millie’s presents for most of the morning, and Caitlin rode into town to buy a birthday cake and some candles for Millie. She wanted to eat the cake after dinner, but really wanted to used the candles now – so I put a candle in a chocolate bar for her and we sang ‘There’s a cat licking your birthday cake’ and she blew the candle out and ate the chocolate.

When we were ready we went down the road to a butterfly farm. Our friends from Katherine were there when we arrived but we only got to wave hello, they’d left before we had a chance to talk to them. We saw butterflies in all their various stages of development, then spent ages in a large enclosure with the fully grown butterflies – including a huge green one that Millie named Emerald, who flapped and hovered more like a bird than any butterfly I’ve ever seen.  From there we went into a little farm area where we could feed carrots to rabbits, and pat ducklings and chicks. There were several rabbit enclosures and the kids got lots of cuddles. The last section of the farm had pigs and goats, 3 or 4 pigs and maybe 8 goats – these ones were much friendlier than the ones in Katherine, and they were mainly nannies or kids. The pigs and goats enthusiastically ate the rest of our carrots, and kept looking for more. It was fun to be right in there with them.  After we’d finished with the animals we were allowed to have a swim in their pool – the water was cool and so amazing to swim in on such a hot day. More than half of the pool was only knee deep, with a deeper channel around 2 sides of it, so it was easy for all of us to swim in and feel comfortable. There was a man-made waterfall running into the shelf next to the pool, so Millie stood under that and was excited at having a shower under a waterfall – one of her birthday wishes! She’d also wanted to swim in a pool, play with puppies (she was happy enough with ducklings, rabbits and kids), see a real waterful and be able to talk to relatives on the phone.

I made some sandwiches in the car then everyone got out of the pool and we ate on the way out to Litchfield National Park. We saw plenty of huge termite mounds, and drove through a few areas where they are burning off, so we turned the fan off – LiAM finds it so hard to breathe when there is smoke around. We went to Florence Falls – there’s a short walk from the carpark to a lookout where we could see 2 waterfalls falling down into a pool below. Then the walk continued down about 150 steps to the valley floor, where it was lovely and cool. It was only 400m and then we were at the pool at the base of the falls. It was so peaceful and green and an amazing place to be.

Caitlin arrived before me and came back to tell me there was a python in the rocks – a crevice not far from the pool had a large (about 7 feet long) olive python – he was lying there when Caitlin saw him, and moved from one side of the rocks to the other while I watched, coiling himself up and possibly going to sleep. He didn’t seem bothered by all the people standing around taking photos of him – it was so cool to watch.

We made our way into the plunge pool – the water was a great temperature and we’d taken our snorkels so could look under and see an incredible number of fish. There were rocks of various sizes on the bottom which meant there were lots of places that Millie could stand up and still be in the main pool. I hung out with her for ages, swimming around a bit and watching the waterfalls. Tony and LiAM and Caitlin went a bit deeper and came back and forth. A guy climbed up the rocks and jumped in from progressively higher points – he was a good climber and at one point everyone in the pool was watching him. Caitlin and Tony swam towards the falls but Caitlin found it hard going so they came back, then Tony went over by himself. He was able to go in behind one waterfall and be right at the base of the other. When he came back I went over – I had a couple of moments of feeling scared as the water got choppy close to the falls, but it was easy enough to keep going. Swimming in behind the water was pretty cool, it looked amazing and felt exciting. The other falls were more of a cascade, and looking straight up at them from the bottom was an incredible view.

After I swam back, Caitlin went over with Tony and was even able to sit up on one of the rocks right next to the falls. LiAM went over next, on Tony’s back, and everyone was glad they’d made the effort. Millie didn’t want to get that close, but was thrilled swimming in this pool with the waterfalls there, and said she was having the ‘most awesomest birthday ever’. I moved with her into a shallower part of the creek where she could sit in a tiny little waterfall, (just water flowing between two rocks, about a quarter of her height) which was pretty cool too.

Tony said it was the most amazing place he’d ever swum, and we all had a fantastic afternoon there. The kids tried to catch some fish, and we all spent ages watching the fish swim around under the water. There were a couple of rocks that were easy to climb on and jump into a deep part of the pool, and lots of rocks to just sit or lie on and watch the water. Eventually we headed out of the pool and back up the stairs – it was weird to feel the temperature get hotter as we climbed, down in the valley it felt impossible to believe it was a 36 degree day!

We drove back to the caravan park (with more Harry Potter) – the car was fine, no overheating, even with the air conditioner on. We think the trick is to wait until we get up to highway speed before we turn AC on and then it seems to be fine… We got changed into dry clothes, then went to the tavern for Millie’s birthday dinner. I had wild caught local Barramundi, which I’d been wanting ever since we got into Barra territory, Tony had a rack of lamb, Caitlin a schnitzel, LiAM had nuggets and chips and Millie steak and chips – the food was all delicious. We ordered a jug of lemonade, and played a few games of Keno (we didn’t win anything) and had a really lovely evening.

We got back to camp and I realised I’d left my handbag at the tavern – luckily it was still hanging on my chair when I got back there, everything still in it. And the driving back and forth didn’t cause the car to heat up either, so it was a car-trouble free day – just adding to the mystery really! Once I got back again we set up Millie’s cake – all they had was fruit cake, so we put red frogs and smarties on that to make it pretty, lit 7 candles and sang happy birthday, then ate fruit cake and lollies for dessert. She’d spoken to Grandma and Grandad while at the tavern, and had a few texts from friends and family, and felt like she’d gotten everything she wanted from her birthday.

Everyone was so tired that we didn’t read when we went to bed, Caitlin fell asleep immediately and everyone else was not far behind.

NSW Trip Day 6: Dubbo -> Orange

We all had a bit of a sleep in so when we got up we packed the car and cleaned up and headed out. We didn’t get time yesterday to visit the Zoo shop so we’d agreed to go back out there this morning (it was only 3km from where we stayed). The kids each selected some zoo souvenirs to buy with their money, and we watched the lemurs again for a while, then decided to one last drive around the zoo – our ticket from yesterday was still valid (and it hadn’t cost us anything anyway, as we have reciprocal membership through Melbourne Zoo– a family ticket at Dubbo was about $130 so we’ve certainly got our value out of our membership this year!). We said goodbye to each of the animals as we drove past, and we weren’t going to get out at all but the hippos were out of the water and near the fence, and the kids hadn’t seen the hippos close up the day before – when we jumped out, they were doing a feed and keeper talk so we saw all 5 hippos up close and learnt a bit more about them. Then back in the car to cruise past the rest of the animals, and then we left Dubbo for Orange, briefly stopping in Wellington on the way for some fries.

Orange has grown a lot since I lived there (over 30 years ago so not a surprise!). We drove into town and I recognized a street name and showed everyone my primary school and our church, then found 2 of the houses we’d lived in while we were there. Finding the 3^rd house was trickier – I thought I knew the way but came to a dead end – the new Northern Distributor cuts through the country road we used to live on, so I found a way around that, then drove much further than I thought I needed to, and realized I’d missed it. I rang Dad and he described how to find the house, and on the way back I thought it might have been demolished – then I found it, tucked in next to a truck depot, and looking much smaller than I excpected it to be!

We checked into our caravan park then went to Cook Park for a late picnic lunch. I knew exactly how to get there and which side to drive to so that we could see the ducks and the swings – don’t know where that memory came from. The duck pond looked slightly different than I remembered but the swings looked exactly the same, as did the bandstand, the fountain, the little gazebo with seats in it, the avenues of trees, the rose garden. It was so cool to be there with the kids and have them play in all the places I used to play, and of course feed the ducks all our bread ends (and the crusts off our sandwiches). There was one big fluffy black and white duckling that the kids wanted to adopt, but we did leave him there… There were piles of leaves on the ground too which were lots of fun to run through.

Autumn leaves in Cook Park

Feeding the ducks in Cook Park

It was getting towards sunset so we left the park and went out to Mt Canobolas – past our old property on the way. We arrived at the top of the mountain in plenty of time to see the sunset, very pretty – and rather cold! After admiring the view for a while we went back down to Lake Canobolas as it began to get dark. We drove to the far side and walked a little way out on the dam wall, then Caitlin and I walked all the way back across and the others drove back. The kids had a brief play on the beach in the dark then we went and got supplies for dinner and back to the cabin.

Sunset from Mt Canobolas

It was Tony’s first time in Orange and I really enjoyed showing him and the kids all the places I remembered – it still looks like a really nice place to live.