Almost as soon as we waved our first guest, Robin, off on the train down to Sydney to continue his adventure, I was back at Broadmeadow Station to pick up Ed and Archie. 
Ian was working at the Habitat then meeting us once we got home but as soon as we arrived in Lemon Tree Passage my phone rang and it was Ian telling me to bring them straight to the Habitat as there was a koala but he was very active and could move on at any time, so we turned around and high tailed it down there. 
The koala was a big male and very low down the tree, he obviously thought the mating season had started as he had been going from tree to tree marking them with the scent gland on his chest with Ian in hot pursuit so he did not lose him before Archie arrived.
After taking plenty of pictures of him we wandered around the Habitat and found a female high in the branches, if you look carefully you can see her in the photo with Eddie and Archie. It was a very successful day in the koala department because, as well as these two, Ella was in her usual tree down near the marina, a three koala day is very special.
The weather was glorious and the following day we took the boys to see various beaches around the bay where they swam and played in the sand. Eddie came out with the quote of the trip when he said, "Do you come down to this beach in winter?" To which I replied, "this is winter." 

We wanted to give our visitors a taste of as many different bits of Australia as we could in the limited time available, they had already been to Sydney for a couple of days and were heading up to the Great Barrier reef after leaving us so we had booked a trip to the outback.
It was going to be a 2300 km round trip so it made sense to get up at 4am for the first part of the journey - 12 hours to Gundabooka National Park, still in New South Wales, back of Bourke (to an Australian, going back o'Bourke means officially entering the outback). All three of us adults drove in turn so we were able to press on with no lengthy stops, although we did briefly stop in Walgett which is a very grim little town with grilles up at all the shop windows. We decided we wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and it turned out we were right as we heard on the return journey that someone was murdered there that very night! 

As we neared Bourke I prepared myself for big things as all the road signs and maps made out Bourke to be huge but it turned out just to be big compared with the other towns around it and was a bit of a disappointment, however, it is the gateway to the outback so significant in that respect. We arrived at our destination at around 4pm. It was beautiful, all dark red earth and beating sun just as you would imagine. We had booked to stay in the shearers accomodation, which consisted of 6 bedrooms each with two bunks, a communal kitchen and eating area then outside toilets and showers (redback spider heaven). There was a fire pit outside which was great as it gets pretty cool at night and it is unusual to be allowed to light a fire in the scrub so Archo (his new outback name) gathered sticks and we ate dinner around the camp fire before retiring pretty tired.

The next morning we went exploring and found the old sheep shearing shed which was surprisingly intact with much of the equipment still in place. The shearers names were written on the walls with the number of sheep they had sheared beside them, it was quite easy to imagine the heat, smells and noise of a working shearing shed as we soaked up the atmosphere. We followed this with a walk along a track through the bush and were surprised by the carpet of beautiful spring flowers under the trees as far as the eye could see, it was like an English meadow, they must have had a reasonable amount of rain recently because it is usually just red dirt. 

There was another walk marked on the map which led to Aboriginal rock art in the caves at the end, so we followed a path among huge rocks and boulders and spotted a kangaroo grazing nearby. We looked around to point him out and realised we had lost Eddie, we could hear him yodelling in the distance so Ian and Archie stayed with the kangaroo while I went to find him. Once Eddie was retrieved we finished the walk and drove back to our shearers quarters, it was around 5pm by now which is the best time to spot kangaroos as they are diurnal animals. We saw heaps, big reds, medium greys and wallabies but the highlight was seeing an emu with four stripey babies. 

 After a dinner of Ian and Archie's famous Archoburgers we had an early night with a plan in place to get up at sunrise to go and spot more kangaroos.

                                           

We were very excited to welcome our first visitor from England this week. Robin flew in on Wednesday having spent a couple of days with Zoe and we were keen to show off our lovely neighbourhood to him.
The koalas at the Habitat decided to go into hiding but good old Ella was in her tree as usual so the koala box was ticked and the next challenge was to try and find some whales. This is not the best time for whale watching as the humpbacks have nearly all passed by on their migration north and very few have started the return journey with their calves. Clearly nobody had told the whales this because we went out  with our favourite whale cruise operator Imagine Cruises and, after a bit of desperate searching, we saw about six and were even treated to one leaping right out of the water at bang on four o'clock. The whale watchers call it 'breach o'clock' because this is when they jump, goodness only knows why.
Robin was very lucky with the weather and Friday dawned bright and sunny again as we drove inland to the historic country town of Wollombi. The town was a staging post on the Great North Road, built between 1827 and 1834 to link Sydney with the Hunter region. Up to five hundred convicts worked on it at a time in gangs of fifty and remnants of the convict roadwork can be seen today like the bridge in the photo. The road was never used as much as anticipated because steam ships started to transport people and goods to Newcastle instead.
Wollombi is typical of a town which would once have been home to far more residents than it is today. The usual General Store stands in the middle of the main street and the old court house is now home to a museum with a tiny police station hiding behind. There were a couple of other shops but they did not seem to be expecting much custom and one shopkeeper had popped a note on the door and gone off to do something more interesting. 
The last building in town was the pub which allows free camping in its garden on the banks of a creek, it looked like a jolly nice spot and we are planning to go back for a few days with the caravan and explore the area further.
We drove a little further to look at remaining bits of convict built road and passed a field with wallabies grazing (wallabies - tick). On the way home we spotted some kangaroos (tick) and a dead wombat, I'm not sure if that counts.

A charity fundraising trivia night was hosted in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago and we were invited to join a team by some friends representing the Tilligerry Peninsula. Our team squeaked to victory and we all won tickets to the fabulous Regal Cinema in a Newcastle suburb. 
We had heard great reports about the Regal, it is run by volunteers as a community cinema and shows films to suit the audience. They try to show Australian films whenever they can but the movie we went to see was made in New Zealand - The Hunt For The Wilderpeople. I don't know if it has been released in the UK yet but it is a must see especially for any of my old colleagues at the school.
The cinema itself is housed in an old weatherboard building, no bigger than a bungalow at the front but goes back a way and seats about 100. We were not paying on this occasion but, even if we were, it only costs $8 (£5) for any seat at all performances. As the customers arrive they are greeted with a glass of wine, soft drinks, cups of tea and a buffet of pizza, sausage rolls, cakes etc all included in the price. The various showings have different catering, afternoon performances come with scones, jam and cream, we were there on cocktail night and, at the end of each month, they have a 'whatever is left in the pantry night'. That sounds like it is worth a visit. 
Before the film started we were entertained by The High Andies, a trio playing Hawaiian music while the volunteers came around with more trays of food in case you had not eaten enough. We could not believe how generous it all was or how hard the volunteers worked, well done everyone, we will certainly be visiting again. 
After a wet week the weather is starting to perk up just in time for our first UK visitor, Robin. The koalas appear to be on the move and there is a real feeling that spring is around the corner. The prospective boyfriend of Ella, our local koala, is still hanging around and she is looking a bit more interested, the birds are pairing up and I spotted this family of three tawny frogmouth owls in a tree together. The tawny frogmouth is a master of disguise, I wonder if you can spot all three.