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Published: June 20th 2006
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Emu attack!!!
Saw a whole group of wild emus running alongside the road. They were really nosey, coming right up to the car to look in! Hello there everyone!
Well...if you've been wondering where on earth we've been for the last couple of weeks - we've been out in the bush - experiencing the 'Real Australia'!
We have been lucky enough to have been put up and looked after and thoroughly spoiled by Mike and Belinda - some friends we met on our tour of India, who live in a tiny community in the outback and run the primary school there. Its one of the smallest schools in New South Wales, with only 6 kids! They are such lovely children though, and very excited to meet real 'Poms' and interrogated us about soccer, snow and if there are any sheep in England!!!
The kids all live on remote sheep stations in the area, which occupy huge amounts of land - anything up to 100,000 Acres, with literally thousands of sheep. We've never seen so many sheep in our lives - and Rozi's half Welsh!!!
The country people are kind of like country people at home - with much stronger accents than anyone else we've met and theyre really friendly and keen to meet any new people who come into the area! We got
Mungo National Park
So dry and derserty. Cool sand dunes and rock formations though. invited to several of the families farms and helped muster sheep, entertained the kids with soccer (its football for gods sake!) and Steve even did a crash course in Sheep shearing, which he actually turned out to be quite good at!!! (New calling in life, obviously!)
We saw plenty of Aussie wildlife, everything from a pack of nosy wild Emus, to huge Wedge Tail Eagles, as well as the huge numbers of kangaroos that seem to live anywhere and everywhere. Steve even had a close encounter with one one night which had got itself stuck in the school fence, and which he dispatched swiftly with a boot up the backside!
Its so dry and dusty out in the bush, its amazing that anything grows and that sheep can find anything worth eating! But as usual the Pommies brought rain with them...which turned everything to mud and made half the dirt roads unusable!
During our stay we were whisked off to Broken Hill for the Queens Birthday long weekend (which we dont get at home and shes our flipping Queen!) to explore the outback mining capital of New South Wales. Weather was proper cold - actually got down to
Sand Dune Jumping
Steve teaching Mike to act like a 5 year old! Not that he needed much persuasion... 0, so yes they do have winter in Oz! Any tan we did have is now completley gone, as we have spent the last month wrapped up in jeans and jumpers. Will have to come home to warm up! Broken Hill was an interesting old town, with streets all named after the minerals found and mined in the area - like Chloride Street and Iodine Street. Random addresses to have...
But even more of a random address would be a lakeside avenue - with no lake. But thats exactly what there is at Sunset Strip. A large street full of holiday homes was built beside a lake less than 10 years ago...but now the once large lake has completley dried up! There are still people living in the houses which have steps down to the 'water' and boat ramps and a sailing club. Just missing a lake though... A bizarre example of the drought that is plaguing Australia at the moment.
We had a cultural education in Australian art, as Broken Hill seems to be a bit of an artists commune! Some of it was really cool, including the Sculpture Symposium at the top of a hill outside
Look what we found in the wood pile!
Huntsman spider doesnt like being disturbed! Glad we dont get these at home! town, where several sculptors from all around the world created pieces out of local rock. They were pretty impressive, especially with the sun setting behind them.
We also visited the Royal Flying Doctors base at Broken Hill and found out all about how they operate and how it first started - its pretty amazing stuff and these guys provide such an essential service to the people living so far from towns.
We also happened to be passing by a shooting display and competition, and had to have a look - it was full of middle aged people dressed up in cowboy and wild west outfits, right down to the chaps and spurs, shooting old fashioned guns! It was quite funny to watch, although the guns were all pretty serious and it was impressive how quick these guys could shoot targets! But they all had silly names like 'Judge Lead' and 'Killer Bill'...and we just couldnt take them seriously!
We had an amazing time out bush, we never realised there was so much there! Its far more than just empty land and empty lakes! A side to Australia that we were privileged to see which not even many
Teaching the kids soccer!
They loved playing sports...but for the last time - its football mate!!! Australians even realise exists.
But now to move on...further inland...to Uluru
see you soon,
Rozi and Steve
xxx
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