Air BnB!

We've finally made it onto Air BnB! Just a few weeks ago we hosted our first couch surfers and they instilled me with the confidence to open my doors to paying guests. They were a Canadian family and yet again I can still confirm that every Canadian I've ever met are friendly and hospitable people.

Our new improved back sunroom

I love making a house a home and a BnB would probably one day be an ideal home for me, entertaining passing travellers, making them good food and greeting them with a friendly smile but allow them their privacy. Once I've satisfied my inner thirst for travel that is. 

We still have some work to do, including bringing in a good sturdy double bed (currently awaiting our pickup about 8 hours drive away at my nans), increasing our rainwater capacity and/or installing a good quality filter on our bore water and just generally upgrading the quality of our house which looks like it was last renovated in the 1970s, shagpile carpet and all. 

Back room with bed laid out

Deep Pass round trip Hike

This Easter long weekend we got out into the Aussie bush for another good hike. Its been an entire month since we last did a proper walk and about the same for a blog update. This time we went to Deep Pass, up on Newnes Plateau. This was one of the first canyons I walked. I'm no pro, but this is one of our local, less strenuous walks that also delivers superb scenery.

The area was occupied by a family 40 odd years ago who grew potatoes to make a living off. Today it is about a 500m walk downhill from the dirt car park, cautioned off by National Parks, descending through dry bushland across a ferny gully below where you cross a gently cascading creek to get to the cleared green camping area. There were about 3 groups there for the weekend. Suprising considering it was long weekend. Only a few kilometres away the pine plantation was buzzing with motorbikes rushing through the scrub. Where we were however you would never be able to tell. All we could hear was the breeze through the trees and birds making their characteristic calls.

We began our walk up the gully, following the trail of the creek. We climbed up the sides of (reasonably small) waterfalls, using ropes that looked like they'd been there since the last occupants of the valley had packed up and shipped off. We trusted them anyway.

There were rivulets channelled into the bedrock of the creek that had been chiselled away from thousands of years of clear running water. Our group consisted of myself, the other half, my dad, my sister and her friend, dad's mate and dad's mate's two boys, 12 and 10 years old. They were down for the weekend from Quirindi, a town with a population of around 5000 in the northern tablelands of NSW. I remember travelling through to visit a friend north of there and only remembering long stretches of road, lined on either side by crops such as sunflowers or simple pasture grasses. Dry and hot. Where we were this day was quite the opposite. This canyon had swallowed us on either side with towering walls, the strip of land we walked through just metres wide, managing to fit in ferns, lizards, slippery rocks covered in slime that was difficult to discern from that covered in sand that provided a more secure footing. This sometimes provided a bit of comic relief between one climb up to the next. The boys were particularly interested in the freshwater orange yabbies we found scampering among the old rotting sticks and leaves at the bottom of the crystal clear ponds. 

It's really quite interesting once you start to look at the way the water has weaved its way down through the flat plates of rock, only broken by clean river sand in places. The water picks up a pebble one day, catches it in a crevice and ends up wearing away a hole metres deep over the next few hundred or thousand years. I remember a few years ago we took a passing doctor through this canyon by way of introduction to the area. Luckily he left his phone in the car as he slipped and fell into one of these holes. They are rather unassuming in that the top layer of water is really clear but below is dark as a coal hole, which is rather fitting as Lithgow, the nearest town, was founded upon the coal seams which stretch below it. The doctor's head went under and when he came up he told us he didn't feel any bottom to it. I can begin to appreciate the age our continent is, something that is looked on with awe and respect by others in geological areas of study.

Above is a quick snap of Vaughan helping one of the boys across a narrow, but not so narrow as to make things easy, stretch of creek. Don't let the solidness of the rock fool you. There is definitely some technique in holding a secure footing where you can.

On the walk up and out we saw plenty of variation in the species of flora to be found. Vaughan's auntie is an adept horticulturalist of sorts, she certainly knows her bush plant species, compared to us anyway. Along the way we sighted quite a few fledgling Waratah shrubs. He raked up a memory from her that the presence of budding Waratah is indicative of a healthy environment. The one above is small, the size of a lime perhaps? Fully grown they reach the size of a head of brocolli, only they're bright red composed of beautiful little hook shaped buds (see: http://www.ausflorapacific.com.au/products-plants-waratah)

  

The above picture is of a Banskia I found along the way. Growing up in Australia my mum read me the stories of Cuddlepot and Snugglepie, two gum nut babies. The evil depicted in the stories came through in the form of the bad Banskia men. The illustration is one of Blyton's illustrations. As a child they were rather scary to hear about just before bed but out in the bush they were wonderful plants that came to life once you were safely home in bed. It was wonderful to have the Australian bush brought to life for an Aussie kid. Every other story based in the US or Europe always had an air of fairytale to it because it wasn't how things were here. The Australian bush is such an under-appreciated gift of beauty and life and we are so blessed to have the chance to live here. It's both tranquil, once you're away from the main cities and roads, and noisy with the almost constant symphony of bird noises. It wasn't until I travelled more broadly that I realised the place birds play in our landscape. Here you grow up with the warbling of the magpie first thing in the morning, the laughing Kookaburra mid-afternoon and the softer calls of the parrots on sun down but elsewhere you can be lucky to hear the call of any bird besides a pigeon or gull at the seaside. At times it is hard but every chance I get to further explore the places I am I find pleasure in trying. It can be hard, and the thought on its own can be formidable with all the other everyday chores but at the end of the day it's rewarding and certainly worthwhile.

Overcoming aquatic obstacles

Right at this moment I'm sitting in my motel room enjoying solitude, clean everything and order. Earlier this afternoon I was having a bit of a moment. I've just finished day 2 of the Royal Life Saving Society's Lifeguard package. Yesterday consisted of our First Aid and Bronze Medallion. First Aid was quite straight forward, bandages, scenarios, and all that jazz. Bronze Medallion was a little more challenging. We had to complete a number of different tasks to pass including a 400m swim in under 13 minutes (killed it), a 100m rescue, thats 50m as fast as you can and 50m back cross chest towing an unconscious person and a number of other tows and rescue methods to learn.

These methods came in handy at the end of the day when we were all given different initiatives to tackle. We imagined ourselves as a team working at our local pool (using the dive pool, which is segregated from the others which were in use). One of us recognised the emergency and the other was instructed to help in what way the person who recognised the problem saw fit. Again, I got fairly good feedback about how we handled it. We have a couple of great actors in our group so had a great pair to portray the scenarios quite accurately. Ours involved a blind man who tripped and fell into the pool and a man doing laps having a heart attack. It trains you to decide on a pinpoint which is the more critical patient and how to help rescue them. It could be a case of simply throwing a flotation device to help the person in less trouble to float and calm down while you can organise rescue of the more dire case.

Today we changed from being those who are covered by the Good Samaritan Act and having the skills to preserve life if required but being able to refuse responsibility to help to taking the place of the lifeguard and actively taking it on as a duty of care to rescue anyone in trouble*. Today we spent most time on how to create good rapport with patrons of the places you will guard, supervision and risk identification. We also put a considerable amount of time into perfecting our spinal rescues in a team of 4 or 5. This was all done indoors to avoid the breeze which would only freeze the 'victim' on the board more than they already had from drifting in and out of the meniscus of water while on the spinal board.

At the end of the day we moved outside to the dive pool where our trainer had placed 4 or 5 blocks wrapped in towelling material and tape to hold it together at the bottom. If we are to be guarding at a pool with a deep end more than 3m deep we have to duck dive to grab one of the blocks. I say have as I haven't as yet attempted it. Our town's pool has 2 dive boards, requiring a depth of 3.5m. That 3.5m is a place an unconscious person could possibly sink to. Now I have asthma which growing up was a pain and jumping off the big board into deep water gives me anxiety as a result. It feels similar to claustrophobia. Adding in the past experiences of having trouble breathing, and the ability to hold a good, wholesome breath for longer than a few seconds being out of my grasp for the majority of my lifetime and you end up with, I think, a more rational understanding of why I find plummeting yourself to the bottom of hundreds of tonnes of water to pick up a block intimidating. Remembering I've only in the past 5 years grown my fins and taken up the enjoyment of swimming. I learnt to swim at a young age, I could barely escape it as an Aussie and my mum and all my siblings love being in the water but it never meant that I enjoyed it. It's a purely psychological issue and I need to get over it. Tomorrow I'm gonna do the best I can, now that I've weeded out the specific reasons behind why I felt paralysed when she told us 'Now jump in and pick up one of those blocks'. I'll just have to harden up and practice some good Buteyko sessions tonight in preparation.

Wish me luck!


EDIT: Update! I made the 3.6m to pick up a brick wrapped in towels. It's heavier than you think it's gonna be but I made it! Yay!

*Side note: The Good Samaritan Act covers you to do your part in preserving life to the level of your training or refusing to do anything at all, but once you've taken the responsibility to help you must see it through.

*Another note: Buteyko breathing is a training method used to improve breathing functioning in people who have trouble with respiration, including asthmatics, people with sleep breathing disorders and others. Can recommend.

Blue Mountains Mid summer adventures

So recently I've been flat out at work (currently on day 9 in a row). My last day off was well spent with the other half and family. It was Valentine's Day so what better excuse to get out and soak up the sunshine, a bit more of a taste of a proper Aussie sunshine with temps up around 33 degrees Celsius. 

In the morning, after a well deserved sleep in, I was swept away for a drive into the bush to a secluded look out by my love. We sat on the cliff top admiring the beauty of Bathurst, west of the mountains, as it was beginning to become somewhat of a heat sink for the day. We finished off the fruit salad we brought with us and headed home to our house among the forest again. 

My parents called to ask if we'd be interested in joining them for a walk up the mountains around lunchtime. We're about an hour west of Katoomba so it's a perfect spot for a short day trip. We ended up at the Comservation Hut at Wentworth Falls. There are a few walks that bypass or start or end here but we chose the short walk to Empress Falls and back. It was a real pity we forgot our cossie's because once we got down the bottom every man and his dog were jumping into the deep hole that the falls descend into. Dad didn't care whether or not he had his swimmers and took his shirt and shoes off and jumped in anyway for a quick dip. We could only take the liberty of dipping our feet in. While we were there at the bottom we noticed some abseilers turning up at the top of the falls and they promptly began descending the falls. It looked as if the water was coming out of a canyon itself so as you can imagine it was quite a shady little hollow. Then began the climb back out.

(Quick snap of Vaughan and I)

Turned out a lovely day though and managed to get quite a bit done!

Travel update!

So the other half is now feeling really positive about the Diploma he's just started. As a result he's determined to complete it to the best of his ability. This means we're postponing our plans of an extended stay in Europe together. While this is a bit of a pity, I'm determined to get back over and explore some new places. Luckily, my youngest sister is finishing high school this year. She has told me she'd prefer to save more money and give 'schoolies' (Australian end of school tradition of going away for a week to get drunk and party) a miss to fly to Europe and do a bit of backpacking. Mums not too keen on her going alone so I dutifully have put my hand up. This means the next 10 months I'll be trying to save for a short trip to waylay my travel bug until we're both ready to head off on that extended trip. Let's just hope Australian/British visas are still just as easy to get as they are today.

Otherwise, at the moment I've been divided between the new casual job, shifts here there and everywhere and the Forestry, spraying weeds with my singing supervisor (he's currently singing 'dancing with you in the summer rain' as he takes the weather readings before we start spraying again). And to finish the post I'll grace the page with some little snapshots our gorgeous weather over the past week has delivered us with. 

(Taken in the backyard of the work Depo one morning at the start of the day)

(The sun shining through a stand of old eucalypts-taken just today before smoko, heading for a top of 31-36)

Catching Up

Once you have a bit of a break from blogging it is rather hard to know what exactly to say, even though one has done so much. Regarding our long term plans I've had the pleasure of contacting old references whose houses I minded while they were away for around a month at a time. Experience with dogs, cats, small animals and alpacas come to mind. Especially a tender memory of contacting the owners on their last night away because of the condition of their ageing, well-loved dog. Poor old Rufus.

Back to the present, an old school friend is returning home from abroad where he has travelled Europe broadly over the last 14 months. A simple post on facebook alerted me to the end of his travels and provided a map pinpointing a number of his stops along the way. It got me pondering my own plans of travel and provided my workmate with a rather thoughtful and quiet workmate to spray weeds with this morning.

Part of being flat out has consisted of getting a new job (which I'm working into the end of the Forestry season, and getting called to fill shifts left right and centre), re-registering vehicles, passing my Lifeguard course and getting my motorbike licence (fingers crossed, wish me luck!). The lifeguarding I'm hoping will help in the long term if we can hold down somewhat of a home while o/s. My cousin (who I need to sit down and chat to about her adventures living and working in the UK) taught swimming, among other things while she was away for 2 years, returning just last year. The local pool has scored me a grant to re-complete my training in hope that the weather holds out and they can induct me to their pool. The weather has to hold out a bit better than what it would need to for other pools as it isn't heated, which makes it a chilly dip at the start of Autumn. Here's to keeping my options open though!

In my spare time I've managed to finish off the back room, well enough for now. The ceiling is still visibly water damaged and if we had a longer term of occupation than the 12 months we have it might be worth spending more time finding leaks and fixing the source but for now the room is much friendlier and inviting than it used to be.

After

As an endnote/reminder for next time I'm planning a post all about different animal markers while out in the forest. We always see them, in the form of diggings, scratchings or different paw or hoof prints and its such an interesting little tidbit from my everyday I can share.

Thats it for the moment I'm afraid. Bed is calling and it look incredibly inviting. Til next time!

Taste of our region

So I have a friend who works out near woop woop. It's accessible enough to get there in an hour or two driving but its not on the way to anywhere at all so its out of the way enough (not quite like the Pilbura or anything, just inconvenient). She sends me the best snapchats ever. She works on the Great Dividing Range, somewhere between Bathurst and Goulburn and the country is not disimilar to that of the English Highlands, only rockier, drier and with more eucalypts. I'm currently building a folder devoted to her glorious snaps. I'll give you a taste....

Its so much easier to communicate via imagery, well for me it is anyway. Verbal language is just one tiny percentage of human experience. I'm rather taken with how snapchat has changed human communication, again. We can bring someone into the moment we're experiencing by sharing our visual stimuli. I think its pretty cool anyway.


In other news, we went for a drive the other day. Fancy having this kind of forest surrounding you and spending a day indoors! (guilty, I did yesterday) This is a shot I took as passenger while driving through Hampton State Forest. Employment with the Forestry aside, this land is such a glorious resource to have and to hold as custodians. We have to treat it with the respect it deserves because the way things are going it's likely we might lose it in the future to National Parks, who generally erect gates to keep the minority who do cause trouble out, disadvantaging the rest of us who truly appreciate it.

(Retrieved from: https://www.instagram.com/p/BA-wbChzOij/?taken-by=cait_eliza7 )

In a similar post of appreciation I'd like to share some of the shots I was fortunate to capture the other night while we watched lightning flashing across the sky. The last week has been an onslaught of summer storms, one of the better aspects of summer. We've had a bit of rain from them too, resulting in a wetter summer than we were expecting.

 

Turns out the camera on my phone isn't the best but still managed to catch a couple of marginal shots. This is looking out to the north from the end of my parents driveway. I do enjoy a good storm.


Other short updates include
1/ Vaughan and I rode two of the newly broken horses yesterday. His first time on a horse in about 10 years and it went really well. Can't help the initial nerves but I reckon we'll go great guns together in a few months. Dingbat was antsy once she was leading, needing to check Bruce (the standardbred) was following every three seconds. Can't be getting left behind! So much whinnying, but it seems to be going well. She's responsive to every little aid I give and Bruce, being an ex-trotter, is calm and getting used to balancing the weight on his back.
2/ Vegie garden is loving the storms and bits and pieces of hot weather, yielding zucchinis (courgette) galore as well as peas, beans, tomatoes beginning to come on, lettuce and basil with the pumpkins beginning to develop.
3/ The backroom project is coming along well. All walls have been painted 'pearl seed' and it looks so much better, except now its making the ceiling look bad. Next clear, free day we'll move everything out and sand it back to paint then we can pull up the carpet and sand the floorboards underneath. My nan has told me she has an antique walnut bed head and end we can use too which should go well with the light airy room for an ideal Airbnb bedsit. Only thing is we'll have to drive the 14 hour round trip to collect it. Its not so bad when you make a nice trip of it though.
4/ I've scored a trial nursing locally! This is my foot, going in the door! Perhaps when we travel I could figure out all the paperwork to nurse?

Updating on travel plans, we've been advised to check out gumtree for jobs abroad so we're keeping an eye on that and may even post an add looking for work coming up to when we decide to head back over.

Otherwise we're just continuing living life well here and hope you're doing the same!

Morning time!

I'm one of those evil people who enjoy the fresh, bright and shiny morning. In saying this though, I slept in this morning until about 8. After a week of 5.30 starts it was welcomed though. As a plus when I did finally make it out to the back (easterly facing) room, after a couple of days of stormy, cloudy, drizzly weather we were treated to a gorgeous morning and the first light was proper sparkling through the windows, bouncing off the freshly painted walls. If you can't appreciate times like these every now and then I can see how some people would become lost and indifferent. 

I feel breakfast is the most important part of the day. If you ever meet me on a day I missed it, you can tell. This post is basically to show off how wonderful breakfast can be at this time of year. Above is a snapshot of my breakfast sitting on the back table just as the brilliant light was beginning to succumb to the clouds again. It is stove cooked porridge with home picked and dehydrated apple, local strawberries, almost as good as the German ones, coconut, a bit of brown sugar, yogurt and cranberries, for their great properties, even though I'm not a huge fan. I also cooked a bit too much porridge so the girls can have a bit of brekkie too :)

Looks like more rain today, yay! As its still a good temperature I can continue painting the back room too, if it clears I can get into the fencing for the horses. It's not urgent but might as well make use of the weather and get some jobs done! Hope you're having a wonderful day or night, and if not remember tomorrow's another day.