Rockhampton is a place most travellers skip. ‘Why are you going there? There’s nothing to it.’ Well folks I’m glad I didn’t , because together with the Whitsundays, the tour I did yesterday, a 1,5 hour drive away, has been one of the coolest things I have done so far!
At 6.30 in the morning Shane our tour guide for the day picked us (there we’re two others, no more!) up from the hostel in Rockhampton. As soon as we left the city the surroundings changed: other trees, dryer soil, cows, bulls and the closer to Barabala, the more kangaroos and wallabies.
Because I only had 3 hours of sleep I decided to miss some of the view and close my eyes for a bit. I arrived at 3 am at Rockhampton with the bus and was the only one getting out. Transfers? Nah, not at this time.
I woke up the minute we drove on to the Myella terrain.
Once out of the van happily welcomed with hello’s, what’s your name’s and kiss, kiss’s from Pink Floyd and No Feather Harry, who also kept us company during lunch.
After breakfast with some fresh cowmilk we headed to the horses, where Travis the owner of the farm asked us to feed them and told some things about the farm and taking care of horses. Of course we didn’t do this in our own garments, but in these!
We fed the horses, saddled them up and took a lesson in riding them on these beautiful training horses!
The rules I’ve learned back in Europe do not all apply here. As Shane explained it is a more relaxed way of riding and the things we’d learn here would be probably considered as bad habits back home. Either way, I got used to it very easily and was ready to ride Buster, who loved to pick up the pace with trotting when he got a bit behind. Which I didn’t mind, though. This way I could practise with control and it made it more fun riding through the outback. No snakes on my path this time, thank God!
When we returned Travis had a talk with us. Reminding us to keep on traveling our whole lives just as he still does at his age. To explore the beauty of the world and live our dreams, to not be afraid to undertake anything. Have to quit your job? You’ll find a new one. You’ve only got one life, just do everything you want to do. Just don’t build up a life so wealthy that you don’t dare to leave it anymore. It immediately made me think about what I wrote in Airlie beach in the post We can’t all be heroes about mental health instead of wealth.
He also figured out I’m very much into music and asked me to play some guitar at lunch.
Lunch was delicious by the way. That home made pumpkin soup, damn! I forgot to ask the recipe, too bad. Really enjoyed it and it’s absolutely something I’m gonna try to make when I get back home. Good stuff for rainy days, which I predict will be a lot of.
Instead of playing the guitar I eventually helped Travis with feeding the new calves. They are too cute, tripping over their own legs to have a go at drinking the milk and trying to find out if they could feed from one another (‘:
And then… Then it was time to do something I was so excited about and is high on my bucket list. You may have come across some posts where I say that one day I’ll get my motorcycle license or post a ‘drool’ picture of a bike. Well, I’ve driven my first bike!! Whoooo! 😀
It’s tough to learn how to use the gears when you have never driven more than your bicycle(Yeah, I still don’t have a drivers license. Saved up my money for this trip without regret!), but I had it under control as soon as I didn’t think about it as much and just listened to the bike. Whenever thoughts popped up in my head it became a bit difficult again. Nonetheless I passed as ‘beginner’ and loved it to take a ride. Now I want my license even more, whaaa ^^ should really get myself a Go Pro or something for these kind of days. It’s so hard explaining how amazing something is, you just got to be there!
Unfortunately there was no time anymore to milk the cows, but the day was good enough for me and maybe it was even better that we didn’t stay longer.
Nausea and headaches took the upper hand the whole night. I think it was a combination of lack of sleep and heat. Drinking loads of water and wearing a hat all day couldn’t seem to avoid it.
So today is a catch up day, arranging my next accommodation, doing groceries, hoping to do some laundry and taking it easy. My ride to Hervey Bay will be tonight, which means another short night.
Vitamin boosters for the win!
