Real nature bushwalkers

As the kids love to say, we're in nature, real nature...! The kids and Dad have been doing quite a bit of bush walking lately. It started with finding a baby Scorpion near the park on the hill; then when we lost that Scorpion (yes, literally, lost him... in the house...*) and Dad found another, much bigger one, the kids were convinced bush walking was a cool thing to do, and wanted to find more Scorpions - they especially love how they light up under UV light!

So we have been to a number of rocky bush land in the area, and have found quite a few interesting things. The highlights include: two Spotted Marsh Frogs, four Legless Lizards, a Stone Gecko heaps of Black Rock Scorpions (we now have three as 'pets'!), heaps of Centipedes (of which we now have a Giant Centipede!), spiders of all sizes, a bunch of Common Garden Skinks and countless other unidentified creepy crawlies!

Today we went up Black Mountain; it was steep, but even after two hours the kids were still keen to explore!

Black Rock Scorpions

*Scorpion found later that evening... (-:

Traditional winter coastal escape!

Exactly one year ago we also made the trip down the coast to South Durras; it wasn't much of a success with everyone under the weather meaning +100 on the grumpy scale; however, this time was much more fun as we headed to Dalmeny for two nights.

The weather was awesome. While it poured down the first night, it cleared the next day and didn't rain again. And while it was cold, the kids still hit the surf and had a wild time.

Unfortunately on the final day (today) Carter put his neck out and is in quite some pain. Oh, and Dad got attacked by Ticks - Mum removed three. Stupid bush, wilderness thing, with ouchy wildlife...

But we saw Dolphins, Whales and Seals... but no Stingrays this time...

Hanging out with the Seals!

Drenched and freezing - but having fun, so who cares?!

And then I managed to catch a lovely series of photos where Linc caught Carter after he got knocked over by a wave...: