Kroombit cattle station - an amazing stop that the oz bus takes you to, well worth your money!!

we arrived to find our steaks already cooked on the open fire by the realy cowboys of australia - quite an experience and VERY tasty when all you have lived on is carbs!! the people that were riding the horses to muster the sheep ( me and bec and 7 others) were rushed off to find the right horse and start our 3 hour mustering. i was put on pheonix - a gorgeous horse that was very sensitve about his handling - which i noticed as he started to walk backwards if you squeezed too much or too little. as i had riden before - the cowboy that took us into the field of 300 goats let me go off with my friend nicole to get some goats on our own...

we were going down huge gullys and cantering up them - shouting 'EY UP UP UP' to all the goats that we could see - steering them as best we could down the gully towards the pens - they were stubborn little things so this proved really difficult - which was made even harder when my horse decided he was tired of this and just stopped ages away from eveyone else. The poor goats - i think they get this treatment everyday - one for their safety to keep them in at night but two - because we need to get the goats for the goat wrestling we had in store for everyone that night!once all the goats were in a pen me and becki decided to try abit of shooting with a shot gun - and clay pigeons!! i had five shots - all of which i missed - at this point i felt very small because i could hardly hold the gun. It was still so fun to do ( and again, i will say it - a great experience!!)... then it was the goat rodeo.... groups of three had to go into the oen with any size of goat and were timed to grab the goat ( which can run really fast in the slippy mud) flip it on its back and fake brand it. when it was our go we were quietly confident - but when the biggest goat came out we didnt think our chances of winning looked good - we were mistakan and won!! i was very proud and made friends with the goat afterwards with a stroke!!

when we got back we got to try some goat from a freshly made pot of goat stew - very tasty - but i had to forget about the cute goats i had fallen in love with.

we all had a lovely hot tea and went to bed - ready for our VERY early morning start ( and the longest day on the bus of the east coast) to airlie beach...

kroombit was great!!

em xxxxxxxxxxxx