When I first started planning our trip to Australia I saw something about staying on a working farm, it was something I thought it’d be a ton of fun, like a dude ranch in the Southwest. Luckily, staying at Myella Farm fit into our schedule, so I booked three days for us there. Our overnight bus into Rockhampton arrived late, as we have come to expect from Greyhound Australia, so Shane, the guy from Myella who came to pick us up, and all the other people arriving for the day had to wait almost 2 hours for us. No one complained though, and once we got there, we headed off on the one and a half hour drive to Myella. Once we got to the farm we realized that being late just meant we got to get on the horses right away. We quickly ate breakfast, grabbed some farm clothes and boots, and went up to the stables, where the horses were already saddled for us. Shane gave us a quick lesson for the beginners, and then we got right up on our horses for our ride for the day. On the first day, I got to ride McCafferty, who was a giant slow poke. I had to give him at least 5 kicks before he even started walking. And his walking was more like plod. But it was still fun to be horseback riding,  it was even more fun for me because I’m used to trail riding, and at Myella we got to ride wherever we wanted as long as we were going in the right general direction.

Myella is located on 2600 acres, which compared to the surrounding farms, is quite small. They raise only 400 beef cattle, and then they have other cattle that they charge for farmers to raise on their property, but otherwise the land is wide open. On our first day, we rode out to one of the paddocks to count cattle, because they were some of the cattle being raised on the property, and the owner was arriving in the next couple days to pick them up. Apparently one of their neighbors on the farm has been stealing cattle but no one can catch him doing it, so Trevor (our guide once we started riding) was trying to keep a close count on the numbers. We rode for about two hours and then headed back for lunch. In the afternoon, they did a motorbike lesson, but I was too tired from our overnight bus so I took a nap in the hammock while the rest of the group rode the bikes. (It turned out the people who could ride the motorbikes also had to use them to round up the horses in the mornings.) Later on in the afternoon, we got to milk cows! Somehow I had to be the first one of the group to try it, and I have to say, I’m not very good at it. It feels quite weird to be doing. Trevor gave everyone a chance to try drinking the milk straight from the udder, which Jaz did, and said it tasted good. After that, we had a chance to freshen up, and then dinnertime, which I must say was quite tasty. I’m always impressed by people who can cook for large quantities of people and still make interesting and appetizing dishes. Myella also has a couple of resident birds, two rescued pink cockatoos, Pink Floyd and Juliet, and a poor naked yellow cockatoo, Harry Belafonte. The rescued birds were both hit by cars, and Juliet just arrived at the farm after having surgery to remove her wing, which she continually made unhappy noises about. It was a little like having a 2 year old child around. Harry had some kind of disease where his feathers fall out and his beak grows too long, so his lifespan is only 8 to 10 years instead of the usual 80 years. All of them could talk, so they were quite amusing to have around.

Around 1 in the morning, I was woken up by Jaz, who insisted I needed to get up for some special surprise. I didn’t really want to get up, but I changed into my farm clothes to go outside. Once outside, Jaz told me that there was a meteor shower happening that night (and the night before as well but we were on the bus), and that its peak activity would be between 1 and 2 in the morning. We wandered away from the main house a bit to try and get away from the lights to see the night sky, but the moon was exceptionally bright, so there weren’t many stars on display. We lay down on the grass down the road a bit and set our gaze upon the sky for meteors. We saw at least 20 meteors before deciding it was time to go back inside. That’s when Jaz got down on one knee and proposed!

After calling a few people in the morning to share the news, I ended up being the last one to eat breakfast; Jaz and the other boys went off to corral the horses on their motorbikes. Lyn, the manager at Myella, was the only one still in the dining area cleaning up the dishes and her first comment to me was “Is that sparkle I see? Were you wearing that yesterday??” Once we swapped engagement stories (she had gotten engaged over the summer), Lyn informed me that she loved news and she was going to tell everyone. She wasn’t kidding, everyone at the farm knew by lunch time! Obviously talking got me a little behind schedule, so once I got up to the horse area, all the horses were already in separate stalls, so we mixed a wheelbarrow full of feed and distributed it amongst them. Since McCafferty was a little slow for my liking the first day, I got Floss to ride for the second. Jaz’s horse from the first day, Bundy, was a little high-spirited and kept wanting to trot, so he got McCafferty from me for the second day. We had to saddle the horses ourselves, which I haven’t done since horse riding camp in elementary school, so I had to have a bit of help on looping the straps so it was tight enough. The second day of riding was much like the first, we didn’t go anywhere new, just off to double check the number of cattle in the paddock. Jaz and I both had sore bums from the first day of riding so it was good to take it slow and just enjoy the scenery. After lunch, we got to learn the art of whip cracking and lassoing. Thanks to my grandma and the whip she has for decoration, I had a head start on the whip cracking, and soon beat everyone with my cracks. Trevor even taught me a couple ways to wave the whip over your head to crack it. Lassoing however, I was not so good at. Actually, none of the people in our group were very good. I could lasso the traffic cone from maybe 20 feet away, but not with any sort of regularity.           After our afternoon lesson, we fed the chickens and milked the cows again before we had down time prior to dinner. One of the nice parts about the farm is that you don’t have to participate in any activities unless you want to, and in the rest of the time you could do whatever you wanted, which for me usually ended up being relaxing.

On our last day almost everyone decided they were done with horseback riding except for me and Rin (one of the Dutch guys), so after the horses were corralled, fed and saddled, the couple of us riding went off with Shane. After we headed off, Shane asked if we’d be interested in herding cattle that day, to which we of course said yes. We went a completely different direction than the previous days, over to one of the other cattle paddocks. Shane let us trot the horses on the way to the cows, and Floss decided that she really wanted to run and be in front of all the other horses. From then on for the rest of the day she kept pulling and trying to dash out in front of the group. When we got to the paddock where the first group of cattle were, luckily the majority of them were already congregated in a bunch. It took a little bit to get used to getting a cow to go the direction you wanted, but once we got the stragglers into the herd, it was fairly easy to keep them going one direction. My biggest problem was keeping Floss from running out into the front of the herd, because you are always supposed to stay just behind the cattle. Their vision is at a 45 degree angle from the front of their head, so Shane told us to try and stay just in their line of sight to keep them moving. Once you are in front of the cattle they don’t know which way to go and start to scatter and then you have to round them up again. Once we moved the cattle into the next paddock on the way to the roadway, Shane sent me off to ride the edge of the paddock to check that no cows got out of the bunch. Once Floss was given more rein she proceeded to try and run flat out straight into a tree. Twice. So after she scared me I gave her no slack, and then Shane let me have the job of leading the cattle so Floss could be out front.  My job was to go at a slow pace and keep the cattle from starting off at a run down the road to the paddock. After leading the first bunch of 50ish cattle into the paddock, we got to help bring in another bunch before it was time to head back in for lunch. The bus to drive us back to Rockhampton was supposed to leave at 4 pm, so the rest of the afternoon we just relaxed and enjoyed the farm. It was sad leaving the farm after spending time with all the people there, but we had some fabulous experiences during the couple of days we were at Myella.

We got to Airlie Beach late in the evening and left early the next morning for our tour of the Whitsundays, a stunning island chain off Australia’s east coast. The Boomerang, an 83ft long, 20ft wide maxi racing yacht, would be our ride. Before being used for Whitsunday sailing tours, Boomerang (under its previous name of Onedine VII) was used to great success in races all over the world, including the prestigious World Maxi Race series. Our 2 day 2 night sailing tour aboard Boomerang was a very exciting experience; all of the guests got stuck in and didn’t hesitate to help our fantastic crew get the best performance out of this famous vessel. There were 31 people onboard during the trip including our 3 crew members, skipper Max, first mate Jordan and chef Griff. Depending on how familiar you are with yachts you probably wouldn’t have looked at Boomerang and thought she was big enough to comfortably hold all of us. You’d partially be right; it was bloody hot in those bunks at night and the double Jill and I were assigned was barely big enough for the both of us. There was maybe a foot and a half between the bottom of the bed and the ceiling and there were sections where it came right down. I whacked my head on those sections a bunch of times, I really should have picked up on that quicker and I wish I could stop having to learn lessons like this the hard way. That said though, there was no shortage of room up top where we spent nearly all our time and the vessel had a full galley, 3 dining tables and 3 bathrooms. We weren’t short of space there and since this trip was definitely aimed at a younger audience (drinking and partying were the order of the day), we got on famously with everyone onboard. There were some great characters from the British Isles there, a bunch of Swedes, Germans, Swiss and a Dutchman too. Apart from Jill and an Aussie couple it was a European smorgasbord of seatastic adventure!

We did a fair bit of sailing on the first day, making sure we covered the distance we needed to. Before the Whitsundays, I hadn’t been on a ship with a sail for an extended period of time, but got a good taste of how life on a boat like this would be during the trip. We turned cranks to raise sails, tacked when changing direction, sat off the edge on both the port and starboard sides during sharp turns (the yacht was cutting through some serious water; it must have been angled at something like 50 degrees during most of the turns) and made decisions affecting our heading based on how long our alcohol supply would last. Sailing is great. As we sat in our swimwear with our legs over the edge of the yacht, the waves splashing on us as they gently rocked the boat, we had the wind in our hair, the sun on our skin, great music playing on the loudspeakers and fantastic people to keep us company. The islands themselves didn’t disappoint either; our surroundings during the journey were incredibly beautiful. For those of you that have read my previous posts, I felt like I did in Halong Bay, Vietnam. I really didn’t know which way to look it was almost too much to take in. It was definitely too much to capture with a camera. We arrived at our spot for the night in good time so Max suggested we go for a swim. It was a good way to get better acquainted with everyone.

I mentioned earlier that the bunks were a little cramped but by the time we actually had to get into them the initial shock of seeing them had subsided. When we got in though there was another shock: how hot and sticky it would be sleeping in them. It was very difficult getting settled and I don’t think I’ve ever been as hot or as uncomfortable when I’ve been trying to go to sleep before. Everyone was a hot sweaty mess when they woke up. It wasn’t so great for the guys but a lot of the girls were mortified at how horrible they looked, felt and smelled in such close quarters to all of these other people. We did a lot of excellent stuff on the second day that more than made up for the sleeping arrangements though.

After an early start at 7 for breakfast we sailed to one of the Whitsunday Islands for a 30 minute bushwalk. At the end of the walk we’d be at Whitehaven Beach, one of Australia’s most impressive gems and home to the finest silica sand in the world. The bushwalk was VERY hot and sweaty, we were trekking on a mostly shady path through trees and thick vegetation but we were all ready for it to end long before it actually did. We took a detour to a scenic lookout point so we could see what Boomerang looks like from a distance but we more than relived when we arrived at the crystal clear, blue waters of Whitehaven. We couldn’t get into the water quick enough. We all admired the world famous sand composed 99% of silica after we’d had the chance to cool off. This sand is so soft, pure and free of impurities that when NASA was deciding which sand to use for the glass on the Hubble telescope they had only one place in mind. NASA paid the Australian government millions of dollars for the privilege of using this sand. It really was a beautiful beach but we were all surprised when we got to the next place and it was even more stunning. I’ve seen a lot of very nice, postcard perfect beaches on my travels through Asia and Australia but I wouldn’t hesitate to call this one the most stunning of them all. We hiked to a lookout point on this island too before heading back to Boomerang on a dinghy for some more sailing. There were some extreme turns on the way to our first snorkeling spot and then more as we headed to the second one. I’m sure Max and Jordan did a lot of those turns just to give us all a good time but it was pretty cool. The snorkeling sites, especially the second one, were too. The Whitsundays are home to an incredible variety of marine life and the weather, current and water conditions were just perfect for letting us get the most of our time here. We were a little disappointed we didn’t see turtles, something the Whitsundays are famous for but we had a fantastic time in the water. We were treated to an amazing sunset as we sailed to our stop for the night. It was quite possibly the nicest sunset I’ve ever seen. Along the way we saw the smallest lighthouse in the southern hemisphere. There was also an eagle that was strangely intrigued by our boat. “EAGLE, EAGLE!”, Jordan shouted. “COME GET OUR SAUSAGE!”. Max and Jordan were going crazy acting like they’d taken a few too many magic mushrooms. It was brilliant, they got everyone really excited as the eagle got closer. When it was nearing us, Jordan pulled out a sausage (thankfully not his own) and started waving it in the air. “SAUSAGE! SAUSAGE!”. When the eagle was right above us he threw the sausage into the air. There were gasps and then an eruption of cheers and applause as everyone onboard celebrated the eagle’s success. The crew was all brilliant guys and a big part of why I had such a great time there was the three of them. Griff’s cooking was delicious, I thought it was miraculous that anything came out of that tiny kitchen let alone the wonders Griff cooked up for us. And all three of them were hilarious. The sorts of people I’d be happy to call my friends.

There was one more snorkeling site the next day before we had a chilled sail back to the mainland. It was another incredible site but this one had an added treat. Turtles! The first turtles either Jill or I had seen in the wild. Swimming with them was an amazing experience. We were all in a fantastic mood as we headed back and relished the fact that we saw everything the Whitsundays have to offer during our short time there.

After Boomerang was docked and we were heading off, Max told us about a get together that happens in a local bar for the guests of these trips. Jill and I would have gone anyway but it worked out perfectly since we wouldn’t be catching our bus to the next town until 11:45 that night.

It had only been a few hours since we last saw them but talking to everyone again was great. We partied it up over drinks as a final goodbye before Jill and I headed off for Rockhampton.

Jill’s directions have been impeccable on this trip. Despite the fact that we drove across over 6,000 km of Australia’s south coast, we never got lost once and it was all down to Jill’s superb navigating skills. One thing that did go wrong however was a little dirt road detour we took enroute to Wollongong. We were on a road that we thought had a few unsealed dirt sections. The map we were using made it look like the dirt sections of the road were at most a few kilometres long but it turned out that the whole 40km road was like that. Since the rough dirt road was so tough on our camper van we were limited to a speed of around 20km/h and we’d already been on it for half an hour when we realised we couldn’t continue. With the time it took us turning around and getting back to the highway we came from, that little detour had cost us over an hour in Kiama. We got there in the end though.

The last of the towns we stopped at on Australia’s south coast, Kiama was quite possibly the nicest, most beautiful town I saw in all of Australia. Just like my other two south coast favourites, Esperance and Port Lincoln, Kiama is a coastal town that features fantastic views of the water with some amazing rock and cliff formations. The weather was just gorgeous as we parked up and went for a walk towards the lighthouse right on the coast. There was a great ‘blowhole’ too; a large rock formation with an opening where the surging tide can rush through. This creates impressively violent displays of water being sprayed upward through the opening. Our campsite in Kiama was also one of the best I saw in Australia (along with Ceduna, Port Lincoln and the Pisces park in Apollo Bay).

When we arrived at the defacto capital city of Sydney, we had less time to explore than I would have liked, it wasn’t Jill’s fault this time so I can’t complain too much. It wasn’t a big deal anyway, we knew we’d be back for a week around New Year’s. My first taste of this place was really cool; walking around the city, especially the area right outside the Opera House was great. (It took a minute to figure out why there were so many people in formal attire around that area). The parks were just as lovely as I’ve come to expect and it felt suitably busy compared to the rest of Australia. I won’t write about Sydney here too much, like I said, we’ll be back at the end of the month, you can hear about it all then! Also, my next post about Port Douglas will be a bumper one so I don’t want to take up too much time with this one.