Ranch Stay

I spent one night in Rockhampton before an early start to Myella Farm, a huge Aussie ranch. It was a fantastic place, ran by a family who had lived there for several generations. I stayed on the ranch for two days, during which, I had a brilliant time. On arriving at Myella, I met all the family before tucking into a delicious breakfast of eggs, toast and tea all cooked over an open fire. Next we set off on our first horse ride which was an amazing ride but unfortunately got cut short when the guide lost her horse!! She got off to show us something, and let go of her horse which she thought would stay by her side, but of course the horse (appropriately called Nightmare) saw her opportunity and pegged it! Horses have a constant radar tuned into home when your out riding (i.e. they go slow heading away and fast as soon as you turn back) so home was where she headed. We all got back to the stables and there she was, tangled up in her reins and hobbling around. No injuries occurred though and she was easily caught and safely tied up.

After lunch, I had my biggest challenge on the ranch, riding a motorbike! Anyone who knows me well will know how scared I would have been doing this! Especially after the guy teaching me spent about half an hour telling me a million things I had to remember. I considered chickening out several times as I was convinced I was going to kill myself on it. But this only made it even more of an achievement when I found myself riding round the farm up and down hills, over bumps and even standing up out of the seat! Once I got used to finding and coordinating the clutch, gears and brake I was away!

In the evening, I went for a ride in the back of the truck to watch a lovely sunset over the farm before having the most delicious meal I have eaten since I came away. It was an absolute feast of beef (of course!), pasta, vegetables, salad, bread and chocolate pudding and custard for dessert.

The next morning I woke up at 6am to the most beautiful sunny morning and an amazing view across the fields and kangaroos hopping around outside my room. It was Easter Sunday and I had the lovely surprise of an Easter egg in my shoe which was nice as I thought I'd miss out this year! My first job was to help milk the cows for breakfast! I managed to master (or so I thought) the clamp and squeeze technique and thought I was doing really well having filled a quarter of the bucket in about 20 minutes. However, when the expert farmer took over he had two more buckets filled in about 5 minutes so I felt a bit useless after that. After breakfast, I headed out to help get the horses ready for the ride. I was on a horse, very inappropriately called Bill, who was an extremely pretty, pure bred, chestnut Arab. Arabs are well known for being particularly loopy! And this horse was young too so he was a brilliant ride and we had a great gallop and even jumped a few logs followed by a session of cattle herding on horseback! I didn't want the ride to end, it was so great!

After a refreshing swim and lunch, my next task was to learn how to lasso! Its a lot harder than it looks but, after lots of very frustrating practice, I managed to get the hang of it and caught a log! I also got the lasso spinning around me (check out the pic!) which was quite an achievement! Whilst waiting for my bus back to Rockhampton to arrive, I relaxed in a hammock in the orchard, where I was cheakily joined by a little joey who came and fell asleep next to me, it was so adorable and he slept for ages. It was pretty special!

That, unfortunately, was the end of my ranch stay. I didn't want to leave as it had been such a wonderful couple of days but it was time to move on and I headed back to Rockhampton for one last night before setting off to my next stop, Town of 1770s.