Travelog for: Dickens

Hello everyone
My name is Dickens and I have just become a ToyVoyager! I hope to have many adventures see new places and meet new people!



Today my mummy and I started a new book. My mummy and me love reading together, especially mysteries and historical novels... oh and Twilight (sssshhhhh it's my guilty pleasure)!



Tonight my mummy is going out for New Years Eve with her friends but it is adults only so I am not allowed to go. But when she gets home we will have a little party just for ourselves!

Well... that's it for today. I am looking for a host right now so if anyone is interested in hosting a lovely Canadian bear like me I would be so happy

*****ITINERARY 2010*****
Australia--> malleechick
Czech Republic--> dzejna
anyone else??

Great news! Next week I will be going to Australia to stay with mallee_chick. She is going to show me kangaroos and other wonderful things from down under

Right now I am packing my things and getting ready to be shipped out to Australia for my first big adventure! I'm so excited and so is my mummy. I will miss Canada and my mummy but when I come back I will have lots of things to share with her!

No pictures until I reach my destination so goodbye for now 

Well, finally I have arrived in Australia. That was a long flight and I am very jet lagged and out of shape. I know us bears hibernate, but at least we still get some fresh air and some room to roll over. There wasn't much of that on that flight!
But I'm not complaining. My new host has put me in a cool spot in the house while I sleep for a bit and get back into shape. My host says that it is not very hot today - it is only 37 degrees. That's hot for me in my coat.
I know I'll feel better tomorrow.

Hi there,

I've finally caught up with all my sleep and the jet lag has gone away.

Today Johanna took me to Scenic Hill and to see the Hermit's Cave in Griffith.

Griffith is a really flat place. There is only one hill. The land all around it is used for horticulture. But Scenic Hill is quite beautiful. It is rocky in parts and has lovely Dwyer's Mallee gums growing on it. Johanna let me climb in one and have a little rest.



We climbed up some of the rock to see the view:

.

At teh base of the hill is lots of housing. Johanna said that a lot of it was farm land not so long ago, but now there are houses everywhere.
In the distance you can still see lots of grapes growing and oranges too.

Below the lookout is the Hermit's Cave. Many years ago an Italian man lived in these hills and built himself a home out of the rocks. You can still see where he built walls and steps. Some people don't appreciate the area and there is graffitti on the walls. I don't know why people do silly things like that.



And here you can see across to the Binya Hills behind me. If we are lucky we might go birdwatching there on Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to that.



I haven't seen any kangaroos yet. But there were wild goats around the Hermit's cave.

I saw Kangaroos!!! They hopped away pretty quickly so we couldn't get photos, but I saw them - I did - I did - I did!!

Johanna took me on a drive around the area to see what crops are growing.

There are irrigation channels all over the place. They are lucky to have water this year because it has been very dry. Some rivers have no water in them at all. But on this drive we were headed to the Murrumbidgee River which brings the water to Griffith.



I was doing the navigating and I think I got us lost.



We went down one road for miles, past rice crops and fields of sunflowers and grapes and sorghum and then we came to a dead end and had to turn back. This railway line looks like a deadend as well. There's been no trains here for a VERY long time.



So we headed back the way we came and then found the road we wanted.

Johanna wanted to hide a geocache near the old wharf at Darlington Point on the Murrumbidgee River, but that wasn't on our map and she couldn't find it. But we had fun driving through the River Red Gum forest.



You have to be careful in the forest because the trees drop branches all the time. The River is a popular place to go camping and fishing and you have to make sure that a branch will not drop onto your tent. People have been killed that way. The branch in this photo is quite small, but we still had to drive around it. That's when we saw the kangaroos. There were about 6 of them, all looking at us but they got scared and hopped away. They are really beautiful animals and graceful in their movements. Maybe I could learn to hop on my back legs?

And finally here is the river. It was a hot and windy day and Johanna was getting tired of driving, so we didn't get out of the car. She said that I could go for a swim next time (when she finds where that old wharf is and we go back). I don't know if I will see any fish or coral here if I snorkel. The water looks dirty, but Johanna said that it is nice to swim in.



Maybe next time we might find koalas as well. Johanna said that there are koalas in the Redgum Forests near Narrandera (about 100 kms away) so we might go there to see what we can find.

I like Australia.

We've had an eventful few weeks here.

We went for a walk at Store Creek in Cocoparra National Park. It's really dry here. There was no water in the creek. It would be nice to see some. But it doesn't rain much and when it does the road to get to the area is impassable.



It was also a bit hot when we went, so there wasn't much to see and i got a bit cranky in my big furry coat.



Later that day it did rain. It poured and poured and poured. There was even some hail for a little bit. Johanna said that this was the best rain she'd seen for many years. There was 48 mm in the guage. See, I said that it didn't rain much here.

And while we were watching the rain, we saw the power lines short out. There were sparks and flames and then we had no power!

So we read by candle light and drank wine. We read the biography of Australia's current best cyclist.



I had a headache in the morning.

Johanna and I went out scouting for locations for geocaches this week. All the land is really flat (that's why its good for irrigation), but there are a few hills.

We hid three geocaches - all at places that give visitors a view of the countryside.

Hello mummy!

Today I reached my new destination - Moravian Karst in the Czech Republic. I was so happy to get out of the envelope. There were many toys giving me a welcome, it was very nice. Crispin and his friends introduced themselves as my guides for the stay.

There are also two other toyvoyagers in the house at the moment. ThomasHH is here for about a week and then Apelsinas -  who will be going home in couple days.

My host dzejna told me a little about plans for my stay... I think we will have a good time. Now we are listening to soundtrack of Wicked and we will go to bed soon, cause I am really tired. But I insisted on doing this update, so you know I am ok...

Love, Dickens!

Hello Mummy,

we had big plans for the weekend, but unfortunately the weather was against us. So we had to change it and do different things instead.

But never mind - I still have some news for you.

First I had yummy lunch - this is very popular meal in the Czech Republic - chicken schnitzel with potatoe salad. Very nice!


Then we went for a short walk. Husband of our host dzejna likes to explore historical things from the 2nd world war - so we went for a trip with him. Here I am in front of a german bunker, which is not far away from the village we are now.



After that we visited an ostrich farm!



And in the evening we had a good bye party for Apelsinas, who is leaving on Monday!



We believe that during next week the weather will be better and we will be able to do more outdoor activities!

Bye for now, Dickens!

Hi mum,

here is a couple of images we took when our host was sick. The spring is already here, but the evenings are still a bit chilly, so we keep using the fireplace.
Here I am helping with the firewood!




Our host's husband also took us for a small trip to see a big pond, which is near by...




More news coming soon! (Our host is OK again)
Love, D.

Couple images of me and the windmill we went to visit =)
On the last one it is me with my friend ThomasHH.

Hi again,

yesterday we went for a proper trip to the Moravian Karst - we visited famous gorge and the caves!
But here we go from the beginning =)

First was the famous Macocha Abbys. I was looking into it from the top first, then we walked to so called lower bridge, which is in about half of it.
It was quite scary to be honest... but my host said I did really great.









Then we decided to visit some caves. There are 5 of them open to the public. We chose the Sloup caves. This is very large cave complex with very impressive acoustic among other things. And I must not forget, the cave people lived there many many years ago and also cave bears! You can see me with image of skeleton of one of them. And also with femur bone mammoth! It must have been biiiiiig!
(Apologies for the quality of images, it is quite hard to take photos in the caves.)













And here are the surroundings... tha nature looks like this in this whole area. It is quite nice now during the spring.






Hope you like it too!
My next update will be from a bike trip, can you imagine?
Love, Dickens.

Hey Mummy,

remember that lake I showed you earlier? We went there again today. But this time by bike! It was such a lovely weather that we just couldn´t resist.
The area is not only one big lake but also many smaller ones. We also found an island. But my host told me, that I can stay calm, that it certainly is not "THE ISLAND" (from LOST show =))

I hope you will enjoy the pictures!
Bye, Dickens

Dearest Mum,

here are some pictures we took couple days ago, when we went to Zlin with our host. She had to deliver her bachelor thesis... it was very pleasant small trip.
After we finished all the university stuff, we went for a nice refreshment to the top of highest building of Zlin (by the way, it is capital of shoe making in the Czech Republic.... you may know Bata shoes - the Bata Company comes from Zlin) and we enjoyed the view 





Bye for now, Dickens!

Hi mum!
Today was a very busy day. Our host had to work, even if it is Sunday. She went to visit a car race. Although it was business trip, she took us too! We had not much time to wonder around, but we do have some images. Take a look!



Much later in the afternoon we headed to the ZOO, besause my friend ThomasHH would like so see a real giraffe so much, so we wanted to help him with this. But we were unfortunate - the giraffes were not alowed to go out today, it wasnt warm enough. What a shame.
But we did take pictures of other aminals, even a polar bear  But he was a bit far... well never mind, because now I am the big bear on the picture, not him 
Sorry for the turtle pictures, the light was awful in that pavilion...









Bye mum, miss you!