This really is the middle of nowhere

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I have decided to skip a day, it was a resort day and I only left the room for meals. Otherwise HB and I played memory and dominos, and while they all went to the beach I repacked everyone’s suitcase. By everyone I mean F’s, HB’s and mine. See why I am deciding to skip it, I actually finished the day in 3 sentences.

So that is another place finished with then. Looking back on the whole Round the World trip I would have to say that Southern Ocean Lodge was probably the best hotel we stayed in. The service was out of this world, they were all so friendly and willing to do anything to make your stay better. In a way it was like stay at a Disney resort but in the real world.

On our way to the airport (and by that I mean the tiny air strip) we stopped in Kingscote to find some Pelicans, which we did. Not the most exciting place you could go to, it was small town in the middle of nowhere that doesn’t really cater for tourists. However, it survived its purpose and allowed us to kill some time before our 11am departure. I thought that our next destination was Sydney, oh what a shock I got. The place we went to is what you would think of when someone says the Australian Outback. The area was called Blinman, and it truly was in the middle of nowhere, Adelaide (the nearest big town) was 500km away. When Di (the lady who owned Angkorchina) does her food shopping she has to drive to Adelaide to do it! The nearest neighbours were 15 mins away. We were staying on a sheep farm for the next few days and it really was an experience - a great one at that. We were met at the air strip (if you could call it that) by Ian (Di’s husband) and Alice their daughter who took us back to the ranch. As with all the new places we go to the debate about where everyone is sleeping started. Mr G suggested that I have my own room or if they had a tent they could put me in that. Hahaha, he is such fun man. I ended up in the main house just down from the F and HB.

Before we headed out to get a lay of the land we had a very simple but tasty salad and cold meat lunch on their patio. Everyone, bar HB and me, went off for a stroll to see some of the land. HB and I played dominos for a while before HB changed her mind and decided that she did want to go for a walk, so out we went to find everyone. We didn’t have far to go, to the end of the drive, before we found everyone coming back, so it was decided that we should go and round up the horses by car! We had a small detour on the way to see some Red Kangaroos. Unlike their cousins the Grey Kangaroos, these ones are very tall - 6ft at least and are very muscular round the chest. I would not want to be kicked or hit by one of these; they could do some serious damage. There were quite a number out including a mother with a Joey in her pouch! You could just see its head sticking out.

Round up the horses was rather fun, they were all grazing on the air strip when we found them. So how do you round up horses in a car? Simple - you drive behind them beeping. Ian told us that actually knew where they were going, and that he actually normally rounds them up on his motorbike. Once they were safely in their paddock for the evening it was off for a drive around to see some of their property. To give you some sort of idea of how big it is, we drove for around 2hrs (on a different day) in pretty much a straight line and we still didn’t get to the other side of their land! Some of these sheep farms are the size of small countries. Shows how big Australia is. The view from the top of one of the hills was stunning, the soil is a deep red and looked really startling next to the blue sky and green hills (I wasn’t expecting the green, but they had had a month’s rainfall in a few days). If you ever get the chance to, I would highly recommend that you take a trip to the Australian Outback it truly is a remarkable place and beautiful place.

Back at the ranch it was time for a roast dinner with roast potatoes! Oh yum! These potatoes were the best, almost as good as my mum’s (but not quite). It was really nice to have home cooked food again. Obviously the majority of the restaurants we had eaten in so far had been lovely, but nothing can beat homemade food. HB was trying very hard not to go to bed, so in the end Mrs G said she would put her to bed if I got her ready. Works for me. So I got HB ready for bed and read her the story for the night which I think was called Wombat Stew. Then the bargaining started ‘Anita can I read to myself for a while?’ ‘Yes, 10 mins and then when I send Mummy in it is lights out with no fuss! Agreed?’ ‘Yes Anita’. So I go out and tell Mrs G the arrangement. 10 mins later she goes in and comes out saying ‘Yes was just finishing her chapter and so I said she had until then.’ At this point I’m silently laughing to myself thinking; she makes these stories up, her chapter could last another hour. Oh well, not my problem now. In the end I think it probably took another hour for lights out and for Mrs G to come back out of the room.

To be continued ...

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Photos

Male Red
Just look at the muscles on him!

Hannah trying to keep up
Hannah is the lamb