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Post by biteybird on Jan 25, 2016 1:36:01 GMT -5
OK, I must apologise for the number of photos - probably exceeded the quota! I didn't realise how many there were until after I'd uploaded them...
We went 'glamour camping' in the Yadboro State Forest in New South Wales. Here's our camper trailer. I bought it in Tasmania from a guy who had it custom made in Queensland. I brought it back to the mainland on the 'Spirit of Tasmania' - my first experience towing anything! It has a toilet/shower section at the front (the hot water unit draws water from the yellow jerrycan). The camper trailer also stores 200 litres of water in 2 tanks underneath.
Well, we're getting older, so we need our comfort!
Here I'm making a very half-hearted attempt to do some dishwashing...you can see Her Rudeness in her travel cage (we put it on top of the Esky!) surveying her domain.
Now for some Aussie wildlife photos: I don't know what type of bird this first one is...
The next few are of a goanna/lizard/monitor. I don't know what its official name is, but the Forestry guy called these creatures 'Water Dragons'. There were lots of these around. This one was nearly 2 metres long, but we also saw lots of smaller ones.
Here are some Crimson Rosellas and a female King Parrot. We didn't see any male King parrots (they have a red head and chest). The adult Crimson Rosellas are purely red & blue, while the juveniles have some yellow/green on their backs.
We stayed in Jindabyne for a couple of nights after we left our campsite in Yadboro. Here are some shots of the sunset over Lake Jindabyne.
We visited Thredbo and the 'Snowy Hydro' in the Kosciuszko National Park.
Thredbo: summer here, so chairlifts ain't workin'!
Snowy Hydro: This facility pipes water from the Snowy River to places all over Victoria and New South Wales. The water turbines rotate at 500rpm.
And this is the famous Snowy River, after it flows out of the power station. They're obsessed with Banjo Paterson (the guy who wrote 'The Man from Snowy River' and 'Clancy of the Overflow') in Thredbo...there are shops and roads named after him all over the place!
OK, that's it! Hope you liked some of the photos.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Jan 25, 2016 4:13:01 GMT -5
Great photos Biteybird. It has been many years since I have been to Thredbo and Jindabyne. What did Bonnie think of the other parrots? She is one lucky bird to be able to go on holidays with you.
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Post by easttex on Jan 25, 2016 7:30:58 GMT -5
Beautiful pictures, and there are never too many! To my mind, glamping is what you see here all the time - something along the lines of a greyhound bus, outfitted with satellite for tv and Internet, multiple bedrooms and baths, complete kitchen, and towing an SUV, for those trips to the grocery store. I consider what you were doing legitimate camping, even if you weren't sleeping on the ground.
The first bird looks like it might be a warbler, or something along those lines. An insect eater, anyway. Now THAT is a lizard. He didn't seem to be bothered much by your presence. Were you with his? And what beautiful parrots. You don't often see colors like that in the wild here, though the painted bunting comes closest, I think.
It it looks like a very good time!
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Post by Caseysmom on Jan 25, 2016 10:10:07 GMT -5
I agree, never too many pictures, I like getting a glimpse of different places, I will have to google and read up some more on the area. Your set up looks neat, and still qualifies as camping, it's true everyone has trailers and motorhomes over here. We did tent for a bit when the kids were little, and as I child we towed a big trailer to every province and state, even to Mexico... But to do that nowadays would cost a fortune in gas so we tend to use hotels.
Though there is something to be said for just being out in a park living like that. You are lucky to have such beautiful birds, I go hiking and bird watching lots, but we don't have many near as colourful to take pics of. A painted bunting did winter here last winter but they are rare. That lizard is cool too, he wouldn't bother me as long as he ate all the spiders.
Thanks again for the photo tour!
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Post by julianna on Jan 25, 2016 14:57:12 GMT -5
Wonderful pictures... thank you for sharing. We are still thinking of where to go on our next holiday and let me tell you this.... Australia is on the top of MY list. Not sure about hubby tho... ha ha
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Post by biteybird on Jan 26, 2016 0:45:54 GMT -5
What did Bonnie think of the other parrots? She is one lucky bird to be able to go on holidays with you. That is a difficult question. She seemed to be hyper-vigilant to their noises, but visually I don't think she really noticed them on the ground and they were only 20 metres or less from our camper.
She did, however, give a fantastically loud quaker alarm call when one of the big water dragons walked past my chair while I was sitting there being lazy.
Easttex, the lizards didn't worry me except for the fact that they can make a mess going through rubbish bags while you're away (it's a 'take rubbish with you' arrangement there). They were remarkably unafraid of humans, as were the parrots - although my hubby used a long-range lens to get some of the shots, just so we wouldn't scare them too much.
We had two sets of solar panels charging our separate fridge/freezer (in the back of the Hilux) and drinks fridge, which worked very well. We also had some great roasts in our Weber Baby Q, so certainly didn't go without anything!
Actually I'd love to get a motorhome, but don't have a spare $70,000-100,000AUD lying around...at least this camper only cost us $8,000AUD and is an off-road one. It was built in 2003, but actually seems a lot better quality than some of the new flimsy ones, which can cost $20,000-$35,000AUD (ridiculous prices for a camper trailer, in my opinion).
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Post by biteybird on Jan 26, 2016 0:57:28 GMT -5
Though there is something to be said for just being out in a park living like that. Yes, it was great! No phone, no internet, nobody bothering us for something. Camping there is free and the camping area has two 'drop toilets' which have just been renovated (and we were in a corner right near the toilets). Our spot also backed onto the river so we went down there for a dip a few times each day, which was refreshing in the hot weather. The Forestry Commission does regular checks and are doing some maintenance there at present. You can collect dead firewood and chainsaw it up as you wish, so we did that and had a nice fire most nights.
We chose Yadboro State Forest because Bonnie is allowed there (she wouldn't be allowed in a National Park because she's an "illegal exotic"). We'll definitely be going back there sometime!
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Post by biteybird on Jan 26, 2016 1:06:15 GMT -5
Wonderful pictures... thank you for sharing. We are still thinking of where to go on our next holiday and let me tell you this.... Australia is on the top of MY list. Not sure about hubby tho... ha ha If you decide to stay in Alice Springs, I can recommend the "G'day Mate Caravan Park". It's the cleanest park we've ever stayed in; spotless bathroom & laundry facilities and they have nice cabins for reasonable rates...and the owner has a blue quaker parrot!
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Post by Angela on Jan 26, 2016 6:16:34 GMT -5
The photo's look great Biteybird! I've never been anywhere near that part of NSW. Looks beautiful!
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Post by Caseysmom on Jan 26, 2016 9:14:53 GMT -5
Wow, free camping, that is cool! Yes a motorhomes would be nice, Casey and the pups could travel with us, though there are more and more pet friendly hotels these days.
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Post by Jan and Shah on Jan 26, 2016 15:32:04 GMT -5
I must say that I loved the Northern Territory when I travelled there. So much to see and do. Hated outback Queensland and don't get me started on Coober Pedy. Like Angela, I haven't really been to that part of the state but it does look lovely there. We do have some amazing parrots in this country. Before I moved to where I am living now, we had such a big selection - king parrots, eastern rosellas, crimson rosellas, lorikeets, cockatoos and galahs. It was wonderful sitting on the verandah and watching them in the trees.
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Post by aaron on Feb 8, 2016 13:26:39 GMT -5
Love these photos! That is quite the camping setup. I've never been camping but this looks good to me! My family has been talking about camping a lot lately, so perhaps we'll embark on some sort of adventure in the near future. So much amazing wildlife in Austrailia!!!
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Post by lesley on May 24, 2016 4:39:52 GMT -5
Great photo's. We love camping too. I don't think I would take Coco with us because I think he would get too stressed (I wish I could though). We sometimes take our dogs with us depending on where we go.
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