Yeeeeeh Haaaaaa,

So up early again for our trip from Airlie beach to Emu Park. The bus ride was fairly long and it was only Ben and I on the bus so we mostly slept and read our books! Exciting stuff. We arrived in Emu Park late afternoon so we just settled in our dorm room and got ourselves sorted for our trip to Kroombit cattle farm the next day.

We had to leave at 8am the next day so again a fairly early start. Kroombit is a working cattle farm a few hours away from Emu Park. On the way we stopped off in Rockhampton where there was a free zoo. So we had a little look around there and saw some kangaroos, dingo's, koalas, crocs, emus and other ozzy animals. After a few toilet breaks we arrived in Kroombit at 1pm, where we were served a lovely steak lunch!!! Everyone got a cowboy hat and bandana for $10 which also gave you discount on drink as well as making us look like cool cowboys! Ben and I decided to do one of the activities on offer and go horse riding to herd (muster) up some goats. Ben got the laid back horse called Beau and I got a horse called muse. After learning the basics of horse riding we set off in a group of about 10 of us. The weather was gorgeous and the horses basically just followed each other so it was fairly relaxing at the start. Then we got to the goats. There were about 100 scattered around a field so we had to get up behind them and to the sides to form a 'U' shape. After this we had to trot forward whilst shouting as loud as we could 'HEYUBUBUB' to get the goats to move. The goats seemed to be used to it and moved fairly easily however I think that we were naturals at goat mustering (may help that ben and can shout pretty loud). After we got all the goats in the pen we headed back to the farm crossing a creek on the way where I got very wet feet, my horse wasn't as tall as some of the others and I have long legs, not a good mix!

After the horse rides we were taken back up to the goat pen where we learnt how to lasso. Each of us was locked in the goat pen with about 10 goats and we had to try and catch one and control it as fast as we could. Ben wasn't very good at this and unfortunately came last after ditching the lasso and catching one by hand. Me on the other hand could lasso fine I just didn't like the goats and their beady eye so it took me a while to grab them by the horns. Neither of us came close to winning with the winning time being 15sec and bens being over a minute haha! Once we had all caught the goats the farmer got us to stand in a circle holding hands he broke the circle and told the two people to hold each prong on a cattle prod. He then did one click of the prod and 10,000 volts went through us. It was a very strange feeling and with only about 8 of us being brave enough to do it the vibrations were quite strong.

We headed back to the farm to clean up before dinner. Before the meat feast started we were given the chance to try a mystery meat. Of course Ben and I ate the unknown meat and as with most foods, we liked it. But couldn't put our finger on what animal the meat had come from. After our mystery starter we had dinner - beef curry soup followed by corned beef and veggies. The meat was amazing and neither of us had ever had corned beef as yummy as that before. Once we had all eaten as much as we could we retired to the bar area and were informed that the mystery meat was in fact donkey meat (one to tick of the list I guess). A few beers later the group got a chance to try whip cracking. It was a lot harder than it looked but everyone managed to do it, me being a wimp I didn't really like the cracking noise but ben being a boy seemed to love it and got the technique almost immediately. After a few more beers and some bush dancing (basically line dancing) it was time to test our ringer skills (aussie cowboy) and ride the mechanical bull. I lasted 2sec on my first go and ben fell off in round three. On my 2nd go I got to round 2, but I don't think it is a sport I should go into.

We settled by the bonfire for a few more drinks and drinking games - we were all wearing bad jumpers as it was a girls last night but no one minded as it was fairly cold. Our driver Bud on the other hand had got a bit out of control in the charity shop and he deiced to wear a link dress as well as his bad jumper. It had been a long day so it wasn't too late when we all decided to go back to our cabin and settle down for the night ready for a 6:30am breakfast!

Bright and early the next day we were all up for breakfast with almost no hangovers. We left the ranch at 7am still wearing our cowboy gear and headed back to Emu Park where we had a long shower and a nap, followed by a lazy afternoon and an early night.

We had a whole day in Emu Park the next day so we just strolled around town and went to the beach as well as catching up on all the Olympics stuff, strange not to be watching it all the time, we just have to try and catch it as and when we can. We sorted out our stuff and had another cheap quiet night before our trip down to Rainbow beach the next morning.

From Kroombit with love

Nikki and Ben