Initiation

There are some rites of passage and experiences that are really important for kids to go through.  And some of them preferably involve their Dad!

Today the Big Fella drove us up to the nearby tablelands and from there to a waterfall.  We had to walk the 1.8kms (about 1.1 miles) from the carpark down to the waterfall, which also included 240 steep steps right before you arrive at the falls.

But I suspect you'll agree that it was worth the walk!

When we got to the falls, we jumped straight in, then almost jumped straight back out!!!!  It was COLD!!!  But we braved it and had a play and a splash around.  Here's me and the Little Big Fella mucking around:

And here's the Big Fella :-)

After a bite of lunch, we decided that it was time to initiate the Little Big Fella in the art of rock-hopping!  Unsurprisingly, he loved it :-D  Almost too much actually!  At one stage he was "exploring" rather near to the edge of a cliff and didn't understand when we told him to stay away.  When I tried to explain it he ended up crying and wouldn't be consoled for the next 5 minutes (exasperating to say the least!).

After a bit more swimming and rock hopping, we started the climb back up the hill.  Let me tell you, despite my current exercise regime I felt the burn by the top of those 240 steps!!!  And no, Melbournians, I don't believe I'll be attempting the 1000 steps when I'm next visiting!

We then endured the rest of the walk with the Little Big Fella whingeing and whining like you wouldn't believe!!!  He didn't want to walk, he wanted to be carried.  But he's getting too big to be carried everywhere and neither of us had enough energy to walk and carry him up the hill.

So we walked and I tried to distract the Little Big Fella with talk of visiting family in the next little while, and what kindy will be like next year and so on. Eventually we reached the carpark and everyone was happy again :-)

The next door neighbours' girls had an initiation tonight as well.  The Little Big Fella was outside talking to them while we were preparing dinner and so on, when suddenly the he comes racing upstairs looking for Daddy.  They'd found a toad and had to deal with it!

So Daddy went downstairs and found his golf club.  The toad jumped through the fence so he taught the girls how to "dispatch" it.  I wonder what their parents think about that?  Being Queenslanders, I suspect they won't mind as cane toads are an introduced pest species that kill native wildlife, but still... you just never know!!!