VanDijkTrack

Today we made a trip to Dayboro and to the Abbey Museum in Caboolture.
Dayboro is a small village around 45 km north-west of Brisbane. It’s a nice small village known for the Dayboro Rodeo and other events as Dayboro Day Festival, Dayboro Show and Dayboro Markets.

View on Bushland and a few Farms

View on Glass House Mountains

The trip to Dayboro goes through bush land and so now and then some farms show up.  Especially from the higher areas you can have nice views on the Glasshouse Mountains National Park with several mountains, old vulcanos arising out of a flat landscape.  We’ve been there before and this Park gives excellent opportunities for walking over the many  tracks available.

Sign Crash Zone

Next to the road we saw a sign that wasn’t very encouraging: “TAKE CARE Crash Zone next 2 km”, but driving fast shortens the time period of high risk 🙂

Dayboro camp oven of first settlers

This says it all

When approaching Dayboro we saw a sign for a historical location and being a tourist, we went to have a look. To follow the signs we had to take some small roads and finally we found some old black burned stones with a sign “This is the site of the camp oven used by the Anderson family – first settlers in the area before 1907.)
 
This again showed the reality. This country has a long history with the Aboriginals but the (European and other) settlers have only a history of a few hundreds of years and that’s already leading to some confusion.

Suddenly a Lollypop Man showed up

Leaving the Camp Oven with the Historical Park, we took a very quiet sandy road. At those times we are happy that we have a 4WD car. Then suddenly out of nothing a “Lolly Pop Man” (that’s how a traffic controller with a slow/stop sign is called sometimes) showed up.  We didn’t expect them here in the middle of the bush without nearly any traffic, but it seems that they are everywhere. They asked us if we had seen the big snake, as long as the road width, crossing the road, but we didn’t. Then we could continue our journey.

Abbey Museum Caboolture

From Dayboro we went to Caboolture to visit the Abbey Museum. This museum is really unique for Australia with a lot of historical items from Europa, and Egypt. We really can recommend this place if you pass by.

Abbey Museum Caboolture

Fascinating how such a high standard museum can be located in such a small village. It was a great opportunity to walk through the periods of European history with Nicole and Jorick. We also had a look at a church nearby with many old “glass in lead” windows and other religious ceremonial items.

This is also the location for the yearly Abbey Medieval Festival. Unfortunately next time is not earlier then July 2009.  

Italian restaurant Caboolture

In Caboolture we had a conversation with an older man about the characteristics of Caboolture and living there.  he was born there and we signed up his words: “you have to hang your hat somewhere”.
We closed the day with a diner at an Italian restaurant (Jorick’s favorite).

Some things from daily life:

Watching the frogs

Mound of Brush Turkey getting larger

Daily life just goes on but with many new experiences that are typical for Australia/Brisbane. Everyday we watch the Brush Turkey mainting his mould. Incredible how busy he can be the whole day. We are now removing many brushes, plants and paths with small stones from our top level garden. So often the Turkey and we are working together side by side. And when it comes down to the essence live the differences between him and us are small.

One of many

Iguana

Jorick and Nicole love the Frogpont(s) and like to watch (and catch) the little tiny frogs. Also many other animals and insects show up.  Recently Nicole found an Iguana as shown in the picture at the right (puzzle). Many different reptiles become  active now the temperature is rising. Jorick enjoyed a visit to one of his friends from his 1st pre-school here. And again together we have visited the “Dutch Playground Group” which was fun. Periodically one of the many Parks in Brisbane is selected where tens of Dutch families with children meet. The children have a play together in the playgrounds that are nearly everywhere and the parents can have a chat in Dutch which sometimes is a relief.

Having a barbie in the evening

Nicole and Jan a la Renoir

And of course at least once a week we’re having a barbie (BBQ). Everytime that’s a nice experiences with the many sounds from the Rainforest.

That’s it for now.

We are happy that we can stay in touch with many of you in different ways. Thanks. 

Cheers,

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick

We surely entered spring now. The temperature and sun are adorable and animals become more active.

Two Cockatoos in the garden

Australian King Parrot

Every day we are fascinated by a Brush Turkey that’s building his mould in our garden. It’s already around 1.5 meters high and 4 meters in diameter. Around his neck he has a yellow temperature measurement device (see earlier photo). He tries to keep the temperature inside around 33 degrees Celcius. If he is successfull he might attract a woman to lay her eggs in this mould. It’s incredible how quickly he can transport al kind of twiggs, leaves and parts of our garden watering system to build his house (pictures next time). The result is a clean garden.

Pale Headed Rosella (nesting in garden)

In our garden also other animals show up. Cockatoos get us shivering with their terrible noise when flying over our heads. They look nice, but their sound is horrible and they seem to damage timbre in your garden. Two Australian King Parrots show up frequently and are building their home in one of our bird houses. The Pale Headed Rosella is just a nice bird and a good visitor with a friendly sound.

Koala visiting our barbecue

Lace Monitor passing by

Several times we were surprised by a Koala in our garden. In de morning and evening when these cute animals are awake they make a sound like a pig.
That’s how you can notice them, because it’s very hard to notice them just by sight.
Once we saw a large Lace Monitor of around 1.5 meters crossing our garden. Impressive.

Boondall Wetlands, salt water specific fauna

Tawny Frogmouth in Boondall Wetlands

Together with some nice local people, related to a former colleague of Jan, we took a walking track in Boondall Wetlands. Just behind the border with the ocean a wet area with specifice Flora and Fauna is made accessible by tracks. A Bush Ranger was guiding us. The area is very beautifull and we were lucky to see a Tawny Frogmouth. The differences in Flora between the lower and higher parts were fascinating.

Boondall Wetlands

Brisbane River Fire

Nicole and Jorick making a painting on the veranda

Nicole is nearly talking fluent English, maybe we should say Australian. The Australian/Brisbane accent is also fluent. Sometimes she is correcting our way of pronouncing words. Yes, she just turned six years old and we are already behind.
She had three time “Show and Tell” on school. She told about chickens coming out of an egg, Carnivorous Plants and about Rabbits. In the class room the children could experience ducklings coming out of their egg and how they live in the first two weeks. It was exciting (and smelly).

Jorick did his “Show and Tell” about his piano book. He has been baking some cookies at school and feels more at home there every day. Although he likes pre-school we reduced the number of days from 5 to 4 days because he used to become very tired at the end of the week. Wednesday is his free day.

4WD in bush on Bribie Island

Jan enjoyed (Australian) “Fathers day” on 7 September. Jorick has made drawings and cookies at school and Jan was invited for a party at school with Jorick. There Jan got a certificate from Jorick for being the best father (as the other fathers did).
Nicole bought some presents at the Fathersday Fair and had baked some cookies as well. And of course some beautifull drawings. It was fun.

Last week Anita started to work for 50% so this gives her more time to relax with the family and to enjoy the environment. Finally we have received our 2 and 3 seater so that’s making daily life a little bit more comfortable as well.

Driving on the beach of Bribie Island

The weather is improving rapidly. The temperature is rising and the evenings are getting longer. We are often having lunch or dinner outside. This also has led to the first invitations for BBQ-parties as you can imagine.

With a group of eigth 4WD cars we made a beautifull 4WD trip on Bribie

A drink on the beach

Island. We crossed beautifull bush and beach tracks. We saw some animals there as well. Photos of Lace Monoitor in a tree and a crab on the beach are shown below. On the beach we had a picknic and the children enjoyed playing at the beach. The weather was fine (as it usually is) and it was a great day.

Although we would love to visit the Netherlands with family and friends, we enjoy living here and feel lucky having the chance to experience all this.

Wish you all the best.

Kind regards,

Lace Monitor in bush of Bribie Island

Jan, Anita, Nicole and Jorick                                       

Time to relax

A crab on the beach