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| "This is to certify that Trevor, Katie and Holly actually did the course! *Only photo :) |
Friday:
I can't believe the week of being at the ranch is coming to an end. We were instructed to wake up early once again for our last day out at the ranch where we had been scheduled in for some more mustering. In the early AM, we set out to the other property where Holly and I collected our horses and saddled them up while Trevor serviced his bike (We were given the option to either take the bikes or horses for this task. Holly and I quickly made the decision of sticking with the horses as the bikes didn't quite work out so well the first time around). Craig proceeded in showing us a map of what paddock the cattle were in and everyone's jobs to follow as we rounded up the herd and brought it back to the round yard for some drafting, tagging, vaccinating and drenching before turning them loose back into the paddock.
Feeling like a cowboy from a western or from a Garth Brooks music video, we rounded up the herd together and slowly but surely led them back to the yard with nothing but our horses, bikes and some hand held radios to make an effort to communicate as a group on the next moves we needed to make to ensure we got all the cows in our designated spot not missing a single one that could potentially stray off from the herd.
We managed to gather all of them into the yard where we were shown quickly how to perform each of the tasks at hand before Craig buggered off to meet up with the blacksmith that was to tend to some of the horses to give them some brand new shoes. After a few gos, Holly, Trevor and I got the swing of things and had the momentum going for a little while trying to keep the wild and somewhat angry cows tame for as long as we could.
Once again, we somehow managed to impress Craig a bit with our swiftness of this task when he arrived back from dealing with the blacksmith. Nerves must have gotten to us though when his presence showed up because our momentum quickly fell apart and we were struggling to keep everything in order and I'm pretty sure the cows could sense it as well as they started to get restless as they awaited for us to collect and regain our momentum to get back on track again. We finished the job and were quite pleased with our efforts and the outcome of our morning. We then headed back to the home ranch where we sat down to a well deserved lunch.
That afternoon, we were told we were going to do some more mustering so we could see how to sheer sheep. Excited, Holly and I were gearing up to go back to the other property to saddle up our horses once again and set out deep into the paddocks to collect our sheep. But when we opened the screen door to exit out of the kitchen and jump into the truck, we saw a quad and 2 bikes running at the shed.
"One last time!" Craig exclaimed, knowing that Holly and myself never wanted to see those two wheeled beasts again, he got a kick out of our excited attitudes and smiles quickly turned to nerves and frowns. Trevor jumped onto the quad without any hesitation, but Holly and I slowly sat our asses back down on the seat of potential disaster, griping the handle bars tightly already holding on to our dear lives before even starting the engines. I looked down at my bruised and battered body bringing back memories of deep gullies, bikes flying in mid air and that sentence that will forever haunt me, KATIE! START YOUR BIKE!
But what the hell, this was our very last day, last chore we were going to perform on this ranch. It was time to put my fears and worries aside and just Giv'R. Holly then realized that Craig had not assigned her a 100cc, but a 200cc. Double the power, double the strength and double the potential battle wounds. To make a long story short, despite some communication errors and also the fact Holly tried to stop the bike in first gear and nearly had it fly away on her then ended up stalling it was a good last effort on our part. Craig wouldn't let us complete the mission unless Holly could restart her bike and park it under the shed where it belonged. So we watched as she struggled to restart the machine, knowing we weren't allowed to help we just sat there in the blazing heat watching her attempt something that seemed impossible after going through all the rights steps, making sure she wasn't missing something important that would dis-allow her to start the bike. After about 15 minutes with no success, Trevor finally got off his quad and went to Craig's office asking if he could help Holly out because there was no way that bike was moving. He agreed that if she could wheel the bike back to the shed in neutral we could call it a day. So, Trev and I started our engines up and headed to the shed and Holly trolled along in neutral until she reached the shed.
We were done our mission and the week at Outback Packers was near an end. We later on found out that if the bike that Holly was riding stalled and fell over, the engine usually wouldn't start for about 2 days, so Craig played a pretty good one on us to top off the week (nice one Craig!).
I can't believe the week of being at the ranch is coming to an end. We were instructed to wake up early once again for our last day out at the ranch where we had been scheduled in for some more mustering. In the early AM, we set out to the other property where Holly and I collected our horses and saddled them up while Trevor serviced his bike (We were given the option to either take the bikes or horses for this task. Holly and I quickly made the decision of sticking with the horses as the bikes didn't quite work out so well the first time around). Craig proceeded in showing us a map of what paddock the cattle were in and everyone's jobs to follow as we rounded up the herd and brought it back to the round yard for some drafting, tagging, vaccinating and drenching before turning them loose back into the paddock.
Feeling like a cowboy from a western or from a Garth Brooks music video, we rounded up the herd together and slowly but surely led them back to the yard with nothing but our horses, bikes and some hand held radios to make an effort to communicate as a group on the next moves we needed to make to ensure we got all the cows in our designated spot not missing a single one that could potentially stray off from the herd.
We managed to gather all of them into the yard where we were shown quickly how to perform each of the tasks at hand before Craig buggered off to meet up with the blacksmith that was to tend to some of the horses to give them some brand new shoes. After a few gos, Holly, Trevor and I got the swing of things and had the momentum going for a little while trying to keep the wild and somewhat angry cows tame for as long as we could.
Once again, we somehow managed to impress Craig a bit with our swiftness of this task when he arrived back from dealing with the blacksmith. Nerves must have gotten to us though when his presence showed up because our momentum quickly fell apart and we were struggling to keep everything in order and I'm pretty sure the cows could sense it as well as they started to get restless as they awaited for us to collect and regain our momentum to get back on track again. We finished the job and were quite pleased with our efforts and the outcome of our morning. We then headed back to the home ranch where we sat down to a well deserved lunch.
That afternoon, we were told we were going to do some more mustering so we could see how to sheer sheep. Excited, Holly and I were gearing up to go back to the other property to saddle up our horses once again and set out deep into the paddocks to collect our sheep. But when we opened the screen door to exit out of the kitchen and jump into the truck, we saw a quad and 2 bikes running at the shed.
"One last time!" Craig exclaimed, knowing that Holly and myself never wanted to see those two wheeled beasts again, he got a kick out of our excited attitudes and smiles quickly turned to nerves and frowns. Trevor jumped onto the quad without any hesitation, but Holly and I slowly sat our asses back down on the seat of potential disaster, griping the handle bars tightly already holding on to our dear lives before even starting the engines. I looked down at my bruised and battered body bringing back memories of deep gullies, bikes flying in mid air and that sentence that will forever haunt me, KATIE! START YOUR BIKE!
But what the hell, this was our very last day, last chore we were going to perform on this ranch. It was time to put my fears and worries aside and just Giv'R. Holly then realized that Craig had not assigned her a 100cc, but a 200cc. Double the power, double the strength and double the potential battle wounds. To make a long story short, despite some communication errors and also the fact Holly tried to stop the bike in first gear and nearly had it fly away on her then ended up stalling it was a good last effort on our part. Craig wouldn't let us complete the mission unless Holly could restart her bike and park it under the shed where it belonged. So we watched as she struggled to restart the machine, knowing we weren't allowed to help we just sat there in the blazing heat watching her attempt something that seemed impossible after going through all the rights steps, making sure she wasn't missing something important that would dis-allow her to start the bike. After about 15 minutes with no success, Trevor finally got off his quad and went to Craig's office asking if he could help Holly out because there was no way that bike was moving. He agreed that if she could wheel the bike back to the shed in neutral we could call it a day. So, Trev and I started our engines up and headed to the shed and Holly trolled along in neutral until she reached the shed.
We were done our mission and the week at Outback Packers was near an end. We later on found out that if the bike that Holly was riding stalled and fell over, the engine usually wouldn't start for about 2 days, so Craig played a pretty good one on us to top off the week (nice one Craig!).
As mentioned in earlier posts, I think Trev and Holly can agree with me that Outback Packers course was one of the toughest, draining (mentally and physically) and rewarding week's we've ever had. What an awesome way to start an experience in the land down under than to get down n dirty with one of Australia's iconic landscapes and professions. I would recommend Outback Packers to anyone who is interested in testing their limits, pushing their limits and breaking their limits. Good luck to those of you that are brave enough to take on this challenge and to Amanda for her amazing home cooked meals that we looked forward to every night (lasagna was incredible!), to Jo for her perfectly constructed itineraries of our travels to our first job, and of course to Craig for having the patience with a bunch of kids who were looking for an experience (with no experience) and coming out of it with something so much more Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU..... Now START YOUR BIKE!
Off to Sydney to Brisbane, then from Brisbane to Toowoomba, Toowoomba to Roma, from Roma to mine and Trev's very first job! Signing off (finally!).... Katie B.
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI'm loving reading all of your posts about your trip with OutbackPackers, especially considering I'm thinking of going with them next year.
Only problem I have is I've never actually ridden a horse before! I'm hoping to start learning soon, but I'm worried I may not complete the course they do in the first week...
I'd love it if you could email me a reply, though don't feel pressured - it seems you're living a very busy life! :)
My email is rachaelshaw94@hotmail.co.uk if you're happy to reply.
Thanks! And it's great to hear you had such a good time!
Rachael.