We arrived on the Oz bus at Kroombit cattle station where there is a compulsory overnight stop but I was glad of it after over 10 hours of driving - Australia appears to be rather large.... We were staying in little log cabins that reminded me of little house on the prairie. The place is a working cattle station but they supplement the business with some tourism and appeared pretty well set up for us. We had to do face paint on each other (bit strange but there was for a bottle of cheap bubbly as a prize so we made the effort!) so Natalie did a good job with the Australian flag on my face which ensured all the staff called me Miss Australia for the rest of the night! I wasn't able to return the favour unfortunately and did a poor job with face paint vaguely resembling a ninja turtle! We had a proper country dinner of soup then (local) roast beef and veg before Alan did an official welcome and then taught us how to crack a whip. This was fun but I was glad I was wearing full length clothes as I kept whipping myself in the back! We then had a bucking buffalo thing at which I was rubbish, in fact even the good people looked rubbish after the staff got on and started standing up on it, turning around etc and generally giving the impression it wasn't moving at all! I was narrowly beaten for best face paint by Pat (who I had found out had lived in the same house as me in Eastwood at Bath - random!) who had a crazy spiral on his face - i was robbed! We all went to bed fairly early as we had to be up at the crack of dawn - again - and were rudely awakened at 6 by Andrew - one of the cowboys - backfiring his motorbike outside our rooms! Not a nice way to wake up! After a swift breakfast and packing we set off into the cattle station to learn how to lasso and have a go at a goat rodeo. This was hilarious and basically consisted of us going into the goat pen in groups of 3 and having a 3 minute time limit to lasso, wrestle to the ground and brand a goat that had been picked for us. Natalie had proved to be the best at lassoing so that became her job, but after we stupidly pointed out the smallest goat for the cowboys to lassoo as a demo, they gave us this goat to catch and after it had hidden for most of out time limit behind all the bigger ones we gave up and just caught a different one and took the time penalty! needless to say we didn't win but loads of fun. After the rodeo we set out in the back of a ute to the stable area where we were assigned a horse based on our riding ability. My horse was a pretty lazy, slow, easy going mare called Shanty. Once we'd saddled up we rode (plodded) over to the goat pen again and got goat mustering. I like to think I was useful in this activity, recapturing at least 2 escaping goats, despite the fact that we were probably surplus to requirement and the three girls who worked there could easily have handled all the goats between them. After depositing all the goats safe and sound in a new field we set off for a bit of a trek on the horses through some beautiful outback scenery and a very eucalyptussy smelling forested area. Once back at the stables we returned our horses and jumped back on the bus to head south, very hot, sunburnt and smelly, but feeling like we'd had a proper outback experience!

I only stayed with the bus as far as Miriam Vale where four of us - Jemma, Liz, Kirsty and I jumped off and caught Macca's bus into 1770. This was first place I was going to spend more than one night since I left Cairns so I was really looking forward to it. The others had all booked into a hostel called Cool Bananas, I was less organised, but determined to stay there too - especially after I saw the place! it was amazing! unfortunately they were full, so I asked hopefully if I could sleep on the floor... Greg, the manager came out and offered me the sofa - even better! luckily I didn't need to take him up on this as a bed became available thanks to a Swedish couple I met offering me one off theirs! The staff were really nice throughout and very welcoming and helpful which added to good atmosphere of the place. I could have stayed there much longer!

1770 and Agnes Water are pretty chilled places, not a lot going on just a nice place to spend a few days relaxing. This in mind I then proceeded to cram in as much as I could into my 3 days and not relax at all! Kirsty and I spent the first afternoon on the popular scooteroo tour where you hire a scooter and follow the lead guy in lemming style round 60km of the local roads and countryside, taking in the sunset over the ocean (only place on the East coast to do this) whilst enjoying some complementary potato wedges on the way. My scooter made a strange noise the entire time but managed to last for the trip and get me up to reasonable speeds - well 70kph! The second day was fairly relaxed but visited the beach in the morning and at sunset went for a really nice 5 mile run along the beach - felt really good as the only proper exercise I've done all trip! On the last day I decided to invest in a trip to the Great barrier reef and to Lady Musgrave Island. I hadn't been out to the reef yet and had skipped the Whitsundays so I justified the expense in my mind! The trip out was pretty long and bumpy but was really beautiful and because the coral was spawning there was a lot of plankton in the water making it look like liquid gold. The Island itself was really amazing too and had about 40,000 birds - mainly black noddys - living on it. There is a lot of plant life too on the island too despite being entirely made of coral. Our guide was a bit annoying and far too enthusiastic about non-exciting things, but we got to hold a sea cucumber and spot some turtle tracks before heading back to the boat. We had an amazing buffet lunch with masses of fresh fruit and salad - things I'd been feeling deprived of! afterwards we snorkelled in the afternoon and spotted loads of cool fish and turtles. At one point I was following a turtle and watching it eat jelly fish, which was awesome. I also think I saw a reef shark eating a small fish but no one else did so I may have imagined it!! We all left Lady Musgrave wanting to go and watch Finding Nemo again! The next day I set out for Hervey bay from where I'd be doing my Fraser Island trip.