Oh no, she’s not!!.......... Oh yes, she is!
Miss Kiddle, previously known as reluctant, resistant travel
puss, does it again. Just as we are thundering along the freeway, a ‘telling’
sound eminates from between her whiskers at the same time as she crouches in a
suspicious fashion and … wouldn’t you know it, begins doing her business – but
not any old business – no, she’s doing a poo. As she is standing in her travel basket, which rests on
my lap, with her tail pointing stiffly toward the heavens, I get a pretty good
view of what’s going on and thinking fast, manage to grab a ‘wet one’ and,
would you believe, to catch her gracious offering in mid-drop. Gross?! Yes it
is rather, but it’s better than having to find an appropriate place to stop the
car, clean up her mess, redress her basket etc.etc. Been there, done that (more
than once) and so have learnt to anticipate. If you were to think right now
that Miss Kiddle has me pretty well organised, you’d be oh so right. I just
hope that the delightful start to this year’s first caravan trip is not an omen
of things yet to come.
This incident took place 5 days ago just as we commenced our
journey and has thankfully remained the only such incident thus far. The
remainder of the trip to Dubbo, our first stop, was quite uneventful. After
smuggling Miss Kiddle into the caravan park we proceeded with our setting up
tasks. Ian’s jobs are to unhitch, connect the various hoses, extend the awning,
set up our outside table and chairs and do whatever else needs to be done on
the outside. My jobs are those that take place on the inside of the van. Oh
yes, after a 1½ years of caravan ownership we function like a well-oiled
machine – a well-oiled creaky machine, for sure, but it functions all the same.
Now, before I forget to mention this, I must confess the criminal
behaviour we’ve taken to since our caravan ownership. Because there is no way
we can leave our rather ancient cat behind, we frequently have to smuggle her
into places (caravan parks that don’t allow pets, national parks etc.) where
she is not welcome. But because she NEVER sets a paw outside our van we don’t
feel too badly about having become criminals in our dotage.
Our time in Dubbo was excellent. We met up and spent one
delightful evening with one of our son’s girlfriend’s family. The next day we
(that’s our son, his lovely young lady and us oldies) took a bike ride around
the famous Dubbo Zoo. Even though it was a mighty hot day and we were
sweltering we still enjoyed the experience. It’s clearly been a fruitful few
months at Dubbo Zoo. Almost all the animals, we encountered, were surrounded by
their young. An Elan mum had given birth less than an hour before we arrived at
the scene. By the time we got there her baby, wobbling around on spindly legs,
was busy nursing whilst Elan mum greedily devoured the afterbirth. No doubt, a
necessity for Elans living in the wild, but a somewhat off-putting sight, or so
some other onlookers seemed to think.
The Meerkats, my absolute favourites, put on a great
performance. Tumbling all over each other in their frenetic play, the little
ones were a sight to behold whilst the adult Meerkats took it in turns to stand
guard, keeping a sharp eye out for hungry hawks and whatever other predators
might present danger.
Whilst the Meerkats are pretty high on the hyperactivity
scale, the Lemurs aren’t too far behind. I had the good fortune to capturing
them as they were being fed and couldn’t stop laughing at their wonderful
antics.
One of the most delightful sights however was the monkey
mother with her (I believe) brand-new baby. Although mum was intent on showing
us the cold shoulder, every so often the baby would slip off her lap, clamber
around her into our line of sight and, to everyone’s delight, try a few steps
on his/her own. It was the cutest sight to observe this little creature as it
stumbled about until it was scooped up by its mum and safely returned into her
welcoming lap. To see video clips of the above experiences, just click here.
So, as you can see, we had a wonderful time at Dubbo Zoo.
Because of the almighty heat on that day we were very pleased to be able to
cool down at the caravan park’s swimming pool, where we spend the next few
hours.
As the sun set, Ian and I celebrated the day with a glass of
wine, toasting each other on the successful start of this year’s first
caravanning adventure.
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