Travelog for: Paula

Today I had a nice day in a small village in the east of Austria.



Here you can see me smelling and tasting a Orchidee.. it was something totally new for me, but I´ve to say that I prefere the normal grass.. ; )
Maybe tomorrow I´ll find some tasty grass!

I´m getting ready for Australia! =)  I´ve been with my mum and Fridolin in the zoo in Vienna and there I saw a typical australian animal - a Koala! =)

Here you can see me with a real Koala and a statue! =)





So I can say that I´m already a little bit prepared for going to Australia! =)

But in the zoo I´ve not only met the Koala.. I met a lot of great animals and here you can see me with some:







After meeting so many new friends we´ve been really thirsty!


And at the end I had a ride on a flamingo - like Fridolin! =)

Riding the freeway

Before I`m going abroad my mum took me back from Vienna to her hometown Petzenkirchen. Here I spend the last weekend, before I´m going to Australia for a very long time.

I really enjoyed the ride on the freeway! =)

Today it´s THE DAY ...

Puh.. I´m really excited.. My mum´s huging me always when she´s passing me and telling me to look after myself in Australia and be nice to my new mums...
For sure I´ll behave like the best sheep in the world! ; )

But before I can behave like that I´ve to travel.. enough time for thinking about the next months...

Australia - I´m comming!!!

I have arrived! That was quite a quick journey for literally going half way around the world wasn't it? Glad I'm here the travel pack started to get a bit stuffy...

Sara took me and the other two toyvoyagers out today already and we got to see a little bit of Orange... I'll update again later with photos (or tomorrow) but I'm tired now... I must rest... the time change here is weird, did you know I'm already a day ahead? Where did it go?

Write again soon! Miss you!

Today we had two new packages sitting in the mailbox... Sara's been talking about the new arrivals coming to spend the month with us... I wonder who it is?


...and then finally a head popped out... Paula's here from Austria...


...the next package Sara set in front of everyone... I wonder who this would be? Sara says it's another brand new toyvoyager on their first journey... who could it be?


...Jonas is here from Massachusetts...


...and here's a group photo of all of us together... Jonas, Paula, Guico, Bellatrix and Emil...


Sadly it was short lived, as it was time to say goodbye first to Gucuio he's on his way to Finland. :-)


...and then another goodbye to Emil he's on his way to Victoria... the travel will be much shorter for him...


It was sad saying goodbye to my new friends, especially so soon... but maybe we'll all meet again one day? Off to the post office we go... :-)

It was time to go and take Gucio and Emil to the post office, so we all lugged ourselves into the car and got ready to go... we also had a few more errands to run as well, so Sara decided to bring us along since it was a nice and sunny day...


Sara lives in an area with a lot of houses that were built in the 1940's, but right down the street from her house is a huge company, as you can see facing the bottom of her street this is a huge parking lot and the company is a well known company called Electrolux. They make fridges and freezers in this one Sara told me... she also told me that this company used to be an ammunition factory during the war...




On the way to the shops we drove down main street, which is called Summer Street... as you can see on one side the buildings all look very old, it's mainly because they are... in the last photo on the right hand side you can see a big white building... that's the main post office... it looks quite big, but in reality it isn't...


...and finally we were at the shops... we had to stay in the car where it was safe but Sara parked and we had a bit of a sleep... finally it was time to get some lunch... so for lunch Sara got a kebab and we all headed to the park...


Welcome to Cook Park... this is the main park in Orange and it's got some interesting sites to see... Sara told us that this is actually where Daniel proposed to her back in December 2004, so it's one of her favourite parks to visit...

Here's a bit of history about the park...


When we first walked into the park Sara showed us something new, it's called Pot Plant Penny, she seemed quite nice so we all posed for a photo with him... and here's a bit of information about her... apparently she's quite new to the park... :-)





...finally, it was time to sit down and eat the food, it's quite big isn't it? Well, it's yummy anyways!


...shortly after eating we had a visitor come and check out our food, apparently she wanted some... Sara fed her some of the bread off of the kebab and the magpie flew away... Sara says this is the time of year where it's very common to be swooped by magpies, there not much bigger than a crow but they're very territorial, especially when they have eggs, or hatchlings... no swooping happened to us today thankfully...

After we were finished eating we all headed onto explore the rest of the park, the park has a lot of different types of trees and flowers, these flowers were particularly pretty so Sara had to get a photo of them... aren't they pretty mum? I guess it means Spring is coming, how strange is that? It should be going into Autumn!...


As I said before this park has a lot of things to see and do, and it's quite a big land area for how small the town is (40,000 or so people)... first we stopped at the fountain, it's actually quite a pretty fountain, but sadly the sun was behind some trees so you can't see it so well, but were sitting on the side of it... it was quite cold in the shade...


Next we went to the band stand, this apparently has been here quite a while, since 1908... they have bands play in this area from time to time, especially during the Summertime...



Then the next thing was the most exciting for me... we got to visit a HUGE aviary... it's split up into three different parts, medium sized birds, large birds and small birds...


The medium sized portion is the part closest to me, it's got cockatiels, diamond doves, princess parrots, budgies, and a whole bunch of other medium sized parrots and birds... all the birds in these aviaries are all Australia native birds... Sara could get a photo of only one bird in the medium sized part, a diamond dove... the other birds must have been sleeping!...


Here's a bit of information about the birds seen in the medium sized section of the aviary...





The second part of the aviary, had a few more birds visible... some of them even talk... one of them kept asking for a biscuit (cookie)... how funny is that? Sara got a few more photos in this part... which includes (in order) a normal and quite common cockatoo, a pink cockatoo, and a crimson rosella... they're all quite pretty and colorful aren't they?




Here's some information about the birds in this part of the aviary...




...and last but not least the area with the smaller birds like the finches and quails (Sara's favourite part)... these guys are MUCH harder to find as they're so much smaller... but Sara found two star finches, one's a yellow faced star finch and ones a red faced, Sara owns both types in her aviary at home... Sara also has some zebra finches, diamond doves (seen from earlier), spice finches, button quails (king quails), and some gouldian finches...


...and here's a bit of information about the smaller variety of birds in this part of the aviary...



...and last but not least we all got to visit one of the two big duck ponds that they have in the park... there's lots of ducks there and we sat down and they all came up to us... sadly we didn't have any bread to feed them but aren't they still so cute?


...here I am with the ducks...


...well it was time to move on, we had a few more errands to run and then it was time to go home and get some rest... we were all quite tired, it had been a big day... still more to see of Orange though, just not something to do in one day... last stop before home, Aldi... we had to get a few more groceries...

We waited in the car again, but it wasn't so bad, there was so much to see... so many people... and finally it was time to head home...


This is the street right near where Sara lives, lots of trucks, and trains go past this area, Orange is a big area of transport as we are located right between Sydney and Dubbo so we get a lot of stuff going between them... :-) Well I'll write again soon!

We all woke up to a nice and sunny day today, and even better it was the first day of Spring! We all packed up into the car and headed.. somewhere.. Sara wouldn't tell us where... she did say she hasn't been able to properly take toyvoyagers up here for months because of how cold it's been and the road has been closed 2kms from the top because of snow fall... crazy! In August? Well here we are on the road...





...as you can see the road changes quite drastically from open fields to a whole bunch of trees, eucalyptus trees to be exact... you can't tell much from the view in the photos but a lot of what looks like farmland is actually vineyards... there are LOTS of vineyards surrounding Orange...


...and then all of a sudden the road turned into a dirt road... we all had to hang onto each other as we were bumping around so much...


...then we stopped... quite abruptly in the middle of the road... Sara spotted something and then we took a photo... you can't see it in the photo as the distance is quite far... but there was two white spots flying out of the middle of the road... what was it? We saw a cockatoo... a wild one, how crazy is that?

Welcome to Mount Canobolas! This is the highest point West of Sydney until the far side of the country in South Australia (on the Western Australia side)... on a clear day like this you can see pretty far... the height of the extinct volcano now is around 4,650 feet or 1,395 metres)...


...Then right in the centre of the peak there's a view point and there's a little map that shows the direction of each of the towns, so it shows where Orange is located, Parkes, Forbes, Blayney, Millthorpe, Bathurst and all the surrounding towns (Parks and Forbes is a bit farther so you can't see them really but it shows you what your looking at...) here I am checking out the map...


Here's some information about Mount Canobolas from the view point signs:
Mount Canobolas volcanic complex is listed in the Commonwealth Heritage Register for it's unique geological composition and location. These factors have resulted in a distinctive vegetation pattern, containing rare and unique species, which in turn contain habitats for a number of equally unique animals.

Within a 30 kilometre radius of Mount Canobolas, approximately 30 vents are known to have erupted. These eruptions commenced about 50 million years ago and halted approximately 10-15 million years ago. The Mount Canobolas vents erupted over that entire period, while others within the 30 kilometre radius were active for shorter periods. The basalt capping has largely weathered away, producing fertile soils as far away as West Wyalong (which is 223kms away).

On the way back down the other side of the view point we looked out into the direction of the city of Orange... it shows you how far up we really are... there are a lot of bush walks in this area... it's pretty amazing the wildlife in this area as well. Sara said she's seen kangaroos jumping through the bush on one of the bush walks they took last Autumn...




After spending quite a while at the peak we decided to drive back down... but there was one more stop to do before we were off to lunch... we stopped half way down and had a look back up towards the peak, and the opposite direction towards the city... as you can see were still quite high up...



The smaller peak next to the "flat top" of Mount Canobolas Sara said she believes is called "Little Canobolas" and is one of the main vents next to the main vent that was where we were standing... as you can see because its' the highest point they used that to their advantage and put radio and TV towers up there... sadly it's a bit of an eye sore...

Well... onto our next stop... it won't be long until were there now...

It wasn't too long and we were almost there... when again, Sara stopped the car, but this time she jumped out and walked a bit back where we were and got a photo... we saw it but Sara said we couldn't be in the photo since it might scare him away... a kookaburra... one of the things that make Australia Australia... they're quite noisy and you know them when you hear them but this is the first photo Sara's ever been able to get of one...


...and then before we knew it we were there... Lake Canobolas!

We all sat on the beach for a little while and then all the ducks and coots came over to greet us, they must have thought we were bread... Sara picked us up and got one last photo with us and the lake before moving on and getting some lunch!


Now here I am in front of the lake, isn't it such a pretty day? It doesn't seem like much but it was quite a busy day, I'm happy to be getting some food and resting at home! I'll write again soon mom, promise!

Another time for another drive, dang it seems like we're driving all over - it's amazing what living in a town does, anywhere you want to go we always have to drive everywhere, oh well... at least we get to see the country, what most tourists don't usually see... :-) Well, remember when I told you about the vineyards that are surrounding Orange? Well, here's a very good example, right in front of where we are here it just looks like a whole bunch of farmland, in which, you wouldn't be wrong... but it's two large vineyards on either side of the road, one of which is called the Turners Vineyard. The other Sara's not sure of the name, but it's another large one, people can pay a few hundred dollars a night to stay (in either of them)... and they do, it's pretty upscale for being... so far away from everything...


Now that were outside of Orange, you'd think there'd be really nothingness beyond a whole bunch of sheep and cows, and sometimes horses... but instead... we're now coming into another town? What's this?


Now this is literally what you would call a 'one road town' because that is literally all it is, there is a few unique things about this little town, and it's actually got it's own name, but not it's own post office... that's how small it is... it's called Lucknow.


Here's a bit of history that Sara told us about the town... in the second photo you can see it a bit better but there are two huge gold mine shafts on either side of the road... when they initially came to this area, they started digging for gold and after many years. Found all but nothing. So they named the town 'Luckno' which literally translates to 'no luck'. They then left the town...


...they then came back many years later to try again and see if it really is as empty as they thought it was... when they came back, they indeed did find gold so they renamed the town 'lucknow' because they now had that luck they were looking for.

There is a LOT of gold in this area... where Sara used to live when she moved here, a town called Blayney her and her husband would go to a smaller town near Blayney was called Carcoar and there was a small river and right near the river you'd actually find some gold flakes on the banks of the river. Quite interesting actually... well, this isn't our stop today as I'm sure you can tell... moving on...

Well... as I said, we definitely weren't done today... we drove for another good 40 minutes and finally we were in another town about the size of Orange (40,000 or so people) which is called Bathurst. It's famous for it's V8 race track... but first stop, we went kangaroo hunting...


Sadly when we got to Bathurst they've started building lots of houses in the area where Sara usually see's kangaroos, so they went behind Mount Panorama to search for them there, and didn't see any there either! :-( How sad! We did see a few... but sadly they weren't alive... hopefully I'll see some while I'm in Australia... Sara was a bit sad too because she loves taking photos of them and showing off the famous icon to all the toyvoyagers that visit! Fingers crossed we see them on another journey!

Next stop was the V8 race track that's called Mount Panorama when they have the famous races each year, Australia pretty much just stops... especially in this area, everything is like a ghost town because everyone is watching the races... they're holding them this year on the 9-12th of October. So not too far away, they're preparing the track for the big weekend...



...here's a bit of information about the track, and a map showing you what the shape of the track looks like...



...and here I am in front of the entrance of the track...


Now it's time to take a ride on the V8 track... how often are you really able to do this? It's actually a road (part of it) to get to houses, and on the inside of the track they have vineyards, and houses and everything that are rented out during the races... they even have a play ground on one side of the track (short distance away but within view while your driving on the track) for the kids. :-)













Not sure if you could really see it, but there were people on the track, jogging around it, it's common to see people doing that... Sara finds it kind of amusing, but there are A LOT of people that come from all over Australia and sometimes the world just to drive on the track... pretty cool huh? Well here's what the starting gate looks like as well... I wasn't able to get a good shot from the other side of the track...


Well sadly there wasn't much else for us to see in Bathurst, we had a deadline and had to be back out of there pretty quickly after we got the mystery shops done... but here are some photos of what Bathurst looks like... there are a lot of older buildings... the first picture is at the top of the main street and that's a big church on the right side and the second photo is showing what the buildings commonly look like throughout Orange and Bathurst and all the surrounding little towns... :-)



Well, were back on the road and going back home.. I'll write again soon, promise! :-)

Well another time to take another car ride... what a surprise lol... I wonder where were going now? We're leaving Orange now, here's the exit sign that says "drive safely and return soon"... awwww! :-)


Well this time we were off to a smaller town with only a little over 700 people in it, yet quite a few pubs for the population... and lots and lots of farmland... we stopped off and met some friends... they were not that interested in us... oh well... Australia is quite famous for their sheep and sell the wool all over the world... these guys were pretty cute aren't they?


...and here's what it looks like as the view from where I'm standing, you can actually see Mount Canobolas in the back ground... that pretty much sums up what this entire area looks like outside of the small towns and larger cities (larger meaning 40,000 people)...


Well, not far from there we were now entering the small town of Millthorpe... first stop was one of the main streets in Millthorpe. This tiny town is historically recognized by Australia because of some of it's buildings and historical streets. The Australian TV movie Jessica which Sara's husband's sister was an extra in... pretty cool huh? Well, here I am on Pym Street...


Now, here's a bit of the information on Pym Street...



...then right next to it is another historical sight... the railway station and the railway hotel... here I am in front of it. :-)


...and here's a little bit more information about the railway and the hotel... as you can see from the hotel it's almost eerie how similar they look, even a century later!



Well it was time to keep moving, there wasn't much left to do, so we went up to Sara's mother-in-laws house and planted outselves in the kitchen preparing ourselves for the birthday party that was to come...


After the birthday party we headed home and went straight to sleep, it was definitely quite a long day! I'll write again soon, promise! :-)

Wow, after that long weekend, we had another visitor come today... I wonder who it is...


Well, what do you know? It's a little carebear called Lollipop how nice to meet some more little guys just like us!

Today, we had another little one arrive today... well, not little one... the size of the packaging is quite... large... I just hope whatever it is isn't dangerous...


Then out pops Luv Leon she's pretty big compared, but I think she'll be okay, she's pretty cuddly and seems to love us already... this is going to be great! :-)

Sara never really introduced me fully to all the animals I've been living with the last few weeks... pretty naughty of her, but she made up for it... I was happy to meet my roommates. Some of them I've heard for quite a while but not really have seen, one of the biggest things in the house is the aviary that lives in Sara's kitchen... :-)


These are Sara's birds, she's got quite a few... most of them are finches, but she also has two button quails and two diamond doves (which are the smallest doves in the world - which are not much bigger than a finch). Sara's birds are all Australian native, they include star finches, gouldian finches, spice finches, and zebra finches. :-) They're all quite pretty aren't they?


Next stop was their fish tank, obviously these guys don't make too much noise but they had a few babies so their few platties turned into a few more... so most of them are identical but there are swordtails and a guppy for live bearing fish. Otherwise there are a few barbs, loaches, and suckerfish (one of which is quite large).


Then not quite the last yet, but other side of the house Sara has a puppy currently in a kennel. Don't worry she's not in there most of the time, except night time or the times that Sara's not home. But because she's still a puppy I can hardly get a photo together with her, let alone with her not trying to eat me... :-) She's friendly though, her name is Anni, and she's a 5 month old beagle. :-)


Last but of course not least, the mice... Sara has 6 mice (2 of which are brand new from today)... she's got them in a large mouse mansion and they were all roaming around the cage and being crazy until we came around! Oh well! It's daytime so they're sleeping away... they live on top of the dogs kennel most of the time where they're safe... they're also very friendly animals!

So I hope you enjoyed the tour around Sara's home with her pets... she's got quite a few but as you can tell I'm sure she's an animal lover! :-) Write again soon!