I milked a cow

Another item from my bucket list ticked off! Two in fact.

We decided to do a day trip to a Farmstay so got the bus to Rockhampton (a creepy town where fat tattooed cowboys seem to aggregate in over-sized Utes), which conveniently arrived at 2.25am(!!). This gave us an enjoyable 4 hours to kill in the early hours of the morning before we were to get picked up. So we trundled our bags into a nearby 24hour service station and piled ourselves and our belongings into one corner and took shifts snoozing/keeping an eye on the weird visitors that sidled in and out throughout the night. I definitely saw a different side of Australia in that place. 

Anyhoo, we finally got picked up in a minibus by Shane, a rather scarecrow-like character who I initially thought was a little creepy, but after an hour and a half in the van with him, realised he was quite an interesting man who was deceptively switched on, and had an interesting outlook on things (some I agreed with and some I very much didn’t). He told us all about his family, as he currently fosters 3 Aborigine children under the age of 5, and has ‘permanently fostered’ a 12 year old (he told us you’re not allowed to adopt in Australia unless you’re under the age of 35!!!...apparently a law from decades ago that hasn’t caught up with the times! Ridiculous!). He has lived in the area his whole life and has worked on the farmstay for the last 12 years.

Anyway, it turns out Shane would be our host for the day, so when we arrived at the farm we were given farm clothes and brekkie, and after a brief distraction where someone found a carpet python (a non-venomous constrictor) down the side of a cupboard which we of course all had to see, we were then sent off to meet the horses. Bro and I have both only ever been on a horse a couple of times, and apart from when I was really young my only experience on a horse was when Luce, Sar, Emily and I went on a budget holiday to Majorca and Sara and Emily convinced Lucy and I to tag along on an ‘intermediate-level’ horse ride which required the rider to know how to canter. This probably scarred me for life. So the two of us were a little apprehensive to say the least. Luckily we got to practice on a tin horse first, and the horses were so institutionalised that they practically did everything on autopilot anyway, so once we’d got over our initial fear, we actually had quite a fun 2 hours trotting around the huge farm on the back of Atlantic and Bundy our trusty steeds!

In the afternoon we went motorbiking (bucket list #1) which was quite frankly petrifying. However, all three of us (Bro, me and a random French man) were pretty scared so we started off slowly under Shane’s guidance and gradually picked it up, which meant we could then go off over the fields which was actually pretty fun too, once I’d finished stalling.

Then my favourite bit…we got to milk a cow (bucket list #2)!! I have always wanted to do this, and it was totally as fun as I thought it would be!! :) We looked ridiculous and got absolutely covered in milk but it was great fun. When I grow up I definitely want my own cow.

To top off a tiring, grubby, achy, sweaty, unique, but quite frankly awesome day we were recommended a super cheap and rather apt steak house for dinner by our hostel so we found ourselves eating one of the best steaks I’ve ever had for a measly $5 (that’s just over £2.50!!). Sides were a dollar each, so needless to say we had chips AND salad AND onion rings. YUM!