NO DOGS ALLOWED!

Hello my lovelies!

Papa and I had a bit of a run-in with the Ranger at the Ravensbourne National Park the other day.

"Let's take a picnic up to the lookout at Ravensbourne!" I suggested.  So, Papa put together a lovely picnic as the dogs jumped around all excited at the prospect of an outing.  Esky with picnic, flask, cups and dogs were bundled into the car and off we went.

It was a beautiful day, just perfect for sitting beside the lookout and enjoying the lovely spring air.  When we arrived we realized that NO DOGS were allowed, but as we are very good dog owners and there was no-one about but a lone bikie having his lunch at a nearby table, we tied the dogs to the table leg where we were sitting and set ourselves up for our lovely relaxing picnic.

My 'relaxation' was a bit disturbed when vehicles drove up the track to look at the view.  "Oh! No!" I'd say as each vehicle made its way up to near where we were sitting.  All the vehicles that passed as we were having lunch, stopped for a minute, looked at the view and drove off again.  HOWEVER, the last vehicle to come into view had RANGER emblazoned across its door.  You can imagine my reaction.  Papa just said "It'll be fine!", but I wasn't so sure.  So I leapt off my seat, grabbed the shirt off Papa's back - it was one of those checked ones he wears over his polo top, I unhooked the noisy dog who I knew would start barking, covered her with Papa's shirt, picked up the esky to try and hide her, walked over to the car, struggled to get the boot open with Molly struggling to breath inside the shirt, threw her and the esky in without even releasing her from the shirt, banged down the door and as the Ranger slowly climbed out of his utility, I said, in quite a high-pitched voice,"Morning!  Lovely day!"  He slowly walked over to me and said with a very authoritive voice, "Have you read this sign?"  The sign he pointed to was the picture of a dog with a line through it so I couldn't use the excuse that I couldn't read.   "We didn't realize there were no dogs allowed until we got here, so we just thought we would quickly eat our sandwiches and go."  He was having none of it and went into a long spiel about no dogs being allowed in National Parks, and the fine of $100.00 that was attached to members of the public who broke the rule.  

I felt so silly thinking he must have been watching the whole palava of me with Molly inside the shirt, staggering around with her under one arm and the esky in the other.  And...still ANOTHER dog tied up to the bench.

The good news is that he didn't fine us but we HAVE BEEN WARNED!  It's such a shame as the dogs are so good and, as you know we keep them tied up beside us when we go anywhere.

It was still a nice outing, and on our way home, we popped in to see if Don and Jenny's house was finished.  It was.  They had only moved in a few days before, so we didn't stay but we did have a quick run through their beautiful new home.

Here's a picture of me heading towards the lookout to enjoy the view.

Love Nanxxx