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| Meerkat are marsupials of the mongoose family. For more information on meerkat, see the quote below. |
Although the Vikings lost too many games to participate in the NFL Playoffs, Tom is still interested in watching the games to see how the teams will be determined for the upcoming Super Bowl on February 5th, February 6th, in this part of the world.
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| This was the best shot we could get of the koala who was sound asleep, as usual. These laid back marsupials move slowly and sleep most of the day. |
Based on the fact that the playoffs are on TV here at Penguin, we’re anticipating the Super Bowl will be shown in Hobart and its surrounding areas where we’ll soon be moving. In fact, we leave Penguin a week from now.
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| Koala’s nose pressed against the tree as he slept. |
As we begin to wind down for our next location in the Huon Valley, we’ve started using all of our perishable foods and gathering items throughout the house. This particular move will be easy since we don’t have to concern ourselves with baggage weight.
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| This photo taken in July, 2015 took our breathe away. This is a mother Koala with her joey in the pouch (which is the name for all marsupial offspring). A koala joey is the size of a jelly bean with no hair, no ears and is blind at birth. Joeys crawl into the mother’s pocket immediately after birth, staying there until about six months. To see the post from this date, please click here. |
Next Sunday, we can pack. I will prepare the final expenses for the six weeks we will have spent at Penguin to be downloaded next Monday before we depart. In looking at the preliminary expenditures, it seems we spent a little more on Penguin than we did on other islands.
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| Meerkats stand on their hind legs to be on the lookout for predators and a possible meal. |
Meerkats (from this site)
“These gregarious animals are often seen in groups, and several families may live together in a large community. Squirrel-sized meerkats are mongooses famed for their upright posture. They often stand on their rear legs and gaze alertly over the southern African plains where they live. Mothers can even nurse their young while standing.
Meerkats (also called suricates) work together in numbers. A few will typically serve as lookouts, watching the skies for birds of prey, such as hawks and eagles, that can snatch them from the ground. A sharp, shrill call is the signal for all to take cover.
While a few individuals guard the group, the rest busy themselves foraging for the foods that make up their varied diet. Meerkats will eat insects, lizards, birds, and fruit. When hunting small game, they work together and communicate with purring sounds. Meerkats are good hunters and are sometimes tamed for use as rodent-catchers.”
Few perceive living in Australia as “cheap” especially compared to the low cost we incurred living in both Fiji and Bali for a total of eight months over these past twelve months.
Aside from an upcoming three and a half months we’ll be living in Costa Rica beginning on August 1st, at this point we don’t have specific plans to stay in the same property for longer than two to three months.
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| I missed the shot of this goat atop this fence. Moments after she jumped off, she let us take a photo. |
Although we’ve loved Penguin, we’ve particularly found six weeks to be a good period of time to stay in most places, as in Phuket, Thailand in 2016. That’s not to say we’d have been disappointed to stay in Penguin a full three months. We’ve loved every single day and will be sad to leave.
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| When we noticed this Billy goat, we waited a few moments for a better pose. |
But, a world journey is just that, a world journey, and our goal is to stay on the move. Of course, there’s the financial considerations. Staying put three months or more ultimately reduces the overall costs.
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| Baby goat posing for a photo. |
With all the cruises we’ve embarked upon with much higher “daily rates,” from time to time, it makes sense to stay put long enough to average out the costs. In a mere 12 months, we’ll be taking the cruise to Antarctica, the most expensive of all of our cruises in the past and booked into the future.
Today, with football games on TV, it appears we’ll be staying put. Its a beautiful sunny day. Maybe when the games end, I’ll be able to talk Tom into a walk to the gorgeous park down the beach.
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| At last the above Billy goat complied, moving closer to us for a better photo. |
Lately, on sunny days, I’ve been sitting outside on the front veranda for 20 minutes of Vitamin D which I’ve missed since we left Bali on October 30th. The sun and warmth feels fabulous after a number of cloudy, cool and rainy days since we arrived in Tasmania on December 3rd.
For those of you in the “frozen tundra” we wish you safety and well being. For those in blissfully warm climates, we wish you sunshine!
Photo from one year ago today, January 8, 2016:
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| The ship docked at the Port of Melbourne, one year ago today. For more details, please click here. |