Octopus Alert

Wollongong Harbor

Our winter school holiday ended and I spent the day with the boys on my own while Sam endured 7 hours of meetings during a teacher 'planning' day.  I theoretically would feel sorry for him, except for the fact that at his school he has free access to a fancy espresso machine, an object I covet deeply.  Endless, needless meetings are much easier to cope with when you have a warm cuppa in hand, no?

Instead of heading to our usual tidepool spot by Old Man's Pool, we ventured to the harbour.  The tide was relatively low and I walked out onto some rocks to get a picture of a nearby pelican.  Jackson followed me out onto the rocks and immediately spotted an octopus.

He has an incredibly keen eye for wildlife; he spotted the only other octopus we've seen here as well.  As you can see, its camouflage works wonderfully with the sandy ocean floor and it is only visible when the orange underside of the tentacles can be seen.

It seems as if no outing in Australia is complete without the very real possibility of a poisonous animal lurking around the next corner--I immediately looked to make sure it wasn't the deadly blue-ringed octopus.

image source

The electric blue rings on this octopus are normally not visible but flash brightly when provoked.  There is no antidote for these gorgeous creatures' venom; the only treatment to avoid death is immediate pressure on the wound and then being placed on artificial respiration while the venom runs its course--not exactly how I strive to create a memorable day out with my kids.

After mentally checking the 'Won't Kill My Kid' box in the trusty and voluminous Official Good Parent Checklist I store in head, Jackson stuck out his hand to greet the octopus, who reached out its tentacle in return.

Now, I have to make an ugly confession.  As we were admiring the octopus, I couldn't help but think of the mouthwatering octopus and surf clams with udon noodle salad recipe I had just seen on SBS' Island Feast with Peter Kuruvita.  Before I leave Australia, I'd absolutely love to cook fresh octopus for dinner--and yes, I felt guilty because the octopus is such a bright, clever (albeit tasty) creature.

By this time, a small crowd of kids gathered around, and they proceeded to spend the next two hours scrambling on the rocks, problem-solving and strategizing different ways to catch the octopus.

The kids had the time of their lives, and so did I--definitely one of the highlights of the year, and the fun stopped only because of the eventual need to get home and have some lunch.  If you're keeping track, the official score is Octopus: 1, Kids: 0.

My octopus salad recipe will have to wait...for now.

Murramarang Camping Weekend, Part 1

We rolled into the Pebbly Beach campground at Murramarang National Park after dark on Friday; not an ideal situation but Sam and I wanted to make the most of our long weekend.  The fact that Jackson and Alex have become absolute experts at setting up their tent was a huge bonus--I think our tent bag wasn't even unzipped before the dim outline of their bodies were seen proudly declaring that they were done, and with nary a punch thrown or even a pinched word of frustration or superiority.  Seeing as though we're less than two weeks away from our next big road trip with plenty of opportunities for tent setup and breakdown, I'm psyched that this solid level of teamwork has carried over from our first big trip in January.

Pebbly Beach is a beautiful, well-maintained campground with nice cooking and restroom facilities, while still maintaining the rustic camping feeling.  Spotted gum trees meet a grassy field which runs to the ocean; it is here that we hoped to see what Pebbly Beach is known for: its kangaroos, which can be found right on the sand.

As morning light hit, I handed out slices of the berry coffee cake I'd made (to appease the rabid dragon Kenyon) and we quietly walked towards the beach, hoping to spot kangaroos.  As soon as we hit the path leading to the beach, we saw this handsome fella:

We observed for a few minutes and headed onward towards the beach.

We moved slowly and watched from afar, but as we made our way closer the kangaroos continued to nibble on the grass and plants without any signs of caution.

Even though they are used to humans, they are still wild animals, so we didn't pet them.

Okay, fine, we did pet them.  How could you not? They are fuzzy and soft and didn't seem to mind at all.

offering some beach grass to my new friend

Our friends Kylie and Josh and their two children Xavier and Issy showed up later that morning, troopers for making the drive and setting up camp for just one night (although we were thisclose to making you stay for another night, weren't we, Josh? Ha!).

It's great to have the beach right by our campsite, and we went to bed each night to the sounds of the waves.

Alex and Issy were fast friends since their initial meeting, and they enjoyed a long stint on the beach together working in the sand.

We wanted to share our American traditions of camping with our friends, so I brought s'mores fixins, or the best I could approximate in a country that doesn't make s'mores.  No graham crackers here, folks, so I used Marie biscuits.  And the marshmallows?  I don't know where to begin.  First of all, they're about 1/3 the size of their Kraft jet-puffed American counterpart.  And the strangest part is that you can't buy plain white marshmallows--all the bags come in an assortment of white and pink, and the pink is some sort of fruit flavor.  Let it be known that that's the kind of country Australia is, forcing flavored marshmallows on its consumers.  I futilely attempted to thwart the oppression and high-grade the bag for the white ones, but the fruity flavor permeates all the mallows.  If I became a United States ambassador to Australia, these are the sort of oppressive issues I'd bring to light.  Luckily, I had no problem finding dark chocolate.

Sam made sure there were plenty of sharpened sticks for the boys to play with, because camping isn't camping without flesh wounds and Lord of the Flies-esque savagery.

This campground is home to tons of gorgeous birds--king parrots, crimson rosellas, and rainbow lorikeets.  As we walked back from the beach in the afternoon, we saw this:

Another camper had brought bird food (which turns out to be a big no-no, but since we didn't know it at the time, we happily joined in for the feeding).

There was plenty of bird life outside of the parrot family as well.  Alex got up close and personal with a kookaburra while climbing a tree.

We also saw a satin bowerbird, which are known for their distinctive methods for attracting a mate.  They build a stick structure and decorate the outside with blue objects.  While I didn't get a picture of the bird, I thought this glimpse of his nest was worth sharing.

Just down the path from our campsite was a lovely gate that read 'Alexander's Cottage'.  Naturally, we needed to document our Alex's presence there.

All of this--the kangaroos, the birds, the beach, the quality time with friends--was awesome.  But the true highlight of the weekend (and surely, my year) was to happen the next day...