Trails & tripulations: Puppy cousins

Today we drove all the way to my Grand(hu)ma's house! It was about 440kms, and it took us from 7.30am until 2pm. We left early because there were a lot of Drilling Men in the units around us, and they got up at about 5.30. I told them off for getting up so early, and then my human decided maybe we should get up too.

This is the way we went.



The first thing we did when we left was take a rest break. We went to get some more smelly stuff for the car, then we we went to MacDonald's. My human says they are good for breakfast when you are on the road, but I think she likes them for breakfast when she's going by tram or walking, too. I got to have some little pieces of egg and bacon, which made a nice change from kibble.

Then we were on our way!

First we stopped at Milmerran, which is about half way to Toowoomba, and then we stopped at Esk, which is PicturEsk, according to the big sign.

Then we went past the Glasshouse Mountains, and through to Beerwah. The only place we got a little lost on the whole trip was in Beerwah, which my human thought was very funny, because her family has a farm there, so she's been visiting since she was a teensy pup and used to know the way really well. But they've put in a lot of houses and changed all the roads around since the last time she was there, and the way she was used to taking had gone away - and the beepy machine didn't know where to go either. My human figured it out eventually.

The other thing that's in Beerwah is the Australia Zoo, which was put there by The Crocodile Human. When my human was a pup, it used to be called the Queensland Reptile Park. My human's family once found a crocodile in the dam on the farm. It was a bit lost, wa-a-ay too far south, so they called The Crocodile Human and he came and caught it and gave it a new home.

My human says she never saw a crocodile in the dam, just tiger snakes swimming on the surface, and yabbies swimming underneath. She used to tie pieces of string around Dougal The Cat's dinner meat, and try to catch yabbies. She never knew what to do with the yabbies when she caught them, so she would throw them back. And make sure her Grandma gave Dougal more food. She also used to help her Grandad milk the cows and then help her Grandma make butter from the milk, when she even younger than I am in dog years. But enough of that, this blog is about me!

When my human finally stopped talking about herself (yawn!) we were at the Sunshine Coast, and next thing, we'd arrived at my Grand(hu)ma's house!

The first thing we did was get out of the car, and immediately go for a walk, before we even said hello to anyone. Then my Grand(hu)ma and her Peter brought Heidi and Lexi, their two Schnauzer girls - my cousins - to meet me in the park.

Here's a picture of me in the park.



Then we went for a run alongside the river.



Here's my cousin Heidi, and me in the background. Heidi's a lot older than Lexi or me, and she has a nubbin instead of a tail. They're not allowed to do nubbins any more, here in Australia. So Lexi doesn't have a nubbin, and she has lots of hair on her tail. I get mine clipped short, so that's how the humans can tell us apart.



They are very nice girls, and not nearly as evil as they look in this picture. That's Lexi on the left and Heidi on the right. Well, obviously that's me on the far left!



Now we get to stay here for almost a week - no more driving! But then we have to go back home again. It would be quicker for us to drive to New Caledonia from here, than back to Melbourne!

Trails & tripulations: Kibble, kibble, all around...

Today we drove from Forbes to Goondiwindi (the humans pronounce it Gundawindy, or Gundy for short, for some reason).

It was about 650 kms, you can see it on this map. The red flag on the coast is where we are going tomorrow - where my Grand(hu)ma lives.



This is the view from the back door of our motel room, in Forbes, this morning. That grassy area is an old bowls green, and the motel man put us in this room so I could have a run around when I wanted.



From Forbes, we went to Dubbo. We found a very nice park to stop at, with a good steep hill to go down.



And some pretty water at the bottom.



Yesterday the road was mainly flat, but this morning it was all rolling hills and bushland. We drove for miles and miles without seeing any towns, and there were only a few properties - you can tell because there's a dirt driveway and a letterbox, and that's it.

Our next big stop was at Coonabarabran. It was very pretty and autumnal.



How many ducks does it take to cross the road? I think it must be 10, because there are nine there and they are all waiting. I hope the other duck turns up soon, because the Rescue Squad needs to be fully ducked at all times!



When we got to Narrabri, the land turned flat, and then we were driving for miles and miles where there was nothing but flatness and the road was straight, and all there was around us was a train track going along the side of the road, the occasional grain silo, and heat-haze all around.

My human said it was difficult to tell if you could pass the road trains (they're giant trucks), because of the heat-haze - you couldn't always tell if there was something coming in the opposite direction, and if there was, you couldn't tell how far away it was. She says that's why we're driving with our headlights on even during the day, so other cars can see us coming and don't crash into us.

We finally arrived at Goondiwindi. My human ordered room service, and I got... kibble... for dinner... What?? I don't get kibble for dinner, only for breakfast!

For dinner I prefer 4-legs, or chicken necks, or sardines, or chicken and vegetables, or chicken and rice. Not kibble. I thought it was a mistake last night when my human gave me kibble for dinner. I didn't want to say anything, because I thought she might have been too tired, and that's why I got kibble. I also didn't eat it.

But then she gave me kibble for dinner tonight. Hey, human! How about planning ahead better and staying in a better-quality place where you can cook me the dinners to which I deserve to be accustomed! Well, of course I ate the kibble, because I'm a well-mannered little puppy, and also I was hungry. And then she gave me a few green beans and a piece of carrot from her room service meal. So that was ok.

I hope she's not planning on giving me only kibble for the rest of the trip!

Trails & tripulations: A Grand Adventure

I'm having A Grand Adventure.

My human and I are off to visit my Grand(hu)ma, on the other side of the universe. We're driving, and it's going to take years and years to get there.

A Grand Adventure of this magnitude requires a lot of planning. Here's me assisting my human with all the packing. As you can see, I've been packing my gorgeousness - I had to spend a lot of time working on my beauty sleep.



Today we drove from Melbourne to Forbes - about 700km.



My human was a little surprised that the beepy machine didn't say to go through Shepparton, but she said she was pleased we went further east, because there's been a plague of locusts, and she didn't want to have to pick them out of the radiator. We did get lots of other types of bugs on the car, though.

This route took us through Ned Kelly country. We didn't stop at Glenrowan, which my human regretted soon after, coz it was ages before we found a nice quiet place to stop - we had to wait until after Albury-Wodonga.

We ended up stopping at Gerogery.



There was a horse there, saying hello to some children.



I was a bit concerned, because it was a lot bigger than the children.



But it turned out to be a nice horse, after all.



My human says we will be at my Grand(hu)ma's place after two more human sleeps. That's like, um, several hundred puppy sleeps. At least I will be able to stock up on gorgeous!