Kroombit Cattle Station

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So today we drove to Kroombit Cattle Station which I totally fell in love with. We were here for 3 nights because we were meant to go to Canarven Gorge but it was flooded with water so we had cancelled and were spending an extra night here. I'm really glad we did, as I had a ball. We did so many fun things here its hard to remember them all. We were horse riding to herd some goats which was interesting. I felt pretty comfortable on my horse by the end of it. After we'd herded the goats into the pens we were taught how to lassoo, and were let into the ring with some goats and tried to lassoo one in less than a minute. I did really well lassooing a fake goat outside the ring, but failed when the real goats were running away from me in the ring. We also went quad bike riding, which was lots of fun but a little bit tame for me. No jumps or sliding out or anything. It was a really great way to see the station though. We were taught how to throw a boomerang, and its turns out I'm pretty good at that too. It came right back and I had to duck or it would've knocked me out! We rode the mechanical bull in the bar every night - which is something I've always wanted to do. Done that now - won't be doing it again. It's not as easy as I thought it would be! We also went 4WD driving out to a swimminghole to swim at, and they were short of drivers so asked me to drive one the of big 4WD vehicles. I was extremely hungover at the time, so was a bit worried about it, but it went really well. We drove for about an hour and a half around the station before we got to the swimming hole - across 6 rivers (some higher than the wheels of the cars) and up hills and down dales. It was all very slow and careful, but with 9 passengers I'm glad nothing untoward happened. They were all very impressed with my driving though - thank God for NZ and our practical upbringings. The swimming hole was awesome and most of us went swimming. Hog and Letita are crazy and climbed to the top of a cliff and jumped into the water. We reckon it was about 25-30 metres - probably 3 or 4 stories high - insane! On our last night we slept in swags and I drove us out (along with another 2 carloads) to an outdoor campsite for the night. We ate food cooked over the campfire and roasted marshmellows, and lay out under the amazing stars and fell asleep safe and sound in our swags. I had a brilliant nights sleep, although some of the others were awake all night. They had a baby (joey) kangaroo, a white cockatoo and a pet calf at Kroombit - all of whom were very cute. The staff are fantastic, and the 2 mainstays are Andrew (18 years there) and Jono (a kiwi whose been there 2 years) along with Al the owner. I'm going to head back there once I'm done with Port Douglas and work with them for awhile. You can get free accommodation and food and work as long as you like, which sounds awesome to me.

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