I had a great time at Avondale I then again found myself making my way back to Sydney to wait for instructions from Hugh as to where I would be headed next. This is something I enjoy about my job I don't know what or where I will be going next! So I caught up with Hugh who had plans to send me back down to Lantern Hill and after a quick phone call there was no work down there for a few weeks. I was to be heading up to a place called Rivertree. This was a property Hugh and his partner Alice own next to the NSW and Queensland border. So the next day I was on my way, I flew to Byron Bay. I stopped off at Byron Bay for a days painting at a guest house owned by Hugh. I spent two night at Byron making the most of the beaches and sea before heading out west. I caught a bus to a town called Lismore where I met Sam who is the manager or Rivertree and owner of the neighbouring farm to Hugh's place. Sam was a proper outback farmer he never went anywhere without his cowboy hat. Sam had an interesting history he played a lot of polo and was a land and cattle agent and was shall we say pretty direct with his words. I found this out when we saw a fat family stepping out of a car. Sam described them as ferrel c*** .... I found this very amusing. We headed out to a town called Urbenville the last village before heading off the track into the proper bush country. We stopped along the way for a few quick drinks at a few pubs along the way as it was a Friday afternoon at this point. Once we eventually got to the start of Sam's property we found that some unwelcome gold prospectors had ventured in search of gold somewhere near by. Sam wasn't impressed. We drove a further 10k to Sam's house a beautiful wooden house set on top of a hill. Sam fetched his grandfathers old 303 rifle and proceeded to fire round after round into the gulley the sound echoed all round the hills. He then handed it to me to have a go I thought why not! After all of the this I met Kara Sam's wife and their two children Hunter and Miah. Kara can only be described as the happiest person in the world!

I was shown to Don's house just a little further up from Sam's were I would be staying. Don was away working for the mines. Now neither Sam nor Dons house had any mains power. The mains power came from generators of an evening I would have to estimate how many hours of TV I was likely to watch and measure out the fuel accordingly to save walking out to the shed to turn it off. The houses had solar fitted a month ago so there are some LED lights when the generator is not running. Before this they had managed to cope with candles for light. All cooking and hot water and even the fridges run off gas. All water was from rainwater tanks in the gardens and the toilets ran into a septic tank too. The toilet had it own resident frog and the first time i saw this it scared the s*** out of me….. The whole way of life to someone from the outside world took a bit of getting used too. Oh and there was no phone service apart from two spots both on top of a hill. Wifi could only be used when the generator was on and signal was err slow but was nice to have a little contact with the outside world.

The Saturday we set about making our way to Rivertree. This was a 45 minute drive into the bush. The terrain was incredible one minute it was massive descents the next it was steep climbing. We eventually arrived at 'Rivertree or the lodge and wow it was incredible. Sam is incredibly talented in woodwork and over the course of the past 3 years built 'the lodge' the big structure in the middle of the hills. The pictures I have of the lodge are incredible again it is somewhere you would go to escape from the busy city life. It was incredible Hugh and Alice have plans to send guests who want to experience the proper outback life by helicopter to rivertree to have a night luxury in the Australian bush. This is at least a few months of actually taking place but it will be an incredible experience for anyone who goes. The first task was to set out digging holes and putting a fence around the lodge to keep the cattle out. This seems an easy job when you have a post hole borer. Well it wasnt as we are on top of a hill and it is rocky as you like. We soldiered on battling the steep terrain and got all holes dug in a weekend. 62 if I remember correctly! This was the easy bit, ramming the post in was the hard part. Over the course of the week amongst everything else that was going on we got the majority of the posts in.

Kara would cook prepare all the meals and I really was spoilt whilst being up at Rivertree. On one day Sam was heading to the cattle sales to buy some cattle for a friend of his to then be put on a truck to Adelaide. They would eventually head via boat to Malaysia. The saleyards in the town of Warwick were huge. It was a record day and because of the drought they sold 3000 head of cattle. The art of cattle buying is similar to any auction it involves a lot of subtle gestures or nods of the head. of which sam had this mastered down to a tee and it was exciting to watch. By the time the second week had come round I knew a bit more of what was going on and could understand a bit more. All cattle were in pens and the auctioneer would simply move along to the next pen and this would go on for hours until all cattle are sold. Don had returned from work and I was introduced to him. He was a great character and had travelled all across the world working in many cities and had many great tales to tell. He had some cattle not far away that need draughting so we set about mustering the cattle with the aid of Flex and Riley the two cattle dogs. Seeing cattle dogs work was pretty impressive it just the same as sheep dogs really its a wonder people don't use them more in the UK.

Things were a bit different when Don got back it is fair to say he likes a drink. The mines have a policy whereby drinking is not allowed so he makes the most of his time at home and has a few beers. This is by no means a bad thing he after a hard day of work we would tuck into a few beers either at the pub in a small town of killarney or back at either Sam or Dons place its even better when you are not paying for it. I had offered on numerous occasions to buy a round but as I had helped Don out with his cattle he insisted on buying the drinks. I did however manage to sneak a round in to thank Don and Sam for the good time I had up at Rivertree. This was a daily theme and off the time I was at Rivertree I didn't have more than 12 hours without having a drink! We spent many an hour on a veranda be it Dons, Sams or Barry the neighbour it is beautiful when the sun is going down with drink in hand admiring the beautiful scenery.

When I was up at Rivertree I had the opportunity to get back on to a horse. I haven't ridden a horse since I was around 5 or 6. This was a bit of a shock to the system but I gave it a go and before I knew it I was cantering along. This was by no means graceful but no one was around to witness this! I didn't fall off and that the main thing. I also had the chance to get behind the tracks of a bulldozer. Now this was pretty cool. Once I had got the hang of things I spent hours stick raking which involves piling up all the dead timber ready to be set alight to. It was one of the more satisfying jobs as you actually see what you are achieving!

The time I spent at Rivertree went so quickly and before I knew it my time was up and I was making my way back to Byron for my flight back to Sydney. I stopped off for another night at Byron Bay in the guest house and again enjoyed the bars and live music of Byron. It was great and I have many more tales to tell from my time up North but this is all for now. I think a detox is in order….