9ja trippers down under....

And the family thingy gets bigger with Six adults, six children and two infants (three family groups hereinafter called Family 1, Family 2 and Family 3). Hence the name change from family thingy to 9ja Trippers; Nigerian (9ja) born Australian parents taking our Australian born Nigerian children on trips to know and explore this beautiful country. Afterall how can you love what you don't know.

It was a relief to leave the 44 degree days in South Australia, destination Tasmania and cooler weather.

Packing was a breeze this time, I was informed that a particular family group has been packing for this trip to Tasmania since August 2018. To put this in perspective, we are only staying here for six days. I do not know what she was preparing for…..

Regarding my family, I now let them do their own packing. I only ask a couple of questions:

Did you pack underwear? How many?

Did you pack your toothbrush?

And I issue one warning:

If it's important to you it is your responsibility to pack it and bring it back home, once we leave this house mummy ceases to be your personal assistant.

On every other matter, they are now on their own. I do provide not so subtle directions, aka yelling, if things begin to get ridiculous.

Just like all prior Amaechi Trips, every thing bar the kitchen sink was packed and lined up to fit into the car. "There are too many people in this family, we should leave either child 1 or 2 behind. That way we will all fit comfortably in the car" Child 1 complained.

First stop was Horsham VIC, we spent the night at the very lovely Riverside Caravan Park and the 9ja trippers continued to Port Melbourne the next day.

Boarding the Spirit of Tasmania was a breeze, We drove into the Ferry, very happy to be one of the first to get in, until I was reminded by my co travellers that we would be the last ones to disembark at Devonport.

After an eyeopening and spew filled experience aboard a catamaran in Cairns in 2013, I was determined never to board another seafaring vessel without pills enough to keep my gastro juices where they belonged. We were just about to cross the Bass Strait and I wanted to be prepared, I was ready and willing to take any pill that worked; no ginger tablet games here, I was having the real deal. I didn't want to watch anyone puking either so I went around offering them sea sickness pills like some drug dealing junkie. They all turned me down….

Finally, after 10 hours driving, plus approximately 10 and half hours overnight sailing across the sea, and two days of travelling, we arrive the beautiful four mile beach, temperature mid-twenties, beach - empty, on 29 December 2018.

On arrival, a certain traveller emerged from her car with blood shot eyes, it turns out that although this individual wakes up at night to attend to her baby, she still chooses not to sleep while her beloved husband drives because she has to be awake to direct her husband with her driving instructions:

"Apply breaks"

"Drive faster"

"Turn left,"

"Turn Right"

"Did you see the red light?

"The light has now turned green"

"Do you want to kill us?"

Her beloved husband is not blind, he is not a learner driver either.

We have settled in well and so far the 9ja trippers have maintained varying degrees of mobility

We decided to go fishing, we collected some fishing rods from our accommodation reception and marched down to the beach with great pomp and pageantry, carrying a cooler to put our catch in. I dreamed of coming back to our unit with a cooler full of Tasmanian Seafood, free and fresh from the ocean. Bystanders wished us luck and we responded with great enthusiasm. On hindsight, we should have noticed the thinly veiled sarcasm behind the good luck wishes. None of the designated fisherwomen have ever caught anything before, apart from the men we now refer to as our husbands. One fisher girl had caught a shoe while fishing during a school camp rip and one fisher boy proudly informed me he caught a shrimp once. The above just about sums up the fishing experience of the members of this expedition. I didn't worry, how hard can it be to catch fish.

After setting us up and making sure we were not going to pierce ourselves with the fishing hook, Husband 3 lost one of our bait in the rocks, lost interest in and abandoned us. He went to play tennis with Husband 1. Husband 2 was in a swimming pool somewhere in the vicinity, rumour has it that he was in there for 3 hours to keep a certain child happy, the things we do for children ….. anyway, I digress.

Fisherwoman 2 and I finally had an epiphany and realised that it may be easier to feed our children from the local fish and chip shop. We abandoned our hooks etc and went to play in the waves and sand.

Child 1 persevered, I was proud of him. At last my admonitions regarding resilience and stamina was paying off…… He did mange to catch something though, a strand of seaweed.

With deep regret I discovered another activity I cannot undertake- Fishing. It should be grouped with watching the game of cricket, you watch yourself slowly age as it goes on and on and on and on……

I boiled some rice and curry sauce for dinner, the fishing rods will be returned tomorrow.

9ja Conservation

We had an interesting day today, we were taken out on a glass bottomed boat to observe marine (fish) that have been replenished since strict fishing quotas were put in place. While the marine tour guide tried to explain the benefits of conservation to our group of travellers, my 9ja intrepid trippers were more interested in offering suggestions to each other as to the best way to eat the fish at the marine conservation area.

"just fry it and eat with stew"

"No cut it up with sauce'

"No just stew with yam, mua"

I give up.