Home

We are back home. After visiting NSW, Queensland and NT, we are back in SA ready for more fun and action.
The pic shows us at the Devils Marbles, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. We stopped there for a break. There are lots of rocks piled up on top of each other, looking like a giant pile of marbles, hence the name. Dogs were not allowed in the area, we thought it was a bit discriminatory, but a closer inspection showed we were not allowed in there because of all the broken glass from the smashed beer bottles, jagged edges from drink cans and general rubbish that had littered the ground, left behind by messy humans. No wonder dogs are not allowed in there, we would cut our feet to ribbons.
We will be home for a while, but KnK are already planning the next trip, and we have lots more adventures to come.

Hot Time in the Alice

The pic shows us having a run at Alice Springs. We have been at the dog trials here, but we had to stay out of the way because we were not competing. After the trials were over we could have a run, and we made the best of it too.
KnK were judging the trials on Friday, Saturday and today. It was the hottest September day ever recorded at Alice Springs on Saturday, so we spent most of the day in the caravan, lying on our cool mats with the air conditioner blowing on us. We were dragged outside for a "water walk", and as soon as we had done it we went back in the van. There is a song about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun, well we are not mad dogs, and we were not staying out in that heat for anybody. It was really handy to be camping next to the dog grounds.

Barkly Homestead

Where else could two dogs stop but at the Barkly Homestead?
We were traveling down the Barkley Highway and needed a break so we just had to stop here. I have been here before, after my trip to the Tip of Cape York (that is the most northern point of Australia, not the Cape York rubbish dump). The video of my adventure is still on the video links. I showed Hannah all the interesting points across the Barkly, there were not many and we slept for a lot of it, just a long straight road through the scrub. We did not even see any animals to bark at, just scrub.

Two Headed Dog

I had something in my eye at Charleville, a grass seed they thought. I went to the vet there, she stuck a needle in me and I went all sleepy while my eye was cleaned. Anyway, we could not travel that day while I recovered  but the next day we went to Longreach. It is hot here.We found a shady spot in the morning while KnK went to look at some old planes, then went to see a lagoon, then came home to lie under the air conditioner. The pic shows us lying on the bed right where the cool air blows. It looks like we are one dog with two heads, but we are both trying to get in the breeze.

Tractor Dogs

Charleville was hot today, too hot for us to do much, so we went on a drive around Charleville using a CD guided tour that KnK got from the info office.
The tour took us round all the points of interest, such as where the Ross brothers force landed their Vimy aircraft after winning the England to Australia air race, to the place where the first QANTAS flight took off in Charleville. (Longreach was the destination of the first QANTAS flight)
Part of the tour included looking at the guns somebody used to make it rain, which did not work, and there was a tractor in the gardens nearby. The pic show Hannah in the drivers seat pretending to drive it.
After a day in the air-conditioned car we went home to the air-conditioned caravan for our late afternoon nap. Life's tough when you are a Toller.

The Back of Bourke

They say when you are deep in the outback, you are at the back of Bourke. Well here we are at the official Back of Bourke site which is to the north of the town of Bourke in NSW.
We stopped here for a break on the way to Charleville. It took ages. We slept most of the way but we were glad to go for a walk when we got to the caravan park.

Peake Gold Mine, Cobar

How many times do we have to tell these humans we are TOLLERS. We are not Golden Retrievers, so why did they bring us to a gold mine? We did the best we could, sniffing at everything, scratching at likely places but we found no gold. All they did was walk along a path reading signs and looking at old mining equipment while the real mining operation was happening on the other side of the fence. We tried to get where the gold was, but they kept pulling us back, no wonder we could not find any gold.
We are in outback NSW and we had to have the tic treatment to stop nasty insects biting us. Unfortunately it makes us feel a bit under the weather, especially Hannah, so we are having a quiet day today.

Bush Tollers

We are in the Bush for our holidays. The pic shows us at a roadside stop  where we had lunch in the bush. Lots of green and flowers because of the wet winter we had, but now the sun is shining and the days are great. We got to Cobar in NSW and took the humans up the street to see the town, but then they got hungry, had dinner and drank wine so that was the end of the day for us. We went to sleep and will start exploring again tomorrow.

Hannah JD

My little sister has got her Jumping Dog (JD) title. The pic shows her just breaking the timer beam on the last jump, so it is the instant she became Champion Hannah CD, JD. Not only was it her Title, but she also got First Place, and just to make it a family affair, Fur Dad Rio and Fur Auntie Cherry got their Master Agility Titles.
Keith had to judge unexpectedly in the afternoon after the scheduled judge withdrew because her dog Max had taken ill and sadly passed over the Rainbow Bridge the day before. We were all upset over the sudden end to a good dog.
While Keith was Judging, Kathy took over the handler role in Masters, and I nearly got her round, but we had a mistake and some time faults.