Oliver of Otterburn and some more Australian oddities

I am still traveling in Western Australia.

As you would expect in an upside down land i do come across some things that are strange to me so I must tell you about a few recent oddities.

Never before have I seen a horizontal tree, because trees are supposed to grow vertically tall. Here is a tree that lays down flat.

In fact there are a cluster of them close by but this Leaning Tree is the most spectacular one.

The wind blows very strongly in the vicinity and this variety of eucalypt is just not strong enough to stand against the wind.

Next, you can see me quite close to a pretty little pink and grey cockatoo.

This bird is a galah and it is quite common to see a flock of them flying about or grazing at ground level on bits of seed or whatever else they like to eat.

Galahs are not at all shy and they are often seen in the parks of the country towns as well as out in the countryside.

In the city of Geraldton, I went along to the plant which processes rock lobsters for export.

Brian was the friendly gentleman who showed me around.

It was a bit scary because he held one of the lobsters quite close to me and they have fierce looking nippers that can give you quite a bite.

Brian explained how the lobsters are caught in the offshore islands and brought to the plant where they are sorted by size and plunged into freezing water, then packed in refrigerated containers and sent by air freight to the big cities of Asia and Europe.

In first class restaurants they are revived in show tanks where they swim around until chosen by diners, extracted, cooked and eaten.

Australia is unique in the world in that it has a law which compels everyone to eat at least one piece of fruit each day.

This law is designed to keep everyone healthy.

The law is fiercely enforced and there are signs all over the country to remind people that, by law, they must 'Eat Fruit Now'.

Here you can see me with Ray as he eats his daily apple. You can clearly see there are heavy penalties for anyone who fails to obey this law.

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Oliver of Otterburn meets the Big Merino

Wednesday 16 February,2011

My big news is that I am off travelling , I am going on a motor trip
with Ray. We will start from Sydney and drive right around Australia
and we plan to visit the southern, western, northern and eastern
points of the continent. Its a big country so this will take some
months. Along the way I am hoping to meet lots of the locals.

Our first stop was the town of Goulburn, to the south west of Sydney.
It was here that I came face to face with the Big Merino. Well, I had
always thought of myself as a pretty flash stud ram, with my gorgeous
blue horns. Certainly none of the pretty little ewes around Otterburn
had ever complained about my services. But here in Goulburn my
superiority complex took a bit of a shock.
The Big Merino is just HUGE. In fact he is the biggest sheep in the
world and I am sure this will give me bragging rights when all we
globetrotting sheep meet up back in Northumbria at the end of the
year.

Mind you, he doesn’t say much and he is not very nimble on his feet.
Actually, he is there to remind people that Australia was often said
to be “riding on the sheep’s back” because export of fine Merino wool
was the biggest foreign currency earner and the basis for the
prosperity of the country. And many of the best Merino stud rams were
bred in farms in the Goulburn district.