getting a bit lost

Monday. We found ourselves needing to stretch our legs and get the kids away from screens after many hot days camped in a darkened lounge room watching the fifth Ashes cricket test (England versus Australia).

We decided to go for a drive on a four-wheel drive track about forty minutes from home.

And possibly do a bushwalk.

We don’t usually do bushwalking in Summer. Too hot. Too many snakes.

We landed at a site where an early settler tried to establish rice paddies. It failed, and no wonder. Too dry in Summer.

Two boys found a log to use as a seesaw.

Whilst this boy found some shade. It was 32 degrees celsius.

The sign for the walk said “45 minutes return”. These signs are always wildly inaccurate for us. I double it, allowing for many stops and exploration along the way.

There were lots of cicadas.

There were also lots of flies. It is said that Aussies mumble to avoid opening their mouths too much when speaking so they don’t swallow too many flies. My husband made a fly-swisher for the two eldest boys from some branches of saplings. The youngest boy turned around and said to his dad “did you ask the tree first?”.

This termite mound was about 150 cms tall.

A rocky overhang to explore.

Scribbly gums. The scribbles are created by a grub.

A fallen tree to scramble up.

Berries from a Geebung (Persoonia). They are not ripe until they’ve fallen on the ground. The taste? Astringent.

A ferny grotto.

A water dragon.

Back on the road, our eldest boy felt some pain on his left shoulder blade. A tick! Another reason we don’t walk in Summer. A tick bite can cause a life-long allergy to red meat due to the ezymes the tick injects. Some ticks can also cause paralysis. We got to this one before it could cause any damage.

Too many wrong turns. With an ineffective map, we turned left at every crossroad and found ourselves in Country we hadn’t anticipated. Mid afternoon, there wasn’t time to backtrack, and we found a river (the Colo) to explore.

We are planning to explore other parts of this Country soon, go to the places we were hoping to see this trip but didn’t quite get to.