The story of Milo the baby camel.

It all began one night when all the hard working staff at Kings Creek were tucked up on beds ( with heaters on because it was cold). I myself had opted for a particularly early night as I was getting up at 6am to do the Kings Canyon Rim Walk again. All was going well in the land of nod until there was a commotion at the door. Some of us ( who were in the house) were woken up to find Sally Conway asking for some help. She explained that she had only just got in from the Muster because the vehicle had got bogged in and they had to wait for a passing road train to tow them out. Anyway during the muster the stress had bought on early labour for one of the camels and a baby camel had been born. Unfortunately ( probably due to the stress) the mother had rejected the baby, and the baby couldn't be kept in the pen with the huge camels because it was getting stomped all over. Sally was desperate for somewhere to put the poor thing for the evening so asked if just for the night he could stay in our porch area. Obviously we said yes. Now I am no animal expert but I was imagining that we would get a box with a tiny little camel in ( I was expecting maybe something the size of a large dog). Well imagine my horror when we go outside to see this camel the size of a horse being carried in. Honestly its way bigger than me and was the most beautiful chocolate brown colour, hense the name Milo. The poor things was freezing and very distressed so after getting him settled with some blankets we all went to bed. None of us got much sleep though. When I got back to bed I was like woooooaa its not every day you can say your sharing a house with a camel. The funniest part is that not all the girls woke up during the night so they will have got up this morning to be greeted by our 4 legged friend lol.

So that is the story of how Milo the camel arrived at the girls pad. Milo bravely survived the first night despite what the evil vets saidJ, and us girlis were given the amazing opportunity of looking after and hand rear him until he was old enough tohopefully go offinto big wide world(the camel yard). Milo was very week so we had to feed him, which wasn't always easy.My biggest achievement was getting him to suck of the tit on the bottle and finish his awful milky charcoal drink.Of course what goes in must come out so we also spent quite a lot of time cleaning the never ending river of pee from our floor . ( we really should let our flatmates more before letting them have a room). At the girls house we like to make our guests feel welcome so today we set up his pen around the house, which he seemed to like except for the fact it didn't contain his favourite thing…. The door nob which he licked continually for last 48 hours.

However this afternoon has been a very emotional one because Milo the camel has decided to move out, seems the standard of accommodation we offered was not quite up to scratch. Today the cowboys were back out at the yards trying to load up the camels. It seems one camel was very reluctant to get on the trailer, and on closer examination it was obvious the camel had recently given birth. Ian decided to bring her back to the station, just in the vain hope that the mother would re- accept Milo. It all happened very quickly, unfortunately I was working so had to say a very quick farewell to our baby before he was driven out to the camel yard on the Kings creek Property. However Lucy and Gemma went with him, and amazingly the mother seems to have welcomed him back with open paws. I would have loved to watch the reunion it would have been an amazing experience, and it seems once again my luck sucks, but I am going up on the quad first thing tomorrow to see him.So mother and Milo are reunited, and I am just so happy to have had the experience. I just hope she remembers that he doesn't like to have the nightlight on when he goes to bed.

So in other news, Work on the station is continuing as normal with everyone gearing up for the Variety Bash which is going to be MANIC. The variety bash is basically a Australia Wide charity event in which groups of people do up cars and vans and travel across Australia raising money for charity. As they go they play heaps of games along the way and incur penalties for coming last etc. The idea is each car gets a major sponser i.e Coke, Woolworths etc who then pay the fines they incur (all the money goes to charity). It looks like a lot of fun and is covered by the National news each day with updates on who's winning etc. It will be a good laugh I think but means a lot of hard work for us, but certainly another cool experience I am sure.

Alongside prep for that we are busy with European holidays ( lots of Italians wanting coffee), and also the muster continues. For those of you who are interested in the muster and what its all about please go to his website. Grenville is a very well respected photographer ( has been in national geographic many times) who is doing a book on the muster and about the Ukaka community who are doing it. He is setting up this website to just show his publishers the ideas for the book and it contains some of his amazing photographs. I really would love to get the book when it comes out as it will summarise my time here. Although I have not been able to go out and be much a part of it, just having the people around has been exciting.

That's about all I have to say just now.Chow for now xxxxx