Jimi and Mazzy Adventures

OK so at the start of the day we packed up and left Coonabarrabran and went to the warrumbungles. It was time to leave coonabarabran, the caravan park had big gumtrees, lots of space and it was quiet and relaxing and so relaxing we didn’t do anything. me and Mum read a book.

On the way to Tamworth we went to the warrumbungles which are some awesome rock formations. When we got there we went on the white gum lookout walking track which is a short walk to a lookout over some rocks and back.

When we got to Tamworth me and maz went in the pool but it was freezing 🥶🥶🥶 cold probably almost solid ice. Later that day we went to a lookout which looks over tamworth.

Well, today we went for a very nice walk and the most amazing lookout was descended amongst the gum trees. (I went a bit insane as always) The relaxation of just listening to the birds was so nice and the tree leaves rustling could’ve calmed me to sleep. I loved this day and The sounds of nature today we just, beyond relaxing.

SQUWARK! SQUWARK! I woke up and nearly stumbled out of bed as my favourite teddy fell out the bed. This is what it was like: Me – noooooooo Bunny! then I think I might’ve woken everybody else up as well, not sure though. Mum then woke up too and she was like: Mum – *snorts to wake up* (sound) smah. morning sweetheart. Then I just stumbled out of bed before she could say anything else that I didn’t know how to answer. I then nad breakfast very slowly while playing a word puzzle. After breakkie I had got dressed and then we packed up as fast as we could and it took about 1 minute! (more like 1 hour…) but before we left Dad asked me to take a picture of the Dump point and well…

Then we soon set off and We drove for about 2 and 1/2 hours until we finally arrived in Tamworth and me Jimi went for a Swim! Well, the pool was freezing but I eventually got used to it (except for when I fell in 🙄🤣) We soon got frozen then me and Jimi went onto the playground and made the slides into, well… waterslides because our butts were so wet. We then headed back to the Van and we got dressed to head to a chinese reataurant for dinner ad the food was like….. I can’t even explain how good it is because I had a… dim sim! one was fried and one was simmered. I soon grew full and wwe went back to the van and fel asleep EASILY.

This was our day and we had alot of fun. If you liked this post then I really suggest our otheer posts. Make sure to follow the blog for more updates and the most recent posts.

Well… the title of Today’s post sounds a bit strange, yes, but that’s just the title and the rest of the day will make you laugh so hard you end up in hospital 3 months later (lol 🤣🤣🤣)

Sooooo… Today was a very.. well, I’d say a… kind of… well, ok let’s start from the beggining then (cuz I can’t really explain it that well)

Well, the usual morning as always, (more like never) woke up, had breakkie and went for a great shower with Mum. But as I got back, Jimi was on the bouncy pillow so I joined him on the way back. (we are right next to the bouncy pillow in the caravan park so you can just walk out and bounce lol 🤩😂😋) After we finished on the bouncy Pil- oh wait! I have some very exciting news about the bouncy pillow, I did my first….. very first… my first.. AERIAL! yes! I finally can do an Aerial but I am still working on Aerials on grass though. Anyway, like I was saying,we got back from the bouncy pillow then left for Coonabarabran! (Prenonciation is Koona bara bran) Coonabarabran is a very tiny place in NSW. It would barely even take 3m to drive around the whole town! it’s that small!

As we arrived in Coonabarabran me and Jimi got ready for the pool I saw on the way in. As we came to the pool I didn’t really thin about how cold or hot 🙄🙄🙄 the pool might be… and well.. I guess you know what happens next… I walked down the step so fast I fell in the pool and it was like freezer water defrosted…🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶😰😰😰 I was so cold but I ddidn’t even care about it really so I just stayed in, but eventually I froze so I got out, now you know why that was the Title of the post…..

Well this was our hilarious day as the pool water was cold, I did an Aerial and landed on my face and I actually nearly got a broken neck :O (that wasn’t mentioned in the post tho) If you liked this post then you will most certainly like our other posts on our blog, make sure to follow the blog so you get notified when any other posts come out.

We had a fantastic time visiting Dubbo Zoo over 2 days! It’s an open plain, immersive, safari style Zoo. While it has very large enclosures they are designed so that you can still get a good look at lots of the animals. On the first day we drove our crazy van around to get a quick look at most of the animals, and work out what we wanted to go back and see in more detail.

On the second day we did a Lion Pride Safari experience where we were able to go into the Lion enclosure in a specially protected van with a Zoo Keeper who gave us a brilliant talk about Lions. We got to see Malinzi the Lion up close while he was feeding and taking a bit of a stroll around. For about an hour we were just metres away and had an incredible view from the safety of the van. He is 6 years old and originally came from Monarto Zoo in South Australia. They also have his Mum and sisters. Sadly, he does not get on with the female lions there and likes his own company. So we just saw him on his own, while the other lionesses were in another enclosure to keep them safe. However we did hear them roaring!

We then hired bikes and did a big bike ride around the 6 kilometres of the Zoo to see lots of other animals. This photo gallery just has a small selection of our favourites (and of the ones who were cooperative at being photographed! The Tiger and Cheetah were not interested in being models for us). We all loved Dubbo Zoo as it is HUGE and the animals have A LOT of space as well as passionate Zookeepers who really do everything they can to keep the animals happy, healthy and in interesting environments to keep their minds active. It is part of Taronga Zoo Sydney, and the standard is very high. Definitely one the best Zoos we have seen and we highly recommend it if you are in the Dubbo area.

Jimi took some of these photographs using Mum’s big Canon camera. 🙂

Having seen The Dish, we now set off to Dubbo, and later that night we would be attending the stargazing session at Dubbo observatory.

This was definitely one of our quicker drives, and we were in Dubbo in pretty good time.

As we were staying at a Big 4, and the weather was yet again great, the kids hopped in the pool for a splash and a lot of fun was had.

After a camp kitchen tea and a chat wih our fellow nomads, it was time to hit Dubbo observatory.

http://www.dubboobservatory.com/

We had booked a personal session as a treat for Jimi (kind of a birthday treat).

The experience was excellent. Everything was outdoors, inlcuding a guided powerpoint presenatation onto a large outdoor screen, explaining all about the night sky, and the guide-bloke also had some massive laser-pen thingy so he could point things out.

There was a slightly quirky start to the evening when we were presented with two pairs of binoculars which he made clear were only for mum and dad. I think this bloke’s propeller had blown his empathy chip, but it was a bit odd to say the least (and we’d paid for 4 people). Binoculars were worth $200 a pair he reminded us. Hardly engaging the kids!

Anyhow, the session itself was great. The few bits of knowledge we had were useful, and he explaned the bigger picture stuff very well. To accompany the explanations were the use of a load of telescopes, so you actually got to see what he was talking about. That definitely helped. It was also a clear, and very cold night so viewing was good.

The highlight was looking through the massive telescope in the motorized dome.

This gave us great views of the moon, but the the highlight was the astrophotography.

Propellor-head basically plugged in our DSLR into his largest telescope, configured he camera for some long exposures and snapped away. The results were amazing.

There are a few pictures below. These are straight from our camera from a single-take. No colourisation or stacking of images and no effects were applied. Due to the moon being out, the background is slightly more gey than black, but its pretty impressive imagery (well we think it is!).

Jimi was definitely in his element, and we were also putting our newly acquired thermals and coats to good use, coz it was a very cold night (again).

Poor old Mazzy. She was on her best behaviour, but after an hour of squinting through small holes looking at stuff that for her is not that interesting, she got very cold and very tired.

The session also ran over a little, and was gone 10:30 pm on a very cold night.

We politely wrapped up the session and went home, forgetting that home is really a large car which was also freezing cold! One of those times when it would have been nice to return to a warm place to live. But after a few minutes of heating and a swift glass of port everything was good. It had been another great day hopefully captured in at least some of these blog posts.

Stay tuned for more ….

Having arrived at Spicer the previous day, we were a bit too late to do the Parkes observatory without rushing it, so we decided to do it the following day, and then move on to Dubbo.

It was a quick drive to Parkes (compared to some), finishing off down Telescope Road, and then arrivng at the observatory. There is something very eighties sci-fi movie about seeing a large white dish sticking out of the australian bush-landscape, and we were all looking forward to seeing the famous ‘dish’ up close. It did not disappoint.

We started off with a 3D movie session which was really good and then had a good look round the history of the place. It was really good, especially having sen the film once or twice.

And no trip is complete without a trip to the cafe.

Well that was it for the Parkes observatory. GTime to move on to Dubbo.

Day 12 saw us leave Katoomba and the Blue Mountains.

Everybody was sorry to leave, although we had walked the kids pretty hard and they were probably ready for a non-walking related bit of fun, whereas Mum And Dad took it all in their stride (too early for Dad jokes?).

The Blue Mountains is easily the most spectacular place we’ve ever seen. We will be back, but not sure when, but when we do it it’s worth at least a week of our time.

So Parkes was our next destination.

This was another great drive through the great Australian countryside, and another leg of the trip where we stumbled across somewhere that looked really good, but we did not quite have time to fully appreciate. This time it was Orange. Athough we did not have time to stay for a day, we did use if for a lunch break, and it gave us a nice little break in between the long drive.

Of note were a load of wineries surrounding Orange, and Lake Canabolas which looked great. So Lake Canabolas it was (can’t beleive I just wrote that). There was also a small dam and a few walking tracks into the bush which were very picturesque, inlcuding some old-school suspension bridge across a small creek which had been restored by the locals.

After a quick brew and a car-park lunch were were off. Thanks to Orange and the lake, it was a really nice place to refresh and recharge for a couple of hours.

So goodbye Orange, and here we go Spicer Caravan Park.

We were pretty high up once again and with clear blue skies the overnight temperature was forecast at minus one, so another night being fully rugged up.

The Caravan Park was great. A little bit old but immaculate and very tranquil. There was an oval alongside it which allowed the kids to burn off a bit of energy and Dad to demonstrate how not to throw a Frisbee.

There are a few pics attached (still looking for ones of the caravan park!).

OK, so to start the day in Katoomba we went on a little walk to George Phillip lookout and Govetts Leap lookout and then we had lunch and went to another walk and this one is the Grand Canyon walking track.

So first we went to the Govetts Leap lookout track which was supposed to take 20 minutes, it took us about 35 to 40 minutes to complete. Then we went in to the city of Blackheath a 10 minute drive from the visitor information centre were we started our walk and where it finished.

When we got to Blackheath we went to a cafe and some lunch, I had a gluten free steak sandwich as well as a hot chocolate and Mazzy had a bacon and egg roll also with a hot chocolate. While we were walking back to our van I spotted a butcher and got the idea we could do a barbecue dinner. Mum and Dad said yes, so me and Mum went in and bought six sausages and 4 chicken satay kebabs which we cooked at the camp kitchen for dinner that night. They were the best sausages ever!

After popping into town we went on the Grand Canyon Walk which takes you a massive four hundred metres down into the floor of the Blue Mountains and you walk past trees and soooooooooooooo much awesome plant life and greenery. You walk from gum trees at the top to rainforest at the bottom where the creek is.

Oh, and coming back up was very tiring work as there is at least 650 steps down and up, except when you come up you are already tired from coming down.

Thanks for reading. If you want to see more of our adventure then follow our blog!

Today we left our campsite exploring the nature and world of the Blue Mountains in the undergrowth. We are also sorry if you have been waiting and waiting and waiting for another one of our posts to come out, The reason is because we hav been so busy with all our experiences and the internet was so bad that we haven’t been able to start blogging and catching up with the blog, but now that we are quite settled and have time, we can start posting again now 👍 Hope you enjoy our posts from now on.

The morning is very annoying for some of us but.. well… This morning for me, I got woken up by a… well.. a kind of… leaf blower thing, not exactly sure what they’re called, but I’m sure you get the idea. Well after it woke we up I checked the time on my fit-bit and it was… well.. 5:00am! I realized that when the sky was barely blue and it wasn’t actually a leaf blower.. it was a bird fighting a pigeon lol 🤣🤣🤣 Soon I fell back to sleep and then woke up at 7:00am which is my second common waking up time (my first is 6:40 – 6:50) in the mornings. I then got dressed and went to have a shower with mum in the camp toilets. The shower was SOOOOOOOO nice and refreshing with the hot water and warm steam coming from the water made me so relaxed I could’ve fallen asleep and stayed there forever!

After my shower I was dressed and walked back to the van which we haven’t decided a name on yet but I want to call it Kev short for Kevin because that’s what our crazy Aunty Mandy calls it and Jimi wants to call it beepy because dad keeps swearing in it. Soon we headed off after about 20m of packing the van up to drive lol 🤣🤣🤣 Then we arrived at the Grand Canyon Walk at Blackheath.

This Grand Canyon Walk is the most popular walk in the Blue Mountains but is also one of the most challenging cuz it has 650 steps down and then 650 back up again. I love walks with alot of stairs, mossy rocks, stepping stones, water and rivers in nature. We had so much fun walking thru the Blue Mountains and seeing heaps of nature and veiws, after we made it to the halfway point at the beautiful river we stopped and me and dad waited for Mum and Jimi for about atleast 15m then I went back up, brought them to the bottom, and we went back up the 650 steps…😢😢😢

After The walk I was so pooped I feel asleep in my car seat and didn’t wake up for about 10m.😂😂😂 Apart from all that, the day was great and I luved it soooo much.

This was our great day and it was the best walk I have ever done yet. If you liked this post you will definately like our other blog posts too, check the other posts out on the rest of our bloggy blog blogster and have a great time reading them.