I left Coffs Harbour and the bad weather behind quite early, and drove out of the city when the sun came up. The bus ride was convenient and not too long, so after 4 hours I arrived in Ballina, where I just managed to check in to the hostel before I got picked up by the next work-experience - quite an embarrassing misunderstanding for him:) Well, I checked out again, and when shopping was done, we caught the ferry to Ballina West and drove out to the farm.(the first thing I did after quickly unpacking my stuff, was to take a shower, you know, these kind with running water all the time, even hot ones:) I probably never enjoyed a shower so much in my life, and wow, the feeling of being throughoughly clean afterwards was divine:) No offence, I survived with the bush-shower, but God, it was certainly nice to have a "real" shower again!!

Tassiriki Ranch is owned by Chris & Helen Bull, and is a working guest ranch providing beach-trail-rides on horseback. There are 21 horses on the property, all needing care, fed etc, but only 10 f them are trail-horses. My job is to fed the horses morning and evening, assist on beach-rides, remove manure from paddocks (yep, it's a professional way of saying pooh…) and well, whatever occurs;) The ranch is beautiful situated close to the beach, the ranch house cosy and I have my own room, toilet and shower;) Wow, the most wonderful shower I had since long - I appreciated the constantly flowing warm water a lot more than I usually do. I felt pretty much at home immediately here and "moved in" before lunch. I have even my own fridge, TV and all sorts of good stuff, it's pretty nice, and the people here are very friendly as well! My first task was to pick up all the pooh in several paddocks, and it took a couple of hardworking hours. Welcome!;) After that we fed all the horses, the dogs, the chucks, and even the birds got some. That took quite some time as well, but I got to ride an ATV-bike again around to all the paddocks, with the tiniest dog in the world sitting up at the rear - so cool! Helen cooked and we ate in their beautiful, old-fashioned living room in front of a crimi-serie (not recommendable to watch while eating;)..). The stars on the sky were so clear and just amazing to look at; I think I started to like the Southern Hemisphere quite a bit.

Next morning I was ready by 7am to fed the horses, and we did it all again. I had my "riding-test" in the morning, they needed to know if I was able to ride at all, but they seemed satisfied with the little performance I made. I got permission to join the beach-rides, and jumped on a tour already in the afternoon with one of the trail-guides (employed people from outside). We only cater for small groups, so it was just a couple riding with us. And the beach was absolutely stunning! It has been pretty windy lately, and the waves were awesome. The tide was really high up, so we often rode in the water - it was just amazing to experience! Just imagine: The sun burning down, wind in the hair (okay, I know my hair is too short and therefore just hiding under the helmet, but just imagine, all right?…), on horseback along a beautiful beach - can life be more perfect? Well, back from the ride, back to reality. I worked the whole rest of the afternoon and got off sometime at 6pm, so well, a pretty hard day despite the nice part in between.

So, after the first week is over, I have a pretty clear picture of this place. It is still very nice, and god, I work hard!! It is like this;

7.00-9.00 - Feed all the animals, un-rug all the horses, fly-nets, etc.

9.00-11.00 - Remove the manure from the paddocks.

11.00-13.00 - Paint the entrance, fences, poles etc.

13.00-14.00 - Lunch break.

14.00-16.00 - Train Clansey (a race horse)

17.00-19.00 - Feed all the animals, re-rug the horses.

19.00-20.00 - Dinner and nearly bedtime:)

This is just the every day tasks, I also have to put in preparation for beach rides, sometimes join the beach-rides, or like here the other day I assisted with a castration of one of the foals - I tell you that was scary. It took the vet an hour hard work and a couple of seriously dangerous kicks to get the horse even in anaesthetics. Then the horse collapsed and he was cut open, and yes, I will spare the rest of the details. One comment - there was a lot of blood;) Horrible event, an operation is really not my favourite entertainment. Chris asked afterwards, when it was over and done - "So, who wants some lunch?", but nobody seemed very interested;)

Well, I mostly do less dramatic stuff. I quite enjoy it here, despite the pretty hard working hours, not to mention that I do it all in exchange for food and accommodation. But hey, I am used to Camphill-work, so who was complaining? I think my point is that horse work is not THAT exiting, especially not the whole day. So when they asked me to do some painting hours, I happily agreed to wreck my back on that;)

I am training Clansey, a previous race horse, for the owner who can't really control him. That is a lot of fun;) He can go pace, like islandic horses, and that's so comfortable. Except for the fact that I have to train him to go trot, not pace, and here the hard work comes in. And he can't go canter either. Or understand why my legs are kicking him: He is a bit retarded;) No, he as just never been taught anything other than running as fast as possible in front of the harness. And with an owner who is scared of horses and a complete beginner, he doesn't have much chance either. So I ride him every day, and he got already so much better. The horse is just sweet, really trying hard, and I will give the owner lessons on him next week. Well, she has to start somewhere, and after I found a way to make him go trot, it is now time to try to teach her to make him do it, which is really the point, isn't it;)

Anyway, I was honestly starting to get a bit furious with the hard work-load. I have many days with full-on work from morning to late, and I felt it was to take advantage of the situation, especially because I usually work pretty effective, but then I just get more on top, extra small jobs or so. So I was pleased when I was asked to take on a completely different job:

I got assigned to take one of the private horses down to the beach, where the owner is making a film-project, and the horse had to be one of their stars;) I rode this beautiful horse down there and waited a couple of hours while they shot the scenes. It was cool, I tell ya!! Afterwards I had to ride him all the way back along the beach, and well, that ride was one of my best experiences down here in Australia. This horse was just awesome and perfect to ride. I did canter along the waterside, and I just felt so good. Like Julia would say; gl¸cksgef¸hl! It was so beautiful and indescribable. I knew then why it is that I do all the hard work on the ranch - it is for moments like this!!!

I was smiling all over my head when I came back and felt so good, and then - bang! Back to work. Even when I have other jobs away from the farm, I am still expected to do the normal routines, so I finished long time after it got dark. But okay, the beach-ride experience was just perfect, so it is worth it!!!

Since my perfect afternoon, the weather has gone bad - meaning: lots of raining-storms and it all gets muddy and yeah, not cold really, cause the rain is still hot and we have 20 degrees. But how that could take off some of my workload for a while. It was just nice, we have watched Australian movies like "The man from Snowy River I & II" and "The Silver Brumby". These movies are of course about the country, wild horses and cowboys living in the mountains, but it's quite nice!! Tuesday was the Melbourne Cup Day, the horse race that "stops the nation", and we went in to town and spend a few dollars on bettings, bought some wine and nice food, and drove back and watched it. Neither of us had gambled on the right horse, but hey, it's all a part of the spirit, or:) We had a good day and in general I have enjoyed my stay there a lot.

So I can't really complain about my life her lately, it is relaxing and very good, I still really like my host-couple. I will just enjoy my last couple of days here and Thursday I will catch the bus to Byron Bay.

After a nice morning with leaving presents and so on from my lovely hosts, they drove me to de bus and I had the best drive so far- it was the shortest (30 km to Byron from Ballina), the most scenic and the most comfortable (bus nearly empty, not smelly etc:). So I got myself booked in to a very expensive hostel, well, they are all axpensive here, for the next three night, and look not at all forward to sharing room with hundreds of smelly backpackers again for the coming next month - but okay, that's the back packer life. God, I look so much forward to have my own room, my own bed, my own shower again when I am home. Amazing how one learns to appreciate privacy, even when you are a general social person like me:)

So with the sun luckily enough shining outside, I will head to the beach and maybe go surfing tomorrow, who knows?:)