Myella- Cowgirl training! Yeeehaaaa!

Hello home people,

Saw my first xmas tree today...whoa...far too hot for all that. Is utterly strange.

Had a lie in of sorts that day, checked out, had some breakie, did some blogging, got on the bus for 6 and half hrs to Rockhampton after a sad goodbye to the girls. Arrived in "Rocky" quite late and booked into the local YHA.

There really is nothing here for the average backpacker and so I thought I'd run into at least one other person doing the Myella farm stay and so it wasn't long before I met Ben from Essex. He's a bit of a laugh and 31! so yet again I thank my lucky stars I have a mate before the activity even starts!

In the TV room where we get chatting a strange Aussie guy tries to tell me all about the local tourist attractions here, which mostly seem to consist of coal mining. He goes into a lengthly description of the processes involved in coal extraction where he actually gets various coffee table objects to represent the machinery. This goes on for some time. Meanwhile I'm trying to eat Ricky's noodles in a polite way and not dribble sauce down my chin or laugh at this clearly bonkers man.

Wed 25th Oct

We get picked up at 6.30am (is this really a holiday?) and meet our hostess for the next 3days, Lin. She does not stop rabbiting and I like her immediately. Over the hour and half drive inland we talk a lot about the Aborigines in the area and the situation fascinates me. Apparently they get money from the government to live and drink it all as soon as it comes in. They have townships in the outback, too dangerous for white people to visit. Lin seems to successfully sit on the fence in presence of her tourists...I don't miss the undercurrents though.

Myella has been in her family for the last couple of generations, has 300 odd cattle, 40 horses and various other bits of wildlife. They now make most of their living from the tourists that come every week. I love the place as soon as we drive through the ranch style gate at the edge of the property. This is the peace, quiet and reality of Australia I've been craving!!! Yeeeeeehhhhaaaaaaaaa!

There's an open wood fire in the outdoor kitchen and Peter, Lins Dad, shows us gruffly how to cook toast with the wire racks. This is the life!! OOOoooo, I'm gona be a cowgirl when I grow up!!! As I'm happily cooking my toast and congratulating myself for not choosing the rubbishy boat tour, I hear a small voice.

"Hello George." I look round...and see no children.

"What ya doin?" it says. Still no kids...is this in my head? I think for a moment whether I should reply that I'm cooking toast, but decide people might think I'm nuts.

"Hello George..."

"Errrrmmmm....what's that voice please someone?" I say.

"Oh, that's just George...don't step on him he's right behind you!" And there's this parrot looking up at me with one beady eye.

"Hello George," I say and bending down to see if he'll come up to my hand I'm suddenly surprised to find he already standing on it.

"Gota new girlfriend ey George," says a passing cowboy "he usually bites new people." I'm truly honored and feel this is the start of a long and wonderful relationship.

Next up, we're on horseback and they've given me this massive thing that apparently I've got to whip like hell to get to behave.  Great...this is what you get if you exaggerate a bit and say you've done over 40 rides. Karma. But the problem is not behavior, it's getting the bloody thing going. It will not budge and this is soooooooo embarrassing. We do some maneuvers around some trees and I'm so busy trying to get this sodding horse moving I head for the wrong tree and look like even more of an idiot.

2hrs later in the hot sun we're back at the ranch so to speak. I decide not to sit down for a while due to the pain and join some of my fellow ranchers trying to crack a whip. This looks like fun....HOLLY CRAP THAT HURTS!!!!!! Of course I slash myself across the arm straight away. Then...

"No, no,no...you're doing it all wrong!!!" Peter comes over in that gruff manner to show me how it's done. Yep, looks easy enough. "Up, back and a quick drawback..got it?!" This guy has got one eye and only shouts, never speaks. He's a little alarming. I wrap the whip around myself and giggle. "oooppps"

"Jesus Christ...have you forgotten what I just showed you!!! What's wrong with you girl?" , " Errrr...sorry." He shows me again, and again and I manage a couple of cracks after I fear he may wrap the whip around my neck and throttle me with it. I decide not to play with that toy anymore...I'll have a go at the lasso.

"Nononono....like this...you're too far up the rope." Comes over and grabs it off me. "Like this see." Does some fancy stuff. Eventually I manage to rope in a red traffic cone and am very pleased with myself but I don't think I've impressed Peter.

I notice at lunch (which is fabulous food by the way) that the family and the ranch hands don't sit with us. Bang go my visions of cosy Australian family experience...all telling wonderful stories of the outback round the camp fire. Shame. One of my fellow travelers is an English girl who's parents live on Larch Avenue in Sunningdale would you believe...don't go popping round for tea though as they sound nuts...the Mum holds birthday parties for her dog. Clearly barking (had to get that one in!).

Next a few of us jump in the pool for a game of volley ball...brilliant! Best thing after a long hot day in the saddle. God forbid we should relax after that...we were herded out to the test track to start our motor bike training. This I understand is the modern method for mustering cattle.

I'd like to say I was really good at it...but I'd be lying. I couldn't for the life of me stay on this bloody plank thing they had us going over to test our balance. Changing gears came a little easier and as if at school I was commended for this. Now the problem when you've been told off all day and then you get a pat on the back is that all you want to do is please the teacher like a puppy. And when you're a bit rubbish at something it's a little upsetting. I have 3 brothers...I'll admit to being competitive!

Luckily I made the grade and was allowed to go on a ride with the others...I wasn't the worst...some were left going round that bloody track for ages till they got it right. So off we go round the outskirts of the property and I love this bike. Think I might be turning into a petrol head! Away from the beady and off-putting eyes of Peter I'm like Evil Conevil (sp?) reincarnated! and I can keep up with the boys which more than I can say for most of the other girls...Ha...eat my dust!

Back at the ranch again we have another dip in the pool as pretty much everyone is covered in dust. The scenery here is amazing by the way...proper outback scrub complete with red dirt, wide open plains with pockets of bottle trees and roamimg cattle. This is what I've been looking for! The farm also takes in wounded roos and they laze around the place in the shade all day. You can go and pat them too and I love it!

More whip cracking and lassoing ensues and I'm still crap at both. I decide I really don't like being crap at things and sit in a hammock pretending to relax watching the people who are obviously born cowboys and girls get all the praise from Lin.

As sunset draws in we're allowed to go on the bikes (unguided!) up to the hill to watch. Fabulous!! I go with two Danish guys and as I leave with them Lin gives me a wink and says "Good choice." I laugh then look again and see it really is a good choice. The sun drops behind the hill and although no clouds to give a burst of colour it's really quite special. Quite romantic even, however the Danes and I manage to sit on some prickly stuff and I have thorns in my hand for the next week that look like they want to go septic. I also think I have them in my backside but don't really want to ask anyone to have a look.

Diner is wonderful and they serve homebrewed beer with it that goes down really well. I'm back on the antibiotics though as have the sore throat threatening and am running scared of the tonsil god with all this dust. Some green tree frogs come out of the log that holds up the side of the kitchen and we all take pics. The massive cactus behind the sink suddenly produces huge white flowers that only come out when they're expecting rain and although this place has been in drought for the last 7 yrs, I hope it doesn't. We spend the rest of the evening chatting on the veranda in the dark and it's lovely and calm.