Good on 'ya: When in Australia, Do as the Aussies Do...

Almost a month into Australia, I find myself doing what Australians do, which is quite similar to what one may do, in say, Texas or Louisiana. For instance, I just returned from my first Aussie rodeo (pronounced "Roe-day-Oh") and probably my first rodeo in ten years. In addition, later you will see how Aussies catch quite large bass-like fish out of bayou-coloured water and 'grill it up.' To put things mildly, things are not short of fun here...

This first picture is out of order, but because it turned out so well, I have placed it here. It is from the rodeo and is a perfect model of Aussie-like rodeo culture (click on it to see it in all its photographic glory):
We arrived at the rodeo an hour early (bloody radio broadcast fed us the wrong information) so things were rather quiet when we arrived...

Later, cowpokes began arriving in their SUV-drawn carriages...
This little infant, next to us on the hill, kept looking over at me (what's up with that and babies?) and later rolled and tumbled down the hill, laughing all the while... Loads of spectators turned up. Trevor and Carol (Rotary Club of Mundingburra , seated next to the red ice chest and who, may I add, drive the great Toyota Land Cruiser) had brought munchies for us to chow on--some tasty chicken, ham and chutney sandwiches. I learned a few select Aussie phrases while waiting for the rodeo to start, like "That man over there, he is so tight that he uses both sides of the dunny (i.e., toilet) paper." [Note: if the bloke in the white cowboy hat in the lower right corner looks a bit amiss, it's because I am taking a photo graph in the direction of his breastfeeding sheila--oops!]

While waiting, the glories of sunset were upon us:

Let's take a closer look:

Well, back to the rodeo:

This photo, taken at discounted shutter speeds, actually blurred the subjects (no one made the 8 seconds that night, only honorable mentions):

And now let's move onto another topic of discussion: discrete parts of Townsville. Townsville provides quite a number of handy biking paths and roads, and is very catered towards the everyday bikist. Luckily, Graham Stevens (Mundingburra Rotarian) set me up with a racing bicycle that is very efficient to pedal, allowing me to reach suburbs outside of the Douglas Campus really quickly, like the suburb below:

And other times paths will take you quickly to Mundingburra:
And yet other times, it involves joint strolls alongside the Ross River:

Wait a minute, I see something familiar. Is that aqatic vegetation water hyacinths? Yes it is! I feel just as if I were at home!!! What Joy!
While gazing into the throngs of invasive waterly flora, I stumbled across this freshly dead 5-foot long baramundi. That gave me an idea. If I could dramatically and bravely rescue this favoured/flavoured delicacy from the hoards of Ross River crocodiles and carpet pythons, then it may be good to eat/edible...
And voila!!! After four hours of wrestling the Ross's reptiles, I had a baramundi ready for culinary preparation. But where would I cook it? Alas, Trevor and Carol (Munidburra Rotary) were kind enough to throw it on their "bah-bee":***
***See next note
***Note: the above statement is incorrect. Actually, the fish in the river was downright skanky. Trevor called me that same day and offered for me to go over to his house for some 'Bear' on the barbi. After scouring tons of scientific journals, I finally figured out that there are no species of bear in Australia, and he actually meant the fresh and salt water habitating fish "Bear-a-mundi". It may be of your interest to know that its life cycle is similar to that of salmon's. It is purchasable at your local fish market (Geographical Restrictions Apply). Anyway, back to the story...it was Dee-licious. Similar to catfish, but with more hardy texture and taste...

Sometimes, we have 'bah-bees' at Rotary International House, but with not nearly as delicious the food (Note the well-liked ratio of boys to girls, that well makes up for the food discrepancy):

Besides the fauna that flock to bbq in the breezeway, what other fauna lies there in the wilderness of Rotary?

There are noisy parrots:

And the same two wallabies:

To photo wallabies, one must do a 'shoot and run' because if you stop to take a picture, they get suspicious and run away...that's all for now, join us next time...