Roo's & Horses

So it’s been 3 weeks in the Outback so far and we finally met the local Kangaroo, Skippy, such a cliche. She is so friendly and visits us at the pub beer garden and our own back garden. Here we are feeding her bread, which has become a daily thing, soon we’ll coax her into the house to watch a movie.

It was Liv’s Birthday last Thursday and we drove to Emerald which is the nearest big town for shopping, food and drinks. Dion, the Chef let us borrow his car. Emerald is about 130Km from us, took just over an hour and a half and there was probably close to 30 dead kangaroos on the side of the road…. Stick to back gardens Skippy!!

Emerald wasn’t anything special but we got to shop, get some essentials, have a drink (in a proper pint glass, not Australia’s Schooner which is ¾ of a pint glass size) in an Irish pub and have a gorgeous dinner at an Italian restaurant. On our way back we stopped off for drink and a few games of pool with some of the local lads.

The following night two Irish guys from up North came in for a few drinks, we had met them before and they worked about 45 minutes away. They stayed for a lock in and played some pool. Then a crazy drunk builder guy who was living in the caravan park who was told to leave the pub threw a full can of Jack Daniels through the pub window… what a waste of Jack Daniels. A handful of us, which included the two Irish lads (Chris and Phil), Renae (local mental girl, they call her ‘Rocket’, enough said, like a gerbil on speed), Rosie (the English ex-backpackers who fell in love with a Rolleston local and never left) and the three of us, headed back to our house for a game of beer pong which didn’t end until about 4am. FYI - Chris is shite at beer pong (he told me I was to write on the blog that he was amazing… neverrrrrrr, ha!!)

Back to the horses - Russell trailered two of his horses to his side paddock near our house so the girls could go riding. Liv is now a pro :p and Lois got her first chance at riding. Both the girls rode Smarty-pants, who is a sweet, big chestnut mare. Here’s some pictures of the morning. No one owns helmets here, aw well, cowgirl hats will have to do, ha!!

Liv and myself had a day off last week and went to the Smith’s property to help separate the male and female weaners. We both handled a gate and helped the guys separate the heard. After that they “blooded” the weaners, which is where they have a syringe attached to a bag of blood with an anti-viral in it, which stops the cows from getting certain diseases. They also got a liquid squirted on their backs to stop ticks. Liv had to head off to work and I stayed to move the herd to separate pastures with the quad bike, SO MUCH FUN!!!  

There is a Rodeo coming up in July with Bull Riding and Cutting. Can’t wait!! There’s a lady that drinks in the pub that competes in Cutting, which is where you have to separate a cow from nine others and your horse has to keep it separated for a period of time, in style! We are gonna go cheer her on and soon I’m heading over to her property to ride some of her cutting horses, WOHOOO!!! 

Love the Outback :) 

Oh and i've been doing a lot of mustering lately :)

The Stars and the sunsets are amazing here, just like in the Valley!

OFFICIAL AUSSIE COWGIRL

Liv & Lois had work and I was off by Myself, so I asked around to find out who has horses and got chatting to a guy called Russell. So today, on my day off, Russell picked me up at 7am and brought me to the owner of the pubs land (which I think he said was 116,000 acres, WOAH!) to muster cattle on horseback – now THIS is the real outback.

Panoramic view from the cattle paddocks

Russell showed up with a hat for me and our first task was to have a coffee, ha.. then we ‘Preg tested’ cows, which meant I opened & closed gates to a paddock & prodded cows to line them up into a shoot, and then Russell shoved his whole arm up their arse, with a glove of course to check for a baby - prego’s go left for keeps & empties go right for sale, simples… and then it was my turn… YUP I shoved my arm in a cow and felt a calf, WTF?! (Wish I had of gotten a picture)

Then we caught and saddled two chestnut quarter horses and mustered a few hundred cows from miles down the property back to the paddocks for preg testing tomorrow, with the help of Matt on a 4wheeler and 6 cattle dogs!! It was amazing & cows are the dumbest animals ever.

After a chicken salad lunch we headed back to the paddocks to wean some calves from their mothers. We had some more help for this. Mother’s were pushed through the left gate and calves through the right, and me, well I sat out of this one, up high on a post and took pictures/videos, haha! 

Finally we took the buggy (what the Aussies say for ranger/gator/off-road golf cart) and chased some cattle down to push them through to another pasture.

'Tea cup' face cow, haha! 

Seriously. An amazing day, which will hopefully be repeated soon, maybe on my next day off and then…. I’ll get you some better action shots ;) 

THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK

So we are here…. and so far…. it’s BRILLIANT!

Myself, Liv & Lois have a 4 bedroom house to ourselves 5 minutes walk from the Rolleston Hotel where we work. Liv & I work behind the bar and help take orders for lunch and Lois works as a cook/kitchen hand/waitress. Did I mention there’s a horse out our back garden?! Perfect!

Welcome to our Country abode

Liv & I behind the bar

 Lois in her kitchen - cook extraordinare! 

In Rolleston, there is the hotel motel/pub, a shop, a post office/bank, another bank, a Police Station/the Policeman’s house, a caravan park, a library and a school…. Reminds me of Merbein…. We’re back to Country living! Only this time, we get our accommodation paid for, 3 meals a day of our choice prepared by the awesome Hawaiian/Aussie Chef  (or Chef Lois), a knock-off drink of our choice after work AND we get paid on top of that. Booyah! Plus everyone is so nice here!!! 

We were told if we get to know the customers/locals, they’ll bring us places, which couldn’t be more true. The locals consist of all the townies, plus all the Road construction workers and the Miners as this is a big mining area. So we now have ourselves a bunch of new friends, including an English girl who came to work at the hotel, found herself an Aussie and never left, haha! 

First night in the house - Lois found a fairly big green frog swimming in our toliet, which we flushed back to wherever he came from, she screamed so loudly, was hilarious. Then Liv & I found a massive huntsman spider the size of my hand on our bedroom wall. Once again, Aunty Sinead, Australia has big spiders, stay away! ha! Lois & Liv were so funny trying to catch it in a box. It took the three of us to finally contain it in a box and put him out the back garden, the initial flip flop throwing and trying to hoover him up failed, hahaha! I'll get you some better Rolleston Hotel pictures soon! 

CAIRNS ROUND TWO

This is our second visit to Cairns, lucky you Cairns, our first being our final Campervan destination before we flew to Melbourne, pre-Merbein. Cairns is a small tourist town on the North East Coast of Australia. You can’t swim in the sea up North due to the SALT WATER CROCS and DEADLY JELLYFISH… oh Australia and your delightful wildlife. Instead the town of Cairns has a man made lagoon (giant beautiful pool) down by the Esplanade, right by the sea where the crocs swim by cursing the wall that separates us from them.

Liv, Charlie, Mike (New Scottish friend) and I spent one of our days in Cairns at a PRIVATE tour of the Cairns Tropical Zoo. Totally worth it. We got to bypass all the ‘Staff Only’ signs and head into the enclosures. We fed lemurs, a giant weird Aussie Bird and an 18ft Crocodile, with half a chicken on the end of a wooden stick. Amazing. We also got to hold a koala and a baby croc. Such a good day.

Liv feeding a Lemur..... MADAGASCARRRRR!!!!

Liv, Me, Charlie, Heavy Koala & Mike

Me feeding an 18ft Crocodile half a chicken

 Me holding a  baby croc, we was wrigly!!

Another day and part of my Birthday pressie, Liv and I rented scooters for the day and followed a map up into the rainforest to see waterfalls, gorges, cascades and lakes. We even had a little picnic beside a mountain stream and had a visit from lots of fish and a gross EEL!! Was so beautiful and so much fun!

The rest of our time in Cairns we enjoyed our free nightly meals at Woolshed Bar compliments of our hostel, swam and sunbathed at the Lagoon, played a lot of Uno and cards, plus I cant forget all the drinking, clubbing and dancing. And of course the terrible job searching, the bane of traveling with a limited budget, but it must be done. 

That brings me to the next leg of our adventure. Jobs are definitely hard to come by. We have a saying over here…. AUSTRALIA LIES. “There’s heaps of jobs” LIES. “It’s hot everywhere, all the time” LIES. “You can easily earn 2 grand a week” LIES. Yes I know, a little far fetched to believe all of this but you would be surprised by the amount of backpackers who have been promised or at least believe this prior to hoping on a plane to this side of the world.

A week and a half in Cairns and about a week of job hunting, we finally came across a job which securely feeds us AND houses us (in our own house) AND pays us, so we though feck it, we haven’t had any other worth while offers to save more money. So right now, Liv, Lois (our new Manchester friend) and I are headed for Rockhampton, which is 12 hours South of Cairns, to stay the night where we will be picked up and brought 3.5 hours inland to the OUTBACK to work in a hotel for a month or two. Our goal = SAVE MONEY and hopefully have a bit of fun while doing it. It should be interesting! The town of Rolleston (the arse end of nowhere) where we will be, has it’s nearest biggest town Emerald, both of which are mining towns, so the tips best be good and I’m hoping that the horses best be everywhere, haha! It is the outback after all. I’m praying for some Rodeos!!!

Hopefully this will workout, we’ll have saved money and can plan our BIG TRIP OF NEW ZEALAND before heading back over the seas home again! Wish us luck, as my Mam cleverly pointed out – we are headed for David Bowie’s ‘Let’s Dance’ Music Video!!! Hahaha! Enjoy :p 

I’M BACK ON THE MOVE & SO ARE MY TYPING FINGERS

It’s been a while Kangaroo&Chips readers and I apologise.

Although life in Melbourne was good while it lasted, I felt at a stand still with not too much to report on. We all managed to get into a routine. I started work for an Accountancy Firm as Admin/Receptionist – me behind a desk all day is soul destroying though. Liv worked for APG knocking doors and trying to convince people to switch energy companies – also soul destroying. Sarah worked and still is working as office staff for Foster’s Beer where she gets free beer on Fridays. Aine had to go home :( and Anna moved in with her Boyfriend Ben, but is now headed home also :( 

So, Liv & Myself are the last ladies standing from our original crew of 6.

While in Melbourne we lived in St. Kilda on Chapel Street, about a 10 minute walk from the beach. The location was perfect, but the apartments were a kip (also known as ‘The Craic Den’… classy I know!), but as always we made the best of it, made some good friends and had some great parties! We did what we came to do there, live in the big City, work and save some money.

Strange or legendary? Batman Skating down the boardwalk at St. Kilda Beach!

Last Ladies Standing in Melbourne - 

Beth, Liv, Borgy, Anna & Me :) 

When we were getting up in the morning for work and it was freezing out, and we had no winter wardrobe with us, nor did we plan on buying one to lug around with us, we decided it was time to say goodbye to Melbourne and hello to Cairns where we flew up North to the SUN.

Liv, Charlie (lived in the apt with Sarah & Aine) and I stayed in a hostel called ‘Woodduck’ in Cairns. We had a 3 day free room pass we wanted to use there. Gilligans was a great hostel to stay in last time but Woodduck was definitely cheaper and we made some great friends, including Lois from Manchester who is on the next leg of our adventure with us now…. But before I tell you about that, let me tell you all about our adventures in Cairns.....