Sunday July 6th to Wednesday July 16th- "The Adventures At Mayvale Station"

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Sunday July 6th

I got up at 7:00 to the Mikes cooking steak and eggs for breakfast. After breakfast we picked up Mark from across the street and headed to our car. With light the guys tried again to get the belt on, but to no avail. The idle tensioner pulley had a ruined bearing which could not handle the tension of the belt. Anytime the motor turned on, the pulleys rotated and the belt would come off. We all hopped back into the ute and went back to Mikes place. I used Mike’s landline to call the tow truck. It was only 9:15 in the morning by this point and the rental agency didn’t open until 10:30. The tow truck didn’t arrive from Croydon until just before 11 so I had enough time to phone the rental agency and make sure all was covered. The “tow truck” arrived and took the car back to Croydon with Mike and I. We had to leave Katja at Mikes place because there wasn’t enough space in the tow truck. We talked to the mechanic in town and got all the repairs sorted out. The mechanic named Bronko told us that things came into town via bus. The bus came Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Because it was already Sunday afternoon it was too late for the part to come on the Monday bus so we had to settle for the Wednesday bus. We left the car at his workshop and got a spot at the local caravan park. We went back to the car from there are got all our camping supplies. Once everything was set up we decided to explore “town.” We went to the general store which played the grocery store, restaurant and museum roles. We looked at the price of food because we did not have enough to last until Wednesday. From there we walked to the other side of town, about 500 metres and then walked along the perimeter discovering an official information centre. There was an older man in there so we chatted with him for ages knowing that there was nothing to do the rest of the day. After about two hours of talking to him and collecting random things to read we went back to the caravan site. We went to sleep about 7:45 bored out of our minds. We played “fuck, marry, kill” our favourite game to pass time until about 8:30.

Monday July 7th

Woke up today at 8:30 after a good 21 hour sleep. The first thing I did was call Travellers Auto Barn to make sure we were correctly following the repair protocol. Next we headed to the mechanics place to see how the car was going. We got everything out of the car and went back to the caravan park. We set up the big 8 person tent, which we hadn’t used since the first night. We were completely set up to stay in Croydon until the car was fixed. I rang the Cairns Travellers Auto Barn to confirm we had outback coverage and then tried to file my taxes over the phone which didn’t work at all. At noon we went down to the general store. I had spoken to Mike, the farmer the night before. I told him how it was going to be a while. I told him we were willing to work for him or he could drop off Katja. By the end of the conversation it sounded like he was going to drop Katja off so that is why we were now waiting at the general store. He showed up at quarter after on his own which confused us and said hey while going in. Turns out that he did want us to go work for him so we had to rush back to the caravan park and pack up everything. We took the stuff we wouldn’t need over and put it back in the car. Mike picked up everything else and we went off back to Mayvale Station.

We got to work right away cleaning the diesel generator hut, a large storage shed and then a bit of the general living area. After that we met all the people living there. There were a lot more then the last night we were there. There was Roscoe & Dana who were the workers from Normanton and then there was two Joel’s and Everett who were tradies from south western Queensland. They were up on a month long holiday staying on the cattle station hunting wild bores and fishing in the area. After meeting them we all got to cooking up dinner. Since we were on a cattle station every meal consists of beef. Tonight was no exception.

Tuesday July 8th

Woke up early today around 6:30, first full day on the farm! Got breakfast and used the left over burrito mix from last night to fix up some sandwhiches for lunch. Mike and I went out to the back of the farm with Roscoe and Dana. We worked on creating dividing fences so that there were more paddocs to divide the cattle in. The pickets were already in the ground and we used four rows of barbed wire to make up the four kilometres of fence. Mike went with Dana and I went with Roscoe and we leap frogged each other tying the wire to the pickets. That took about a third of the day. The rest of the day we started a fence from scratch digging the holes for posts with a bobcat, putting in posts, welding braces on, jack hammering pickets into the ground and then tying off barbed wire. In total the four of us made 7 kilometers of fence today. At four O’clock we knocked off and headed back to the house. We put logs on the donkey to heat up water for showers and cleaned off our arms inspecting all the cuts from our first day playing with barbed wire.

Wednesday July 9th

Woke up expecting a similar working day as yesterday. It turns out however that there was a lack of supplies so the guys were given the day off. Mike and I got tasks to do around the place moving garbage around and sorting waste. That involved driving around the old ute that is used for general stuff. This meant that I got to try my hand at manual driving again which was good. Still plenty more time and learning before I'm proficient, but I’m getting there. After lunch Mike came back to the house from out in the cattle yard. We got in the ute with us and he checked the cattle feed while we got a good tour of the whole place. While out in the cattle yards we found a 6-8 foot black headed python which we got to hold while getting some photos. Once we got back from this I called Bronko, the mechanic to see if the car was repaired. Unfortunately the bus had brought the wrong idle pulley so we had to now wait until the Friday bus to get the car back.

Thursday July 10th

Today we woke up later as there was no work to be done until the road train arrived from his parent’s farm. Mike needed the bobcat to be taken out to the back of the property where the road train was going to be unloaded however. I wanted to try everything on the farm so I volunteered to take it back. I had no idea where I was going and there is roads leading everywhere. I got Mike to draw me a good map and then I was off. It was about 20 kilometres to the destination which in a bobcat takes just over an hour. The first half of the trip went well. Much smoother then I expected and I seemed to be making good time. There was one obstacle in my way back there though, the river crossing. It was the dry season in northern Queensland so it wasn’t even flowing. There were pools of water however which were too deep to drive through. My instructions were to go around the ponds and keep moving the whole time because the river bed is made of sand. As I approached I saw a set of tracks from someone before. It led to the left of one of the ponds. I decided to follow it. Once I had past the ponds however I couldn’t see the tracks anymore. I had to continue moving so that I didn’t get bogged so I continued over the little ridge. Right on the other side was a large sand flat. As soon as I got over the ridge I knew I was screwed. The bobcat sank into the sand. I tried a couple of different ideas to get it out digging out underneath the bobcat, putting sticks under the wheels and wetting the sand using pond water. None of these methods were successful. I got out of the bobcat and found a shady tree to lie under. I was given a walkie talkie in case of a situation like this however after one attempt at trying to get someone’s attention, the battery shut off. I was now in the middle of a 500 square mile outback cattle ranch with no food, no water and no way of getting anyone’s attention.

I waited for about an hour under the tree, no one came by. On the map I was given it seemed like I was about seven kilometres from the loading area where Mike, Katja and Mark were. I decided that if I had already been here for an hour I could almost make it to where they were in another hour. I began to walk farther away from the house to where I was supposed to drive the bobcat. I walked and walked and walked. It was dry and hot. I started sweating after only a few minutes. I walked for what felt like two hours without finding the drop off point. I gave up and decided I would try walking back to the bobcat. I was extremely dehydrated and this is probably the first point in my life where I thought I could possibly die. I didn’t like my chances of being found after three hours on my own already. About half way back to the bobcat I could finally see dust coming up over the trees and I knew someone was approaching. It was the three guys on vacation. They said that they found the bobcat. They pulled it out with their ute and one of the guys was driving it to where I was supposed to take it. I was so happy just to know I was safe. We drove to the drop off point. It was after three O’clock and the road train still hadn’t arrived. The rest of the day was spent waiting for the truck to arrive. It finally showed up around five O’clock but only one of the three trailers was unloaded. One the way back to the house there was six of us in the ute, three of us stood on the back which was fun for the first time dodging overhanging branches.

Friday July 11th

After making lunch and eating breakfast we went out to the back where the second trailer was already waiting for us to unload it. It took us about 2 hours to unload it with the help of the vacationers. The vacationers were good at using the bobcat so we just helped with lining up the bobcat. That was the only work we had for the day. The vacationers brought their dogs knowing it was going to be a short day and let us come along all day hunting wild bores. We drove EVERYWHERE all over the property checking out every waterhole which is the easiest place to find a mob (group). The first place we went we found a single pig. They let out one dog and it chased the pig into the water. This provided some good entertainment with the dog and pig going under many times and two of the vacationers having to help the dog get the pig to the shore. At all the other ponds we found large group of about twenty. As soon as the car was stopped the dogs were let got and they took off getting pigs. In total we only got four pigs but it was a hell of an experience chasing wild bores for the first time. Around four we called it quits and headed back to the house. Michael Tomlinson got Mike and I to take down an old wooden fence around the front of the house using the broken logs as firewood.

The next thing to do was call Bronko again. Hopefully our car would be ready. In true outback fashion the bus broke down not making it to Croydon. We now had to wait the weekend for the Monday bus. Mike, Katja and I were the only ones around the house. Everyone was outback. We didn’t know how to turn on the generator and didn’t want to screw it up by trying. We sat in the house in the dark until just before eight O’clock. Turns out that the road train driver Kenny Blenko got the cab bogged in the sand out back and the vacationers and Michael Tomlinson had to pull it out with their utes. They got the generator running and started dinner. This was our first time meeting Kenny Blenko. He was a hell of a character. His job when not driving trucks was a professional kangaroo hunter for one. He drank coffee out of a bowl so that he could get enough into his system and at night he yelled in his sleep keeping many in the house awake.

Saturday July 12th

One week since the car broke down and still in the same place! In the morning I helped the vacationers unload the third and final trailer. After that the rest of the day was a waste. There isn’t too much to do in the middle of the outback on weekends. We played cards, read magazines and read magazines we had brought along. I got bored and decided to find work to keep me from getting bored. I did the dishes and then took the old Nissan ute and did a garbage run. I then took water containers across the street to marks place in the ute to pick up fresh water because there was no plumbing at the farm. I learned how to release the clutch correctly, unlike the “dropping the clutch” method I had used before. I was now confident working through the gears; I just needed more practice and places to try downshifting. The vacationers came back later in the afternoon after a 6 hour pig hunting trip with 13 more pigs. A little more successful then our trip!

Sunday July 13th

What a day! Had absolutely nothing to do at all after completing all the work yesterday. Woke up after a 12 hour sleep, played cards with everyone and then sat down and read all afternoon. Half way through the afternoon I did a laundry, the only productive thing I did all day. Dana showed up in the evening for another week of work and cooked everyone dinner. After dinner I unpacked everything I had brought and repacked it, making everything as organized as possible before hitting the sheets.

Monday July 14th

Woke up before sunrise to start hopefully my final day of work. Everyone including the vacationers went outback. We set up big cattle gates to create a cow sorting area. It was a very intricate design which was interesting to see. Before this I never knew how they sorted the cows and sent them off to the feed lots. At 4:30 we went back to the house. I was in a rush trying to make it back so that I could phone Bronko before he finished his day. It was just past five when I got to the phone and no one answered on the other end. I phoned the general store in Croydon and I phoned his parents. Neither of them knew his cell phone number. I finally phoned the local police station who said they would phone me back with him on the line but that never happened either.

Tuesday July 15th

We are now in our final month in Australia. I woke up early enough to catch Bronko at seven when he started work. Good news! The car was ready! We went to the back of the cattle yard and finished up the coral before picking up the car in the evening. We decided to stay at Michael Tomlinson’s for the night so that we could get free dinner, accommodation and breakfast the next morning.


Wednesday July 16th

We left Mayvale Station just after 8 O’clock. We drove to Normanton to fill up on gas and then south to Cloncurry. Here we caught the Barkly Highway which took us into the Northern Territory. We finally stopped at night just east of Barkly Homestead at a free side of the road rest area. We got out our portable cooker for the first time and made some sausages we had kept refrigerated since Mount Isa.

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