Travelog for: Mulalu

I arrived in Australia today! It was really really warm for an autumn day with barely any wind at all so the heat was really shocking. Kinda reminded me a lot of home! I was sure glad to get out of that strange traveling compartment though...



..and when I finally got to my host's home I got to meet up with all the other toyvoyagers that are currently visiting with Sara...



There are sure a lot of them... but from left to right they are Luke, Mel, Cronus, Alpina, Leo Lion, Benni, Charity Bear and the walrus, lobster and turtle are soon to be toyvoyagers, they're just waiting for their tags!

Sara says we're going to Blayney tomorrow and I'll be able to see some sheep on the way there... :-) Maybe I'll have a close encounter, we'll see how it goes!

First things first, we had to all say goodbye to Benni and Charity Bear... it was pretty sad, but we all know they're going to have fun and going to a safe place.



We went to Blayney, we've been going everyday to feed the animals at Sara's father-in-law's house... no photos with those animals though they're too crazy. But we stopped to see the local emu, we're not sure if he's a wild one, or someone owns him... but we think he just got stuck in the paddock since he was younger, he comes and goes... he's SO big though...



Next stop, our destination... something kinda unique about this though is - it's one of four Marsden cottages they were built for the workers of the wealthy Marsden family. They're listed on the national trust and heritage as historically important. The house in front of me is the one that's most intact and in best condition of the three of them and has most of the original everything that was originally in the house. The house was built in the mid 1870's. We heard a lot of stories from Sara about some spooky stuff that's happened there, she lived there for 10 months with her father-in-law before moving to Orange in May 2006...



Animals are fed... so next stop... Church Hill...



Church hill is a large hill in the middle of town, so Sara got some photos of Blayney from a bit higher elevation... it was a nice clear and hot day so we didn't spend too much time there before moving on... it wasn't long before we got to spend some time with... sheep!...



Here I am near the sheep, but then quickly I guess I got too close, me being so big must have spooked them...




...there they go... there sure were a lot of them! But how awesome is that, it was a hot day so they we're all under the tree, then I came up - whoops... it was awesome to see anyways. :-)

We had to also say goodbye to Cronus he's off to Costa Rica, how exciting!...



...and then we had a chance to do a mystery shop with Sara and Daniel... we "shopped" a petrol station... and had to do a report on our findings... there was a lot of information to write down... we all helped how we could...



Then we got to visit a pet store and pick out two little mice, Sara has three other mice that are a little bit bigger so we've been having trouble introducing them together, but slowly but surely they're starting to get introduced one at a time... introducing... Pancake and Waffles...



It's been a long day though, I'll have more to update with what happened on Friday, you'll just have to wait and see, it won't take too long! :-)

Today we got to visit Banjo Patterson's Birth Place a bit outside of Orange... it was pretty exciting. Banjo Patterson is famous for his poetry and wrote the song "Waltzing Matilda" and "A Man From Snowy River"...

Here's a picture of me next to the statue in memory of him...



...and here's the sign from underneath the statue...



The important part of this sign says "The bricks in this plinth are from the original templer's mill that stood on this site during the time of Banjo's birth. The mill was demolished in 1971."

Here's the sign in front of the ruins of the templer's mill:



...and a close up of the sign and what the sign says...



We even then went and saw another sign in memory to Banjo Patterson...



...then last of all before we left, we actually got to sit on the ruins of the mill...



As we left, we all got to learn the words of the famous Australian song... "Waltzing Matilda"...

We had to say goodbye to a dear friend today!  He's leaving to go on his journey, first stop Victoria in Australia and then possibly India. We're not sure where he's going, it was sad to see him go, but so exciting! We hope he has a fun journey!



Have fun Leo Lion!

This week has been a pretty lazy week we haven't done much, and then we got a new visitor Bon the long haired mouse... :-) How exciting we have a new friend to hang out with now! :-)



...and Sara says Easter is coming... :-) How fun! :-)

Sorry I haven't updated in SO long! Sara's been busy cleaning and we've all tried to help however we can, but we can only do so much being only a few inches tall. :-) Sara decided last night to introduce us to all of her animals. She's a huge animal lover so we got to spend a lot of the last week with them! :-)


Here's me with the mice, you can see one of the baby mice (they're all female) on the bottom right hand side of the door, that's Waffles. :-) There's 4 others, another baby called Pancakes, and three adult females called Moo, Charlotte and Little Foot. They're all SO cute!


Here's a close-up of Waffles, I couldn't be in the picture since that would scare her away... she's a very social mouse. :-)


Next stop I got to see the fish, most of the fish are swordtails, platties, one guppy and various danios. Sara also has a huge suckerfish which you can see at the bottom of the tank, he's sucking on the drift wood. There's lots and lots of baby platties that are just big enough to be in the big tank now, it's pretty cool t see them! All the platties look the same though, hehe. :-)

...and last but not least, here is what we've been listening too since we got here... the birds...

I couldn't get photos with all the birds because they're not used to me being this close so they get scared easily... and I'll tell you why a bit later... but here's the type of birds in the cage...



There are three diamond doves, all of which are pictured here... they make sounds like "who-hooo" it's pretty cute and they usually only do it at night time. Sara says they're the smallest dove in the world. There not much bigger than any of these finches. They're names are Silver, Bluey and Gumby.


There are three pairs of Gouldian finches. Most of them are red faced and yellow faced. No black faced gouldians (which are the most common suprisingly)... this is one of the males. They're called Mr. Colors, Tweet, Twiddle, Bunyip, Puggles, Grimey (think the Simpsons).


There's a pair of spice finches, which are also called 'nutmeg' finches. The mating call is almost silent and it is a strange sound towards the end I don't know how to describe it. But they're called Pepper and Paprika.


There's 5 pairs of star finches, this is a red faced male, there's also yellow faced star finches. Sara has a unique one that has an entirely different song than the others, that makes him the head of the whole aviary... they're called Peep, Dotty, Spots, Mr. Peep, Prickles, Goo, Stars, Comet, and two red females which are unnamed as of yet. :-)



I have pairs of zebra finches... this will come into more detail later... but their names are Mr. Zebra, Frank, Squeak, Bell Beep (which was supposed to be a female - but obviously isn't), Meep, and another unnamed female... so obviously not all paired up, but Sara can't get anymore at the moment, and this is why...


...and this is why, you can see Bell Beep (the one that was supposed to be female but obviously a male - his plumage is just coming in)... one of the female yellow stars on the top of the nest, and the unnamed female zebra in the nest... she's "warning" the other birds to get away - because she had 4 eggs she's been sitting on for the last few days... so hopefully we'll have some babies soon! :-)


...and last but not least, the newest addition to the finch family is the owl finches... they're very good birds to adapt into a mixed aviary, as with the spice finches, so they've all bonded quite well with the stars especially, which is good since they're the leading group of finches in the cage... the owl finches are called owlie and owllet. :-)

Hopefully this week we're going to Cook Park and Mount Canobolas, the extinct volcano 20 minutes from here.... :-) We'll see how this next week goes! :-)

I arrived safely today at Kylie's house. I was met by some toy voyagers who she already had at home - Charity Bear, Benni and Phillip Grammy. We're having a toy toyager party here!

I hope to have heaps of fun here, and will send another message in the next couple of days!

I spent a beautifully sunny autumn day today at The Entrance. There is a gorgeous water fountain there that kids can play in. I watched but didn't go in as I didn't want my fur to get wet!



There was a bit of a carnival thing happening while we were there, with 2 HUGE jumping castles, face painting, plaster painting, and lots of yummy food for sale like corn on the cob and fairy floss.



The Entrance is famous in Australia for it's pelican feeding every day. We all went down to the water (not too close!) and had a look at these big funny looking birds!



This is the information about the feeding on the website:

I'm sorry I haven't written home very much in the last week. A tummy bug has gone through the family leaving a heap of washing for Kylie to do, and not much time for outings and taking photos!

Today we got to welcome a new toy voyager into our party! Flutura came for a visit! It's so nice having heaps of us all together.



As you can see, there's me (Mulalu), Mel, Flutura, Alpina is hiding behind Phillip Grammy and then there's Charity Bear. Benni had just been packaged up in his parcel to be sent off, so didn't get to meet Flutura!

Kylie had mother's group at her house today, so we all got to play with the toys after they left!!

I went with Kylie and her family to trivia tonight. I got to have a beer in a true Aussie pub. It was an RSL club which is a group of clubs for returned service men and women from the wars. I finished off a little bit of Kylie's mum's beer...



I liked it so much they bought me a beer of my own!



By the time I was finished though I think I was just about ready for a sleep!!



Kylie's team at trivia won today! It was heaps of fun, although I didn't know too many of the answers.

It has been raining here for over 2 weeks. It's a record that hasn't been matched for 15 years! Kylie aso didn't have a car all of last week, so she had to walk whenever she went somewhere - in the rain! I haven't been allowed to go out too much as my fur would get wet...

We were able to get out of the house though to go to The Entrance today. I had yummy fish and chips (although a pelican wanted to eat it first).



We also fed the seagulls. They are very noisy animals! And they get very close!

Hi again! I had heaps of fun going to a railway museum for a model train show.

This is me in the car going on the F3 Freeway to Richmond Vale Railway Museum.



There weren't just model trains though, there were REAL steam trains! I got to have a nice close look at one. They are really big and make a lot of noise...



I also got to have a trip on the train with all my friends. It was noisy and dirty but heaps of fun.

I went to a golf club today for a very very nice lunch. I got my photo taken looking out over the golf course and the housing estate that's around it. It was very pretty.

Hello!

Today i arrived in Alkmaar, the Netherlands. I'm lucky because it's beautifull weather today.
Pictures comes soon.

Big hugs Mulalu

Hello!

Here i am again.
I finally have some time to show you the pictures of my arrival.
The others were talking about me that my envelope was huge. They were wondering what kind of animal i was.


For me it was so funny to hear them talking and keep them waithing for me.
But after a few seconds i really wanna get out and get to know this 'voices'.


This are from the left to the right:
* Clem
* Strider
* HitchaRideDooey, but we call him Dooey

They are very nice so i think i'm gonna make great friends here!

Big hugs Mulalu

Hello!

It's such strange weather here in the Netherlands. It's very hot and we have a lot of rain and thunderstorms.


That's why we wanna play a game.

First we played 'Huisje, boompje, beestje' what means: House, tree, animal. It's an expression in the Netherlands.


After that we made a puzzle. We had no idea what's it gonna be, so we helped each other to make it.






Look what a wonderfull picture!

Big hugs Mulalu