Queensland

We are on holidays again -at last. The pic shows us at Nanango in Queensland where we stopped for lunch today.
It has been a good trip so far, the first few days were wet, windy and woeful but when we reached Goondiwindi the weather turned beautiful.
We went to Susan's place on Sunday and had a great time running up and down her stairs, Tiffany found a box of soft toys but we were not allowed to play with them. We went for a walk then had to turn back because a snake was sunning its self on the path.
Tonight we are in Monto, where we went for walks around the town and along the old railway lines.
KnK plan to be in Cairns by Thursday night so we have about 1400 km to go in 3 days, not too big an ask for the Travelling Tollers.

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah was 7 years old on Sunday. We were at the Riverland Trial, KnK were judging so we were just looking pretty, having long walks around the grounds and saying "Hello" to all our canine friends.
Sue took the picture of Hannah posing by the blackboard used for trial winners to take snaps.
We have had a quiet year since Hannah's last birthday, the house we were in got knocked down and a new one was built so we could not do much travelling apart from a weekend away now and again.
All that will change as we are off on a big trip soon.

We are NOT dead.

The InTOLLERables are still active, just not had time to write on the blog.
We are having a new kennel built which has room for live-in humans. If you look carefully, you can just see us sitting on the front verandah. Hopefully, we will move in by the end of May, or June.....or July.
We have had a few travels since we got back from Queensland in August last year, just weekends away, with our next big trip due in July.
Tiffany had her 8th Birthday in March. Recently she passed a Novice RATG trial (Retrieving Ability Test for Gundogs) This means that she has Qualifications under 7 different rule books, she is a Champion in two disciplines ( Shows and Tracking) competes at Masters level in three (Agility/Jumping, Agility Games and Rally), Competes in Open Obedience and now has a Qualification in Retrieving.
Hannah is not far behind, with qualifications in six disciplines. She also competes at the same levels as Tiffany but has not done the Retrieving.

Atherton Trials

We both did well at Atherton. Hannah passed in Open Agility and Open Jumping then went well but without a qualification in Masters. I passed in Masters Jumping with a 1st in my height and also in Open Jumping. I messed up on the weaving poles in Agility so no qualification in that.The pic shows us with our prizes, 3 dog toys, a storage box and a solar lamp. KnK can have the last two but we will keep the others.
After Atherton, we moved down to Hull Heads for a night and then on to Townsville. KnK are judging on the weekend so we will not be able to run.
When the trials are over we will start heading back home, so this looks like the last few days of our holiday.

Far North Qeensland Touring

We are having a look around Far North Queensland, not right up to the very top, just around Atherton Tablelands and Townsville.
The top picture shows us at the top of Castle Hill in Townsville, looking over Townsville to Magnetic Island. It was a long steep climb all the way up, we were grateful the Toyota got there without us having to walk.

Later we were traveling past Crystal Creek where we have stayed before and the humans wanted to stop at the Frosty Mango for refreshments, Good idea because we were ready for a break too and we always get the end of the ice cream. There was a Big Mango there, so we had to have our picture taken to complete our set of Big Whatevers that we have had taken. Look back through the blog, there is a Big Koala, Big Olive, Big Lobster, Big Banana, Big Orange, Big Sheep, Big Sheep Bale, just about everything big you can imagine.
We are competing in Atherton this weekend, so we have to go and practice.

Tiffany JDM

Tiffany has finally got her Jumping Dog Master qualification. It happened in Cairns on Sunday in the rain. The course was a little unusual with some challenges that we had not seen before, but Tiffany took  it all in her stride. There was one heart stopping moment when Tiffany went towards the wrong end of a tunnel, but she quickly corrected and finished the course with 6 seconds to spare.
The pic shows Tiffany  in mid-air heading towards a tunnel while Keith crosses behind ready for the next section..

I had a good run in that masters class too except I went to have a chat with Judge Jody that cost me too much time. I would have made time had I just done the course.

We are on holiday in Far North Queensland. Yesterday saw us in the Daintree Rain Forrest. KnK thought it was wonderful, but it was just lots of damp trees. We slept through most of it. Lunch time was good because we were allowed to sit in the garden at the Fan Palm Café, and a cassowary wandered in from the forest and through the garden. We just stared at it, but the humans got excited and took pictures.

More trials in Atherton soon, more things to see and do now, so we are back to being tourists for a few days.

Lots of things

Lots of things have happened since the last post. Hannah has had her Birthday, she is now 6 years old and the highlight of her year was getting her Tracking Champion to become a Dual Champion Tracking.

I also became a Dual Champion Tracking the week after Hannah's birthday.

We are on the road again, going to Queensland to compete in trials in Cairns and Atherton.  We travelled on the outback roads  through some remote locations.

One place we went through was Aramac. It was the starting place for Henry Readford who, in 1870, took 1200 head of cattle 2000km down to Adelaide via the Strzelecki track and did not loose any of them. There were a couple of problems: a) they were not his cattle, b) one of them was a prize white bull imported from England. c) they were taken to SA because Henry thought no one would know he was a cattle rustler. Well someone recognised the prize white bull and he was taken back to Roma in Queensland where he was tried and found NOT GUILTY because the jury was impressed with the skill required to pull off the drive and released him. Henry Readford's droving feat was the role model for Captain Starlight in the novel Robbery Under Arms.

The pic shows Hannah tracking, me tracking and both of us posing in front of the replica of the prize white bull in Aramac.