We found a tour that would hopefully get us into the outback and experience the real Austrailia. We did contemplate hiring a car and travelling around ourselves, but as time is now precious, we deicded this tour would be the best way to go. We would be driven inland about 500k's to Coonabarabran and then over the following four days gradually make our way to Byron bay. Ted picked us up from Bondi Beach at about 0630 on Sunday Morning, we could tell straight away we were going to have a real experience, as we would come to relaise, he's a real life crocodile dundee !!. Our first day was spent driving to Ted's farm. We had a few stops on the way, as it was about a ten hour drive ! As we left the releative cool of the coast, the temperature really began to rise. By the time we got to Ted's it was into the 40's !! It get's really hot where he lives, he was telling us that the previous week, his thermometer had reached 58 !!! He had been working on his van, it was so hot that he'd had to put his tools in a bucket of cold water so he could pick them up !!! There was only six of us on the tour, Sam & I, Bandi, an Indian girl who now lives and works in China, Tabia, a Swiss girl, Sarah, a Sweedish girl who had been helping out on Ted's farm for a couple of weeks, and Dave, an Australian who'd done the tour a few times before !!. Thankfully Ted has a swimming pool, so we all jumped in and cooled off and enjoyed the isolation of his farm. His nearest town is 40k's away with nothing else along the way. After the swim we had a BBQ (what else) of pork chops and loads of pasta and salad all washed down with a fair helping of beer. Ted woke us up the next morning at 0630 by playing his bugle ! we were off pig hunting ! Apparantly the wild pigs are a real pest in his area. They break fences and roam for vast distances with the potential causing real problems if there was a foot and mouth outbreak or similar. So apparantly it's a farmers duty to kill them if they see them. Ted doesn't use a gun as their quite flighty animals and in most cases you'd only be able to shoot it in the bum as it's running away and proably not kill it. So Ted uses his dog's !! He has three pig dog's. One called Baddy, who is a huge mastive cross and two smaller ones with similar markings. They are the softest things around ther home, but show their true colours when they find a pig. They also wear big leather chest protectors, they look like real warriors ! We all set off on the back of Ted's 4X4, it was a beautiful morning with a gorgeous sunrise. After looking for about an hour and a half with no luck we started heading home. Suddenly a massive black pig appeared in front of the truck. The dog's were released and chased him down. Normally they would make the pig run for up to a KM so that it get's really tired, however after about 50m the pig ran into a ditch so the dog's had to tackle him there. The pig's have really big tusks, so the only safe place for the dog's to get the pig is by the ears, even so we could see the dog's being thrown about by the pig. We all legged it after the dog's, I stupidly got there as one of the first, the trouble was Ted hadn't really breifed us on what we should do if we see a pig. Anyway I ended up having to grab one of the pig's hind legs, Petra grabbed the other and Ted tried to spin it over. We eventually got it on it's back and Ted was able to plunge his knife into it's heart. It turned out that this was a huge pig, one of the biggest Ted's ever caught ! Normally he can tackle them just by himself and the dog's, that's why he hadn't told us what to do before hand. We hooked the pig on the back of the truck, it was so big it's head was touching the floor !. When we got it back Ted gutted it and it weighed 92kg without it guts ! It means it would have been well over 100kg all up !! The dog's took a bit of a battering, baddy had a nasty gash in his side which required stiching up, the others were limping, but they all had a satisfied look on their faces We then had a well earned breakfast and got ready for the adventures ahead !. Before we left, Ted showed us how to shear a sheep (bought back a few memories for Sam & I) and we also shot a shotgun at cans, I was the only one who hit the target ! We were driving to Glengarry an opal mining settlement, it was about another 400k's from Ted's place, inland and up. The mines are down a really long dirt track, loads of broken machinery lying around, semi permanent buildings dotting the landscape and heaps of waste material everywhere. We were staying in the ironically named 'Bush Hilton'. A collection of portacabins, bucket showers and longdrop toilets, we even had airconditioning although it sounded like it was powered by diesel, so much so that we couldn't sleep with it on ! But considering where we were, it was a great place. They also had a really nice bar, pool table and dart board, so we spent the evening getting drunk with the locals. Ted's tour is the highlight of the miners week, in fact there were big signs up advertising the fact we were comming to the camp ! During the evening it became obvious that the people who work the mines are all dreamers, hoping for that one big pay day & also all taking a massive gamble as the cost's of running a mine are huge. The next morning (again woken up by Ted's bugle !) we went down one of his mates mines. He's nicknamed smurf, due to his massive white beard (I think I'll stop before that happens !) The opening to the mine is a fairly small vertivle shaft about 50ft deep. We all climbed down the fairly rickerty ladder and had a look around. I expected to see big seams of opal, but it turns out they have to litterally check every piece of rock for signs of it ! Really labour intensive, the only good thing being that it was nice and cool down the mine. Ted then took us to another Mate of his, who is the most successful miners around. He managed to be one of the first to find the opals in the area so has made millions of dollars from it before the big rush. Because this guy works on a big scale, he doesn't have time and he doesn't think it's cost effective to check through all his mines 'waste' material properly. He allow's Ted and his groups to have a look over the waste stuff and anything they find they can keep !. We only had half an hour, but everybody found quite a few pieces each. In their mucky state it was difficult to tell how good they were, so we took them to a stone polisher in the next town of Lightning ridge and would collect them tomorrow. The town is a bit of an oasis in the desert as they have bored down to about 1000 m and now have a pretty much unlimited water supply. They also have a great outdoor olympic sized swimming pool which we all cooled down in. Another freind of Ted's is a pilot, we were invited to go up in his plane for just $25 each, I sat in the front with the pilot. As soon as he took off he gave me the controls ! It was really good fun and I flew the plane all the way untill we were due to land ! In the evening we went to Ted's camp at Lightning ridge and prepared for his weekly gathering. We prepared a huge meal of steak, sausages, salades, 'Roo' stew and Sam made some bear bread. About 20 of Ted's mates turned up, two of which with guitars and entertained us all night. It was really good fun and we met some real characters, Sam found me stumbling about in the desert at about one in the morning, a little dangerous as their were old mine shafts about ! We slept out under the stars, well I slept and Sam worried about snakes, spiders etc !! Next morning we got up feeling a little fragile and went back to the stone polisher. It turns out Sam found a piece worth $500 and I found a really nice black piece with red through it, in total we found near on $1000 in half an hour ! We then made our way to Bingara a really lush country town, with a gorgeous river. We went swimming in the river and then went horse riding ! I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I thought I should give it a go. The guy who owned the business took me off and we went trotting and cantering and gave me a bit of convidence, by the end I think I actually enjoyed it ! We also went swimming with the horses and got pulled along with their tails, trying to avoid being kicked in the head !. After the horseriding we went swimming again in the river and chucked a few boomerangs around. I was the only one who could get it to come back, and then to prove it wasn't a fluke did twice more on the trot ! I earned myself a free boomerang ! We had the night in a 'hotel' pub in Ozzy speak, which was sadly another boozy night (I really need to detox now !) The following morning we then made our way to Byron bay and the final stop of the tour.