14/9/9 Monday 1770 to Kroombit

We set off on the bus heading towards Kroombit Cattle station, our home for the night. We stopped in a small town called Miriam Vale for breakfast and then headed inland through a town called Biloela, Aboriginal for white cockatoo. just outside of that town was the working cattle station at Kroombit. The cattle station was great with an outside dining area, open fire with a jerry can boiling over it, a calf tethered up and a barbecue cooking us steaks for lunch. There were cowboys and cowgirls all dressed in their riding gear and it felt really laid back. We had a big lunch of steaks and salads, tthen met Andrew, one of the bosses at the cattle station. He arrived next to our dining table on a horse and explained all the activities on offer. He was a real Aussie redneck with the best accent and was really dry and straight talking...hilarious. We signed up for clay pigeon shooting and quad biking, then went off with Colin a scottish guy we had met Sccoterooing the day before, to go quad biking. We were taken roud miles of farm tracks on big farm quads which was brilliant fun adn we reached some pretty fast speeds. Liz came back loooking like she had grown a beard as she had eaten so much of the boys dust !!! Check out the photo she is a real bearded lady. We had afew cans of beer sat at the makeshift bar area then Andrew arrived to take us all to the goat rodeo ! Some of the other passengers had been on a horse back goat muster to collect the goats for the afternoons rodeo while we were on the quads. We were shown how to throw a lasoo by Andrew tjhe expert and spent ages trying to lasoo the sheeps skull in the middle of the area and mostly failing, we all managed to lasoo it at least once though. We then had a go at clay pigeon shooting which Liz was completely hopeless at but she really enjoyed firing the gun...bit of a worry!! Phil got three hits out of 5 then had aonther got to try and improve but got the same again. Next we were sent into the rodeo ring one at a time to try and lasoo a goat. It was impossible as they moved so quickly but one guy managed it, we didn't succeed but the goats were happy we were so bad. Andrew then produced a cattle prod and asked everyone to hold hands in a group. He spana bottle and asked the people it landed on to hold the prod so he could shock them. Liz got out of it so she didn't electrocute her pacemaker but it was great watching Phil squirm while waiting for the shock. it was really funny and everyone was really scared but it didn't hurt too much..just a tingle!!! Andrew then drove us up a hill of road, through the trees like a maniac to the top to watch the sunset which was really amazing colours. After getting back to our rooms and having a shower (the stinky girls didn't...suprise, suprise) we went to get supper. We had a starter of goat to sample before a bowl of soup then corned beef adn vegetables....not the tinned corned beef either !! After supper the entertainment team arrived and we were pitched against the other bus which had arrived in time for supper too. We first had to face paint ourselves, have a game of pictionary and do a talent competition !! We gargled "Happy Birthday to you" as it was the only tune all the nationalities on our bus knew. Next we all had a go on the mechanical bull which Liz was rubbish at and fell off as soon as it moved but Phil managed to stay on for 12 seconds!!! It was a great laugh and everyone was pretty bad until one girl got a record time of 52 seconds. We then got a chance to crack a whip which is so much more difficult than it looks, we had loads of attempts and barely got a sound out of it. We then had a few drinking games which we weren't really up for and then sloped off to bed having had a great day.