So I'd done the surfer dude thing, now it was time to experience another stereotypical aussie lifestyle: the cowboy. Kroombit is a genuine functioning cattle ranch in the middle of nowhere and is a compulsory stop on the Oz Experience bus. I don't think I've ever tried so many new things in one day before, it was brilliant.

First off though we had another compulsory stop at a place called Emu Park, which ironically has no Emus in it, it's just the name of the town. The hostel there is pretty swanky though, with proper beds, no bunks! You know you've been travelling too long when you get excited about that. There were nine of us on the bus and a couple of girls staying there already who were travelling south so we actually had a good sized group for once, plus everyone was British, pretty different to the Fraser experience! We had a nice homecooked thai green curry (I still really miss thai food!) then two of the girls bought out their ukeleles. Apparently ukes are all the rage for the traveller crowd! A girl called Lauren was pretty good and got to work composing a song about the Oz experience, a song that I now have constantly stuck in my head ('I was on a bus with Oz experience, went to Nimbin and got delerious' etc etc). The bus drivers (Binks and Bud, they've all got nicknames) entertained us with stories of crazy people on the bus for a while then we had an earlyish night.

We set off early the next morning to get to the farm, stopping at a zoo on the way where we went the wrong way and failed to see the Kangaroos, but that was ok cos I finally saw some jumping through some fields on the side of the road afterwards, so that's that one animal ticked off. Everyone at the farm looks just like you'd expect ranch workers to look, complete with cowboy hats, bandannas and check shirts... even though most people there are travellers that have been sucked into the lifestyle, a bit like the surf camp really. Got straight into our steak lunch then it was time for the first activity of the day: goat mustering. This involves chasing goats around on horseback to get them into a tiny pen by shouting EY UP UP UP the whole time and trying to keep your horse from trampling the little ones.... It was so much fun.

I've never ridden a horse before so was pretty terrified, but I got a nice small one called Rusty, who looked pretty rusty and run down but he was lovely and didn't attack the other horses like some of the others did. There was a moment in the middle where he broke down and refused to move no matter how hard I kicked him (you have to do it pretty hard to make them move, apparently it doesn't hurt but I felt bad) but after that we made friends and had a whale of a time chasing goats over the hills feeling like a real cowboy. There were hundreds of goats and they were all spread out for miles so it took us HOURS to get them all... not your average afternoon activity!

Next up was the lassoing, which I was completely useless at and just ended up tangled into it myself half the time. Then I did some clay pigeon shooting with a shotgun (can't get enough of guns, me) which I didn't realise involved moving targets... I managed to get one out of five though so not a total failure! Then it was time for the goat rodeo. The challenege was to enter a pen full of pretty pissed off goats with massive horns, lasso one, sit on top of it and 'brand' it with a stick before dragging it out of the pen while it tried to kick you. Oh ok yeah, no problem. I was busy doing the shooting while everyone else got into teams of three so two of the local guys joined me instead... and we won! 23 seconds flat. They said they'd never done it before but while I was busy lassoing the floor they managed to catch two goats in one rope so I think that might have been a lie! But we went last and it was dark by then so I reckon my skills of finding the branding stick in the dark definitely won it for us. Ahem. It was pretty hilarious watching the others run around after them though, they put up a pretty good fight, surprised nobody got their teeth kicked out to be honest!

We were treated to some 'mystery meat' after that which turned out to be goat (tasted like lamb) followed by a roast dinner. Then it was time to learn more cowboy skills, starting with using a whip. Some people were suspiciously good at this, I managed to make a couple of good cracks but mainly just looked like a retard flapping my arm up and down. Then we did some line dancing which made me realise how unfit travelling's made me, followed by the mechanical bull where I made it to the second round, and finally 'cowboys and indians' where you get in pairs and have to get into different er, positions, which I also managed to win... hehe. Not sure if I'll be trying the 'kangaroo' again though!

There was a Topdeck bus at the ranch at the same time full of uptight Americans (they got offended when the guy joked that some people might enjoy whipping themselves, jesus) who sat around looking miserable but there were some nice ones on there too and it was a good crowd. Lauren bought out her uke again and we had a nice concert out of the back of a truck around the campfire. I stayed up for a while talking to the local guys, one of which spent a good 20 mins telling me about his demolition truck (he showed me a photo, it was MASSIVE) then called it a night, and a pretty good night it was!

So that was Kroombit. The Oz Experience experience is proving to be worth it after all now that there's a decent amount of people on it, and on the 11 hour bus ride up to Airlie beach Binks provided us with aluminium foil to make aussie themed sculptures (I made a man being eaten by a shark), a basketball hoop, and we played bingo. Definitely helped pass the time! We went to the bar last night for lots more free drinks, even though after 6 days of drinking I was determined not to drink anymore... oh well. I have a day off in Airlie today where I should probably get in contact with the outside world seeing as I've been out of signal for a week now, and getting rid of this cold I've caught. I get on our boat to the Whitsundays tomorrow. So far I've been told that we're all going to be naked, so it sounds pretty similar to the Halong Bay cruise really, oh dearrrrrr. At least it won't be boring!