On Monday I arrived on a farm in the town of Glastonbury where I spent the week. Every day we did different activities, the purpose being to give us an overview of all the different tasks that might be undertaken on a farm in the Outback. Every morning we had to wake up at 6am to be ready to work at 7am. We then fed the pigs and horses. Throughout the week we learnt how to ride horses and drive a tractor. On Wednesday we spent a whole day building fences in a 2300 acre paddock in the middle of nowhere. This involved digging a huge hole by hand, and putting in a tree trunk. It was hard work and incredibly hot. We saw 4 poisonous snakes, 2x common brown and 2x red bellied black. We also saw some kangaroos and our farmer (Joe) kept 45 camels which we saw from a distance. On Thursday I was chosen to go mustering with the farmers son. We spent 2 hours on horses trying to catch 2 cows that had escaped into a neighbouring field. It was hard work as I am not an expert horse-rider and sometimes couldnt get the horse to go where I wanted. It was also quite nerve-racking as the paddock had really long grass which made it difficult for the horse. But I survived without falling off and we caught the cows! Later that day there was "the killing". Two cows that had illnesses had to be shot, they were then skinned and the organs were taken out. Needless to say most of us simply watched with only a couple of the boys joining in. The meat was then hung outside the farm house and cut into steaks the following day. We actually ate some on Friday evening. During the day on Friday we did more horse-riding and learnt how to ride motor bikes. We were also shown how to change a tire on a Ute and general maintenance. I had a fantastic week at the farm, we were with a really great group of people and made some really good friends, Lena (from Norway) in particular who we are hoping to travel with later in the year. I was very sad to leave.

Throughout the week we all received job offers. Stacy and I received an offer of work together in a rural hotel/motel. (www.westernstarhotel.com.au) We accepted with some relief as its so so hot working outdoors all the time! We are currently en route to our job, we had to take an 18 hour bus journey to a town called Longreach. It is 37c here at the moment and we are most definitely in the middle of the outback now. We will be picked up later by our employer and taken further in-land to Windorah. I should have both internet and phone signal here, fingers crossed!