From One Adventure to Another!

Tea (not bugs) brewed and swung in a Billy Can!

                                                                  

  

             

     After spending a beautiful Sunday morning in the Blue Mountains, the subject of last week’s article, Al and I visited the Featherdale Wildlife Park near Sydney along with several other people from our tour group. At the park, we were treated to an outdoors afternoon tea with rolls and cake, cookies and hot tea brewed in a “Billy” can, a plain metal can with a handle.   

    A young park ranger demonstrated the unique way of swinging the pot of boiling water by its handle after adding black tea leaves and some eucalyptus leaves to the water. He made several large arcs with the pot which made the leaves settle to the bottom of the pot. Nothing spilled out, amazingly.

     Even though the day was quite warm, the Eucalyptus tea was refreshing. The words in the song “Waltzing Matilda”… “and he sang as he watched and waited ‘til his billy boiled…” took on new meaning for me. It was an “aha” moment!

    

    The ranger carried a Koala bear over to us when we had finished our tea party. Koalas spend their lives in certain varieties of eucalyptus trees, sleeping most of the time and when awake, foraging for leaves to eat.  Even though the little bear looked harmless, we were alerted to avoid its sharp claws while petting it.

     The rest of the afternoon was spent walking through the park and enjoying the amazing variety of animals and birds which lived there. In one enclosed area, we were able to feed wallabies bits
of dried grass in an ice cream cone by hand. The wallaby I was feeding grew tired of nibbling and snatched the whole cone out of my hand. Smart dude!

     Our eleven-day tour came to an end that evening with a special “good-bye” dinner in a restaurant along the Sydney Harbour. Most of the group members were continuing on to New Zealand and Fiji and a few were returning to the US. Al and I had decided to stay in the city for two more days so that we could get together with my cousin Bob and his wife, Allison, whom we hadn’t seen in several years.   

     Bob’s office was in the downtown area, only a few blocks away from our hotel which made it convenient to meet for lunch on Monday and also for him to pick us up for dinner on Tuesday evening. The three of us took the city bus to his car which he had parked in a nearby suburb and from there drove to his lovely home where we were greeted by Allison and their two golden retrievers, Murphy & Bailey. She had prepared a wonderful meal, topped off by a traditional Australian dessert called Pavlova—meringue and whipped cream topped with fresh strawberries. Bob drove us back to the hotel later that evening, correctly assuming that we would have had a hard time navigating the city bus system at night. Al and I were thrilled that it worked out to see them. It was a memorable reunion.

    Well, we had a “once in a lifetime” trip to Australia with many new experiences, thanks to Al’s initiative and planning and to the Lord’s watching over us. It is often difficult to let go of that which is familiar and safe in order to try new things. I wonder what God would show us if we just stepped out in faith, turned over control of our lives to Him and obediently followed His leading day by day. Life together with Him is an exciting adventure! Now on to Easter!

     “You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his love endures forever.” Psalm 118:28-29 NIV