Kroombit

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After basking in the sunshine whilst sailing the glorious Whitsundays and partying it up in Airlie beach, the time came to leave; with an early morning bus following a very very late night watching the United v Barcelona game in our awesome apartment. Groggy eyed, we stumbled to the pick-up point and embarked on the journey down the coast. Destination Kroombit - one of Queenslands huge famous cattle stations...

The journey was a long one and took up the majority of the day, with the bus stopping off at various little towns along the way. Thankfully this Oz Experience bus was a aslight improvement on our other buses as it had much more space to spread out and you didnt get cramp in the legs every 5 minutes! Also, we had a cool bus driver who went by the name of "Bubbles". He was pretty laid back and full of information about the local areas. He also had some pretty horrific jokes, which after our experiences with Huey on Whitehaven, we were able to respond to!

After a few tedious stops along the way we eventually got off the coastal roads and headed inland towards Kroombit. You really get a perspective of the vast size of Australia travelling by road. There are miles upon miles of literally nothing, broken occasionally by a small sleepy town where undoubtedly everyones mothers are also their sisters. Kinda weird folk...

At about 6pm our coach eventually pulled into the Kroombit cattle station - acres of rolling fields filled with all different kinds of livestock. Having travelled for about 11 hours we dragged our bags off and checked into our small yet cosy dorms; each with 6 beds. Having had a little rest for a few brief moments we headed down to the bar. When I say bar, it is more of a li wooden hut with someone sat in there exchanging drinks for money - no lavish neon associated with Airlie beach. We were travelling now with the entire coach full of Oz Experience folk as this place is exclusive to Oz Experience. We all settled down with an ice cold beer around the burning barrel fire and just relaxed - awaiting the feast we had been promised...

"Grubs up!" was the shout and everyone rushed to where the park owner was dishing out some appetisers. Food of choice was goat meat that had been cooked in a cast iron pot for abour 12 hours! Some of the most tasty, tender meat EVER! Next up was some pot roasted ham, potatoes and veg - all went down extremely well and we all retired back to the camp fire with very satisfied stomachs!

*CRACK* Next up... whip cracking! Alan was the pro whipcracker and could make a deafening sound. He gave us a quick demo and then set us all off on our own to perfect our skills. The technique was pretty tough to get hold of at first but it was mastered eventually by all. Even by Nick Lees who was growing increasingly frustated as he couldnt do it. Alas, hats off to Nick he perservered and made the noise eventually!

Back to the campfire and back on the Bundenberg rum and Cola which is pretty special; even if rather steep! Casual conversation and then the turn of the mechanical bull. We had heard many rumours about this beast and some stories have ended in injury. No-one was brave enough to step up first so the girl supervising called a random name up - some lad from London who lasted a matter of seconds!! The bull rocks forwards and backwards for the first 8 seconds and then proceeds to spinning around and rocking! After arranging the town halls properly downstairs to avoid any damage, I stepped forth and gripped on... Amazingly I lasted 15 seconds which was pretty impressive. Slightly better than Kit's miserable 2 second attempt! Muc went through to the final having got 18 seconds on his first attempt but got beaten by some other lad. Great laugh though, even if I did nearly get decapitated on my second attempt by a mechanical piston!

Around the camp fire the remainder of the night was spent chatting away and playing some crazy games. Some that were just outright confusing (1 up, 2 up, 2 down) and others that were a good bit of banter - My Little Red Bull; which resulted in Kit having to kiss Muc in a rather public place and myself to have a nibble on the ear of James Caroll...

An early rise the next morning as we were all scheduled to go out on the goat rodeo and herd up the farms goats for branding. This was to be done on horseback as its the fastest way to cover the ground. This immediately excluded Ross (who apparently turns a lovely shade of red and purple in a rash when exposed to horses) and Jonny Haines (who is just outright scared of them!). We set off to the stables and were paired up with our horses. Myself put with the beautiful trans-gender Jude who formed a bitter rivalry with Jonny Lees' sarcasticly named Arrow.

The riding was great fun and we trotted over the hill tops in the early morning sunshine which was really nice. We all turned out to be pro goat herders; expertly shouting the "Ey-boh-boh-boh" call to round up the goats. Some horses had a few minor disagreements; often with Arrow which was just plain evil! We did the job well and returned back to the camp with numb-bums and a satisfied feeling that we had done something useful instead of idol lazy days on the beach...

We all boarded the coach and headed next to the herding pens and shooting range which was our final destination before our departure further south to Rainbow beach. Goat herding was great fun! We were put in the team called "Goat Shaggers" (Me, Nick and Jonny) and we were the first up so had no idea of how the goats reacted or indeed what to do! I was set the challenge of catching the goat which was pretty tricky first up as it was pretty quick! Eventually I grabbed the "bastard goat" and hauled him into the middle for Nick to pin and Jonny to brand! Our time wasnt too impressive but we did the job well! Next was the shooting range involving clay-disk shooting using a standard range shotgun which did pack some heat! I have to confess I was on an off day as my accuracy wasnt too impressive...

After a great night and morning in Kroombit we boarded the bus and left for Rainbow beach. I had a fantastic time here in Kroombit; a welcomed change from the beach life which we have sampled thus far and a real sense of true Ozzie lifestyle in the bush! Nick and Jonny were excited as the day was their birthday and so that night had big plans of celebrations in our next stop. Onwards to the Rainbow...

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