We were picked up at 7am sharp near our hostel by the Oz Experience coach; this time by Sneaky - a very very crazy guy who had us laughing within seconds! Our first stop was to go lawn bowling! how random! It was actually alot harder than you'd think, as the bowles have weighted sides so it spins off to one side.
After a few games of this, we were back on the road again for a long drive to the cattle station. Unfortunately the trip before was an irish group, I think of gypsies, and they'd actually stolen every DVD from the bus's folder!! - how pathetic.
Anyway, so when I announced that I had my DVD's in my case, so we watched Hairspray first and then White Chicks, which were enjoyed by all.
We eventually got to the cattle station at about 6.30pm, when the sun was setting. It's a lovely little place, with lots of cabins and ranches and various animals running around. We were greeted by a young cow who has for some reason become domesticated and hangs around the main ranch area eating any food that's left untouched; and drinking people beer too apparently. There's also a white cockatoo, which in Aboriginal is a biloela, which is a name of a nearby town as well.
We were given 'nibbles' to eat, which was some strange meat which had been barbequed. We all knew full well that it was bound to be some 'odd' meat that we probably wouldnt' eat if we knew what it was. It turned out that it was GOAT! - it wasn't really that bad, but not really my favourite and I don't think i'd have it again.
We then had some soup which was delicious and then Roast Beef!!! - which is obviously very fresh considering it would be from the ranch. It was very nice to have a roast as most people had gone for months or more without roast dinners.
After dinner everyone had a few drinks and then we were told to go to the fancy dress box and pick out an outfit for the evening. For some reason I ended up looking like an Arabian Prince of some kind haha. There was various other outfits, mostly with everyone just looking slightly silly. There was this very annoying girl from one of the other coaches, who kept singing at the top of her voice. One of these people that think they are REALLY good and that people just want to hear her all the time. - they don't. Shortly after the dress ups, there was a talent competition, where you had to demonstrate a random talent - luckily they didn't pick on me. But of course singing girl got up to sing a very effected, out of key version of 'FEVER' as loud as humanly possible. Luckily she didn't win, I think everyone else was annoyed by her too. - Well I certainly wouldn't have put her through on X factor - she seemed to believe that she had gotten through but chose to come travelling instead. - yeh.... right.....
The girl that won did a baby noise... it was weird. The cow from earlier had curled up near our feet just like a cat.
Then there was a limbo competition, which i tried but didn't really do too well, don't have the most flexible back really. One of the Canadian guys on our coach won this. Then there was a lesson with a wip and we were all invited to have a go, whilst standing on milk crates. I had a go and made a really good noise on my first try!
"well i don't have to show you how to do it". - Of course this was beginners luck as I never got it as good as the first time.
After the wips there was the mechanical bull, which I've always wanted a go on but it's a scary thing!! Sarah decided it wouldn't be a good idea, considering her knee was still hurting her - But I had a go and managed to stay on for 12 bucks which was way ahead of many others. - unfortunately the guy who won the limbo got 17 bucks :( - lots of people were actually ready to argue that he shouldnt get to win 2 times, as you got a bottle of champagne for winning a 'challenge'. - Unfortunately the operator slyly gave him the prize without telling anyone. - not fair really.
After this quite a few people played drinking games around the camp fire; I played one, but then went to bed as I was still very tired from the Whitsundays. There was also the factor that we had to get up at 6AM! I slept quite well other than 30 mins of Canadian guy snoring! - no not the winner one.
TUESDAY 11TH AUGUST
As promised we were woken by a very loud knocking on the door and shouting to get up! We got our sheets and pillowcases together and brought them to the main area to check out.
After a short breakfast we were taken to the shooting range, where for some reason only I had requested to do the shooting! After a very quick lesson, I had to shoot at 5 separate discs (which were launched when I called "donkey"... not really sure why it was donkey?)
I got better with each shot and managed to hit the 4th and 5th! - The guide was impressed and said 40% is good and that it's an olympic sport.
We were then taught to us a lassoo. I was VERY bad at this and didn't even manage to lassoo the stationary target.
We were then told that we would be going in to the goat pen and competing for our 'region' for a prize. As I got in the pen to compete for 'SURREY', I had a bit of a chat with the guy helping the guide, who it turned out is from Woking! - small world.
Anyway, I didn't manage to lassoo my alloted goat, as it was very fast. So with my minute nearly up, I lassooed one very docile goat right in front of me. It didn't even seem to blink as I got him and then grabbed him by the horns to get the rope off. He didnt even flinch and let me untie him easy as anything. I said "thanks matey" and patted him on the head. - my little friend haha. I wasn't the winner but I wasnt the worst, so that's not so bad.
It was then time for me and 2 girls and a rather annoying french family to be taken to go horse riding and goat mustering. Sarah didn't participate as she is allergic to horses. After we were fitted with saddles, we were assigned our horses. As I was pretty much a beginner at horse riding, I got a very calm helpful cream horse called Jaye. - He was actually the only cream one and the prettiest! I found it quite easy to control him, he seemed to do everything I asked him to. Although at one point he didn't seem to paying any attention to me at all, other than looking round at me as if I'm supposed to do something - of course I'd forgotten that you need to stand up when the horse wants to pee, so the guides shouted for me to stand up. Next we rode down to try to move/muster a group of about 50 or 60 goats to another paddock where the grass was fresher for them.
It was good fun, but me and one of the girls, who had alot of riding experience seemed to be doing all the mustering, with the others just basically riding along. At one point the goats were supposed to be going into a left gate, but all of a sudden they turned to go right, so I got Jaye to get to the gate ahead of them and block them off. - This was met with shouts of encouragement and congratulations from the guides as it stopped any getting through. Horse riding was really great and I'm glad I paid the extra to do it.
We then rode back to the coach and got back on the road. - 2 more movies, Twilight and then Enchanted. We picked up various new people and at one point when the coach needed to top up on fuel, we managed to leave without 2 irish girls! - hahaa woops. they rang up Oz Experience pretty quickly though, so not too much of a detour to go back and get them. It was pretty funny though! hahahaha.
We then got to Dingos Hostel at Rainbow Beach. Quite a small place with hardly anything there at all.
I was shocked to discover that Dingos didn't have Wireless Internet!? how dumb - the lady at reception merely said "oh go next door to Fraser's". - so advertising a rival hostel? very strange. The internet was really slow and I couldn't upload hardly ANY photos to facebook. This annoyed me so I went and packed up for the Fraser Island trip.
I was still feeling quite allergic and asthmatic from the horse hair, so I put all the clothes I was wearing into a plastic bag and had a shower. The mattresses seemed to have been made out of plastic... so I did NOT have a good nights sleep.
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