Long deserved update!

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Apologies for the lack of blogs recently guys, we're have very slow or no internet for a while. Also, this website has conveniently lost our previous blogs, but luckily we got most of them back (thanks Dad for saving them!!). Nevermind, it is a free service so we can't be angry!

I think we last left you in Darwin, making our preparations to leave for Batchelor, a nearby(ish) small town, to play cowboys on Rum Jungle cattle farm! It was our first Wwoofing stop (for those of you not familiar, it is a scheme where you toil for a few hours a day on a farm or similar, in return for lodging and grub). We’re hoping to wwoof and work all the way down the west coast to Perth, to try and save some money and see some places and people you wouldn’t normally get to see. For example, one of the main attractions of Litchfield National Park, 45 kms down the road, are huge termite mounds. But when we were mending fences on the farm, we were working right next to our own private mahoosive ones, not surrounded by people posing for photos (we posed for a photo don’t you worry!). So, where were we! Ah yes, we bought a car (can’t remember if we said that before?), and chugged our way down there, with no flames coming out of the engine or anything! We arrived in the dark, which was not part of our plan, driving at dusk is not so desired here due to the kangaroos who like to run into your car. The car normally seems to come off worse! But we had to drop off a fellow traveller into the depths of Litchfield, which took longer than expected. She did slip us a few bob though which paid for our petrol down here. Smoky and Belle, the farm’s two very enthusiastic dogs, greeted us at the farm. They look like right meanies until they start jumping up and licking you! We had roast lamb for dinner, which was yummy, Ben had vegetables after the guys here had first established that he didn’t eat chicken or bacon. “A real vegetarian!” they exclaimed! Quite a strange concept on a cattle farm, but they have been good about it. We sat and watched TV (TV!) and went to bed pretty early, early rises are the order of the day now, much to my horror.

The next day was Ben’s birthday and we had a pretty lazy day. We got up and went to help out with the building of a bus station for travellers going to the National Park. Ben was useful to lift things and stand on things to stop them moving and I helped out in the kitchen (women’s work!) washing up for people making sandwiches for workers at the nearby mine. There is currently a sandwich war between two groups of sandwich sellers going on at the mine, big drama here!!! We keep up to date with all the gossip we do. We got some free sandwiches, which made us happy. In the afternoon we lazed about the farm and got taught how to feed the horses, calf and Lucky the duck (her name comes from the fact she was originally one of seven, all the rest succumbing to crocodile attacks and various other duck disasters). We went for a walk with the dogs down to a nearby creek, I got lovingly covered in mud by Smoky and Ben was the victim of a snake attack!! Not quite, but a huge snake fell out of a tree right next to him, he yelped like a girl and it slithered away very fast into the undergrowth! We found out it was a common green tree snake and very harmless, but this doesn’t detract from the drama! A birthday surprise from nature for our Ben! We had spag bol for dinner and Ben had pasta sauce with olives, crazy boy.

Thursday/Friday we learnt how to fix fences, it was hot hot work and I went riding in the afternoon. I chose the calmest looking of the two horses and it turned out she was rather lively! It was fun but the two horses were rather anxious about leaving each other so it was only a short ride. On Friday night Ben and I made a vegetable curry which was not spicy enough for the guys, but too spicy for two Dutch girl woofers who had just arrived! But the fact that it did not contain meat and was still enjoyed might have come as a surprise to some! We went out on Saturday again to do fencing, this time with the two Dutch girls. They emerged from their caravan in full cowboy gear and we felt rather inadequate in our shorts and t-shirts. It turned out they had worked on cattle farms before, again adding to our inadequacy!! We were working on the fences when Ben let out a strange noise and jumped in the air, - a huge spider had crawled up his leg! I was just worried about how to get a photo! Earlier on he had shaken out his shoe (thanks Ian for the tip) and another pretty large spider fell out! I, on the other hand, was just bitten. Great fun! Anyhow, we worked separately from the other guys for most of the day, coming together at the end to feed the cows. Ben and me were obviously not considered experienced enough to lift hay from a trailer, one girl demonstrated her eagerness and dropped the hay on top of Ben! We then tried to separate two buffalo from a herd of young cows, we didn’t have a clue what to do and eagerly watched as the buffalo ran right past us! So a successful beginning to the day, going downwards from about lunchtime! We felt like kids at school, not the naughty ones but the ones who just can’t seem to get the hang of anything - we would have tried if the Dutch girls had given us a blimming chance to do anything!!! Nevermind, we still had fun sitting back and letting everyone else do the work:P For dinner we had freshly caught barramundi and homemade chips, to which I gave a thumbs up! Ben had curry and salad, with the nicest organic tomatoes ever. On Sunday I had a ride on the other horse, who didn’t want to go anywhere unless Ben ran in front - slightly different to my previous experience! We went to nearby Litchfield National Park in the afternoon and splashed around in a waterfall plunge pool, it was really beautiful.

Too much to write to talk about all the rest of the days we were at the farm - inteernet = money! We helped muster cattle (kind of), with a helicopter and everything, our role was rather insignificant though, just driving along a fence line slowly! We cleaned troughs, went for walks with the dogs, swept leaves, feeding the calf (so cute - she was only a few weeks old!) etc etc. I also had some good food, never seen people take so much care about how they cook their meat! We had homemade beef jerky, homemade corned beef, homemade steak in breadcrumbs (see a theme emerging??). They even have adverts here saying "eat red meat 5 times a week, it's what we were meant to do". Brilliant!! After all the anti red meat it gives you a heart attack propaganda back home I'm not sure what to think!!! Ben had lots of vege curry...:P We drank beer after work in the afternoons which was nice, also trying the homemade smoky bourbon and rum!

So, in a nutshell, we were there until Friday morning, when we left for Litchfield again. We went to some amazing waterfalls, including one that had resident freshwater crocs (the ones that don't eat you). Ben was nervous but I was fearless! We also went to some rockpools which were pretty incredible but the water was rather chilly!! We drove back to Darwin via a gravel road (slow going, made our car filthy but a bit more interesting!), we stopped at a music shop to buy a cheap Meatloaf CD - we reckoned Bat out of Hell would be pretty good driving music:p. We also fdound a cheap Coheed and Cambria CD which I was very happy about because none of my music is on Ben's Ipod!! We had to stay in the "party hostel" in Darwin due to lack of beds elsewhere, it was a bit rubbish but a bed is a bed. How boring do we sound - we're just not fresh out of college single 18 year olds thats all!! I don't know how they have so much energy - back in the day eh?? Last night we went out for a meal for a late birthday present for Ben, which was really nice, a proper meal in a proper restaurant and all! We went to neaby Cullen Bay afterwards, a very swish place where all the boat people come and park their yauchts and drink expensive wine! We found the cheapest looking place and had a hot chocolate and a tea - we had a whole 5% beer each for dinner - steady!! But it was fun pretending we were rich and we stole the tea strainer!!!!

Today we're off to Kakadu National Park with our newly bought camping equpiment - lets hope it all works cos we bought the cheapest of everything!! If you don't hear from us in the next few weeks, assume we've been eaten by crocodiles, because Kakadu has the highest density of saltwater crocs anywhere in the world! I'm pretty s8ure if they are hungry enough they could munch through a tent...especially a cheap one??

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