Ted E. Bear's 2003-'04 Australian Walkabout

First stop was a visit to a Joey Mob meeting. Flagstaff Hill Joeys welcomed me and were very interested in my book. Flagstaff Hill is part of Highlands District in South Australia situated in the Adelaide Hills. They gave me some badges. Joey is the section of Australian Scouts for children ages 6 to 8 years old. Joey is the name for a young Kangaroos. A Mob is the name for a family or group of Kangaroos

15 Aug 2003, went to the Sturt District Joey Camp in Goolwa, South Australia on the mouth of the longest river in Australia, the River Murray. We stayed at the Goolwa Scout Hall. The Scouts called it a 'Winter Camp". I thought August was in the Summer. Seems things are different here. You can't see the Big Dipper here? It was really strange to look at the night sky and not recognize any of the constellations. It was almost like visiting a forgien planet.

There were lots of Joeys and parents at camp. Some of them rode bikes along a trail that followed the coastline. Some of them went yabbying. A yabby is an Australian freshwater crayfish. You dangle a piece of string with some old meat in the water. When the yabby grabs the meat you jerk the string out of the water before the yabby lets go. The Joeys were unsuccessful and didn't catch any. Still other Joeys went to town and found all sorts of stuff. I went down to the docks and saw the river.

Finally, I got to meet my hostess' cubs. The picture is of me with the Newstead Baptist Cub Pack. I had a great time at their meeting playing games and helping them tie knots. Cubs are very different here. They present awards at a parade at the end of each meeting. The parade is a ceremony of honor to the flag and/or person (award Winners). The Cubs either raise or lower the flag depending on if it is at the beginning or end of a meeting. The Grand Howl is a tradition that is part of this parade. I have seen (and heard) the howl at meetings in England and Canada.

I participated in Jamboree on the Internet ( JOTI). During the Jamboree I had my third birthday. Dolphin, my hostess', was very nice and gave me a chocolate birthday cake. Before I left, I even got my picture in the local newspaper. I think I getting famous. Click here and then select Ted album to see photos of all the things I did and people I met in Tasmania. Just a warning, there are a lot of pictures

Just spent the Saturday with the Joeys from all over Victoria at the Melbourne Zoo. Arrangements were made by Loki, the Macleod Scout Leader for me to be taken to the Melbourne Zoo. I began in the safe hands of Joey Scout Leader, Kookaburra and her two children, Bryanna and Lachlan. We met Crocodile and her children, Lynda, Ricky and Jameson and friend Peggy at the enterance.

When Kookaburra introduced me, everyone was amazed to see my different badges from all over the world. I was placed on Kookaburra's pusher, (stroller) and we went into the zoo. The Zoo day was a big hit as there were Joeys everywhere you looked.

First stop was the Orang-utans and Gorillas. Photos were taken while we looked at these amazing creatures. A quick stop to look at the little Gorilla behind the glass then on to look at the Hippopotamus. Amazingly the Hippo was out of the water and sunning itself. On this very hot day, we all wanted to jump into his water if he wasn’t going to use it.

Off we ventured to the Tree-top Apes & Monkeys and then the otters. The otters kept us amused with their darting in and out of the cool water.

The Elephant's habitat had been updated and the scouts were all surprised to see how different it looked. It was wonderful to see the elephants in a natural environment. With the bamboo fencing it made the enclosure feel open and the elephants much closer to us. We stayed in the very hot sun on the steps in front of the Elephant area to have a drink and a snack and a few more snaps (pictures) while waiting for the Elephants to have a wash. But we ran out of time and had to keep moving in order to meet the next group of scouts.

Onto the Butterfly enclosure, and although normally the humidity is stifling inside it was more pleasant than outside! I saw lots of different butterflies with lots of different colours and different sizes. A couple landed on the kids but none on me, maybe I wasn’t colorful enough.

We strolled our way to the grassy area in front of the Seals, and scurried past the tigers that were either out of sight or laying down asleep in the shade. By now, it was the hottest part of the day and the mob was in need of a good rest themselves. As we approached the shade, a woman came up to us. She introduced herself as Michelle De Salis from 1st Coleraine Joey Mob. We chatted for a while, took some photos with the Macleod Joey mob and of me being handed over for my next adventure.

It was still very hot when Bilby (1st Coleraine Joey Leader), collected me from the shade of a tree from the McLead Joey Scouts. Photos were taken and I met Rebecca, Rachael & James and their friends and family from 1st Coleraine. We took a trip through the reptile house that was pretty scary. I'm glad Rebecca was there to hold my hand. During lunch, I sat quietly with my new friends and watched large brightly colored McCraws. I took my new friends back to the butterfly house. I could sit and watch them all day. A trip to the elephants exhibit was next. It is such an amazing exhibit and elephants are really huge. We spent a long time there watching the elephant swim and bob for apples. It was brilliant, on a hot day he was the only one moving. Most of the other animals just wanted to sleep and/or hide from the heat so they were hard to find. The zoo keepers in many places designed habitat areas that resembled the animals native home. Click here for a zoo map. So, not only did I get to see many new and different animals, I also got to see and learn about different plants and environments. We rushed off to meet the next group, which did not occur. I was suppose to go home with the 1st Mooroolbark scouts and was hoping to meet Hannah. But the hookup was unsuccessful and instead went on a long road trip to Coleraine in South Western Victoria. We left at 5:00PM and stopped in a town called Ballarat for a BBQ Dinner. We all slept on the bus for the rest of the long trip home, except driver Stephen (Group Leader/husband of Bilby). We dropped James and his family at home, they live in a place called Melville Forest on a farm of about 900 acres. I finally arrived in Coleraine at 11:30PM.

Day 1: Went with my Patrol from Troop 0208 into the City of Adelaide to participate in Cybertrek. Cybertrek is the biggest wide game in the world. At each site localed at an important spot in Adelaide we played a video game to try and free a captured Wizard. The weather was beautiful one moment and a torrent of rain the next but the scouts kept me dry. We returned to camp at the end; they were wet, tired and not TOO cranky.

One last stop with Elizabeth, a meeting with the Meadowbank Joeys. We arrived just after they finished playing outside I was introduced to the scouts and the Scouts introduced me to Rama. I was a bit nervous at first, I mean, "my what big teeth he had". But soon I realized his bark was worse than his bite and we were all on the floor having fun. There is a picture of Rama on my friend page. While Rama and I got aquainted and talked about 'stuff' Elizabeth shares with the scouts all about my trips and adventures. I showed off my badges and met each and every scout. Of course they could resist hugging little old cuddly me. I watched while the Joey Scouts planted some small plants into painted flower pots.

Following this “flying visit” we had to rush to Ryde Group Hall, a 5 minute drive away, for Elizabeth to attend a Group Committee meeting. I sat on her hat to get a better view of proceedings. It was interesting but the Scouts are more Fun. The Ryde Group is lucky to have 2 halls, while the adults were having there meeting in the Lower Hall, the Cubs were in the top hall. They are learning about camping this term and I snuck out to see what they were doing. They had put a tent up. I wasn't sneaking to well because they caught me and asked if I would like to help take it down. Taking down tents is more fun than putting them up.

On 10 Feb I headed for Newcastle; it is a little North of Sydney. I met Camel and hung out with the 3rd Mayfield Scout Group They did something called a Milk Carton Regatta. Boats made out of Milk Cartons and bread trays. In the United States, they have a raingutter regatta where the scouts make model boat and sail them in Raingutters. But before the scouts could race we had to build a boat. This was very interesting. I got to over see the project and we built it from the bottom up. A scout laid underneath directing the string while another scout standing pulled it through. The milk jugs were tied together similarly to lashing logs together to make a raft. This is the most important part as it will be the only thing between floating and sinking. While we were working on the boat there were milk jugs all over the place. We were lucky that they (milk jugs) grow wild here in Australia because wood can be scares at times. (Ha! Ha!) The big blue pieces made the sitting area of the boat were bread flats that were used and discarded. Building the boat was both educational and fun as I listened to the scouts share their ideas and their design plans.

After 2 more days of R & R, we went to my last activity in the Redlands, a Cub District Leaders Meeting where leaders exchanged craft ideas. While talking to the leaders a Brushtail possum looked down at us from the rafters. We fed him a biscuit. Later, as we were talking in the carpark a Koala came down from a tree and paused to look at us. I think he thought we were related, but when he got closer and realize I was from out of town he left. Then it is off to be air lifted to Alice Spring, near the centre of Australia.TOP

I arrived just after Easter this year. I was a little disappointed about missing the Easter Bunny this year after seeing him last year, but my luck his job here is probably done by a kangaroo. Kangaroos look like over grown rabbits. Their tails are overgrown, their feet are overgrown, and most of all their bodies are overgrown.

I arrived in Alice Springs on Tuesday 29th April 2004. I visited the Stuart Joey Mob on Wednesday 30th April. The Joey Scouts (like Beaver Scouts in England, and Canada) looked at my travel journal to see where I’d been and all the badges I’d collected.

I then visited the Larapinta Cub Pack later that night and hung around the hall for the night. I spent the night looking and enjoying the huge collection of badges and scarves on the walls. Someday my collection will be that big.

The next evening I visited the Bradshaw Joeys who really loved my uniform and badges. Later that night I got to know all the Bradshaw Cubs as I was passed around and greeted each Joey personally. This was really cool as they were getting ready for an Adventure Camp and we would be spending the weekend together.

The Bradshaw and Stuart Joeys had their Adventurous Joeys Camp at the hall on Saturday and Sunday 1st and 2nd May and they slept in the hall overnight. They invited me to join them, 30 joeys and four leaders all together. The leaders were Koala, Wombat, Possum and Bilby. The leaders take names from Australian Bush animals.

The Joeys were doing activities especially for Joey-aged Scouts! They did a Challenge course, Abseiling, Caving, (inside the caves were bats with glowing eyes) Canoeing, played with slime, did ten pin bowling, played with a large box tower and made things with wood and hammers. We all had fun singing at the campfire that night. We all looked really silly singing “Singing in the rain”

The day after the Joey Camp, there was a big parade in the Main Street, the ‘Todd Mall’. The Joey leaders had put some adventurous Scouting activities on the back of a truck. They were in a parade called the “Bangtail Muster”. This is a May Day parade in Alice Springs. It was traditionally when the surrounding stations (very large farms) would count all their cattle by cutting of the end of each of the cows or bulls tails and then count these to find out how many they had on the station. Nowadays it is a special parade and celebration day. It’s a special holiday in Central Australia!!

I rode on the truck (or float, as it is called for the parade) with the Joeys. They had a couple of Joeys in harnesses who looked like they were rock climbing at the front of the truck and some more of the Joeys were sitting in Canoes. Two joeys were Sumo wrestlers walking along at the back of the truck. All the Cubs were riding their bikes behind the Sumo wrestlers. I got to ride in the canoe!

Some of the Scout Leaders also belong to the “Just Rock”, a Rock n Roll dance club. The Scout float followed the Rock n’ Rollers in the parade so I got to watch the Scout Leaders dancing!

The Joey Scouts gave me a special sleepover badge and Joey Scout woggle to keep as a souvenir of my visit. They also presented me one of their Southern Region NT Australia badges!!TOP

Many of you probably don’t know where Wickham is. Wickham is 1570km North of Perth. They are situated between Karratha, Port Hedland and Roebourne. Wickham is only a very young town as it was built by Cliffs Robe River Iron Associates to serve ion ore mines in the region. Iron Ore is the only Industry in Wickham. It is mined at nearby Pannawonica, processed in Wickham and exported from the port at Cape Lambert, home of one of the highest and longest open ocean wharves in Australia. Flora around Wickham is dominated by spinifex growing over rockey hills, although Sturt Desert Peas, camel bushes and kanaju bushes are found in the area. Wickham is part of the desert. They also have cyclones which come between October and April every year. I am glad I wasn’t here when it came.TOP

On my way back to the States, I stopped in the ACT, picked up my campfire blanket that they were finshing for me and learned about something called a Gang Show. I had a really great time. Check out this site. I got to go backstage and meet the performers. I even got to sit in one of the skits on closing night.

The first night I went the Governor General of Australia was there so my host wasn't allowed to take pictures. One of the Directors, Pippa, took me home and brought me back the next night. That was when I got to be in the skit. I did my best Teddy Bear impersonation and didn't move a muscle. I did manage a quick look at the audience when no one was looking. WOW! and Double WOW! IT was a lot of people. I attended the Gang dinner and was presented a Gang Show Scarf. The best time was partying after "bump out", cleanup after final curtain.

The pictures will have to wait as I am currently working my 'ticket' home. Part of that was helping Alix, a cub Leader, who goes to schools to give injections to the children as part of the immunization program the ACT Health has operating. I was responsible for cheer ups. I saw some brave faces.

Visited a few more Cub Packs as I waited for my trip home. Miss Fiona is a REALLY busy person. One cub was really surprised that I traveled so much. Couldn't understand why. Well, to those that think like this young scout, let me say this. The world is BIG and ever changing; if we live our lives just within our own house, town, State or Country, we miss so much. It is important to see just how much we are alike, too. Children in Australia compared to Children in England compared to Children in Canada compare to Children everywhere. If there is any hope for peace in the world it is in the realization that we are all the same. Most cubs enjoyed sharing stories and looking at the items I got from my travels.TOP