Cowboys and Goats

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Airlie beach has been a relaxing experience, we celebrated Dannys (from Sanfrancisco) 21st birthday in style with a great night! I met danny at Magnetic island and we had the free car for the day, not to mention lugging around a few tables together in 37 degrees for 2 hours (for free beer that night!). Hes now gone sailing but we hope to meet up again on the surf route at byron bay.

From byron bay Giles and i set of too kroombit for a farm stay evening and day. This is known as the numb bum run, 9 hours of travel. To break up the travel along the way we partook in a seriously competitive game of crown green bowls for an hour or so over a few chillingly ice cold beers!
On arrrival we checked into are accomodation which consisted of a converted stable sleeping 5 - cosy and a candlelit kind of atmosphere. Te farm was surrounded in dense forret with the biggest flying stick insects youve ever seen (think your forearm and then some) We learned how to crack a whip - which hurt a lot at times and then for the bull riding competition (mechanical). If someone was to say now to me bull riding, i would automatically associate this with crotch burn and pain of the worst type! Yes i now know why cowboys are so vocal while riding bulls. i managed to hang on for a while before voluntarily dismounting due to how shall i say uncomfortableness! I think that positioning on the bull is definitely the key factor in this sport - needless to say the girls did much better in general.
When the swelling eased that night we had a great meal which was all included and a few beers. The party games then commenced which i wont go into too much but i wont advise them for christmas time. We had a limbo competition and a pick up the box with your teeth competition - each time you picked the box of you tore a piece off and so on until the box bacame smaller and smaller. After all that we just chilled by a log fire and relaxed the night away. In the morning we rose to the call of the wild - our bus driver shouting for breakfast. Next was the rodeo show. We learned to lasoo, had a morning of shooting clay pigeons with a shot gun - or not as the case may be, then for the real thing. Three of us took the stand in a hexagonal courtyard which was enclosed in a large cage (think mad max and the thunderdome) A large male goat was released and our first task was to catch it and then brand it (without the burning poker that is)
This goat though wasnt having any of it and consequently jumped up the cage wall and circled around our heads. Now with the size of its horns this wasnt a pretty site but still it was a competition!
We managed to grab a leg as it was circling which made it buck into the air over my head and take me with it to the ground, now hugging the goat with its chest hair in my face i began to think WHAT AM I DOING! The guys took it to the ground with me underneath and we managed to wrestle it onto its back- a sight for sore eyes!
The next task was too milk a goat - and seen as we werent sure which were female, could have gone terribly wrong but thankfully we managed to pick a good one- choosing one with a pissed of face theres always a chance its a female!
Finally Lasooing a goat was definitely a lot harder than i thought but managed eventually, all in all a great morning, but covered in sand and scratches for all the efforts.
We headed on to 1770 a small surfing town where Captain cook arrived in 1770 amazingly enough. From here we have now arrived in Hervey Bay and have already got 4 of us for the Fraser island (8-9 in a group) 4x4 adventure which is going to be possibly the best yet?

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Photos

Airlie Beach
Dannys 21st

pigeon shooting
practice for trafalgar square

Comments

[Dad]

Chauvenist Junior
Glad to note that I am not the only chauvenist in the family. Really useful to be able to crack a whip. This, again, is usually something females are good at. Could have done with this skill when the kids were younger, would have stopped my hands getting sore. Your first words were "a relaxing experiance". Glad to see you relaxing. Please dont get hectic. Goat wrestling you say "WHAT AM I DOING". We have been saying "WHAT IS HE DOING" for several months. Dont finish by continually saying "...and the best is STILL TO COME". It makes mum nervous and me head for the Guiness Book of Records for Most Stupid Things in a Year entries. Try Dominoes, scrabble and watching Blackppol play football.....or getting on a plane home. Enjoy XX

[sis]

ball bearing
glad there was no lasting damage to the family jewels! not sure about the poor goat though and have already sent a carrier pigeon to warn its mates in trafalgar square (the pigeon's mates not the goat's). giles looks like he needs some anger management techniques... keep bloggin cowboy! as dad would say 'yeehaah'! x

[sis]

Next leg...
hi- heard you're off to singapore soon. most of it is a modern shopping mall (yak) but the tube stations are all in english (you have to buy a card from a machine first but the instructions are in english). if get chance, worth going to Chinatown and especially Little India for a quick wander to get a taste of the buzz of Bangkok and stuff to come. also easy to get a quick 'Bum Boat' ride to see the key features like Lion spouting water. Can get tea and cakes at famous Raffles hotel without being totally ripped off if book. You'll probably then head up through Kuala Lumpar (?) where China town is even better (we stayed on Petaling street near the main post office and bus station if you're in the mood for hectic). Glad you're going on a trip up thro' to Thailand as the KL/ Thai border has its political activists so best on train or with a guided group. Have you then got beach stops up the west coast of Thialand? Got to do James Bond island trip if you get chance but may have been affected by tsunami. if you get chance to go to Ko Samui island it's a bit of a jewel! REALLY jealous x

[Chef]

whos is the body ?
hey bro what you been eating look like a bronzed madona you been working out or is it just the veg a mite sarnies sorry to hear your now chasing goats now ? being sell a bit isnt going down to well then lol love and stuff ray x