Day 1: The bus picked us up early and we met out second OZ Experience driver - a nice girl called Fairy (apparently they all have nicknames). Nothing much else to report from the day as it was all spent on the bus to Emu Park. We met a English lad called Luke on there, who had already been travelling for 8 months and has a very similar itinerary to me for the remaining 4.
We arrived at Emu Park that evening just in time for a cheap curry, which was gladly devoured by all. The 4 of us then spent the evening playing Darts and Table-Tennis at the hostel. Nothing much else to do at Emu Park as it's just a stop-over for us before heading to Kroombit the following morning.
Day 2: Our third OZ driver, Lugsy, took us on the journey over Mount Morgan (famous for its gold-mining), into the outback to get to Kroombit Cattle Station, where we would basically be spending the day as Cowboys and Cowgirls. This trip was another extra, only available to those on OZ Experience so we were even more glad we had taken that option. There were 3 Scottish lads on the bus with us (Will, Murray and Duncan) and a young Essex couple (Ryan and Jess). We arrived at the Cattle Station just after midday.
Upon arrival, we met the main Cowboy - Jonathan, who would be calling the shots for the rest of the day. He was without doubt the most straight talking person I've ever come across and it became clear early on that you didn't want to get on the wrong side of him. None of us were sure if it was just part of the Cowboy image or if it was how he really was. Straight to the point, swearing every other word and letting his opinions be known to everyone, whether they wanted them or not. Luke found this out the hard way when saying he was contemplating the Quad Biking option over mustering up goats on horseback. Jonathan was not exactly amused and let it be known. Needless to say, Luke chose the horse-riding option in the end along with the rest of us. No-one was quite sure how to take Jonathan to begin with.
Anyway, after a lovely steak lunch, we each got our Cowboy hats and Bandanas and then headed over to the stables to get paired up with our horses. This was a first for me as I've never done Horse-Riding before so was quite looking forward to it. When the stable girls each called out our names, the questions were "have you ever ridden a horse before?" (no), followed by "are you nervous?" (no..should I be?). I got put with a female horse called Muse and picked up the basic commands easy enough. She was quite obedient when we were still at the stables.
We then headed out in single-file to get used to the horses before we had to muster up the goats. Gradually, Muse started obeying me less and less to the point where she wasn't doing anything I asked. The girls told us that we had to kick them in the side to get them to do it but I didn't realise how hard the kick would need to be. Then one of them told me I could kick as hard as I could and it wouldn't hurt her. After that, sure enough we started to get along and she did what she was told. At this point they told me that Muse was notoriously stubborn with new riders - cheers for that. Eventually, we were on the same wavelength though and it was pretty fun.
Once we had all got used to it, we had the job of mustering up about 100 goats and getting them into their pen. The tip from the girls was to make lots of noise and a sound of "EY-UP-UP-UP" to get them moving. When we started doing this, they did start moving but I'm pretty sure it was more to do with the huge horses behind them rather than the noises we were making. It was really good fun though and we got them into the pen pretty quick - myself and Murray were naturals. Dave had a bit of trouble getting his horse to move throughout - quite funny to watch.
After this was done, we returned to the stables before being taught how to use a lasso and also each had the opportunity for some clay-pigeon shooting with a shotgun. I gave this a miss as it was pretty expensive. Instead, my time was spent practicing the Lasso in preparation for the goat rodeo we had to finish. I got pretty good in practice, meaning that would be my role in the rodeo.
For the rodeo, we were in teams of 3. My job was to Lasso the goat and then pull it towards me by the horns. Dave would then have to hold it in place before this girl called Emma could fake-brand it. All good fun but competitive nonetheless.
Unfortunately, my skills abandoned me when it came to the rodeo and, after a minute of throwing and missing (a lot harder throwing over a load of running goats than it is with a stationary pole), me and Dave had to chase them around until we caught one and it could be branded. Needless to say, our time wasn't the best and we didn't win. Good fun though.
Back at the Station, Jonathan (who we were now all warming to) served up some goat for us to try - absolutely delicious. We basically stood by while he cut up huge chunks of meat for us. I realised that is now one of my favourite hobbies and I think me and the Scottish lads could have stood there eating all day if we hadn't run out of meat. The funniest was Kat, who entered Kroombit as a vegetarian of 8 years. By the time we left, she had eaten as much meat as the rest of us. Hard to resist when you're at a Cattle Station.
After devouring that and the nice roast dinner that followed, it was time to get on the cheap wine (nicknamed "Goon" but no-one seems to know why) before trying our hand at cracking a whip and riding a mechanical bull. Whereas we were all terrible on the bull (no-one made it past round 2), I was good with the whip and managed to get the loud sound that we were looking for. Also good fun but not so much when you miscue slightly and hit yourself on the leg, hand or back - Ouch.
A quality day being a Cowboy, which was a lot of fun. Aside from the rodeo, I was pretty pleased with my efforts too and we all came to quite like Jonathan in the end. His straight talking approach definately added to the experience and we all had a cool day. Not every day you get to pretend to be a Cowboy is it!
Short and sweet but we all loved Kroombit. I could easily have spent a few more days cracking the whip, mustering goats and eating different meats. Not a bad life as a Cowboy I'd say!
The following morning, we were back on the bus bright and early for the trip back to Emu Park. One of the downsides of OZ Experience is that you sometimes don't have a choice over where you spend the night and this was the case here. There were no buses heading south until the following morning, meaning we had an afternoon to kill at Emu, where there didn't appear to be a great deal to do.
How wrong we were! After returning to the hostel, I asked the staff what was going on in the area and the local Crocodile Farm seemed to be the best option. I've seen quite a few Crocs in the zoos I've been to but they don't really do much except just lay around there. This place has over 3000 and you could apparently see them being fed so I decided to go check it out that afternoon.
I was joined by one of the hostel employees, Cat (Bristol), who was required to shuttle me down there and therefore got to visit the farm for free (alright for some). We arrived and met the owner, a really nice guy who had been running it for over 30 years. He gave us a long introduction about history of the place before showing us a DVD of the time the farm had been on Aussie TV. Then he brought out a baby Croc, that had hatched about 2 days previously so it was seriously tiny. We then began our tour of the farm.
If there is anything this guy doesn't know about Crocodiles, I would suggest it isn't worth knowing! He told us an unbelievable amount about them as we were walking around and the tour was really interesting. As we walked, he threw pieces of meat into all the ponds so we could see the lightning-fast reactions of the Crocs lingering below the water. They rely heavily on their stealth when going after other animals and you could see how effective it would be as we had no idea where they were until the meat hit the water or the ground by the side. The highlight was the biggest Croc he had - 5.4m long and weighing over 850Kg!!! It was absolutely massive and made many of the others look pretty harmless in comparison. He also told us that they can reach speeds of over 40km per hour and the theory that you need to run in zig-zags to get away from them is apparently a complete myth. Get out of their territory as quick as you can was his advice. We were all happy enough the other side of the fencing. Only 2 escapes in 30 years apparently - all of us hoping it stayed that way.
The tour was excellent and I was really glad I went to check the place out. We finished up each having the opportunity to hold a small Croc (with his jaw taped shut) and get some pictures taken, which was awesome. This one was only a couple of years old I think and didn't seem too bothered being passed around. Before we left, Cat and I sampled a Crocodile Pie each as well. Very tasty if you haven't tried it.
The rest of the day was spent hanging out at the hostel pool with Kat, Dave, Luke and Greta, a german girl we had all met at Kroombit. A group of 8 Aussie women turned up that afternoon for a hen party so that livened things up a bit. Quite a strange choice of venue though we all thought - not a great deal of nightlife around.
That evening, we chilled out playing cards at the hostel and then met our driver for the following morning - Tommy (so named because she apparently dropped a glass bottle of tomato ketchup, whilst using it to dye her hair in the shower. Seriously. She cut her legs up pretty badly and has been stuck with that nickname ever since). Never a dull moment with these guides to be fair.
That's it for Emu Park. Looonnnnnngggg bus journey down to Rainbow Beach the following day. Bring on Fraser Island!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment