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Hi everyone!
So I've just started another semester of classes, but before those began this week, last weekend, a bunch of girls and I jumped into 2 cars and went on a road trip to an Aussie friend's family home where she was having a huge bash for her 21st birthday! We drove 600km south and inland to this town called Moree where the primary industry is cattle farming.
Taking the scenic route we went through a bunch of different kinds of terrain from lush foresty stuff near the coast, up through mountains with giant ferns (looked like ferngully) and hairpin turns, through eucalyptus forests that is koala habitat and then through farmland and flatland with scraggly trees dotting the landscape that is kangaroo habitat. Then we broke through another forested mountain range before driving a couple more hours and reaching the town in the dark.
The first batch of photos are from when I finally got my camera out and began taking photos of the drive up (late in the day as the sun is going down).
After we arrived, we met Kahla in town, changed and went to the pub to meet her family
and friends and have dinner. Then we followed her home driving for 20 minutes down a gravel road on the outskirts of town deep in cattle country. They had lots of family staying at the house in every square foot of space so for the out of town guests (us) they had arranged a couple of caravan's for us to sleep in! It was really cold so we hunkered down under a massive pile of blankets and we were fine 'til morning when we could wake up and see where we were. At night though... stars.. an insane mass of them in the sky. Absolutely stunning.
In the morning upon waking.. you could just see these dried-grass fields all around, and the only buildings you could see were the house. More scraggly trees here and there, and the sky was bright blue. So we had breakfast of vegemite and butter on toast (because they hadn't been able to get bacon that day). Vegemite isn't so bad actually.. did you know that it's the by-products of beer production? Basically it's dead yeast.. so it's quite salty, but as long as you put a THIN spread on your toast with butter,
it's actually ok.
And I forgot to mention, while we were housed in the caravans, the boys, thrown out of their bedrooms, slept in the horse trailer. hilarious!
Kahla's house is called Jamaka - taken from the first two letters of each of the children's names: Jake, Matthew and Kahla. The house is really interesting, a few years ago, they turned it from a bungalow into a two-story house by raising the bottom level up to the second level and building the new level beneath it! Quite cozy and cute.
So then we headed into town to someone's house to get us all showered (there were 7 of us from the gold coast and our convoy) just so they didn't run out of hot water. It was like we were the wedding party - everyone showering and doing their hair and makeup. We headed back to Kahla's around 2 because guests were going to be arriving soon.
Kahla's younger brothers and their friends had set up tables and chairs and a couple of marquees, and the bbq grill was set up as well, so when we got back, it really looked ready for a party. The
girls had strung together lanterns which would be lit at night. They had six kegs of beer, a large cooler full of punch and other drinks. Dinner was going to be beer-gravy steak and sausages, potatoes, rice, etc. They also had a big area ready for a bonfire and a spot for the band. I went around taking photos until stuff started getting interesting (aka food).
They had organised a bus to pick up everyone in town and bring them to the party and when the bus rolled in, the music was on, and the festivities were in full swing. We sat around and chatted, and as "the canadians" we were a big curiosity - mostly the younger brothers and friends of the brothers loved us. They kept going on about how they were the only ones who hadn't been introduced to the canadians and we ended up hanging out and dancing with them all night.
The band was this one guy with a guitar and microphone and sound system but he was excellent! The music switched up between popular stuff and country, and we danced on the veranda. The party went on into the night with us
keeping up a steady stream of dancing, there were speeches, people keeping warm around the bonfire and everybody just enjoying themselves. We finally went to bed after 2am when the party was evidently done and everyone went to bed and the music was shut off.
Next morning: bacon and eggs on the grill, and a try at riding the horses! I forgot to mention the foal (baby horse) we saw too. Though I wanted to go shooting, they did that in the evening and our convoy still had a long drive ahead of us so we left after the horseback riding around noon. We took the short and boring drive home though it was still over 500km.
As we were driving up to Kahla's on Friday, the journey was so ridiculous I said Kahla was "real" australian - aka more australian than those who live in the cities - which is kind of not right, but it was super cool being out there and I loved it, and it was actually really nice to see some different part of australia! And it was nice to see a family with a mom and dad and brothers and uncles and aunts
and cousins because I haven't seen any of those for months now! Some moms even hugged me! And some of the old guys kept joking with us telling us there were three kinds of meat on the grill: Kangaroo, Goanna, and Grubs. I would have totally tried goanna, I already think kangaroo is delicious, .. grubs... i don't know, but I'd try it. They were joking though. In fact they tried to convince me not to eat kangaroo because it's game meat and not regulated etc... but... it's so good, and they sell it at the grocery store! I don't know if they've managed to sway me...
All in all a fantastic weekend - and INSTANT credibility with other Australians. I had a plumber drive from Tasmania to my house this week (don't ask why they couldn't just get a maintenance guy from the area) but he drove upwards of 30 hours to get here and we were chatting about the drive, he told me he went through this little town called Moree and I was like, oh hey, yeah, I was there this weekend, I love Moree! And he almost fell out of his chair. Insta-cred! Then he
even called up his buddy and told him this canadian girl knew about Moree. It was awesome. He even said crikey. Now school's back on and social stuff has begun.. it'll be busy, but I have the feeling this semester is going to be more adventuresome than the first. I'm excited!!
Love you all and miss you all dearly,
xoxoox
krystal
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