Gary and Anneloes (we can unmask them now) are back in the country and have begun their own blog about their adventures. For the interested, their blog address is below.


Gary and Anneloes' New Blogspot

As promised I have started making our story and photos available on a blogspot. If you wish to view these, they can be seen at http://awarrener.blogspot.com . I have created 1 page so far and hope you will find it an interesting beginning to the future of these pages. Anyway I will work on these as time allows and will let you know when a new one has become available until I learn to email it to your e-mail addresses in the future.

Lots of love from the Warreners.

Those Photos I Promised.

Gryph took some nice photos of Sabrina the other day, so since I have the computer for a bit I thought I'd take this chance to add them on... seeing as how I promised.

Crouching down, hoping that Jack won't see her. You'd think she could have found something... anything... to hide behind.

Close your eyes and count to 10. Here I come, ready or not

Where is that dog? What's taking him so long to find me? Is he blind?

Here I am Jack. You're not very good at this game, are you?

Oh well, he is just a dog, after all.

Cheeky Donkeys

Donkeys are a little more work when it's been raining. They pick up all manner of grass seeds in their fur. But don't try to groom them when it's feeding time. They tend to get a little impatient and start to push you around.

Jack certainly looks like he's been having some fun frolicking among the grass.

Feeding time at the zoo. Five o'clock sharp. And don't forget. They make a lot of noise if you happen to be late.

Lip-smacking good.

Excuse me sir, but can I have some more?

We're sure going to miss these guys.

Letters from G and L... part10.

Arrival in Hong Kong.

Hello folks.

Everything going well here. We arrived in warm Hong kong (G will be pleased with the temperature here) early this morning. We will not be departing for Cairns until 11.30 pm this evening. We booked into the very expensive travelers' lounge. It cost a whopping $300.00 australian dollars, so we could sleep and eat, drink and have free internet access and get a 15 minute massage before our departure. I think we are just killing time as we are not allowed to leave the airport without the required visa. (we haven't got this) We also get to have 2 showers (Isn't it wonderfully excessive?) I still cannot believe G paid this grand amount just to keep me occupied. I cannot do nothing for 16 hours without becoming a pain in the bum. I guess G's sanity is important to him.

I am going to continue our holiday in Cairns, make a web page, video etc.

Anyhow that's it for now. Have fun and cya later.
Love from G and L.

Hey guys,

Isn't it wonderful, the lengths that husbands go to to keep their wives happy, the sweetie. But beware! Pretty soon he'll be demanding his dinner on the table sharply at 6, and then it won't be long before he starts whinging about how his undies are folded. :o) No, I'm just joking. I'm glad that you guys had such a wonderful time. Now it's time to have a holiday to recover from your holiday, isn't that always the way? Enjoy the rest of your time off. We're looking forward to seeing you again, all fit and tanned. Oh, and we're also looking forward to seeing your pics and video, as will be the ladies from Stitch and Bitch. L, if you need any advice on the web stuff, don't hesitate to drop us a line. We'll be only happy to give you a hand if you need it.

Sabrina is missing you, I think. She's been even more affectionate than ever since the kids have gone. It's quite normal to find her curled up on our lap when we're at the computer, and she has to make sure that she gets the best seat when we're sitting watching TV.

I think she'll miss Jack the most when we go though. They've become as thick as thieves, as the saying goes. Today I walked outside to find them both running around like loons, taking it in turns to chase each other around. It's such a funny sight to see. She does still side with us though when he needs to get in trouble, running over and slapping him if we rouse on him for some minor thing. Never mind, he forgives her two seconds later, as soon as she rubs herself up against him again.

Letters from G and L... part 9.

Early Arrival

Hi Phoenix,

We have decided to return early, back to warm weather was one main reason. I think in 9 weeks there have been 3 days when the thermometer reached the dizzy heights of 20 degrees. My body is still showing the signs of hibernation.

We will be in Cairns on the 1st of May but not returning home until the afternoon of 22nd May. If there are any problems with this, let me know.

G

No worries guys. You lasted a lot longer than I would. My toes would have frozen off about two weeks in, I'm sure. ;o)

It's a shame you couldn't make Anzac Cove. It's definitely a spiritual journey, from what I've heard. Did you get to see the volcanoes? Your last email didn't say.

I'll be returning to Rocky for a week in a bit over a week's time, but Gryph will still be here. I was just doing an entry on the blog when I received this mail, so to save me repeating myself, you can check the story out there.

We're just about to head off for tea at Big Sis's, so I'd better get going or we'll be late.

Take care and have a good flight.
Phoenix and Gryphonn

Getting Organised.

Once again, I'm sorry that I haven't updated as much as I should. My bad!

Well, we've been keeping ourselves busy getting ready for the end of our stay. We've been doing a bit of cleaning here, a bit of packing there, and a bit of trying to finish off all those projects that we didn't quite get around to. G & L will be back home on the 22nd (just got the news as I was writing this), but to to be safe, I want to do as much now as I can. I'll be returning to Rocky in a little over a week's time, and I'll be there for about a week. I kind of feel like I left Gryph in the lurch when I headed down this way, and this time I don't want to leave too much for him to sort on his own.

So why the return to Rocky, I hear you ask. Well, Lara's having an operation on the 8th of May to remove the plate from her leg (she broke it in a car crash a while back). So, I want to be there for her. She'll be in hospital for at least a few days afterwards and I want to stay with her to keep her company. She's a little worried and I know that the ex won't even consider that as important, so I want to do that for her to help keep her mind at rest. Let's just say that my ex is not the shining example of an attentive father that one would hope for. Put it this way, he hates hospitals, hates the sight of blood (or anything icky for that matter), and seems to think that taking a week off work will be sufficient. This girl won't even be allowed to walk on her leg for a couple of weeks at least, will need her wound cleaned and dressed every day, and she'll be on pain-killers... so she'll need constant care. I wonder if that's why his 'girlfriend' (using the word loosely here, considering that before we moved down here they both denied even being involved for anything other than... erm... a mutual need, shall we say) has suddenly moved in? Oh well, if she's happy with that who am I to complain? She'd just better damned well care for my child properly, that's all I can say. Anyway to get back to the point... I doubt he'll let me see Lara much after she leaves the hospital because it's 'his turn to have her', and he's a very selfish man. He definitely won't want me near his house, which is fair enough I suppose, but I'll stick around for a few days just to make sure that he's doing the right thing by her. I'd be happy to bring her back down here to look after her, but it's more important for the ex to think that he's winning against me... the dragon woman who stole his children away from him when we accepted this job. Never mind the fact that we'd arranged for them to return home at the beginning of April. Oh well. My kids all know what he's like, and that's all that's important to me.

Anyway, there's going to be a few ideas for this place that we'll give up on because of a lack of time. We didn't quite get around to getting the pump from the dam going. We were planning on having that all hooked up for G & L's return so that they'd have water for the garden without having to use the tank water for the house. But due to a couple of hiccups, we didn't have the money to spare for the diesel. Never mind, it's all set and ready to go otherwise. The seedlings are coming along nicely, and should be quite drought-tolerant. We were going to add some water crystals at the time, but again, it comes down to dollars. Besides, after the initial couple of soakings when we first planted the soil has been holding moisture nicely. We've only been watering them about once a week which promotes a deeper root system and they don't seem to be suffering. The herb seeds in the front garden get watered every couple of days in smaller amounts, but only because they're still tiny and some haven't come up yet. I'm starting to think that some of the seeds were just no good. The strawberries haven't grown much, which is a bit of a shame, but they haven't died either, so maybe we just planted at the wrong time.

Now, we were going to get the lawnmower working again, but again didn't have the money for fuel or parts if they were needed. Likewise, we never got around to trying the quad or the beach buggy out either. Those plans will all be by the wayside now. We cleaned up some of the stuff outside, namely camping gear and stuff that was starting to become a little weather affected. We tidied up the storage shed to make a bit more room, and it's all in there now. We did manage to get the chimney for the wood heater in about a month ago, with the help of Big Sis and Big Bro-in-law. I'm glad we did too, as the weather has been a bit chilly of late. We went and got a load of wood at the time too, but we're going through that pretty quickly. We might have to go and get some more yet. We were also going to move some of the building materials etc, away from the shed. We've done a bit and we might still be able to do more if we can organise for Big Sis and Big Bro-in-law to come over for a day this weekend to help us out with the heavy and/or awkward stuff. I'd like to do that for G & L, if only to help try to keep the mice away from the shed.

Speaking of mice, they seem to be breeding fairly quickly. We were only getting a couple a night, but we've been getting more in the house for the last few nights. We've set up some 'humane' traps (well, as humane as killing things gets, I suppose). We have one in the house, along with Sabrina, who usually leaves us a little surprise to find each morning. We had another in the storage shed and got a couple each night in that one, but we moved it yesterday to the tool shed. It had been empty for a couple of days, so we figure that we must have depleted the shed stock. It's empty again today, so I guess they don't like the tool shed, but we'll leave it there again tonight and see how it goes. There's another trap in the shed where the donkey food is kept, which has netted us a couple of dozen or so over the last couple of nights. That seems to be the most popular mouse recreation area, natural I suppose. The oats haven't been touched though, but it is stored in a plastic bin with a lid on it. My guess is that they're after the mulch and/or sawdust next to it.

Today I was going to strip the bed in the 2nd bedroom, wash the sheets and make it back up, but the weather has turned and is threatening us with some nasty looking black clouds. I think I'll just content myself with some tidying up and a bit of blogging and see how it looks tomorrow. I hope it clears up a bit because there's a couple of days of washing to do.

Well, that's about all that I can think of for now, so I'll sign off. We're off to Big Sis' for dinner, but I might chuck up some photos of the animals, either tonight or tomorrow. But Gryph might need the 'puter again tonight. He's been trying to get the web site up and running before we run out of time here. It's kind of hard though, as Bordernet has slowed the connection right down. It's been frustrating him no end, so it would probably do him the world of good to have some time away from the screen, anyway. No promises though. :o)

Anyway, take care all.

Happy Earth Day, Everybody.

You know how it has become trendy for us Aussies to adopt American holidays over recent years? Well I personally don't think that we should. In general, I believe that American celebrations should stay in the US. Halloween is an excellent example of this. The holiday itself was adopted by early American citizens as a derivative of the All Saints Day celebrations. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, where the bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them. However, over the years the traditions of All Saints Day has all but been forgotten. It has been transformed into a fun night which gives the kiddies the opportunity to dress up and head out into the night, gather together a free supply of lollies and run slightly amok on the poor people who don't wish to add to their bounty. No offence to Americans, but that's not really something that I'd like to encourage my kids to do.

However, one celebration that I do believe all citizens of the world should adopt is that of Earth Day (April 22). The idea of this celebration began in America in the late 60's by a number of politicians who saw that environmental awareness was a good idea. Have a look here at the history of Earth Day, as related by one of the instigators, a man called Senator Gaylord Nelson. Senator Nelson convinced John F Kennedy and several other influential politicians that a national celebration of our planet was the best way to help conserve and protect our environment. And then...
". . . on April 22, 1970, Earth Day was held, one of the most remarkable happenings in the history of democracy. . . "

To be honest though, I'm a little disappointed at the lack of Earth Day activities in Australia. There are quite a number of events organised in the US and other countries, but not a whole hell of a lot here in the land of Aus. There is going to be a tree-planting day in the Daintree, Target Australia has promised that they will not be giving out any plastic bags today, and if you're in Sydney on the 24th of May, you might like to check out the Blue Earth Eco-Living Festival at Darling Harbour. But there doesn't seem to be much more planned for this day. A bit of a shame really.

Oh well, we can only do what we can to spread the message. So, from all of us to all of you.....

Happy Earth Day.

Letters from G and L... part 8.

Our Return to Australia

My god. Our dog is making quite a name for herself and being a complete embarrassment to us. We have decided to come home earlier (to be exact we are arriving in Cairns on the 29th April 2008).

We have decided that after Holland there isn't anything else that we really want to do (except ANZAC day in Turkey) but cannot get there anymore. (Hotels are all fully booked). We have decided to stay in Cairns for approximately 2 weeks and than return home to use the remainder of my holidays to be a little more active and there are wonderful places to do some serious bushwalking in and around Brisbane. We have lost quite a bit of weight and are intending to keep this off and we are unable to do this at the moment up here. It is so easy to fall in the practise of having snacks and cakes (it all taste sooooo good in Holland) and we have to try this and that. We have reviewed our itinerary and completed everything we wanted to do and now want to start building our new house and I want to be back with my beloved animals.

Mum, we will arrive at Cairns International Airport on the 29th April at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Can you pick us up at this time please? Or arrange for someone to pick us up please. Can you let me know before Saturday as we are departing for Frankfurt on Sunday morning.
Lots of love from G and L.

Our Own Quiet Human-Rights Protest.

Big Sis and I have been talking about the Save Tibet campaign lately. Everyone who owns either a TV, internet-enabled computer or radio would surely have heard about all the protests being carried out around the world concerning the Olympic Torch. The torch relay has successfully been hampered in many places by the protest of some very concerned people of the world, the most notable being the London and Paris protests. China has slammed these protests as being 'vile', even though they have been peaceful protests. Rather hypocritical of that particular government I say, considering the vile acts perpetrated upon their own citizens as well as the citizens of other countries like Tibet.

The protests have included one in which 37 people were arrested in London, and in Paris 5 were arrested including a local politician (kudos to him) and the torch was extinguished. The US protests were much smaller, but the most notable was the arrest of three protestors after scaling the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Anyway, as old hippies both, Big Sis and I have been discussing these protests with great fervour. Our hearts go out to the peoples of Tibet, as well as the many Chinese citizens who have had to live with human rights crimes themselves. We are both appalled at the injustices that these peoples have had to endure from the Chinese government over the years, and are in support of the protests that are going on. These protests have been handled in the most noble of manners, as any protest should. The people involved have brought world-wide attention to the cause, and in the true spirit of peaceful protests, there have been no documented injuries.

Now, Australia is about to have our turn to host the Olympic torch. On the 24th of April, the Olympic Torch relay will be conducted in Canberra. Free Tibet activists tout the protests as "fantastic" and say they are "delighted with the protests dogging the Olympic torch". They are promising a strong but non-violent protest in Australia".

So Big Sis and I were discussing how we would both like to run off to Canberra to add our voices to those who will be protesting here. However, sometimes what we want is not always practical. I simply can't afford either the time (I have a job to do here) nor the money to travel to the protest. Big Sis is quite ill and as she is often in a great deal of pain, such a trip just would not be sensible for her to take. As such we have decided to make a small and quiet protest of our own.

We took the clippers to our own heads, then after donning our orange colours we made the greatest sacrifice of all. We stood in front of a camera!!!

Does my head look big in this?

Two beautiful blooms.

This was not a great sacrifice for either of us, though. At least we live in a country where we're allowed freedom of speech without the fear of being either arrested or shot in the streets. At least we're not being forced to live in squallor, suffering from famine and disease, and being denied the right to the most basic of aid. Nor have we been encouraged to give up our babies to die naked and alone in hospital, simply because they are unlucky enough to be born with a disability. Nor have we been injected with a saline solution that will slowly and painfully eat away at our babies because we have fallen pregnant more than once. Nor do our children have to live without a legal identity, and thus the access to the most basic of educations. Nor do we have to watch our elderly neighbours slowly starve to death because their one son has died and they have no financial support in their old age. I could go on, but I won't. I will however, provide you with some links so that you can read about these and many more human rights violations in China.

Please show your disgust at actions such as these. Visit the International Campaign for Tibet website and do some reading. Then follow some of these links and voice your own protest. You can sign the petition asking President George Bush not to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Or you can sign the petition urging China to improve its human rights practices and demanding integrity from the IOC and China.

Free Tibet.

One World, One Dream

Letters from G and L... part 7.

The Netherlands

We arrived in my country of birth last Monday the 14th April quite unexpectantly. We have discovered that the best laid plans often fail and this is what happened in Germany. We only stayed there for 4 days and I got really quite bored with doing nothing much. It is difficult to adjust to an quieter life after walking 34 days. I missed the Camino initially and with nothing to do in Germany but spend time with G's friend, I felt out of place. We were asked to leave as the wife of G's friend wasn't coping with 5 people in the house.

We arrived in Holland unannounced and had trouble finding accommadation. W was renovating his house and when we contacted R we could come, but C's daughter was over with her 2 children as their house was also being renovated. After arrival at their place several other options were tried but none resulted in a bed. We ended up staying for a few nights and than moved to my old neighbour's place. He is a bachellor and very easy going, he had a bed and lots of room and didn't mind at all.

We have been sightseeing around the town where I used to live. All those loved places from childhood. Some I haven't been able to find. I couldn't find the paddock where we kept our horses, or the entire walk I did with my dog. The shopping centre has been extended and is completely different. Other places are just the same, het polderbad (swimming pool) has remained much the same. I was the very first person to swim in the indoor pool as mum was working there at the time. My Uncle and Aunt's place is much the same also.

Anyway we have also spent 2 days in Rotterdam, 1 day in the city centre and 1 day visiting the Maaslandkering. That is a place where they keep the water from flooding the Netherlands as 1/2 of Holland is below sea level, and some other places where they do much the same. It was very interesting. We have also visited Scheveningen. We are getting spoiled here as we are never allowed to pay for anything no matter how hard we try.

Anyway that's it for now.
Lots of love from L and G.

Internet Woes

For the past three days the Internet connection at the shed has been slow. Slower than dial-up. The plan as I understand is a 512/128kbps connection, but it is running at 3.2kbps - 6kbps average.This results in a simple web page taking upwards of 30 seconds to load, if at all. We'll see how things go, but updates may take a little longer from now on, as it can be very frustrating waiting for images to upload, or blog editing pages to load. It's no fun sitting at a computer for minutes at a time waiting for edits to happen.

G, could you check with Bordernet please, just to see if it may be a problem on their end. I've done some comparison checks and the problem seems to be with their servers.

A couple more photos for Spaz.

Just before she left this morning we took some photos of Spaz (as you do). Some of Spaz and her sisters, some of Spaz, her sisters, Jack and I, some of Spaz and her Aunty Big Sis, and some of Spaz with Gryph and I. I'll send you the rest by e-mail once I get them all resized, my baby, but for now...

Sisterly Love.

Spaz and Phoenix.


and
Spaz and Gryphonn.

We're missing you already. xxx

Good times, but sad times too.

Yesterday was an exciting day for us all. Vik, our 20 year-old daughter, arrived at about 5pm for a 5-day long visit. She and some girls from work (she's an apprentice chef) had a conference to attend at the Gold Coast and she has a week off work in total. So of course she had to drop in to visit us for the remainder of her free time. I'm so glad to see her again. She's so loud and large and full of life. We've all missed her so much, especially Lara, who has asked me at least once a day how long it's going to be until she gets here. We're all pretty close, and the past month and a half has been the longest time that we haven't seen each other. Hey Vik... It's so, so good to see you again.

Vik's 'girls' made the trip out here to drop her off then, after a very quick stay left to make their way back to the main highway before it got dark. The car that they're driving in is a very small Mazda and they were worried about the damage that a kangaroo might do. Thanks guys, I really appreciate you dropping Vik off for us. You guys are legends!

But despite yesterday's excitement, today is a sad day. Spaz will be leaving us and returning to Rockhampton. And we won't be the only ones who will miss her. Sabrina loves her big scruffy cuddles, and the donkeys (especially Bonnie) will have to get used to me or Gryph feeding them. They love her the most, I think. She can't walk out the front door without Bonnie calling to her. The other day I borrowed her jumper and they called out to me, thinking I was her. When I spoke to them though, and they realised that I wasn't Spaz, they walked away in disgust.

Big Sis will be over shortly to pick us bigger girls up for the two-hour trip to the train station in Gympie. So I'll have to make this post short and quick. I've gotten Spaz's permission to post a couple of photos of her here. I don't normally post pictures of my kids on the net, as most of you would know, but she's a big girl now so it's her decision. Besides, I want you all to see how proud I am of my beautiful girl. We've been through a lot since we've been here and have become even closer than we were before this little adventure. I'm not going to make too big a deal of it, but I'm going to miss her cheeky, smiley face.

This is Purple Spaz... Big Sis bought her some hair dye last week, and she loves it. She's wanted to go purple for a while. They found a bargain... $2 a tube... and I've been informed that I have to buy her a few more when I go shopping next and send them to her. I have to admit, I think it looks great, so I might just have to do that.


Bye Spaz... We'll miss you like mad, my darling baby. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Letters from G and L... part 6.

Arrival in Germany.

This morning we all had to get up really early as we had a plane to catch. We had 4 people in our group and all were going to Frankfurt Hahn.

The camino has been very special and I would recommend this walk to anyone wanting to try something different. On arrival in Santiago de Compostela, we walked to the office to pick up our compostela. A certificate to say we walked approximately 800 kms from St Jean Pied de Port to Santiago. On our way we bumped into another person who we had been walking with sometime back and we were told that she had stayed on in Santaigo to await our arrival. I asked her how long ago it was since she arrived in Santiago and was informed 5 days. I thought it was pretty special someone waiting for us for 2 and a half hours but 5 days ( wow that is too unbelievable). She wanted to pass on her e mail address and that of some others who unfortunately were unable to stay on that long and get our contact details to pass on to them and for herself. I mean is not that special or what? That is the camino spirit for you. People shape friendships and bonds that normally take years to develop.

We are now in Heidelberg (Germany), we are staying with a friend from G and do not know how long we will be here for or what exactly we will be doing. We are also definitely going to Estonia to celebrate Epp's birthday and look around there. I have seen many other places I would not mind going, one of them Turkey for ANZAC day and some islands of Italy to do a volcanic walk of 3 days on some active volcanoes at night time.

Anyway we are very well and look forward to not having to do much walking, for a few days anyway. Mum it would be nice to hear something from you (even if you do not have much to say).

Anyway lot of love from G and L.

Congratulations G and L. What a wonderful achievement to have walked so far. Being a bit of a hiker myself, I know what a great sense of achievement you must both feel. Personally, I don't really have the urge to visit too many places overseas, but I'd love to go on a walking tour of Australia. I've always thought that a back-packing holiday around our own beautiful country would be one of the greatest adventures. I'm a bit of a sook though, and absolutely hate cold weather. The snow and wild wind that you've experienced on the Camino (Spanish for The Way) would be too much for this tropicali Aussie to handle.

The volcano walk though? Now that's something that would make me shiver. I've always had a fascination for volcanos, and that would be something to look forward to. I really hope that you guys decide to do that one because I would love to see photos of a real live volcano. And it would be something that most people just wouldn't get the opportunity to do.

Here's hoping that you continue to have a wonderful time on your honeymoon.
All the best.

All Quiet on The Aussie Front

Well, we don't have too much to report on the shed front (or should that be home front?).

Sabrina has been dispatching mice in the order of about one a night. There is a bit of a mouse population explosion happening around the district due to the rain we've had recently. The week before last we had about 40mm all up and it looks like more coming this evening. She is enjoying our laps as well (when the mood takes her). We've also learnt that she needs a landing pad on the shelf above the computer for when she goes stalking about through the ceiling cavities. It was quite disconcerting the first time she leapt from the roof!

Both Jack and Bonnie are happy. They say hello when they're feeling friendly, but they are more attached to the older daughter than us.

I have some more pics to post, so I'll get that done tomorrow when I am feeling a little more awake.

******

I want to say a big hello to my Grommet up in Rocky. I love you lots and miss you heaps Miss L. Hopefully I'll see you soon. You should ring when you read this so I can give you your email address and teach you how to send an email to me. That way I can send you one as well.

******

Well, stay tuned for some photos some time tomorrow afternoon our time.

Letters from G and L... part 5.

Hello Everybody.

How are you all? For you people keen on a photo or 2, we will continue to disappoint you as it continues to be impossible as these computers have no usb ports to connect cameras to. Yes, I am going to make a blog but not until we have arrived back in civilization.

We are now in Sarria and approximately 4 days walk from Santiago de Compostella. G is still having a lot of problems with his foot, instep and knee, and progress is extremely slow because of this.

Let me tell you something else that is rather funny up here. When we go to the toilet you can be faced with the very tiny toilet with the timed lighting in it. We enter the toilet and have to squeeze ourselves to the farside of the loo to be able to close the door. You close the door and put one leg to the other side of the toilet and take down your pants, sit down and it usually happens about here that the light goes off. Spanish toilets have no windows, usually no toilet paper and you now are in absolute darkness. With luck the light switch is inside the loo but occasionally the switch is outside near the entrance to the bathroom area. Now you switch it back on or you put your pants back on, turn on the light, race back to the loo, quickly do what you had to do and the light goes off again, you search for the lock and go to the basin to find no soap or towels either.

The shower in Galitia is a push button shower. You push the button, step under the water, water goes off, push the button again, wet your hair, no water again, push button, grab the shampoo, push button, lather shampoo, push button, lather some more, push button, rinse, push button, rinse more, push button, get facewasher, push button apply soap, push button... Anyway, you're getting the idea. Sometimes the water is running down the wall, so you have to lean against the wall to get some water running over you at all. It's still all good.

We are departing to Germany on the 10th april, from then on nothing is planned. We are thinking about going to Turkey for anzac day service at Gallipolli and look at Turkey in general, do not know when we will be in Holland but will let you know before we get there. I know cycling will take a couple of weeks at least but it is a good way to see Holland.

Anyway good to hear from home front. It sounds good but I miss my animals and would like to here about them.

Anyway lots of love from L and G.

Gardening

We've been preparing to dig the new herb garden for G & L this week, as well as getting some more beds dug and planted in the vege garden so they have some fresh veg when they get back.

We've planted Rockmelon, Watermelon and Corn in one patch where beans were. There are also mixed greens (lettuce, cabbage etc) to take advantage of the Nitrogen that the beans would have fixed into the soil. We've also created a small circular bed and planted it out with Broccoli, Chinese Broccoli, Beetroot and Celery. Once the Celery gets to the right size, we'll place tubes over the top. This will help the Celery to grow longer stems and will also prevent them from turning bitter from too much chlorophyl (the stuff that makes plants green).

Here are a couple of photos of the vege patch so far:


The 1000 litre pod in the foreground will be used to store water from the dam once we get some fuel to run the pump. We have a basic watering system set up so far, but will improve on that as we find things around the yard. This should provide plenty of water to keep the garden healthy, as we are applying plenty of mulch to improve the water retention capacity of the soil. If the soil is healthy, the plants will thrive and it should also attract Earthworms into the patch to further help breakdown the hard crust below the garden soil.


I took the above shot before digging the circular bed and building the Pea stand.

Another couple of photos taken after clearing one patch of beans and after digging the circular garden and assembling the Pea stand.

The circular garden is small, but will produce plenty of Broccoli etc for two people.
This is the Pea stand. If you look closely you can see the Pea seedlings that Phoenix raised before I got here. There are also some Roma Tomato seedlings inside the frame that should thrive as well. Just in front of the stand is a patch with Zucchini, and closer still is a small patch of Potato eyes that will start growing soon.

The herb garden should be good. It's a horse shoe shape so that access will be easy. We started with the intention of digging down about 60 to 90 cm and using the waste from the Rota-Loo in the bottom of the hole, then building it up with soil etc to create a raised bed. I started a small 30 x 30 test hole to see what the ground was like. About 15cm down I started finding clay...damn. I got down about 50cm and it was all clay. Ah well, I figured that would be OK because the waste would help to break up the clay.
That night it rained (around 40mm). In the morning I had a look at the herb garden site and we had a little pond where I'd dug the test hole. A day later and the hole is still full of water.
That has led me to scrap plans for depositing the Rota-Loo waste there. There could be some health risks having half-composted poo soup underneath the herb garden methinks.

Yesterday we went over to J's place (he's the local fix-all man). We collected half a tray of firewood and half a tray of saw dust from around his portable timber mill. I'll head up there again soon for more sawdust and some fire ash from his old waste timber spots. It's all good for the soil.
As you can see in the photos below, we've started to incorporate the sawdust into thew new herb garden site . We'll collect the fire ash and charcoal and add that as well. One problem with sawdust is that as it breaks down, it draws Nitrogen from the soil. So, to counteract that, we'll also mix in the last of the Dynamic Lifter once it has dried out a little (it's wet and full of grubs at the moment). G & L have plenty of herb seeds that we'll use once the bed has settled and is ready to plant. First though, we'll have to scavange around the yard to make a temporary fence to keep the three chooks out. We had their hutch on the herb site to make use of their poo in the bed (it'll also help break down the sawdust).

Anyway, here's the photos of the herb patch in progress:








Once the herb garden is ready to go, we'll be starting around the other side of the house. We want to clean up the view from the bedroom window so that G & L have something nice to look at when they wake up in the morning. A shrub/flower bed is one idea we've discussed.

Last but not least and on a completely different subject, Jack is learning that stirring Sabrina to get her to chase him and play is not a smart idea. Sabrina plays when she's in the mood. If she's not, she burrs up, then chases him down and smacks him around. Jack, being the friendly, non-violent dog that he is, usually gets a bum or back full of claws if he's not quick enough. It's not all bad for him though. When she's in the mood, she rubs up to him and will even play chaseys with him. She also likes the back-up when she's chasing mice. They work well together rounding them up:

Phoenix took the photo above. When the flash fired, Jack sh** himself and ran away. He must have thought the monster under the plastic was attacking. Sabrina on the other hand just stayed there, looking at the dog as if to say "chicken!"

Letters from G and L... part 4.

Got another update from G and L this morning. And as I was reading, I wondered about the places that they are seeing. "I'll have to look it up on Google Earth," I thought. Then I had a wonderful idea. "I'll link the place names to the corresponding co-ordinates so that everyone else can see too," I thought. So I loaded Google Earth up. I checked out all the places and plotted the route that G and L have taken so far (well, I think so at least). Then I tried to find a way to link all of that to the blog. Problem is, I don't know how. I'm not a supreme super geek and Gryph's not here to tell me what to do. So anyway... I've spent most of the day playing and mapping and marking. And at the end of it all, I could only email myself a screenshot of their path. Nonetheless, I'm quite impressed with what I've achieved...

(Click on the photo and it'll get big.)

Oh, and speaking of Google Earth... By the end of the month you should be able to check out some of our photos there. So far we've submitted some pics of the Caves area, Yeppoon, Emu Park, Keppel Sands, Emerald, Gladstone, and more. I'll be looking through some more photos over the next couple of days and will try to come up with a few of the Rockhampton area too. Once they've been accepted and loaded onto Google Earth, we'll let you know to have a look.

Now, back to the subject... today's installment of The Great Walk around Spain...



The No-mattress Mattress, Gale Force Winds and Rocky Footpaths.

Okay guys it is not all happy going in Spain. We have reached the half way mark and yes we are still having fun. Let me tell you of some of the not so great stuff. When you're walking all day long all you long for is the hot shower (which as you know already is not always hot) and a nice comfortable bed. Well we have met up with the no matress matress. It looks good and inviting and you think this is a wondeful place, until it is time to go to bed and you lie down and hit the springs or wooden board underneath it. Well with a sore body that just needs to rest you end up twisting and turning all night long as your body starts to hurt even more. You certainly get an early start this way as we are very keen to get out of this bed as it is just too much to take.

We have been walking the last 4 days over acres and acres of open grassland in gale force winds. We have done quite a few extra miles as we have been tossed and blown to any direction except the right one. Coming from Logrono to Burgos, with each step we were getting closer to Burgos, but it's 2 steps back and 1 forward. Whilst walking in this landscape the Spaniards also seem to enjoy giving us rocky footpaths to walk on to cause more pain in the feet department. We have decided to walk on the road today as G's feet are very sore from this type of walking.

Anyway there is always a good side to the story. We have treated ourselves with 2 nights in a hotel. Pure luxery our own bed, hot showers at all times (we have wasted quite a lot of hot water there) and a blissful matress. Another bad point, the spaniards are an extremely rowdy lot and they do not stop because we are sleeping. No they do not even try to be quiet.

Anyway, yes everyone is getting my e-mails including M.

Lots of love from G and L.

PS. We are at the moment in Sahagun.

Donkeys

Donkeys have...

beautiful eyes with long eyelashes

soft, velvety noses with long, stiff whiskers...

sharp little hooves, smaller than horses'...

big voices...

and enough love to go around for everyone.

Here's just a quick entry to show you some random pics that I've taken since Gryph has arrived. I can't tell you how good it is to be using a good camera again (no offence, Big Sis). This is a shot I took down at the dam. Just one of those weird things that I look at.



The moon hiding behind some light clouds. Such pretty patterns.



Baby beans growing on the trellis. We'll get around to showing you what we did in the garden yesterday... once we're getting sick of playing out there.




And this cute little girl and her puppies were hiding in the grass near the vege patch. I've liked it ever since I got here. So, as soon as I got my hands on the camera I had to take her photo.





Ok, now I'm going to make some lunch for the hungry ones, and then I'm going to have a play with my Gryph... IN THE GARDEN!
;O)

Showers With Frogs

There was a meme (a kind of internet game of 'tiggy') going around a while back... quite a while... that these guys have reminded me of. The whole idea was to decide what your (American) Indian name would be if you could choose (eg, Sitting Bull, Standing Elk, etc). I decided that my name would be Showers With Frogs. We've always allowed the local frogs to live in the house, and naturally they would congregate in the bathroom/shower area. When we lived in the shed at the Caves we had dozens of Green Tree Frogs. Some lived in the drainpipes, some were happy to live in the pot plants, and quite a few of them regularly visited with us as we showered.

Here, there's about 4 of these White's Tree Frogs that live in the bathroom (I could only find two last night). The kids have named them and play with them often. As a result they are very quiet and patient, and seem to enjoy the company. I thought this one was Whiskas (so named because we first found him in the cat bowl), but according to Lara the Frog Wrangler, he was a darker green. She tells me that this one is Spotty.



And this guy is the newcomer. Spaz found him outside and decided that he needed to come inside to live with the others. She was worried that the snake would find him and eat him. He's pretty big, and as he was attempting to climb up the wet tiles in the bathroom he kept slipping down. "Slip slidin' awa-a-a-ay," I was thinking. Hence, he ended up with the name Mr Simon.


There are quite a few species of frogs here, so we'll be keeping an eye out. Any new ones will quickly be documented. They're welcome to stay, but any Cane Toads will quickly be dispatched.
We definitely don't want to see any like this one I found on the net. Maybe THAT explains that rather large thump from the other side of the roller door the other night. Bleeaaarrrggghhh....

On The Hop

It seems that I've managed to start a bit of a theme (with the help of some amphibian mates).

This little bloke was hiding amongst the spuds that came home today. He/She is a Bumpy Rocket Frog

Expect to see some more frog piccies from Phoenix soon.

G'day

Hi folks

Well, I finally got here. I've spent some time at the in-laws and had a wander and played in the garden and stuff. I've also done the same here. I tell ya, it's good to see my Phoenix again :o)

OK, I won't carry on too much. We found this Ornate Burrowing Frog under some Chilli bush cuttings I'd laid out to dry for seed.



There are a few different species of burrowing frog in Australia, including Spencer's Burrowing Frog from Central and Western Australia.
Tiddalik, the frog of Dreamtime stories is a Water Holding Frog, similar to the Burrowing Frog, but a different species. However, we're taking poetic license on this and have named this bloke Tiddalik anyway.

That's your edjamukashun for today.

Letters from G and L... part 3.

Santo Domingo and the 2 chickens

Hi we have arrived in Ages today and it has been a long walk once again. 28 kilometres is more than I care to do on a regular basis but not impossible. Well we were in Santo Domingo and there we bumped into a rather odd scenerio. We went to visit the local church and just above the altar they keep 2 chickens in a large cage. Well that got my interest up as why keep chickens in a church. We had met up with an englishman who had been living in Spain since 26 years and I asked him about the chickens above the altar. This is the story of Santo Domingo and the chickens.

This is naturally a legend. The story goes like this.

There was a boy who had been accused of having his way with a young woman. I am not sure if he raped her or not. There was not enough evidence to prosecute this boy anyway. Santo Domingo at this stage had not been recognised as a santo as he had not performed any miracles as yet. Santo Domingo felt sorry for this boy as this crime was punished with death. The prosecutor and Santo Domingo were about to have a meal of roasted chicken (a rooster) and the prosecutor said that if Santo Domingo could bring the rooster back to live and make it crow, he would release the boy and set him free. Well you can just imagine Santo Domingo brought the rooster back to live and made him crow. And now 2 chickens must be in the cage at the cathedral in Santo Domingo to protect the church from bad luck and in memory of Santo Domingo.

One more thing about the chickens, if you make a donation to the church and the rooster crows your money will be multiplies threefold. (that is your entire income by the way).

I also asked him why the 2 chickens, as only 1 is being mentioned in the legend. His reply was to keep the rooster company. The other chook is a hen.

Just for all of you who believe we are freezing, it has not been all that bad as we brought plenty of clothing to keep warm. We have only had 4 cold days the rest have been absolutely lovely. I am not burned for no reason. The only problem coming this early on in the season is that not all alberques are open yet but we are having the best time ever.

Anyway lots of love from L and G.



I only have one thing to say, and I know that I've said it before... I'm jealous.

:o)
Phoenix.

Letters from G and L... part 2.

Sorry for falling off the face of the earth there for a couple of days. Gryph's down, and what with catching up, showing him the place, discussing all the things we can do... and setting up our computer.... well, our time has just seemed to slip away.

Gryph's out in the garden at the moment. We're going to sort out the water supply for the vege garden today. We're using one of the big 1000 litre plastic tanks and......

Oh no, I can't get carried away. I have to go back out and give him a hand later. He's quite alright by himself at the mo, but I promised that I would keep this short. I just want to put in these updates from G and L. There will be more photos to check out... count on that... and Gryph will start blogging again soon as well. (God, it's good to see him again). :o) He'll just have to get out of play mode for a bit first.

Anyway, this is the reply that L sent in regard to the questions I asked last time. And I have received another update since that I'll post as well.


THE WALK SO FAR... part II

Hi Phoenix.

Hope you start to feel better soon. It is a long time to be seperated from the people you love and yes I do not think it would be easy to be seperated from your own children.

Now the mower. It has not been started for a very long time and when it was it was extremely difficult. No we do not have a whipper snipper. The snake is a red belly black and so a venomous one. We have decided to allow it to stay as they are also called the farmers friend. They keep the brown snakes away. (they eat the babies of the brown snake). A red bellied black is better than a brown snake. It has a variety of hiding places in the yard. I would tell the girls to leave it alone and it will not bother you. Flower garden (yes where we had the outdoor setting and bbq area). I was going to do a scented garden there somewhere. The caravan will stay where it is at the present time as we like it to be out of sight.

Lovely to see my babies once again and good to hear Beannie and Jack are getting along famously. She does the same with Jasmine our dog. I do miss them I have to say but I am not worried about them.

Will catch up with another story next week.
Lots of love from L and G.

Coolies.

Gryph's going to have a look at the mower and see if he can magic something together. I'd really like to get some of the long grass down around the house, at least. We'll probably clean up some of the stuff out the side too and organise everything in a slightly more compact area. Besides, if the snake's going to stay it's better to have a smaller area for him to live in, so that you have a fairly good idea of where it's going to be. I don't imagine that we should really have any problems with the snake though. So far I haven't seen any sign of it, not even tracks. I imagine that because it's been cooling off lately, it's likely that the snake's gone into hibernation. And the kids know quite a bit about snakes, so they know not to go near it if they see it. I WAS imagining a carpet snake or tree snake though.

We'll start the scented garden soon too. Probably the vege garden first, but we have some ideas about putting some flowers and herbs in that bbq area. We'll feed water to it from the kitchen grey water. If you have any preferences for herbs, etc, let me know and we'll see what we can find. Big Sis has already said that we can take some cuttings, etc from her garden. (Photos of Big Sis' garden coming up too)

K. Have fun
Phoenix.

Some animal shots.

This is the donkeys, Jack (left) and Bonnie. Have I mentioned how friendly they are? Bonnie is definately the boss, and as such she likes the attention more than Jack. But he's sweet too, just in a less pushy kind of way.


And he's the only one that will put up with this kind of thing. I don't really think that either of them likes to be ridden, but Jack is gracious enough to stand still, at least. Getting him to move is another story. We have to lead him if we actually want him to go anywhere. He doesn't mind little Lara sitting on his back, but Spaz must be a bit big. When she hops on he drops his head and refuses to move... at all.


Jack and Sabrina, discussing the happenings of the day. Maybe they were making plans for tomorrow. Perhaps they're plotting to catch the one that got away. You see... Big Sis and Big Bro-in-law came over for dinner tonight. We were sitting outside having after-dinner coffee when we heard Sabrina's bells and saw Jack's white form jumping around in the dim light. Despite Jack's sweet nature, Big Sis was a little worried about Sabrina, I think... until they ran into the light of the kitchen window. It was then that we realised that they had ganged up to try and catch a mouse. Unfortunately, many cooks spoil the broth, and the mouse escaped under the wood pile. Sorry about the quality of the pic. I tried for another one, but the batteries refused to work again after this. So I had to content myself with this one. Good mates already.


And then when I was getting ready to add this post, Sabrina decided to join me at the computer. Not content with my bony old lap, she found somewhere more comfortable... perched on the back of the chair. She certainly has some character, this cat. I thought it was so funny that I had to try for one more shot. Luckily the break had fooled the camera into thinking that it had a bit more energy. Let's just see if I can squeeze a few more pics out of it tomorrow.

Letters from G and L... part 1.

Well, I've been quite lax in the posting department of late, which L has politely pointed out to me. It was agreed that I would start this blog in order for G and L to keep an eye on the happenings at home, as well as for friends and family to see what we're up to. But I have been rather depressed of late and haven't been keeping up my end of the bargain. I shall remedy that though, and will make more of a concerted effort to post about our mundane every day life. So if I haven't been posting enough, someone please hit me over the head and remind me.

I'll do some more posts later, but for now I'm going to put up the email that I just received from L, and my reply to her. Any identifying names have been removed and replaced for the sake of respecting the privacy of all concerned.


THE WALK SO FAR... from L.

Hi everyone, we are very good. We have so far walked from St Jean Pied de Port to Najera (200 kms) and we have experieced many things along the way. To start off with we were being hampered by loads and loads of snow. We have had the Pyrenees closed on us and ended up having to walk most of the way on the road. This still was not very easy as we had to climb a good 4000 meters of mountain in order to drop off in Spain. In Spain as well we have had lots of snow initially.

We have also been to a pilgrims mass. Here we received a special blessing from the catholic priest in Roncesvalles. This has been an interesting moment. When you are doing the Camino you have to tell the catholic church that you are at the very least doing it for spirtual reasons in order to get a big certificate at the end to say you have walked the Camino.

The refugios have all been great. Some of them have hot water and others do not. I will be a lot tougher at the end of all this, as showering in cold water is not great under the best of circumstances but especially not in winter time. We are meeting some wonderful people along the way and most of us have developed a special bond.

The Camino is certainly not an easy walk and most of us have had to cope with sore feet, knees and blisters. They call this the curse of the pilgrims. I am currently struggling with 1 sore knee ( as in very sore) G has had to buy other shoes as his KT26 are just not up to the job. This somehow does not surprise me. KT26 shoes are very cheap and I believe you get what you pay for at times. Now he has very good shoes and no more feet problems at this stage anyway.

We are having a few pilgrim meals along the way or cook something to share with everyone. I have no problems with imsomnia anymore as by the time you arrive at the refugio you are definitely stuffed. We seem to be sleeping longer and longer instead. The weather has luckily for G improved incredibly ( I am now very sunburned and have had to buy sunscreen to prevent any further sunburn. My face is close to blistering up in the Spanish winter.

Anyway how are my animals going? I would love to hear of their time at the moment. Phoenix, could you send some more photos of Jack, Bonnie and Sabrina please. Good to hear Jack the dog has joined you at the present time.
Anyway that is it for now. I hope normal life is making you all very happy. My not so normal life is just fantastic and it is hard to believe it is going to end at some stage. (luckily not too soon)

Lots of love from the newly weds.
G and L W..... Married life is just bliss.


Hi guys
The trip sounds amazing, I must admit I'm jealous. Not about the sore knee or feet though. I hope they get much better so that you can enjoy this trip of a lifetime better. As for the sunburn, I have some too. I got carried away while sitting in the sun with a book yesterday and my legs are now nicely burnt. Not so much as you though, L. Ouch! And I'm so glad, Mr and Mrs W, that married life is so wonderful. L, have you forgotten your new name yet? I must have signed my maiden name a dozen times before I remembered my new name when I got married. It makes you feel quite silly, believe me. :o)

My apologies... I will indeed post some more photos of the animals, and write a bit about how they've been going. Don't worry though, they are all good. Missing you guys, I think, but that's natural. I have been very lazy as far as the blog is concerned. I've been a bit depressed over the fact that Gryph still hasn't arrived yet. Add to that the fact that I'm missing the kids who aren't here, and it's a bit hard to get motivated. That's not really a very good excuse though. I know that if I were in your position I would expect more. I will make sure that I make some more entries now.

Jack the dog and Sabrina have become friends, which I fully expected. Jack is a very gentle dog and has lived with cats all his life, so he has the utmost respect for them. He knows that cats rule, and Beanie likes that fact, I think. When he first arrived she wasn't so sure and would hiss at him whenever he came near. But his patience has won through. He would just lie very still on the floor and let her smell him all over. At first he was a little worried but now he doesn't even open his eyes. Now she rubs up against him as she walks past, but she gets a bit offended when he sniffs her bum. :o) When he's outside, she follows him around to keep an eye on him. The only time she gets a little worried is when he's leaping around while chasing a stick. He brings it over to her as if to say "Do you want a go, this is fun". She usually jumps up on top of something when he's playing so that she's higher than him, but that's just a cat thing, I think. As soon as he stops and lays down she comes over to check him out again. I'll have to try and get a photo of them together, but the batteries in the camera that I borrowed from Big Sis are going flat and I couldn't afford to buy more last week when we went into town. When Gryph gets here with his camera we won't have that problem as it's got a rechargeable battery pack. The photos will be much better too, as it's a lot better than this little hand camera.

The donkeys are good and have developed a bond with Spaz. Sometimes when I go out and call them they don't come for ages, but if they hear Spaz's voice they come running right away. We ran out of carrots a couple of days ago, so they had their noses out of joint a little but we'll fix that when we go into town again. As you thought, they don't like Jack very much. Bonnie stomps her foot at him if he gets too close to the fence, but they are getting used to seeing him around. We don't let him go out of the yard just in case, but he doesn't want to go too far from one of us anyway. We haven't taken him on a walk to explore the property yet, but when we do we've decided that we will put the donkeys in the little holding yard temporarily before we go. That way we won't have to worry about whether they will sneak up on him and do some damage. He wouldn't worry them at all, but he might not understand that they'll try to hurt him, so it's just a preventative measure.

Now, Gryph will be down either this weekend or Monday. He was very sick with a stomach virus last week, to the point where he couldn't even get out of bed. He was so sick that the cleaning and packing got put off until he got better, and that's why he didn't make it down. Now he's organised, and as we speak he's just finishing off the cleaning. He has a friend coming over with their trailer to help move a few furniture items to our daughter's place. There are some people who have bought stuff but not paid for it yet that he has to see as well. It's terribly inconvenient, and if he can't get the money we might just have to let it slide. It will mean less for us though, which is not nice, but we don't have a choice at the moment. He's given notice at the park, so he has to go today regardless. I'm finding myself starting to feel very excited again. It's been three weeks on Sunday since we've seen each other. That's the longest time that we've spent apart since we got together, and I miss him soooooo much.

I do have a couple of questions for you though. Firstly, does the push mower out the side work? I haven't wanted to try it because I'm not mechanically minded and I'm always afraid that I'll break something. Or, do you have a whipper snipper somewhere?

Also, the kids wanted me to ask you about the snake. One of the ladies from Stitch and Bitch told them to be careful of the big snake in the tool shed, thinking that it might scare them. They both want to own a snake though, and now they want to see it. I haven't wanted to look through all of your stuff though, so I thought that I'd ask you about it. What type of snake is it?... how big?... and do you have any idea where it might be hiding?

I also wanted to know if you wanted some flower gardens, and where would you prefer them to be? Do you plan on moving the caravan from out the back? If so, I'll leave room to get it out, and leave a driveway so that you can get down there. Otherwise, the best place would be somewhere the grey water runs. The plants would soak it up and stop the smell that is sometimes associated with washing water.

Anyway, I'll let you go so that you can read some more mail. No doubt there are lots more for you to look at. I'm sure that all of your friends will want to reply. I'll post some more on the blog, I promise. I'll show you some photos of the garden too. Big Sis came over the other day and helped me to plant some plants that we took from her garden. Lara and I have started some seedlings too, which are just starting to come up. When you get back you should have a wonderful vege/fruit/herb garden.

Now off you go and have lots of fun. Don't worry about home, and say hi to G for me.
Phoenix.