So the last 48 hours have been very interesting! We left Brisbane for dalby to go and work on a polo crosse farm. All was well and we had arrived in dalby safely. A lady of the larger variety began to approach us, we crossed our fingers in hope that this wasn't our host...it was. We had a few slightly awkward hellos and then we were on our way to the farm. Chelsey rode in the car with Helen the host and I rode in the uht with Ashley the host. I was very excited to get back in the saddle, these feelings of excitement turned to slight fear when he told me that the following day I would be mustering cattle. I was soon to learn that mustering the cattle involved riding through a dense forest, but Ashley assured me that if I gave the horse it's head then the horse would guide me around the trees safely, bearing in mind this would be whilst cantering after cattle who would apparently charge at you if they got stressed! Fab....so at this point I am thinking, not only am I going to need to look out for branches and tree trunks coming at me, I will also need to be aware that the cattle may charge at any time! However I kept an open mind and thought it would be another experience that I could tick off of the list! So we get to the farm to find our bedroom is a unit separate from the house, with no door and no bed built! That afternoon we made the bed, tried to clean the dust up as best we could and hoped that a door would appear. At this point we were still very positive and kept remembering that it is experiences like this that are character building! We went into the main house for lunch, to our horror we saw food and rubbish everywhere, cobwebs, a thick layer of dirt on top of everything and flies buZzin around the food. We went to the bathroom to wash our hands to be greeted by a floor covered in clothes and a hairball next to the sink, we weren't able to decipher what colour the sink was meant to be as it was so dirty!
That evening we went for a run and did not even want to shower after because of how dirty the bathroom was! At dinner that evening a bug fell into my food. We soon noticed thatwe were sharing the kitchen with a bunch a lizards on the walls!
A door finally appeared on Chelseys bedroom, however it did not close, there was about a 15cm gap, Ashley suggested that Chelsey could just prop her bag up against the door (I don't think he quite understood that the door would not actually close at all, bag or no bag!) So we pulled Chelsey's mattress into my room which had a door that closed but didn't lock so we needed to use the bag to keep it shut!
The next morning we were up at 5am to go and search for cows, I woke up pretty sick because of the amount of dust that we were sharing our room with!
Once we had returned from searching from the cows and almost vomiting through breakfast due to how dirty and grimy everything was (the flea spray on the table didn't make us feel too good either!) we decided that this farm stay was not far us. Chelsey was the brave one and told the hosts that wanted to go back to the town. So after spending less than 24 hours on the farm we were dropped back into the town where we had about 5 hours to kill before the bus which would take us back to the city! We found plenty to keep us amused including making music videos (anyone watching us must have thought we were on happy pills, I think we were just so happy that we were no longer in the dirtiest place!). We were so excited on the way back to the city, laughing and chatting and singing, (I don't think everyone enjoyed our singing as the man in front of us got up and moved! Better to be singing than crying, ay!) So we got back to the city at 7.30pm with no clue about where we were going to stay! Luckily we found a hostel and met up with a friend who we had made in New Zealand, Leone! We had a great night partying, making new friends and (for Chelsey) exploring....never lost, just exploring, as we like to call it!
The following day was Australia Day! Everyone was in great spirits, it turned out to be a very successful day for us, we managed to get free Pepsi, pot of salt, pot of pepper, pot of mixed herbs, 2 free boxes of goon, and both of our lunches free (Chelsey had somehow acquired a $25 voucher for the hostel restaurant....no clue how she got it but pretty sweet ay). We walked along to Southbank to see all the celebrations happening for Australia Day, there was a big official ceremony going on, music and a bit jet flew over!
That brings us to now, we are now in Mooloolaba after catching the coach up yesterday afternoon and celebrating Australia Day in an Irish bar last night!