Hey!!
Its the end of our stay in Canberra already.. but I don't think any more time would be required. The city is pretty small, about the population of Halifax; however, unlike Halifax there isn't much to do here and the shops and cafe's all close very early. Saturday was mostly spent with travel, sunday we rented a bike and toured around the main lake and war memorial. Monday we went to parliament and had the great luck to observe the house of representatives in session, during question period. This included most MP's, the prime minister, his cabinet, and the leader of the opposition. The questions were interesting, I enjoyed it. The parliament is massive, its hard to believe the size almost.
I have been looking for a digeridoo since I arrived in Australia, and most have been very obviously fake (incorrect wood, shape, non aboriginal design etc) but luckily at the parliament they were selling authentic pieces shipped in from the Darwin area. I purchased a great digeridoo, which I really enjoy. It has already been shipped back to Halifax, I only had a short chance to try playing (which is shown below).
Today (tuesday) we went to the museum, and met an aboriginal who lucky for me was a digeridoo teacher! I received some great tips unfortunately I won't be able to try them until June. His cousin was actually a famous player (David Hudson). I purchased one of his CDs, and used it in the video below as part of the joke.
Tomorrow we are off to Shepparton for some pear picking.. and then Melbourne! I don't expect we will have any updates for at least a week, probably from the Melbourne area.
I hope everyone is having a great winter!
Cheers,
Andrew
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Farm Life!
Howdy,
As Andrew said, quite a lot has happened in the past two weeks. Its hard to know where to start. Surf camp was fun, but I injured my leg after standing up on the board the second time. After returning to Sydney, I saw a doctor and was informed that I had injured a ligament in my knee. It took almost a week before my knee became almost normal (its still stiff and sore sometimes).
The farm work was very interesting. A video clip is included at the end of this post that shows some of the sights we saw at the farm. We fed some sheep, saw a dust devil, saw some parrots and other birds, a bit of lightning, and even some kangaroos. All in all, it was a very fun experience.
Now we are in Canberra exploring the city. We have seen the parliament house (even sat in on question period!), the war memorial, and today we went to the national museum.
Until next time,
Laters,
Ross
As Andrew said, quite a lot has happened in the past two weeks. Its hard to know where to start. Surf camp was fun, but I injured my leg after standing up on the board the second time. After returning to Sydney, I saw a doctor and was informed that I had injured a ligament in my knee. It took almost a week before my knee became almost normal (its still stiff and sore sometimes).
The farm work was very interesting. A video clip is included at the end of this post that shows some of the sights we saw at the farm. We fed some sheep, saw a dust devil, saw some parrots and other birds, a bit of lightning, and even some kangaroos. All in all, it was a very fun experience.
Now we are in Canberra exploring the city. We have seen the parliament house (even sat in on question period!), the war memorial, and today we went to the national museum.
Until next time,
Laters,
Ross
Golspie farm life!
Hey everyone..!
Its been along time since I've had the chance to write.. it is February 5th at 9:20 PM (+10 GMT) as I am writing this, it won't be posted for some time to come.
To start with we found something to do after surf camp! (which we are currently doing now) We are working on a farm near Taralga, New South Wales with the Croaker family. I'll get back to that later..
First of all I need to cover surf camp (pictures to follow). Surfing is hard!! It is probably the most physically demanding thing I have ever done.. but I managed to stand on my board twice in the first day, and many times on the second! Unfortunately Ross injured his knee on the first day while dismounting the board, and we had to leave camp after two days rather than four. I have to say though, I was so tired I don't think I could have handled the remainder of the camp anyhow.. and the camp owners were nice enough to give us vouchers to come back to the camp for an additional two days anytime during our trip! I'm sure we will do that later, just before coming home (End of May). The Wednesday and Thursday to follow were used only to recover from surfing, we stayed in Sydney again. Tuesday night I could barely move.
That Friday we got the train from Sydney to Goulburn where we were picked up by Chris Croaker headed for work on his farm. We are going to be at the farm from Friday to the following Saturday (It is currently Monday night as I write this). It is a 2200 acre sheep farm. There are 6 or 7 work dogs, some chickens, a cat, shearing sheds, barns, and everything else you'd expect. Saturday we spent the day weeding their house garden and working the compost. Yesterday Ross was lucky and got to go feeding the sheep with Chris, while I worked on a fence near one of the shearing sheds, and today we all worked on a fence far out into the farm (electric fence at that: 65,000 volts!) Tomorrow we will be stacking animal feed, and patching up some cracks on a water collection system. In our spare time we clean old bricks for use in future projects. Today we both got the chance to drive Chris's manual truck.. with the drivers seat on the right side of course! It was interesting driving on the left, driving a truck, and driving manual.. three great experiences! I think I have finally figured out the manual transmissions once and for all.. Wednesday I will be feeding the sheep with Chris and Thursday and Friday are still up in the air.
After the farm we will travel to Canberra, which is in the Australian Capital Territory. Very exciting! They have some great museums, galleries, and a 1.1 billion dollar parliament which was only completed a few years ago! There will be lots of pictures from there for sure..
That's all for now.. talk to everyone soon!
Cheers,
Andrew
Its been along time since I've had the chance to write.. it is February 5th at 9:20 PM (+10 GMT) as I am writing this, it won't be posted for some time to come.
To start with we found something to do after surf camp! (which we are currently doing now) We are working on a farm near Taralga, New South Wales with the Croaker family. I'll get back to that later..
First of all I need to cover surf camp (pictures to follow). Surfing is hard!! It is probably the most physically demanding thing I have ever done.. but I managed to stand on my board twice in the first day, and many times on the second! Unfortunately Ross injured his knee on the first day while dismounting the board, and we had to leave camp after two days rather than four. I have to say though, I was so tired I don't think I could have handled the remainder of the camp anyhow.. and the camp owners were nice enough to give us vouchers to come back to the camp for an additional two days anytime during our trip! I'm sure we will do that later, just before coming home (End of May). The Wednesday and Thursday to follow were used only to recover from surfing, we stayed in Sydney again. Tuesday night I could barely move.
That Friday we got the train from Sydney to Goulburn where we were picked up by Chris Croaker headed for work on his farm. We are going to be at the farm from Friday to the following Saturday (It is currently Monday night as I write this). It is a 2200 acre sheep farm. There are 6 or 7 work dogs, some chickens, a cat, shearing sheds, barns, and everything else you'd expect. Saturday we spent the day weeding their house garden and working the compost. Yesterday Ross was lucky and got to go feeding the sheep with Chris, while I worked on a fence near one of the shearing sheds, and today we all worked on a fence far out into the farm (electric fence at that: 65,000 volts!) Tomorrow we will be stacking animal feed, and patching up some cracks on a water collection system. In our spare time we clean old bricks for use in future projects. Today we both got the chance to drive Chris's manual truck.. with the drivers seat on the right side of course! It was interesting driving on the left, driving a truck, and driving manual.. three great experiences! I think I have finally figured out the manual transmissions once and for all.. Wednesday I will be feeding the sheep with Chris and Thursday and Friday are still up in the air.
After the farm we will travel to Canberra, which is in the Australian Capital Territory. Very exciting! They have some great museums, galleries, and a 1.1 billion dollar parliament which was only completed a few years ago! There will be lots of pictures from there for sure..
That's all for now.. talk to everyone soon!
Cheers,
Andrew
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