By my very toes – Travels, tribulations and trivia

Hervey Bay July 2024

We took a short break up to Hervey Bay to whale watch and do a bit of coastal strolling and we had absolutely perfect weather the entire time – cold, but bright and dry. The apartment we rented was less than optimal but that was the only issue. We took our new (secondhand) Hyundai Kona 2022 EV and it was a dream to drive. It helped that Hervey Bay has a terrific charging high speed station with four bays at one of its shopping centres – it’s unusual in that because Queensland is struggling to keep up with demand on charging.

Adventures in cat furniture

Late last year we built a cat walk on the front of the house, and had cat doors installed for it and the catio at the other end of the house. Shula loves the catio, but the cat walk (really, just a 1.8m long, low cage in front of the window), never really interested her that much.

I saw this IKEA hack to turn a very large Kallax bookshelf into a cat tree, and thought we could try something like that. I later thought that if we put it in front of the cat door to the cat walk, it might encourage her to use it. But all I really wanted in the first instance was to give her some enrichment, and another thing to play with and look around.

I drew up a plan and Doug made it. It’s been ludicrously successful. Shula was all over it during the construction, and as soon as it was in place, was keen to explore all the possibilities. Best of all, she now goes in and out of the cat walk quite happily, whether we’re out in that room or not.

This is the plan I created:

There are multiple ways for her to get to the cat door, and there’s a shelf across the window behind the unit that lets her walk along it from the first level from either cubicle. The steps thing in front of the unit which you can see at the bottom of the photos was what Doug built for her to access the cat walk originally. She doesn’t need it, but it’s covered with mats she can use to scratch on. We put similar mats on one side of the top shelf, and a little way down the side (you can just see them in one of the photos), which she can use for scratching if she’s on the top, or on the cat tree next to this unit.

It was surprisingly easy to make with a jigsaw to make the holes – the thick top shelf is basically just melamine-covered cardboard, and Doug says he wishes it’s known that, because he would have used a Stanley/craft knife to make that one hole. (The other shelves are melamine covered chipboard, so you need a saw.)

You don’t have to have a cat door to the outside for this to be fun for your kitty.

Protected: Irene’s eighty-eighth birthday

Meet Shula (previously called Misty)

[She came with that name, by the way ETA: And we’ve changed it to Shula]

She’s a four-year-old rescue cat and has one overriding desire in life – to be the centre of all attention and love from her humans. This, of course, is just horrible for us 🙂

Doug spent 27 years telling me he didn’t want an indoor cat, didn’t want a cat who slept on our bed, didn’t want the fuss etc.

I predicted this would be the result when we got one 🙂

She

She is beautiful, a real melanic cat with black beans and whiskers and pigmented skin. She’s also been amazingly quick to settle in – none of this “keep her in one small room until she settles in” crap for her! She used the litter tray, played with the cat tree, ate and drank normally, and slept on our bed, as if she had lived her for years instead of a handful of hours. Doug swears she must have Siamese in her. She’s not very vocal though, just has the tiniest little mew. We are keeping her in the large heated sunroom which adjoins our bedroom, so she can be shut out there when she’s being a bit in the way. Much more room than she had at the shelter!

I can’t believe she was there for 2 months. I was in love from the minute we met her, although it wasn’t until we held her, and then the other one I was having trouble choosing between, that we picked her. The other one, who was also a gorgeous, friendly black kitty, just didn’t like being held that day, so Misty won on charm.

This is the first and last cat post from me. However, I need to post the photos from our trip to New Caledonia once I don’t have new cat brain 🙂

To all our visitors and friends

May 2018 be safe and joyful for you all

It’s beginning to feel like Summer!

The end of a very long year is finally upon us, and time for us to make some last minute updates, and then to run away to Tasmania while our holiday guests give Lochanbar a real run for their money. … Continue reading →

That circular thing next to the Xmas Wallaby is the vent for a solar power roof ventilator installed for us by Solazone at Marcoola. The boss, Ernest, and his sidekick Baden, had already installed two of these at our house in Brisbane, and we knew this ventilator would help shift hot air build up in the cathedral ceiling during the summer and keep the house fresh. Our natives took to Ernest immediately

Actually, the birds were all rather cheeky and a bit annoying this time. They had become rather too used to being fed by some of our guests, and as a result, were a lot more determined to get up close and personal with us, which is alarming enough when it’s a king parrot

But when it’s a currawong or a huge sulphur-crested cockatoo (or several of them at once!), it can really be off-putting.

It was also causing the birds to fight amongst themselves

The thing is, no one has to feed the birds. We never do, and yet we see them on the front and back decks all the time. Feeding them alters natural behaviour, removes their fear of man which makes them vulnerable to people who would hurt them, and can make them sick or overbreed. So we ask that you don’t. It’s actually a by-law of the estate, and a National Park regulation.

And when they aren’t fed, they don’t hang around and poo all over the furniture. Yours truly spent hours and hours and hundreds of litres of water trying to clean the deck chairs. Not much fun, and the birds promptly soiled it all again

The deck is a refuge though. In our recent spate of wet weather, some nearly fledged King Parrot chicks hung around looking miserable

At least it was dry, and not that cold. They were all fine the next time we saw them in the dry.

The rain has brought grass, and the grass has brought baby wallabies. One young mum with a joey that had just left the house, was a source of much amusement, because the joey was at that stage when it looked like a skinny little rat with long legs, and was so adorable

Doug had a chance between showers to go for a short walk in the forest, and photographed these mighty trees

I’ll end this post with some of the lovely feedback we’ve had from recent visitors either through our visitors’ book or the accommodation centre feedback page:

Lochanbar was a beautiful relaxing place to stay. The renovations have made this a very comfortable accommodation – home away from home. All the little extras made it more so and we certainly would consider staying there again should we have the opportunity. Having the linen provided was a huge plus. Not having to fit sheets into our airline luggage was so helpful. The snuggle rugs in the lounge were great for we Far North Queenslanders. The beds were very comfortable and a great height for my disabled husband to get in and out of.
This short holiday was a 21st Birthday gift to our Granddaughter. On our first night there she said ‘This is such a lovely place, if I have a family we are coming here for holidays’. I think that is the best endorsement.
I rate everything A+

Thanks to the Lochanbar owners for sharing their home.

We have 4 small children and it was a delight to walk into such a kid
friendly place… with lots of other properties I have to do a sweep of the
property lifting up ‘breakables’ and putting up stair gates!

We were able to unpack and immediately relax, we can’t thank you enough! We
had a wonderful weekend of relaxing quality family time!

And this gorgeous picture recent guests left with their note

So all that remains is for me to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a safe and joyful 2018!

More lovely feedback

The year is getting away from us so fast! We were up a couple of weeks ago, installed a new electric dryer and front load washing machine, as well as a new dishwasher after the last one turned out to … Continue reading →

We’re going up next week and that’s the last time before Christmas and New Year. We’re fully booked up from 18 December until after New Year, so I hope our visitors have a great time.

We just had some lovely feedback forwarded to us by Sue Unwin at the Accommodation centre:

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay!
Staff were friendly and efficient, property was kid friendly and clean!
Our overall stay was fantastic!
Thanks to the Lochanbar owners for sharing their home.
We have 4 small children and it was a delight to walk into such a kid
friendly place… with lots of other properties I have to do a sweep of the
property lifting up ‘breakables’ and putting up stair gates!
We were able to unpack and immediately relax, we can’t thank you enough! We
had a wonderful weekend of relaxing quality family time!

Which is so nice to hear. We have worked hard to make the place welcoming to our young visitors, and to everyone else, of course.

In 2018, with all the kinks worked out, we should be able to take more proper holidays up there, but we will keep working to keep the house friendly, usable, and a luxurious place for our visitors to rest and play in.

Avocado madness

Eating too many avocados is apparently destroying Western democracy or something, so we did our best to speed up the downfall of civilisation as we know it by going to the Blackbutt Avocado Festival on the weekend. (Blackbutt, one of my very favourite small towns, is less than an hour’s drive from Lochanbar, and has hands down the best bakery with the best pies and sweet dishes I’ve ever eaten in Australia. Catch up on other events in the area through this facebook page.)

We watched the parade, listened to the opening ceremony, watched the parade, watched the wonderful reptile show by Dreamtime Reptiles, did not throw or roll any avos because I hate wasting food (and especially expensive luxury vegetables), did spend lots of money on photos from the Blackbutt Camera Club (which will soon be up on the walls at Lochanbar), and not so much money on some lovely pottery rice bowls (already in the crockery drawer at Lochanbar ” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” />” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” /> ), and ate some extraordinarily delicious foods based on avocados – chocolate avocado mousse (so good we went back twice ” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” />” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” /> ), and an avocado lemon dessert, avocado lassi, and guacamole (of course ” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” />” class=”wp-smiley” style=”height: 1em; max-height: 1em;” /> ) from an ‘Indian food’ caravan stall whose name I wish I had written down (it’s a purple caravan.)

We had an absolute ball, and will definitely go back next year if possible. So far we are two for two on vegetable related festivals in the area being great fun!

Elegant stilt walkers in the Festival parade

A young girl is dubious about the attraction of this snake being demonstrated by Dreamtime Reptiles

Um…parade characters

A heart transplant patient who was ‘staying alive’ mid-operation and mid parade, courtesy of the local medical centre

Violet ringneck, one of the fancy birds on sale and display at the festival

Festival mascot – whoever this is, they don’t get paid enough

A gentleman representing the Australian Light Horse. His beautiful horse was extraordinarily patient with people launching themselves at him without warning to pet or stroke him

An inland taipan, also known as a Fierce snake – officially the most venomous snake in the world, on display through Dreamtime Reptiles

Mr Avo gets around, this time with local dignitaries as the Festival is officially opened

Bunya Update September 2017

We’ve just come back from a glorious twelve days up at Lochanbar. The first few days were characterised by WIND! 🙁 And extremely dry air, which the already desiccated landscape could have done without. But slowly the temperatures rose, so … Continue reading →

We’ve just come back from a glorious twelve days up at Lochanbar. The first few days were characterised by WIND! And extremely dry air, which the already desiccated landscape could have done without. But slowly the temperatures rose, so we went from huddling under blankets with the heating on, to having all the windows open and wondering if we might need to turn the fans on.

Last night we had the pleasure of sharing a glass of wine in the garden of the lovely and extremely kind Sue Unwin, who is managing director of the Bunya Mountains Accommodation centre, and who has lived and worked on the mountain for forty years. It was a glorious evening, warm and sweet-scented (also dog-scented ).

But overnight we had a couple of millimetres of rain, the wind returned in full force, and the temperatures dropped ten degrees! We had (a very tasty) breakfast at Poppies on our way out and I huddled over the mug of coffee like it was literally freezing (it wasn’t). So weather in the Bunya Mountains is never boring, to say the least.

Also caught up with the lovely Rebecca over breakfast, who is not only the best professional house cleaner in the world, but is also a talented artist. Look at her beautiful artwork on her facebook page.

Spotted this delightful Lycid beetle on our door frame during one of the warmer days:

We won’t be back up there until after the school holidays, but as we are now coming into the low season for the Bunyas, we hope to have some lovely long stays there before our guests come back over Christmas and the autumn/winter of 2018.

Our Visitors’ Book is an unending source of joy :)

At last we’ve managed to come up to stay for nearly two weeks after the winter rush has finished, and just before the September school holidays. It’s a lot warmer than the last time we stayed, but very windy just … Continue reading →

As always, we rushed to see what our visitors are saying. It’s such fun to read the lovely comments and compliments—really, it makes the whole business of renovation more than worth it!

But the visitors’ book is also where our guest leave suggestions, and when appropriate, our wonderful cleaner Rebecca lets me know if there anything that might need attention. As you can see, we try to respond as quickly as possible

Three sets of visitors noted a lack of a non-stick frypan, so, voila!

It’s also fun to receive the slightly more unusual comments

The wallaby poo was everywhere but ad says it’s probably good for the grass…. Dad thought he was a real lumberjack by chopping firewood, we thought…

…he was a pretty poor excuse for one. [Such good printing for a 4-year-old :)]

PS. I love that an IKEA truck stopped at your front door and left you with half their store !!! [Actually, we had to haul half the store up the mountain ourselves, with the help of a good friend and a trailer, and the rest in many, many trips in our Mazda3 ]

Where are the squirells??? [In Austria, not Australia ]

It was good. I guess [Thank you. I guess :)]

When I went outside I had to be careful not to step in wallaby poo but in the end I had to step in wallaby poo.[Sorry about that, chief :)]

The wallaby poo is rather abundant right now, for two reasons – one, the lack of rain means it’s not being broken down as fast as usual, and the same lack of rain means our wonderful mower man/generally amazing bloke Allan Govan (who also owns the gorgeous Clydesdales you will see out and about up here) hasn’t had much to do, and so the poo is left undisturbed.

We need rain! (And not just for poo removal