The Birds

Remember right after we arrived here when I posted a picture of this bird?

And I talked about how it was the Australian magpie - the national bird of Australia. And they can make 35 different noises including the imitation of a horse or a dog. And how their natural call sounds like beautiful wind chimes out our window. And how Josh calls them the penguin birds and oh how cute.

Well forget everything I ever wrote about them. The only thing that you need to know is that the bird above is the Australian version of Satan reincarnated.

We had read online that the magpies become extremely territorial while they are nesting and the chicks are growing (usually during the early spring months of August - October). Over the past 4 weeks or so, Josh has been getting swooped at and buzzed on the golf course. It has angered him so much that he's thrown golf clubs up in the trees to try to warn them off. We have discovered that they won't bother you if you keep your eyes on them so normally if we are on a hole that we know has a swooping magpie (there are about 3 out of the 18), I try to keep my eyes on them while Josh takes his swing. It has definitely proven to be a stressful way to play golf and I believe that Josh is almost ready to give up until they stop attacking him.

I haven't really been attacked yet since I believe that they go after Josh more since he's male and taller. It has been frustrating to Josh since I didn't really know how scary it was.

So yesterday, I decide that instead of riding my trainer inside, I was going to go for a nice leisurely hour ride out in the sun to enjoy the beautiful day. Nowhere in my mind was the fact that wikipedia had mentioned that bicyclists were particularly at risk from attacking birds (something about the constant movement forward makes them crazy). At least it wasn't until about a mile from home when I heard a 'SWOOSH' behind me and saw the shadow of a crazy bird following me and diving. It scared me so bad. I was yelling and spinning fast and waving my arms trying to get it to stop following me. And it wouldn't. I finally cycled out of its territory.

Only to be attacked by another bird. After the first I figured that I could keep going and just make it back home by a different route. But after the second one started swooping at me, I just decided to give up and make my way slowly back home.

This entailed not going back the way that I came, putting my sunglasses on the back of my helmet (to try to trick them) and getting off my bike every single time that I saw a magpie (regardless of how small it was). It was a slow journey with me walking and then riding when I felt somewhat safe.

Unfortunately I got a little too comfortable as I was making my way on the grass next to the main highway that runs into Dalby (the Warrego Highway) and the next thing I knew I had been bumped in the back of my helmet by yet another bird. You can not believe how scary it is to have a bird get that close to you in an agressive manner. He was by far the worst. I got off my bike and slowly started walking backwards (you know - because they supposedly won't attack if they see eyes). Well, this male had some serious testosterone imbalances because he would come straight at me while I'm staring at him.

So picture this - I'm in my bike clothes and bike shoes on the side of a major highway with cars passing constantly yelling and waving my bike at this bird flying down at me. If only someone had had a video camera on me, I would have become a youtube sensation over night.

It's easy to see the hilarity in it now. Josh pretty much laughed as soon as he heard the story (though he was happy that I was okay). I am actually still a little spooked by it and probably won't be doing much exercising outside until after I'm 100% sure that all the bird craziness has gone away.

Weather Phenomenon

Last week while Atlanta was having its own weather problems, we were going through something a little strange in Australia. Wednesday morning I drove Josh into work and it was a really pretty blue sky at 6 am, but the radio hosts kept warning that a dust haze was going to make its way into the area. Neither Josh nor I knew what a dust haze was, but Josh said 'I bet that we don't even notice it.'

Fast forward 3 hours and this was the scene out the patio door.

It was very War of the Worlds. You could go outside and come in with dirt all in your nostrils and all over your skin.

Josh sent me a few pictures that they took out at the power station. He apparently had to spend a few hours out in this that morning (I stayed inside and worked).

We were under the impression that this was a normal thing to happen, but one of the guys that Josh works with says that he hasn't seen one this bad in over 20 years! I guess that we just got lucky.

It cleared out within the day and we had bright sunny skies again on Thursday and Friday. And then on Saturday, it rolled back in again (though not as bad). Josh climbed to near the top of the power station to watch this one come in. He said that it looked us like a thunderstorm except it was all dust.

Against our better judgment, we went out and played golf Saturday afternoon. You can look directly at the sun without hurting your eyes.

That's me playing golf in the dust. The white shorts. Not such a good plan.

And here's Josh cleaning up after we finished playing 9 holes. We didn't really realize how dirty it was Saturday until we went back out on Sunday (which was clear) and all of our stuff was covered in dust.

Josh also found some pretty cool satellite images of the dust haze that shows how big it really was. This thing stretched from Sydney to Brisbane which is like Atlanta to Michigan.

What we've been up to...

Wow, I've been negligent with the blog. We haven't been anywhere too exciting in the last few weeks. Just day-to-day Dalby.

Last weekend, I did participate in Relay for Life. It was a wonderful experience and I was happy to help raise money to fight cancer here and abroad.

The first picture is of Jonathan. He's one of Josh's best work buddies out at the plant. They cut up way too much and have started putting tire marks all over Jonathan's front yard from their e-brake antics.

Anyway, I just wanted to post his picture to show that it's all guys out at the plant that are as scruffy as Josh. It's not just him.


Also, it was not THAT cold outside. It was probably only in the 50's.

So, since we had a small relay team (8 people) and there was a total of 18 hours of walking, we had to each take pretty big chunks of time. My first portion was from 8 to 10 pm on Saturday. I ended up continuously walking about 2 hours and 5 minutes that night.

Josh's 2 hour period was a little more exciting. He walked the first 10 minutes or so with me until he decided that it was time to go off and find Jonathan. Then Jonathan and he decided to spend 40 minutes talking to the doughnut guy (the local man that fries up fresh doughnuts every other Sunday morning in town and for special events). They were only 50 cents per doughnut, but I think that Josh kept it to only 2 that night. Then they decided to walk with me for another 10 minutes. Then they played death frisbee for 20 minutes, chess for 35 minutes and finally finished up walking the last 5 minutes with me.

I was happy to have him there though.

I ended up also walking on Sunday morning from 6:30 to about 9:00 (with a short 20 minute break to buy some yummy coffee).

It was a wonderful experience and gets 2 thumbs up from me.

Not real sure why I'm looking jaundiced in that picture. I'm hoping that it's the lighting.

The day prior to Relay for Life, we had gone shopping in town. This usually takes up a good portion of the day since Josh never gets to go shopping and did I mention that the Big W has 3 aisles of candy?

However, that day we found a gem in the men's clothing section. Over here, all of the guys that work on the road or lawn care or even sometimes in construction wear the same bright yellow shirts that Josh wear, but they pair it with shorts. Short shorts.

And the men over here are big, burly guys with big thick tree-trunk legs stuck into itty-bitty 80's shorts. It's amusing.

Josh decided he needed a pair of them.

I'm not exactly sure where he plans on wearing them. He calls them his relaxing shorts.

Those are his normal shorts next to his new, blue Aussie shorts.

They are scandously short. I'm hoping to talk him into wearing them out in public.

Interruption in regular posting.

So I know that I said that I'd post the rest of the Fraser Island pictures AND the V8 Supercar race weekend pictures and I promise that it will get done. Eventually.

But this week we had a visitor and so my blogging kind of stopped.

Ashley graduated high school with Josh and me and I don't think that either one of us had seen her since graduation (or the summer after), but we had gotten back in touch through Facebook (the wonders of modern communication). She decided a few months ago that while traveling the world, her first stop was going to be Australia. Now she's going to get to do some pretty cool and fun stuff over the 3 months that she's here (she's been here 3 weeks, 9 weeks to go), but she made the time to visit us in Dalby.

I picked her up in Brisbane on Wednesday and she spent Wednesday and Thursday with us. She was going to stay one extra day, but yesterday she sat down and figured out how she wanted to book out her tours and where she needed to be on what dates and we realized that she had to be up at Noosa Heads on Friday. So she left today.

Here she is at our kitchen table planning all her stuff.



I think that she enjoyed the fast internet that we have. And it was nice to laugh and hang out with someone that kind of knows your background and doesn't ask you how big Georgia or Atlanta is.

It also made us realize that we LOVE having visitors (she's our first one) so anyone that wants to come, we have more than enough room!

I did manage to get her out to Lake Broadwater yesterday to see some wild kangaroos. She had been to the Australia Zoo and petted/fed some tame ones like us, but it's completely different seeing them out in the wild.


The one below had a joey that crawled in backwards in the pouch. The roos were behaving really well. We probably saw between 50 and 75 while we were out there. Ashley was very excited.


I should probably retract my earlier statement that anyone is allowed to come out and visit us. My cousins on my dad's side probably aren't allowed - there is no roo shooting. And I wouldn't want them to go to gaol.


Also I ran over and killed this snake. I feel kind of bad about it because I think that it was just a harmless green tree snake and also because of how gruesomely it died. I was just driving down the road was we were leaving Lake Broadwater and heard some snap up against the car. Ashley said 'You know that was a snake, right?' So we drove around to look at it.

Whatever - I think that snakes that live in trees are probably just as bad as snakes that can fly so I'm probably did the mates around there a favor.


I drove Ashley over to Toowoomba this morning (she was greyhounding it to Brisbane and then up to Noosa Heads). On the way back home, I was pulled over as part of a random police stop (a policeman in the middle of the road waving 4 cars to pull over) and I had to take my first breathalyzer. AT 9:30 IN THE MORNING!!! I wanted to ask the guy how many people he's caught over the limit when they do these tests in the morning, but he was too busy reprimending me about getting a Queensland license that I decided not to trouble him too much.

And I passed in case there was any question.

Fraser Island - Post 4

So on that Friday on Fraser Island (which I know was over 2 weeks ago), after Eli Creek, we drove up the beach just a little bit more to see the Maheno Shipwreck.


The Maheno was a luxury liner until it was beached on Fraser Island from a cyclone in 1935. A friend of mine (Australian) said that she'd been to see it about 20 years ago and the ship was intact. Now the side to the sea is all rusted away and caved in.

Most of this end is covered by sand, but you can kind of get an idea of how big it was. Josh is standing out where the stern (? bow?) was poking out.

After Maheno, I decided to take over the driving for the first time. I didn't quite realize how big the car really was.

After I drove down the hard beach for a little while, Josh told me to go ahead and give it a try to get up on the inner trails. The problem was that I chose this spot.

And promptly got stuck.

Josh hopped out and started pushing while I went in reverse. It took him about 4 tries before we got unstuck and a little embarrassment from the tour bus that went by and up the trail over an entrance over to the left of this picture.

Josh joked that the tour guy was saying 'And that, mates, is why you want to go on a guided tour and not rent your own 4WD'.

Here was all the sand on our wheel after we got unstuck.

And here's the tire flap from where it was covered. I'm really impressed that we were able to get it out.

After that, I lost my desire to drive and made Josh take over. On the way back, we were going through this forest of HUGE trees. I made Josh pull over and take my picture of me hugging it.

215 centimeters (7.5 feet) is the diameter of the tree right above where my head is (or maybe a little higher). And remember, this is an all sand island. I'm not really sure how the trees can take root so well. It's really amazing.

Relay for Life

In about a 2 weeks (September 5th), I'll be participating in the Dalby Relay for Life 2009. Another American wife over here had participated in it back in the States and organized a team for us to participate in the Dalby event.

For those of you who don't know, Relay For Life is an overnight, community event where teams of 10 or more keep a baton moving in a relay-style walk or run to raise funds for the Cancer Council. The event brings the whole community together for a night of fun, entertainment, celebration and remembrance.

Every dollar raised at Relay For Life helps the Cancer Council to:
Investigate new ways to prevent, detect and treat cancers.
Educate people in your community about ways they can reduce their cancer risk.
Advocate for cancer control.
Support people during their times of greatest need.

The Dalby event starts at 3:00 in the afternoon on the 5th and ends at 9:00 in the morning on the 6th. As of right now, it looks like our team only has 8 member so we'll each be doing about 2 hours of walking. Both Josh and I have lost grandparents to cancer and so I will be walking in memory of them and in honor of our friends and family who have been affected by it.

So if you have just a little time and money, I would appreciate any contributions that you can put towards our walk on September 5th. And if you can't send any money, then I'd appreciate your thoughts over those 2 days. Someone is going to have to be out there at 1:00 in the morning. I'll find out tomorrow if it's me or not.

My Relay for Life Donation page

Remember that contributions will be in AUD (instead of USD) so the exchange rate will be in effect (this morning it was around $0.83 USD to $1.00 AUD). Also, any contribution is tax deductible. I'm pretty sure that if you pay online, then you'll receive a receipt electronically, but if you need a hard copy, then I can get that to you. You might even just get a thank-you note/postcard from Australia.

Tomorrow I'll start finishing up the Fraser Island posts and our V8 Supercars experience this past weekend. It has been a crazy week and Queensland is undergoing a winter heatwave (over 90 degrees today!) so it has made me incredibly lethargic.

Josh at the power station

I've got tons more Fraser Island pictures to post, but Josh sent me a picture of him out at the power station today and I wanted to post it before I completely forgot about it.


Since he has glasses, he has to wear the clear protective glasses that fit over his other glasses. Most of the other guys wear these shaded terminator style protective eyewear.

He didn't tell me what he was doing this high up. I'm hoping that he was doing actual work and figuring out what was going on with a control, but he told me a few weeks ago that he and Jonathan (another American co-worker and friend) climbed up the water tank to see how full it was.

Also you'll note that he has not only his shirt, but his bright yellow jacket on. It hasn't really been cold enough for jackets outside lately. My guess is that he was out of the office pretty early in the morning.

Lastly, as most of you know, I am in protest of the facial hair, but I also know that 99.9% of the guys out there have some type of hair growth on their face and I don't want Josh not to fit in. It's only when he starts trying to braid the goatee (which has been mentioned) that he might find that there was an unfortunate encounter with the shaver while he was sleeping.

Fraser Island - Post 3 - Josh crossing Eli Creek

Josh crossing Eli Creek. It was windy, but you can kind of tell how cold it was by the expression on Josh's face right after he gets in the water.

Fraser Island - Post 2

So after Lake McKenzie, we headed back out on the town to the "town" of Eurong which is really just a stop on the beach where there's another resort, a store and a few beach houses. Note the differences between the trail in the 2 pictures below.

The first one is apparently pretty easy to drive on because the sand is pretty packed.


The trail below was a little more scary. The car wouldn't want to grip and I was constantly worried that we weren't going to make it and that we'd have to get out and push. I think that Josh had more faith in the 4WD than I did.


Once we got through Eurong, we were on the Pacific and it was smooth driving. She how awesome our highway was?


I'm pretty sure that Josh was happy to be off of those inland trails and out on hard sand. The only thing that we had to be real careful about was wash-outs which is when the creeks flow from inland down to the ocean. On the safety video that we had to watch before we rented the car, it showed cars getting bogged down from going too fast over these "creeks".

The video said that they could get up to 3 metres deep, but we didn't see anything like that. And we slowed down at every sign of moving water.


Also, the highway was a runway. There were certain sections (about 4) along the 75 mile stretch of beach where there would be cones out indicating that you needed to watch for aircraft taking off and leaving.


I think that Josh and I both decided that we wouldn't want to be landing on this beach in that size of a plane.


Eventually we made it up to Eli Creek. It pumps out 80 million litres of water a day. You can walk up a boardwalk and get in and ride the current all the way down the Pacific (think Lazy Riverish). Our rental car guy told us just to make sure that we got out before it actually reached the Pacific or we'd be taken to New Zealand for free if the Tiger Sharks didn't get us first.


The water was cold (much like Lake McKenzie), but I did talk Josh into walking across so that we could get on the boardwalk.


And here's me with another weird tree.


The water was so clear that it was hard to tell it was even there.


I got in and walked down to a sand dune, but didn't ride the current back down. It felt pretty good on my legs after running the day before, but I wasn't ready to go swimming in 60 degree water.


Back on the beach, Josh made the comment that he's never felt so isolated before. It really is remote.


It was a beautiful day.

Fraser Island - Post 1

So we took a little weekend trip. I had looked into going to Fraser Island about month ago, but really didn't plan it until 2 weeks ago (after talking to another lady that I know here in Dalby that went to Fraser with her family over the school holidays). Josh and I left Dalby Thursday afternoon after he got home from work and got changed. We had about a 4 hour drive from Dalby over to Hervey (pronounced Harvey) Bay. He drove for the first 2 hours and we stopped in this one-horse town to switch over and ate at a "restaurant" in gas station. I drove the rest of the way into Hervey Bay.

Thursday night we stayed at a hotel across from the water. It was past 8:00 when we got there and Josh was coming down with a full-on head cold so we went straight to bed. On Friday morning, we had to be at the rental place at 6:30 for a briefing on how to drive in sand and all of the rules. By 7:45 we were in line for the barge and they started loading us on soon afterwards. All of the passengers had to go ahead and get onboard before the cars started loading. It was a single ramp barge so Josh had to back up so that he would be able to drive right off.

I think that Josh was glad to be first so that he didn't have to worry about all the other cars.



And then after a 45-minute boat ride across the bay, we arrived at the island. It was fun and beautiful driving in.



The rental car guy told us that they would be putting us out at Wanggoolba Creek landing but we actually came off at the Kingfisher Bay landing. Luckily they had also given us a map so after a little stressing we were able to figure out where we were going.

And once we got off of the hard roads at Kingfisher Bay, we were ON Fraser Island.



And OH MY GOSH - were we in for a surprise. I think that both Josh and I had thought that the trails would be pretty hard packed easy driving. We weren't quite prepared for how technical the driving was.

This was our road coming out of Kingfisher Bay (you can see a red truck in front of us). When the sand was real high in between the tracks our vehicle would start plowing. It was slow going until Josh got his sand legs.



But we made it to Lake McKenzie on that first day! It was gorgeous.



As soon as we walked up, Josh said 'Well, it's not West Point Lake'. It was so clear.



And the hills around it made it the perfect place to just lay back and enjoy the weather. We probably sat around on the beach for an hour just enjoying the sun and beauty.



I managed to get in the water up to my mid-calves. It was just a little bit cold to be full-on swimming.

Of course that didn't stop the fellow German tourists from stripping down to their speedos and running straight in. They were having a blast.



I persuaded Josh to at least walk a little way in. He didn't even want to come in this far.



As we were leaving someone asked if we were local because they wanted to know what kind of tree was in the picture below. Obviously we didn't know, but we thought that it was an odd enough tree so we took a picture. There were little furballs of nuts or flowers or something all over it.



After we walked back up to the car from the lake, we had a grand feast lunch of PB&J sandwiches and drove on to our next destination. We have plenty more pictures and stories to share (including my attempt at sand driving, Josh's failed attempt at safe driving and the snake that we walked right by).